Happy 2010!

Well, we're recovering from the new year's celebrations. Some of us are, anyway. A friend of mine posted on Facebook "Am I the only one who woke up the day after New Years at noon with a hangover?"

I know how he feels. Not the hangover part, but I didn't sleep well last night: kept just dozing and then waking up. That's very unlike me. I usually can sleep through anything!

I suspect that I'm coming down with something. I woke up feeling like I'd been beaten up. No logical reason why. Unless it has to do with the fact that it's cold in my apartment. It's not supposed to get up to freezing today, and the wind chill factor is currently 13 degrees!

Everyone is tweeting their new year's resolutions, and I wasn't going to make any this year, but after some consideration, I've decided on two things.

I intend to be better at finishing my knitting projects, and, in fact, am planning on finding and finishing some UFOs. I didn't say that I'd finish everything, just that I'd try to do better. To that end, I have a sweater that's just beautiful, but it needs the pockets sewn down and the ends darned in. I will finish it real soon, now.

Speaking of darning in ends, we all know about the "spit splice," which doesn't work on unfeltable yarn, but I just found the Russian Join, which can be used on non-feltable yarns. This is a good trick, and if you hate to darn in ends as much as I do, check it out! I like it so much, I've added it to the tips, tricks and patterns part of the sidebar.

The other resolution is to declutter my apartment. This is expected to be a process, not a quick, one-off crash project. The object of the exercise is to learn how to keep clutter at bay, and to change my way of going about it so that it is an ongoing process that keeps clutter gone all the time.

We'll see how it all goes.

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I broke down and bought myself some Christmas presents!

There's some Red Heart Heart & Sole sock yarn that I bought from JoAnn Fabrics (online)! Heart & Sole is a self-patterning yarn that comes in some very pretty color combinations. Some of those colors are ones I don't normally choose, but they're so pretty that I've fallen in love with several of their colorways.

The particular one that I bought is Rustica, and it looks like this knitted up.

Usually, I tend to like blues and purples, and usually soft shades. This is very different than anything I've liked in a long time. I usually don't like the bright colors, but I love this for some unknown reason.

It's also available in Faded Jeans, which is no surprise that it's one of my favorites.

Another of my favorites is Antique Rose:

I usually don't like reds, and especially pinks, but as my friend, Nancy, pointed out, rose is not pink! Maybe it's the light blue or grey that's in there, or the navy blue that seems to lend a bit of counterpoint. Anyway, I really like this.

Although I don't hate tans, I don't usually want to knit them, but this swatch in Toasted Almond is beautiful.

It may be the pale lavender that makes it work, and possibly just the dash of dark blue.

Back to the stuff I bought just for me! I bought a copy of Lily Chin's new book: Knitting Tips and Tricks. I ordered it over the internet, so I don't have it yet, but Lily is such a wonderful knitter, and she always has great ideas on how to make the process better or easier! I just can't wait to get this book!

I also bought a used book over the internet, Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson! This is a collection of short stories about Maureen, who is under the impression that she is a Barbarian Swordsperson, in spite of the fact that she's a very ordinary woman. The stories are absolutely hilarious, and I've loved the ones I've read, and want to read more.

Buying this book was inspired by the fact that used hardback copies of The Wizard of Karres had been going for $.01 on Amazon (plus $3.99 shipping, for a total of $4), but now that it's out of print and there's a sequel out, the price has gone up. It's now rare to find a copy of it for under $30! So I've resolved (oh, look, another resolution!) to try to buy one low priced book that I've wanted for a long time each month.

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I had planned to stop by WalMart and get some things today. We've been having lots of rain, and I was encouraged by the fact that they predicted that today would be only partly cloudy. I was delighted to wake up and find bright sunshine, and encouraged in my plans until I got out from under the covers and discovered how chilly it is in here, and that the wind chill is 13 degrees! It's very windy, but it is expected to stay below freezing all day, so I'm now less than enthused about doing that, and, in fact, plan to give it a pass.

Besides, Doctor Who is on BBC in America all day today!

May this new year include everything you want to make you healthy, loved, prosperous, and happy!

Crash Blossom

This is going to be a fun post!

When I checked Facebook today, I found a link to a really great post on another website. This was posted by my friend, Rick Sternbach, and reposted by another friend, John Ellis.

Please do read the article at the link. I think you'll enjoy it. It's full of headlines that say things that were never intended, such as the infamous headline referred to above, "Confusion Caused by Crash Blossoms." The article calls them "the phenomenon of ambiguously or bizarrely worded headlines." This has added a whole new expression to the English language, i.e., "Crash Blossoms."

These are the kinds of headlines that Jay Leno and David Letterman read on their shows.

When you get to the end of the article, don't miss the links for eggcorns, snowclones and Cupertino. The comments at the ends of the articles aren't bad, either.

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Then I checked my email and found this, sent to me by Holly:

You have got to listen to this! If you have hearing problems, like I do, the entire verbal part is also captioned on the screen, so you really don't even have to turn the sound up on your computer. This is an actual recording from a school answering machine in Australia, and it's wonderful!

While I was there checking that out, I found this:

I've heard this one before, but it's always fun to listen to again.

And the ultimate answering machine message from God:

Well, I thought that was the ultimate answering machine message until I heard this. This explains the whole "telemarketers are going to hell" theme from the previous message:

And I think we've reached the end of this particular theme!

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Eastwick will be back with a new episode tonight!

I picked up some books I ordered from the library yesterday, including The Witches of Eastwick. I've heard that Eastwick was based on the book, so I wanted to read it. The other book I picked up was The Sorceress. I can't wait to read both of them!

I'm almost done reading The Wizard of Karres, so I'll be ready for them soon. I'm looking forward to reading The Sorceress of Karres when it comes out next month, too. If you're planning on reading them, be sure to start with The Witches of Karres, which is the first book.

I am so far behind on my Christmas present-making! Thanks for losing your mitts, Malaia! I'm taking extra measures to help you hang onto these!

Have a wonderful evening!

The Big Bang Theory

I happened to come across this today, and thought you'd enjoy it.

I only discovered The Big Bang Theory recently, and I don't know if this is a new episode that's coming up, or one that's been shown before, but I thought it was very funny, and I thought others would enjoy it.

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Yesterday, I went running over to the library lugging enough books to return to cause spinal damage, and there was a Christmas tree up in the airlock between the outside door, and the inside one. It was so pretty, it stopped me in my tracks. The lights on it were white (clear) and in the shape of roses! The tree was covered in lit-up white roses! So pretty!

I asked where they got them, and Susan said CVS, so after I returned my books and dragged home another stack of bone-endangering proportions, I went over to CVS.

Well, I think that each CVS store got a different batch of lights, and that they weren't all the same because they didn't have roses, but they did have stars! Stars! Which was even better! Susan warned me that there are a lot of lights on the string (30), but that they're so close together that a string of lights doesn't go very far, and that the tiny tree had two strings of lights on it. So, since my tree is a similar size, I got two strings, also.

Now, I just have to get the tree up!

I have so much to do at the moment, and not enough time to do it! I haven't gotten any of the Christmas decorations up yet. I did pull out one string of lights and plug them in so that I could see how pretty they are, though.

And I have the tiny lavender tree that I just got to put up, too. I know, a lavender tree sounds SO tacky, but it really is pretty. The pink one just like it is tacky, though. I'm really determined to get that up tonight!

So, I have all the Christmas decorating to do, I really should go back to CVS and get at least one more Zyrtec so that I can take one today. Actually, I should have done that much earlier than this (it's about 5:30, and I should have taken one by now), I have a blog post to put up, and I still have more work on the back cover of the Steve Canyon DVD than I expected to have at this point! And I'm not even going to think about how much knitting I still have to do for Christmas presents!

I have re-prioritized my Christmas knitting. The further away the recipient lives, the sooner I'm knitting their present. People who live nearby may not get presents until I finish them, which may not be until after Christmas.

There will be far fewer blog posts happening in December than there usually are, so don't panic!

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Dollhouse will be on TV for two hours tonight! Don't miss it!

Monk has been on USA all day today. They will be repeating the first part of the last (two part) episode, and then premiering the second part at the end of the marathon this evening. We're finally going to find out why Trudy died!

And there will be a new White Collar on right after that. Natalie Morales was requesting that everyone tune in to see it tonight. I hope it's not on the "We're sharpening the ax for this one" list! And speaking of Natalie Morales, she just tweeted this photo.

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One of the books that I lugged back to the Library yesterday was And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer. It did actually have at least a hint of plot, and the writing in any one sentence seemed to be as good as Douglas Adams' but it just didn't seem quite as good as the previous books in the Hitchhiker's Guide series. It truly did seem like an afterthought, though, so I guess that's good.

Years ago, in the early '70s, I read a very good book called The Witches of Karres. I loved that book then, and about a year ago, I got another copy of it, but hadn't gotten around to reading it. Well, I'm rereading it now, and it's every bit as good as I remember! I am having such a good time reading it!

I have sitting here, waiting for me, The Wizard of Karres, which I have read more recently, and expect to enjoy even more since I'll have just finished the first book.

But the big news is that there's a sequel to those two coming out early next year (January 5) called

The Sorceress of Karres, and I can't wait to read it!

It's almost 7pm here, and I'm still writing and checking stuff on the internet, and I really have to go!

Have a great Friday night (don't forget Dollhouse), and a wonderful weekend!

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Addition:

Before I managed to escape from the internet and actually do something useful, I happened to notice this and thought that you might enjoy it if you're going crazy finding Christmas presents this year. Yes, that's right, it's a USB powered pet rock!