Adventure Is Out There!

As you may have guessed, I just saw Up yesterday! I liked it, but not as much as most people seem to.

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Speaking of yesterday, my friend, John put up something he called "his six degrees of separation from Martin Luther King" in honor of the day.

I really wanted to put the photo up here, but everything that has anything to do with both the internet and my computer does not seem to be working right today.

It's a photo I took of John with Nichelle Nichols at our friends Jan and Phil Cox's house. I wish I could show it to you, but Safari seems to have gone on one, so I'm using Fire Fox, which is wonky, and the internet seems to react differently to it.

In case you don't know, Nichelle met Martin Luther King, and he's the one that convinced her to stay on Star Trek when she wanted to quit and be on Broadway.

For instance, I just hit return twice to get a new paragraph, and the curser moved two lines UP!

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I can show you what it looked like out my window today, though.

We seem to have gotten a bit of snow either overnight or this morning. Paved areas, once again, are just a bit damp, but the grass, trees, and some buildings have snow on them.

I haven't actually seen it snow today, but every so often, a breeze knocks the snow off the trees, and then a while later, they look like this again.

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Well, I really want to say a lot more, but my whole computer is acting so wonky that I'm going to quit for now. You may not hear much from me until I get this fixed.

There's a new V tonight!

Have a great evening.

Happy 1/11/11!

We've had some interesting repeating numbers in our dates lately, and this is one of the more fun ones. Of course, when we get to November we'll have 11/11/11. Lots of ones! What fun!

Or as my ex-husband used to say "You're easily amused!"

Oh well, you have a choice with things like this. You can either be bored or find it amusing. Amusing is more fun.

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It was supposed to snow here early in the morning, but it just started a little while ago. I checked the window, and there were big, fat, wet flakes falling out of the sky.

It was also supposed to stop after rush hour and then start up again just in time for rush hour in the late afternoon. Maybe that means that the second batch will wait until after rush hour to begin. It shouldn't be bad in any case because we're expecting about an inch of snow total today. We're also expecting "snow showers" (flurries?) over the coming few days.

After checking the window again, I can say that it's stopped, and all it's done so far is dampen everything slightly. The lake behind me is frozen, so it probably added a very thin layer to the top of the snow there.

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I still have a little Christmas knitting to do.

I know. Some people don't finish on time, but this is ridiculous.

I'm taking a break to knit a sock, though, and then I'll finish the Christmas knitting. But since it's not a present for someone, I can show it to you.

I bought a batch of this yarn from Mary Maxim last month, and I wanted to knit socks just to see how the self-patterning looked on this yarn. I like it! In fact, I like it so much I'm thinking of making a vest for myself out of it. That's what I originally bought it for, but I've been turning over various ideas for how I want to make it. There are no decisions yet, but I think I'm going to like anything I make out of this! Maybe I should order some more.

This is done in their Comfort sock yarn in denim. Do not try to buy this elsewhere. Their Comfort sock yarn is superwash wool with a bit of nylon for reinforcement. There's another brand of Comfort sock yarn out there that is primarily acrylic, but the price isn't as good for what it is. And the search engines seem to only find the acrylic yarn, not the wool yarn from Germany that Mary Maxim has.

Anyway, this yarn is about $5 for enough yarn for two socks (with probably a little left over unless they're very big socks).

I used to think that Mary Maxim only had the cheapest acrylic yarn, but either I was wrong or they've added some very nice yarns. Whichever, they're worth checking out because they have some yarns that are very nice! And some good prices on that yarn! They have a nice acrylic tweed yarn in some colors that are hard to find or too expensive for me to buy in wool. And some nice self-striping wool yarn at a good price. Sign up for their mail catalog. There's a lot of dreck in it, but a few real gems!

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I watched Castle last night. It's one of the few shows on TV at the moment that are showing brand-new, never-seen-before shows! The one last night was one of their best. Someone died at a magic shop, and Castle went on about how he loves magic and used to practically live at the magic shop when he was a kid. Beckett doesn't say anything, but does a few magic tricks right in front of him during the show. Her signature line for this show is "Alakazam, Jackass," which she says to people whose alibis she pokes holes in or just as she's arresting them. It was a very entertaining show. Oh, and a friend of mine on Facebook mentioned today that it's been picked up for another season! Thanks, Steve!

For you V fen, they've shown some reruns (At least I thought they were reruns, but maybe not) during the past week, and there's more on tonight. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that they may be new shows. I've TiVo'd them, but haven't watched them yet, so I couldn't say. I do plan to watch them later today in preparation for the show tonight.

As far as new shows (as opposed to reruns) are concerned, Human Target will be on tomorrow with two brand new shows on back-to-back (same as last week). This is action-adventure, not science fiction, but very good, very well done, and a real treat to watch! If you were a fan of Pushing Daisies, Chi McBride, who played Emerson Cod, the knitting detective, is in this. In a wasteland of reruns, this really stands out!

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What a great day I have to look forward to! Snow flurries visible out the window while I sit nice and snug and warm watching some great science fiction on TV and knitting! Can life get any better? Maybe, but not much.

I do plan to take some books back to the library and get some more, and while I'm out, get some things at Safeway, so I can have snacks for my snow, TV and knitting.

Happy 1/11/11!

...And More Snow!

I woke up for a short while around 8 this morning, and there was no snow coming down.

At 11, when I woke up again, there was snow falling, but there didn't seem to be much accumulation since my previous check.

The local TV people have preempted all their regular programming, and they have news and weather people deployed all over the area with yardsticks and other measuring equipment saying things like "Wow! Look at all that snow!" and making and throwing snowballs or trying to play with toy trucks in the snow.

They've been telling people that the Potomac Mills Mall is open, but that most of the stores in the mall are closed, giving schedules of when various stores will be open, and then telling everybody to stay home.

They've been broadcasting images of plows and salt trucks at work and interviewing their drivers. We got to see an organized and previously scheduled snowball fight, plus an impromptu igloo built by a news crew. And, if you want to get on TV today, all you have to do is get stuck in the snow with a 4 wheel drive vehicle! There are lots of dummies who did just that, and had their stupidity proclaimed on network TV!

There are also lots of gratuitous shots of the Capitol building with snow falling in the front of it, too. Suspiciously, the ones I saw showed a sunny Capitol with no snow on it behind the snow that was falling. I suspect something underhanded.

At least it's better than watching snow fall at the Vienna Metro Station for a half hour, like we got to do last night!

In case you haven't figured it out yet, there's lots of snow around at the moment! One of the people on Twitter is calling it the Snowpocalypse!

The person on TV near Potomac Mills Mall (in front of Silver Diner, which is giving 25% off to anyone who braves the snow to eat there today) measured 21 inches of snow, and she said that there is an icy coating under that, which makes it an even deeper total snowfall. It looks like a bit less than that here, but it's hard to tell, because although the snow was wet, heavy big flakes for part of yesterday, it's switched back to the light, tiny, cold flakes that it started with, and it's drifting. A lot! Not to mention the areas that have been plowed.

The guy who was hired to plow the parking lot at my apartment building really was taking his job seriously last night. He plowed non-stop up until somewhere between 2 and 3 am today, at which point, he apparently went home to take a nap. Twelve hours and about nine inches later, he's back, hard at work.

The people who own the cars parked in front will have a lot of work clearing them off, once the snow stops and they want to go somewhere. One poor person with a compact car will have the major obstacle of finding his car before he can even think about clearing it out! It's at a point where the car itself is not visible anywhere, it just looks like a snow drift.

John called last night and requested that I post photos of all the snow. I took some photos earlier, but they're really bad. The snow has stuck to my windows and frozen there, so the camera wants to focus on that, rather than on the scene outside. And the ones where it is focused outside, the snow on the windows obstructs the view so much that they're not clear or easy to see.

This is a photo from the 19th of December, but it looks almost the same out there from time to time today. The difference is that there isn't a light covering of snow over my window.

I'll take photos once the snow stops and I can get out to take them without the obstruction of the snow on the windows.

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John called last night in a panic wanting to know what was on TV last night! He checked my blog, and didn't see anything about the TV schedule! Sorry John!

Tonight, on BBC in America, there will be a Doctor Who episode, and two Demon episodes, followed tomorrow night by two Doctor Who specials, Planet of the Dead, and Waters of Mars.

Tonight, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone will be on ABC.

The Legend of the Seeker will be on the CW (here) Sunday night, one rerun (your last chance to see Jolene Blaylock on LotS) followed by a new episode.

Pretty pathetic, isn't it?

To liven things up, you can check out an article on io9 about Dollhouse.

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Ravelry has it's Ravelympics reving up, ready to go at the beginning of the Olympics.

The person who inspired the Ravelympics with her Knitting Olympics, The Yarn Harlot, has been deluged with questions about her Knitting Olympics, and whether she's going to have them this time. You can read her answer and get the info here (scroll down).

Make your decisions and pick your teams and sign up. And make sure you have yarn on hand to cast on during the opening ceremonies!

I'm going back to the window to check the progress of the snow.

Have a wonderful weekend, and I hope you don't get snowed in!

Snow!

The only topic that anyone who lives around here (the DC area) is talking about is SNOW! One of the local stations has preempted their regular programming and is just talking about SNOW!

The snow around here started around noon (apparently earlier in Fairfax, because my friend, Nancy, has a lot more snow on the ground than I do here), and it's been going strong ever since. Until about 4 pm, not much of it was actually sticking to the ground, it was just making things damp. The cars were covered first, and now it's starting to get to the point that you can't see the ground through it. Maybe the ground was just colder in Fairfax.

We're supposed to have about a foot of it today, and more tomorrow! Maybe lots more!

They said it would be another wet, warm, heavy snow, but so far the flakes have been tiny and light. The people on TV are talking about drifting, and the kind of snow that's coming down makes that likely.

So far, this story is pretty boring.

The fun started yesterday, when I went to Safeway.

The first clue that something was up was that there were NO shopping carts out in front! The store was jammed, and there was almost no milk (just a few containers of no fat) in the store. I didn't check the bread, but that was probably low, too. It was difficult shopping without a cart. V8 is hard to hold onto when you've got your arms full of groceries! I got 4 cans of Campbells chunky soup in chicken broccolli cheese flavor for only $5 on sale, though. It seemed like just what I want while watching the snow fall.

Still pretty boring, huh?

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Well, there's not really much of anything else I have to say today. I just wanted to let people know that I'm still alive.

Have a great snow!

The Very Last Dollhouse Is Tonight!

Well, as you know, Fox has gotten rid of another fabulous Joss Whedon creation, and tonight is the very last episode of Dollhouse.

I doubt that Fox will be generous enough to rerun them, so tune in tonight for Armageddon! If you've DVRd them and still have them, go back over the last few episodes.

Tonight, we're out of the Dollhouse and into the real world, and it's going to get nasty!

This is the episode they were filming when Eliza broke her arm! She tweeted about it as she was leaving the hospital, wondering if they could cover the cast with wardrobe. She only had the very last day of filming left to finish it completely. We'll see what happend.

We also have a brand new Ghost Whisperer (on at the same time as Dollhouse--I hope you have a DVR or TiVo!), and Medium on CBS, and a new Caprica on SyFy! Immediately following Caprica, SyFy will be rerunning an episode of Warehouse 13, which is always a treat, even though a rerun!

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One order from Knit Picks arrived on Monday! I got the book from Holly for Christmas: Continuous Cables, and my copy of All New Homespun Handknit! I have a copy of the original Homespun, Handknit (somewhere), and it's one of my favorite knitting books. Even in projects that I'm not interested in making, there are so many slick and easy ways of doing things that it pays to really read the patterns. I've looked through the new Homespun, and there are projects that I like, and some that I love! I haven't had enough time to really read through the whole thing, but I already found one slick tip: how to make a crochet provisional cast on, which, when unzipped, leaves you with all your stitches on a lifeline, so you don't have to pick them up as you unzip it! That's almost worth the price of the book right there!

Soon after I placed that order, I realized that I'll be finishing the Christmas presents soon, and will then need something to knit, so I ordered the yarn for Holly's sock and some light grey Palette for a wimple for me, and there's probably enough of it for mitts, too. That order arrived yesterday, but I lost track of time, and didn't realize it was after 4:30, and too late to pick it up. I got it today, and it's all ready to knit, and the first thing I did was cast on with the new provisional cast on I learned from my new book.

One thing that I forgot to mention is that in the new Knit Picks catalog, they have cable connectors, at last! Add a pack of them to your next order if you use Options Needles! They mention that you can use them to make extra long cables, but you can also use them to substitute a different size cable for the one you're using in your project. Just unfasten one tip, add the size cable you want to switch to, put the tip you just remove on the other end, and pull it through your work. Then, remove the old cable and put the tip from the old cable on the other end of the new one, and you're done!

All that has me happy with Knit Picks, but I submitted a design for their designer program, and they turned up their nose at me. It was the hat that I made for my friend's daughter.

OK, so they don't have eyelash yarn available, but the basic design doesn't have to be made that way. Anyway, I plan to write it up (and do a few more samples) and publish it myself. New pattern coming up!

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The weather people are saying that it's going to start snowing late tonight, and on into tomorrow, and I'm wondering if I need to go out and get any supplies today. Then again, maybe it would be fun to walk around while it's snowing. Actually, I don't think I need anything, but I need to go assess the situation.

The overcast that's happening now, and the snow that will be happening later are going to make it impossible to view the first full moon of the year, and the best one we can expect all year! I'm disappointed!

I have lots to do, so that's all for today!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Snow Day!

Yesterday was a snow day. If you've been watching the weather forecasts, you know what happened, since I live on the East coast.

I woke up to about four inches of snow on my windowsill, which built up to about eight inches over the course of the day. I think it would have gone higher, but the sill is narrow, and I don't think any more snow could stay there.

Visibility was bad, and although the snow was actually falling, it was going sideways faster than it was falling.

The streaks from upper right to the left are the falling snow. They're pretty hard to see, but the flag lets you see how hard the wind was blowing.

This was the view from my window sometime in the afternoon:

The visibility was bad because there was so much snow falling, or rather going almost horizontal.

Last night, I was reporting the conditions around here to Holly, and I said that one of the cars had been driven out of the parking lot, and then I realized it hadn't. It was just so covered with snow that you couldn't see it at all from the angle I was viewing it!

The snow stopped sometime during the evening. I don't know what the total was for here in Woodbridge, but there was a lot of it. The car seemed to be buried because the snow was blowing around as well as falling, and that's why it seemed to be covered. It's hard to estimate how much we really got because of the drifts. Some spots were very deep, and others were almost bare.

By today, the streets that had been plowed were almost totally bare, with just some dampness on the road, but there were very high spots where snow was piled up. Here's a shot of some snow piled above my head.

Here's a nearby parking lot, and you can see that although the snow is piled up, it's not a problem walking or driving.

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I had planned to go to the supermarket yesterday, but I took the last two photos of my trip there today instead. Rather than brave the wind and cold, I stayed home and knitted Christmas presents (and had pizza for dinner) while watching TV, mainly a lot of Doctor Who!

BBC in America premiered Waters of Mars yesterday, and showed reruns of The Next Doctor, and Planet of Death, along with a "making of" thing, Inside Doctor Who, and a Graham Norton Doctor Who Special.

They'll be showing the next two Doctor Who episodes over the next two Saturdays.

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I've been doing so much knitting that I've become very dull. There's nothing new happening that I can tell you about due to the projects being Christmas presents. I'll be taking photos of the projects, but I'm not going to put them up until people have gotten their presents, so that contributes to the dullness of this blog at the moment.

Back to the knitting!

I hope you've had as wonderful a weekend as I have. Happy Holidays!

Let It Snow!

Yesterday, we got our first snowfall of the season. It looked like this out my window at about noon:


It looks kind of misty because there was snow coming down. It continued to snow until about 5pm or so, and we probably got just a smidge over two inches. The air at ground level and the ground itself was above freezing when it snowed (although it went down later), so we wound up with two inches on the grass, ground and trees, and just a hint of slush on the sidewalks, and some dampness on the roads.

It looks very wintery and Christmassy! Very picturesque and pretty, and not a hassle, except when I walked out without the hood on my coat up and got some down the back of my neck.

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A couple of days ago, I finished a hat that's going to be a Christmas present. I won't say who it's for, but I will show you what it looks like.

The cuff is supposed to look like it's a mobius strip, although that's not how it's knitted. Give me an opinion. Does it look like that's what it is?

And right above the area where the cuff dips to look like it's twisting, there's a heart.

I finished knitting a wimple to go with this last night. It still needs blocking, and it will look kind of messy until I do that, so I haven't taken a photo of it yet. The blocking is waiting until I finish Christmas decorations.

I'm definitely going to make mitts to go with this set, but there will still be yarn left after that, so I haven't decided if I should make a scarf or mittens to go over the mitts to go with all of this. Opinions would be welcome! The scarf has the advantage that I can knit the mitts first, and then get the scarf started and just keep going until I run out of yarn and use it all.

This was knit with the Encore Tweed yarn in Grape Jam, for anyone who is interested in the yarn.

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I've been putting up Christmas decorations a little at a time. I do a little bit and then my back hurts, so I rest for a bit and do some more.

The little lavender tree is up on the divider between the kitchen and living room, although I still intend to put more lights in that area. It's very pretty and I like it.

The lights in the window are up, but not lit yet. I need two extension cords to light both the window lights and tree lights at the same time, and I only have one cord.

The extension cord that I got for the window lights is currently still next to the tree, which is up, but I need an extension cord for that, too. I bought a cord for it last year, but it's in use elsewhere now, so I need another one to light the tree. Until there's another cord, they can't both be lit at once. The cord is currently by the tree because I put up the two new strings of lights and wanted to test them and see how it looked. I could easily have used another string of star lights for the tree, but CVS only had two in white. All the rest were multicolored. They look really good, though, although the rose lights are prettier overall. I still want the star lights more than the rose ones, though.

I still need to put the ornaments up and clear away the boxes that all this stuff was in, so it's kind of messy at the moment, but I'll get back to it when I finish writing this and get it done.

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We've been drowning in Christmas movies, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings this weekend. I'm not complaining about any of that.

BBC in America came through for us and took down the listing for Torchwood yesterday and substituted the next episode of Doctor Who from the one they had in that time slot last week (last week was Turn Left, and yesterday was The Stolen Earth). There are three one hour Doctor Who episodes listed for next Saturday, but my digital TV Guide won't tell me what they are. Their online schedule says that they will finish the series of three with Journey's End next Saturday and continue with The Next Doctor and Planet of the Dead for any of you who missed them. They did say that there would be more new Doctor Who in December. They'll go crazy with the Doctor on Sunday and show several different episodes including repeats from Saturday and Voyage of the Dammed.

The Saturday after that (19th), they're going to go insane and show several Doctor Who episodes and specials including The Waters of Mars!

Tomorrow, Disney will be showing The Chronicles of Narnia at noon (here), and there will be a new Big Bang Theory and Castle as well as a new Closer. Wow!

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I was hoping to get out with Holly on Saturday or Sunday and spend some of the money the Social Security people should have been sending me, but didn't.

Unfortunately, Holly didn't feel good, and looked at the weather report and decided that she really didn't want to fight with snow while she was feeling that way, and declined to go.

I'm kind of worried about her, and I hope she feels better soon.

One of the things I wanted to get was a pair of shoes. JC Penny has some shoes that normally cost more on sale for $30. They're really good looking, and if they are as comfortable as I hope, I'd like to buy them. I have a sneaky suspicion that they're on clearance, and that's the reason for the lower price, so I want to do it ASAP.

But I can get there on the bus, so I guess that's what I'll do. I can also get them online and have them mailed to me, but they said I can buy them locally and it would be nice to be able to try them on first.

Well, I'd better get back to decorating!

I hope you had a great weekend and an even better week coming up!