Oooops!

First of all, let me say that I'm OK.

Yesterday, I scored a new, personal record, and not a good one.

For the last 55 years, I've frequently walked around reading with no ill effects. Yesterday, I broke that record.

I've come to the conclusion that reading while walking (with some caution) is OK. 

Carrying home two big bags of groceries in the dark and using a flashlight to read at the same time doesn't seem to be a good thing, though.

I walked right into a curb that was nearly invisible in the dark. One second, I was walking along with no problems, and the next I was flat on my face in some thick grass with some very soft ground under it. I didn't even have a second to react and try to break my fall.

This is a very nice neighborhood. By the time I realized what happened and began to pick myself up, someone in a car had pulled up next to me and there was someone asking if I needed help. And when I fell, there was not a moving car in sight. I told them I was OK, and went inside. Fortunately, it was right in front of where I live.

I have a very small cut on one hand, and it feels like a very mild case of whiplash along with soreness in my right arm. My neck and arm have been informing me all day that I never should have done that, and they are not amused. I put a gel band aid on my hand, effectively  repairing it immediately. The arm and neck will take a day or two to get back to normal.

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I had planned to go to WalMart today for some stuff, but when I checked my email, I had a request to do some Christmas knitting for someone. I spent some time checking the availability of different yarns and the general feasibility of the project. It looks like I'll be knitting five Christmas stockings in a very intricate color pattern. You'll see photos for that if and when it progresses. I'm thinking about doing it in Caron's new Simply Soft Eco yarn. Well, most of it. Santa is on the stocking and has, of course, a white beard and trim on his suit, which I want to make from fuzzy yarn. Plus I need to find some yarn in a  color for his face.

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Spike is showing the first two Star Wars movies tonight. Phantom Menace just started and I want to get to see it, so this post will be short. It will be followed by Attack of the Clones.

Of course, SciFi will be having it's usual four hours of Lost tonight starting at seven.

And NBC will have it's usual line-up of Chuck, Heroes, and My Own Worst Enemy.

Oh, and the Eloise movies will be shown on ABC Family next Saturday. If you've read the Eloise books and liked them, these movies look as much as it's possible for live actors to look like the drawings from the book. They are enchanting.

I have some other, exciting news that I can't announce yet (maybe tomorrow). I can hardly wait!

Have a great evening!

Pre-Thanksgiving Weekend

It's the weekend before Thanksgiving, and, if you judge by TV and the sales, Christmas is here! If you scroll down to the bottom of my blog, there's a countdown timer to Christmas, and it's much closer than it seems like it should be.

There are loads of great Thanksgiving movies, but none of them are on TV. Just Christmas movies.

I'm waiting for the Eloise movies. I read at least one of the Eloise books when I was a kid and I loved her and the books. Whoever did the movies did a great job on them. The non-Christmas one is Eloise at the Plaza, and the other one is Eloise at Christmastime. They are Christmas movies for kids that won't make adults sick. Eloise reminds me of my granddaughter, Kyle in these movies.

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So, I've been watching Christmas movies and knitting on my Celtic sweater. It's finally down to the point where there's just garter stitch, worked even until the last ball nearly runs out, and then a picot bind-off.

Oh, and darning in ends, blocking and sewing on buttons.

But I thought you'd like to see the finished side knot. It's much different than the first one, and I like this one better. It continues the Saint John's cross theme from the back, sleeves and hood.

I'll be glad to get back to Christmas present knitting.

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Well, science fiction seems to be shoved aside on TV in favor of Christmas movies. I happen to enjoy Christmas movies, but The SciFi Channel seems to be almost the lone oasis of SF this year except for the SF series that we're (thankfully) seeing for the last two or three years.

Holiday movies are fun. We just finished with the batch of Halloween movies, Thanksgiving movies should be on, but aren't, and Christmas is here. The next big movie holiday is Easter, which I always enjoy. The trick with them is to consider them science fiction. Actually, many of the miracles have scientific explanations, if you think about it. Then the 4th of July movies (Independence Day, etc.), and then there's a break before getting back to Halloween.

John has recommended that I see the 24 movie that will be on Fox tonight. It's called 24: Redemption. I haven't gotten into 24 in the past. We'll see.

I hope you've been having a great weekend!

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Addition:

Today is the 45th anniversary of Doctor Who!

Read more about it here!

Rerun

I know it's a little early in the season for this true Christmas story, but here goes.

Two years ago, on the 14th of December, I put this entry on my old Xanga blog, and I think it's worth repeating.

Miracle on 34th Street

OK, so it wasn't 34th Street, it was the Fairfax County Courthouse.

Back at the beginning of October, before I learned to say "No, no, NO!" my landlady made me miss a day of work, and late for work two other days, and Prince William County made me late another day. All in one week.

On one of those days I was late for work, I got a speeding ticket.

I didn't have the money to pay it, so I had to wake up at 5:30 am today (a miracle in itself) and go through dense fog to the courthouse.

Side note: we had a high of around 60 F, hence the fog. 35 or 40 for a high is more usual for this time of year.

So, on the way in, I was practically subjected to a strip search. Well, I kept setting off the metal detector until I finally took off the belt that I like because it has lots of star-shaped studs.

Anyway, I sat through a bunch of people protesting their innocense or admitting guilt.

Finally my name was called. The judge told me to sit and wait, but called me back in a little bit. He called me in front of the bench, which was a relief, because we had been shouting across the room at each other from where I was supposed to stand. So I could hear him. I asked a question, got an answer, and told the judge I didn't have the money for the fine and why I didn't have it. He reduced the fine DRASTICALLY, and sent me off to make arrangements to pay.

When I was making arrangements, a lady came up and interrupted. She asked if she heard right, that I was getting Social Security. I said yes, and she shoved $30 onto my hand to help pay the fine and said Merry Christmas!

I handed it over, and while the clerk was writing a receipt, a gentleman walked up and asked the clerk how much was left to pay. The clerk told him, and he said "I'll pay that!" he did, and also wished me a Merry Christmas.

I had tears in my eyes when the lady gave me the money. I was amazed!

By the time I left, everyone there was wishing each other a merry Christmas, and my tears had spilled over.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause!

This was all inspired by Crazy Aunt Purl's blog today. She had a run-in with a traffic cop of her own.

I should mention that I never should have gotten the ticket the way it was written, and the judge should have dismissed it immediately. The ticket said I was speeding on the Occoquan Bridge. It was written by a Fairfax County cop, and I had to go to court in Fairfax County. The Occoquan Bridge is in Prince William County, where the cop and Fairfax County have no jurisdiction! The cop also saw me speed in Fairfax County (as I was getting off the bridge), but that's not what he wrote on the ticket. It should have been dismissed. I even made this point to the judge, and they told me I was wrong, but subsequent investigation proved I was right

By the way, if you live in Fairfax County and have just moved here, when you pay your property tax, keep the canceled check or the photo of the check from the bank. They will tell you that you failed to pay the previous year's tax and charge you for it again the next year. Don't feel bad. They do this to everybody.

The first time they did it to me, and I showed them the canceled check, they said "Oops, computer error!" I believed them that time. The second time, I was highly skeptical. The third, fourth, and fifth times, I didn't believe them at all.

Fairfax County reminds me of something I heard a comedian say when I was a child, "The only difference between organized crime and government is: government says they're legal." They constantly do things that are illegal by their own laws. The state of Virginia should clean up Fairfax County.

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We have the standard Friday line-up tonight, except that The Mentalist is on again after Ghost Whisperer.

Have a great evening and weekend!

Snow Tomorrow!

My new needle case arrived last night!


For anyone who knows me, you can see immediately that it's mine. I have white mullets (five-pointed stars) on  a blue background, and the same thing with the colors reversed (counterchanged) on my SCA arms, so when camping, I mark my things with a mullet.

There's plenty of room for all my needles, plus a few more, should I want more. Two sets of needle tips are not in the case because they're being used. It's got room for 4 different lengths of cables so that I can find them without having to measure them against each other. Left would have 24 inch cables (if I wasn't using all of them at the moment), next is all the 32 inch cables (I'm not using any of them now), then the one 40 inch cable that I'm not using, and an empty space for the 47 inch cables that are ordered and will probably arrive later this week.

If you want a wonderful bag like mine (I think she said she made two of them), check out LunaStitch on Etsy. If you see anything you like, buy it quick, because they're moving out as fast as she can make them!

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John has a new post up with more Steve Canyon news and some great photos and trivia! Volume one will be out really soon, and the excitement is mounting. 

There are photos from the series, along with trivia about the actors and episodes, and photos of some of the menus on the discs.

You may be seeing news reports on the internet about it soon.

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There's a new episode of Supernatural on tonight! Check it out on the CW.

Also, we have Eleventh Hour and Life on Mars, naturally on at the same time.

The SciFi Channel will also be having their weekly Doctor Who episode late tonight/early tomorrow (5 am here). This week it's The Doctor's Daughter, a really excellent episode, and the set-up for a spin-off if I ever saw one.

There's also a weekly broadcast of reruns of Knitty Gritty at 6:30 am on Home and Garden TV.

I have some errands to do that I've been putting off since Monday, so I should get rolling.

Have a great day!

Walk to the Library

After my post yesterday, I went to the library. I returned two books, picked up two books I'd requested, and found two other books to take home with me.

On the way, I played with my new camera and discovered that Winter had arrived!

The first bridge on my walk is a tiny one:

Followed by the covered bridge that I like so much.

There's a fabulous view of a fountain further up in the water, but there were only so many photos I could download. I'll add it tomorrow. You can see the fountain in the background on this photo, though.

This is part of the maze of townhouse-like buildings in what is actually a business park.


The maze is full of stairs, ramps and other levels, as well as winding paths.

Beside the lake, is this little outlook point at the back of the mill.

I love walking to the library. It's so pretty.

But I didn't love the results of the walk last night and today. It felt like winter, and I could tell it was cold, but I didn't feel cold. Unfortunately, I am now dealing with the reaction my muscles always have when they get cold. My back muscles are all crampy and sore. I plan to do some serious laying down today interspersed with other activities that support my back.

The most vigorous item planned for today is pulling out the heating pad for my back.

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I've finished the second front part of the pockets, and gotten three quarters of the way through the back down to the bottom of the pockets. By tomorrow, I expect to be where I was three days before.

No point in photos, they just show less than the photos I've already posted.

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Pushing Daisies is back with a new episode tonight! And at 11 pm, Van Helsing is on TNT.

Have a great one!

Celtic Troubles

What was wrong with the fronts to the Celtic sweater was that I counted different amounts of stitches from the front to start each pocket.

So, the back and one pocket section have been ripped out.

I can't bear to take photos of disaster, so let your imagination run amok thinking about it. I'm sure you get the picture. I frogged more than two whole skeins of yarn, so that's close to 500 yards. As I said, I can't bear to take photos of the debacle.

It's going to be pretty when it's done, though. I'm much happier with the revised knot that I'm going to put on the side than I was with the first one.

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All the information, computer files, etc., have been shipped off to the people who are actually going to make the DVDs for Volume One of Steve Canyon. John and I are experiencing huge amounts of relief. We'll feel that until tomorrow, when we'll probably start over with Volume Two.

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For tonight, we have Fringe and The Mentalist on at the same time on Fox and CBS, respectively, followed by Eli Stone on ABC.

Starting at Midnight, the History Channel has a couple of interesting episodes of The Universe, the first about The Most Dangerous Place in the Universe (cosmic hot spots), and one of my favorites, Parallel Universes. That last episode just fills me with so many ideas I feel like I'm going to explode.

I'm still catching up on the programs I missed (due to phone calls and deciphering the problem with the sweater and ripping it out, picking up stitches, etc.), but recorded from last night.

Have a great day. I'm headed to the library.