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!

Happy Twelfth Night!

Happy Twelfth Night!

We've come to the biggest blowout of the Christmas season in the Medieval world, Twelfth Night!

I hope you have a happy one!

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There's a brand new episode of The Big Bang Theory on TV tonight! Don't miss it!

And we were lucky enough to have two whole new episodes of Human Target last night. It might not be science fiction, but it's one of the best action-adventure shows on TV at the moment! There will be two new episodes on again next Wednesday, so check it out if you haven't already.

Have the best Twelfth Night ever!

Only Nine Days 'till Christmas!

To get me in the Christmas spirit, Mother Nature dropped about an inch or two of snow on the Northern Virginia area (or NoVA, as the natives call it). It looks like this:

I took this photo out my window, and I think it looks like a Christmas card, so I thought I'd let you enjoy it, too.

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I'm trying to get back to posting more often. Hopefully, every day, or nearly. I've been so busy knitting Christmas stockings to sell. I put almost all my free money into them, and none has sold yet. It sounded like such a good deal! It should take three days from ordering until you get one in the US, so there's still time to order!

That's the base of a small lavender Christmas tree in the upper left hand corner of the photo.

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There was a lot of Burn Notice on USA today because they're building up to the two hour season finale tonight. It starts an hour early, so don't miss it! They've been saying that it's totally amazing on Twitter.

BBC in America seems to be rerunning all the Doctor Who Christmas specials this week. The Runaway Bride is on right now and will be repeated tomorrow morning. I caught a rerun of a Christmas episode of The Vicar of Dibley yesterday, and someone told a joke that I had missed the first time I saw it.

It goes:

Knock, knock.

Who's there.

Doctor.

Doctor Who.

Yes!

OK, it's what you might expect from a joke I got from The Vicar of Dibley.

Buck up, I did see a trailer for the Christmas Special for Doctor Who on BBC in America, and they said that Christmas will not come late in the US, because they'll be showing the Doctor Who Christmas special (A Christmas Carol) on Christmas day! I wanted to get up and cheer!

It looks like there's a new The Big Bang Theory on tonight! Almost everything else except Burn Notice is a rerun, though.

Have a really wonderful evening, and best wishes on getting all your Christmas shopping done in time for Christmas!

Hope You Had a Happy Equinox!

Yesterday was the Equinox, and I hope you had a good one.

Yesterday, Jupiter was the closest to Earth it has been for 47 years, and the closest it will be in our lifetimes.

I have a camera with a looooong lens, but this was the best photo I could get of it last night. It looked very bright when I was just looking at it, but the photo made it almost invisible. I had to hike up the contrast drastically in PhotoShop to be able to see it. I was hoping to be able to see the moons, but just couldn't. It's possible that the light fog that was present was responsible for that.

While I was out there and taking photos, I took a picture of the moon and Jupiter together:

I had to hike up the contrast to be able to see Jupiter in this one, too, in spite of the fact that Jupiter and the Moon looked equally bright to me. I only messed with the contrast on Jupiter, not the moon in the photo above. The sort of halo around the moon is because of the mist we were experiencing where I live at the time.

Tonight, though, the moon will be full, and maybe the mist won't happen. We'll see. And although Jupiter was at it's very closest last night, it's not like it's moving directly away from us, so it'll still be pretty close in case you missed it last night!

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Tonight, we have a bonanza of good shows on! Season premiers include Bones, Fringe, The Big Bang Theory, Grey's Anatomy, and (I think) The Mentalist! Vampire Diaries premiered last week, so there will be a new episode, but not a premier.

While we're on the subject of the media, my friend, Tim Davis is currently filming a zombie movie (Nudist Camp Zombie Massacre), and the last day of principle filming will be on Sunday. I'll be going (doing make up), and I just found out that Tim needs some extra zombies, so I'm going to ask Holly if she wants to be a zombie for the movie. Yes, Holly, you will get a credit on the movie if you do this!

I'll be taking my cameras along, and snapping lots of pictures. I already told Tim I'd give him copies of all the photos that turn out well. I'll see if it's all right with him to show some of them on my blog. It sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun, plus I'll get to add more credits to my IMdB page!

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As you can see, there's not much happening around here, just celestial events and zombie movies! I probably won't get a chance to blog tomorrow, though.

Have fun tomorrow and I hope your weekend is as fun as mine's going to be!

Miscellaneous Middle of the Week

I don't have a real direction for a post today, but a lot of random thoughts, so I'm starting this and will add more thoughts throughout the day.

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I watched some of the 911 documentaries on the History Channel on Saturday, and saw for the first time the film of George W. Bush when he was informed initially about what was happening. It was on film because he was with a bunch of grade school kids in Florida and they were already filming it.

When informed, he looked thoughtful for a moment, and then nodded as if to say "OK, everything's on schedule." and that was all. I know he was in front of a bunch of kids and probably didn't want to scare them, but I would have at least expected a momentary look of surprise if he hadn't known what would happen in advance.

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I'm getting so excited about going to the Fall Fiber Fest on the second of October! I just can't wait!

I found a free pattern for one of the most beautiful and unusual scarves (and yarns) ever! You can find the information here, but you'll have to sign up for a free membership to get the free pattern. To act as an incentive, here are photos of it:

The yarn is what makes this so beautiful, and it's a new yarn out by Bernat called Mosaic. I saw the actual yarn at AC Moore and at JoAnn Fabrics.

They also have a beautiful hat pattern (which doesn't appear to be free) for the same yarn. The hat is done in a different color than the scarf, but you could certainly do them in the same color. The hat pattern also has a matching scarf pattern.

The pattern for this is in the booklet section, and it appears you have to buy it, although it's out of stock. If you buy the mosaic yarn, you'll find many patterns on the ball band, so you might want to check that out first. It looks like this yarn would look fabulous in entrelac!

The photos they show of the different colors really don't give you much of an idea of how they'll ultimately look, so if you click the free patterns tab or the booklet tab, you can see other patterns (which you might or might not like) that will give you a better idea of how the colors look made up. The scarf pattern I showed first is made in Ambrosia, and the hat is made in Mosaic, and I have a hard time deciding which I like better. There's also the Ninja colorway, which I love, too. Here it is made into a cowl:

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There's a contest that's just started to win a Macintosh Trackpad! Of course, I entered immediately! Click the link and enter!

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He's back! The season premier of Chuck will be on Monday! It looks like it may be the first or one of the first programs back for the new Fall Season!

As far as TV tonight goes, it's time to break out the DVDs! Nothing worth watching at all!

But tomorrow night, it picks up with the season premier of The Vampire Diaries (OK, so Chuck wasn't the first, after all). At the same time as that, the last two episodes of Fringe will be on in preparation for next week's premiere, and also reruns of The Big Bang Theory leading up to next week's premiere. Three things on at once, and I want to see all of them! Hard choices!

Dig out a DVD and have a great evening!

Post-Birthday Report

I got the best birthday present EVER yesterday! The exact camera I really, really, REALLY wanted turned up in the mail yesterday, a present from Lynn!

It's a Canon PowerShot A1100IS 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.5-inch LCD!

Lynn really hit the jackpot on this one. It's an excellent camera! It takes AA batteries, which makes it just a smidge bigger than I'd like, but means that if the batteries in it die and I don't have any recharged batteries with me, I can get batteries for it anywhere. Pretty much every 7-11 or gas station I've ever been in has them! It also has a real viewfinder, which most digital cameras don't seem to have these days, and I find a viewfinder much better for action. It has a longer zoom than most small cameras, and the zoom is very easy to get to the precise point you want it to be.

Well, I immediately put batteries in it, and attached the hand strap, and called Lynn to thank her. She was out getting groceries (I learned from her voice mail), so I went straight out to play with my new toy, which is why I missed her return call.

Here's the pond behind the building I live in from the covered bridge:

When I got to the other side of the bridge, I took this one of the bridge, itself:

And here are some of the buildings on my side of the pond (taken from the other side):

You're probably getting tired of seeing the same place over and over again, but the wading bird that lives back there didn't show up. I was disappointed in that, but it seems to have a sixth sense, and never shows up when I have an actual camera with me. Either that, or I walk right up to it without noticing that it's there, scare it half to death, and it flies away before I have a chance to pull out my camera.

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Since yesterday, I've discovered that some other well known people have the same birthday I do, notably Julie Newmar and Bjo Trimble! Oooops! When I looked up Bjo, it turns out her birthday is the day before mine. On Facebook, it looked like it was on the 16th, but no, it's actually on the 15th. Still, there are a lot of people born in August!

I loved Julie Newmar in Oblivion! If you haven't seen it, and liked Tim Curry in Rocky Horror Picture Show, check it out. Musetta Vander plays a female version of him, but with a whip in this movie!

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I got my newest copy of Knit Picks catalog in the mail yesterday, and they not only have a new cashmere blend yarn, they also have brand new colors in so many of their existing yarns! I've been drooling all over the catalog ever since it arrived! My special favorite at the moment is the double knit weight in City Tweed. I've been wanting to try it for a while, and I'm going to have to break down and get some soon.

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It looks like Tuesday has turned into the good night to watch TV! There are new episodes of Warehouse 13, White Collar, Covert Affairs and Memphis Beat on tonight. Enjoy it while you can, because most of the summer shows will finish their seasons this or next week.

Last night, I got a fabulous birthday present in the form of an episode of The Big Bang Theory! 

Years ago, as a tech illustrator, I worked on a project for an aviation toilet. There I was in a room with about eight guys, all working on illustrations and maintenance diagrams, etc., of a toilet for a new military plane.

There were spaces of five to ten minutes of silence, interspersed with jokes about what we were working on. First of all, I wouldn't have thought the topic could be so genuinely funny, and I never would have believed that it could continue to be funny for more than two hours straight, but it was! This particular sentiment was echoed by Sheldon in last night's episode, where they try to fix a design flaw in a toilet for a space station.

The Big Bang Theory is always up there among the top 10 shows I've ever seen for how funny it is, but last night's episode was a gem! It has to be seen to be believed!

I've got to go or I'll never get this post up! Have a great evening and enjoy all the terrific shows while you can!

Happy Summer Solstice!

Happy Summer Solstice!

I know that a lot of people regard Memorial Day Weekend as the beginning of Summer, but Astronomically, the beginning of Summer is the longest day of the year, which (in the Northern Hemisphere) is today!

Read more about the longest day (courtesy of NASA), and see more about the human aspects of the solstice with some great pictures of Stonehenge.

From here on in, until right before Christmas, the days will be shorter and shorter, and for a while, it will get warmer and warmer before the diminishing sunlight makes it cooler.

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Here is everything you need to know about every science fiction TV show this week (and a few more shows).

Leverage premiered last night with two episodes! And, as usual, it was spectacular!

This afternoon (late), the SyFy Channel will be airing their new, very long (4 hours) movie, The Phantom. It was on last night, but I didn't get to see it due to some other shows I watched/recorded. I was going to provide a link, but the only one I could find that seemed relevant was one that was to a page that had so much data that I wasn't able to load it, and didn't want to frustrate you with it.

Tonight, we have a rerun of The Big Bang Theory.

There's also a new show that I discovered last week, thereby missing the pilot. It's called Persons Unknown, and is about people who are abducted and find themselves trapped in a small town. They don't know where the town is or why they're there, and, most importantly, how to get out. It's shaping up to be a fabulous show. You can probably find the two episodes that preceded tonight's, either on the internet or video on demand.

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If you have hypothyroidism, there is a blog post by Jeffrey Dash that you should read, print out, and show your doctor! It turns out that all the arguments doctors have been giving me concerning why they want to use Synthroid rather than natural desiccated thyroid are completely backwards. Synthroid is the one that has varying potencies and is unstable!

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Well, I saw someone at the Vet's Center on Saturday.

The day started out very early for both Holly and I. Then we ran into a bit of traffic and took a wrong turn, and arrived only five minutes late.

It was an interesting experience.

I got to talk to a nurse practitioner rather than a doctor, and she was an interesting person to converse with. She asked some interesting questions which started me thinking in new directions. She asked about vitamin D levels, and said that 4,000 IU of vitamin D might not be enough for me. It just sounds like so much! Apparently, an IU must be a very small amount, or else people really need a lot of it! If you use sunscreen, you might want to take that into account and take some supplemental D. And you might want to rethink your sunscreen use. Look it up on the internet.

Basically, since sunscreen has become available and been in wide use, skin cancer incidence has gone way up! Researchers are beginning to find that the sun isn't as bad for you as was previously thought. We always knew it actually had health benefits in the form of boosting vitamin D levels, but most people judged that they'd rather have low D (which could be boosted with supplements) than skin cancer. Researchers have also been studying the contents of most sunscreens and discovered that some of the chemicals widely used in them are actually carcinogens!

Personally, I like a bit of sun without using sunscreens. I'll only use sunscreens if I'm out for long enough to potentially cause a burn, and only use sunscreens that have an aloe vera gel base and the sunscreen, and don't have a lot of unneeded chemicals. That way, I get a bit of a tan, a dose of D, and safety! And if I do get a little bit of burn, the aloe vera gel is the best thing for it. If applied immediately after even a bad burn, it can have your skin back to normal the next day in my experience.

One thing she asked me about is joint pain, which I had, but started using Omega 3 capsules and MSM. It's been working great until this last week, when I've had more and more joint pain in my right hip. I need to go to the store today, and the pain has gradually increased over the last week to a point where I'm almost afraid to walk to the store. I keep hearing stories about women who have a bone break and fall because of it, and I wonder about what kind of shape that bone is in. 

I had a bone density scan about three years ago, and they told me my bones weren't as good as they'd like, but that I was certainly in no danger of breaking bones just by walking. But they measured it on my left hip in spite of the fact that I kept telling them that my right hip was the one in bad shape! So, I really have no idea at all.

Wish me luck on my walk!

Have a wonderful week!

I'm Lost!

The writers of Lost chose to take the easy way out and not explain or wrap up anything! I don't know why they bothered to call it a finale! The last show didn't live up to the rest of the series in any way, shape, or form. I feel betrayed and cheated! I don't want to throw out any spoilers for anyone who might have missed it, so I won't say any more.

If you have seen it, here's an article about it that's far more unbiased than I am. This article has lots of spoilers, so be warned!

But if you'd like a laugh, my friend, John put this up on his Facebook page.

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We're about half way through the last week of this round of TV sweeps, so as with Lost, we're seeing lots of season finales. It ends on the 26th (Wednesday), so after that, you can expect the pitts from such stations as SyFy, who has decided that nobody watches them on holidays, so why not show only junk then? Actually, I tend to think they're wrong because I'll be watching TV all Memorial Day weekend, only a lot of it will on BBC in America, who will be showing lots of science fiction on Sunday (starting at midnight) and Monday! Check your TV guides!

One of the finales is Chuck, and they're promising that it will be good (but then again, so did Lost!). Whatever the quality, we'll certainly be getting more quantity because they will be showing two hours of it! I'm braced for impact!

Since there's nothing remotely good on Tuesday or Wednesday (I really miss Eastwick!), tonight is effectively the end of good TV in the US until July.

If you have a DVR or TiVo, you'll be able to see the finale of The Big Bang Theory, too!

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I've been doing more spinning. It doesn't look like much on the bobbin, so I didn't bother taking a photo, but I think it's going to be exceptional.

In the past, I've mostly been spinning for SCA garb or for lace, so a nice, smooth yarn was what I was going for.

This time, I'm deliberately making slubs, although not to the point of ridiculousness, but there will definitely be more texture in this yarn. I haven't made up my mind if I want to ply the blue/white singles with a solid medium blue singles or with itself. The medium blue is a bit warmer color than the variegated.

Hope you're having a marvelous Monday!

A Dozen Days Until the Sheep and Wool Festival!

I'm all excited about the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, which will be the first full weekend in May (always), and is the largest thing of it's kind in the United States! This year it will be on May 1 and 2, and we'll be going on the first.

This year, the big draw for me is that the Majacraft people will be unveiling their new wheel, called Serenity (another Firefly fan was responsible for this), which was designed specifically for spinning "art yarns." I can't wait to see it, and see how it works, and what makes it special! Here is a photo of some of the yarns that have already been spun on a Serenity:

This photo is from the Majacraft blog, which you can find and read at the above links. I'm showing the photo because I want you to go look at it on their blog. It's an incentive.

This year, I may have some money coming to me, but if it doesn't arrive by the end of the month, I'll be going without any money. There will be a lot of things I can later buy over the internet, but there will be a lot of things I'll have to miss out on if I have to go with no money.

Here's a couple of photos of their Rose wheel, which is the one I have:

Holly went to a knitting retreat this past weekend, and she was telling me about one of the women who was there and spun on what she thought was a Rose wheel all weekend. She said she wasn't sure and would tell me the next time she saw my wheel, so I thought I'd put photos of the wheel up so she could see them.

Money or not, I'm still getting excited about the Sheep and Wool Festival!

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I have actually been doing some knitting, but what I've been knitting is gifts for others, so you won't be seeing photos of them here for a while. Sorry!

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There's a rerun on Chuck and The Big Bang Theory tonight, but a brand, spanking, new episode of Castle. No Ghost Whisperer on SyFy, though because they're doing their "miniseries" month. It'll be back on Monday nights eventually, at least once in a while.

Tomorrow night, as usual, there will be a new Lost and V!

Wednesday is an evening to spend watching what you recorded on your TiVo, DVR or VHS.

I hope you're having a terrific start to your week!

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Addition:

The apartment place I live in promised that the people would be coming out today to turn on the air conditioning. They say it takes a whole 8 hours for them to do this, but it's now 6:30, and it usually goes on around 4 or 5 when they actually do it, and it's 80 degrees in here, so it's obvious they haven't done it.

It's cool outside, so that's not a problem. The problem is that the windows are open and there's a fan blowing in not only cool air, but all the pollen, too! My health can't stand this!

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Another Addition:

Get your fix of cute little lambs here!