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 Birthday, Bob, and Pennsic Is Over for Another Year

Happy Birthday, Bob!

It's my granddaughter, Kyle's boyfriend, Bob's birthday today! I wish you a birthday as happy as the one that Kyle just had! I'm sure you can figure out which one is Bob.

Speaking of Kyle's party, here's my favorite photo from it:

That's Holly with Kyle.

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Pennsic is over for another year. At this point, some are already home, and some are probably still traveling, but it's all over.

It always makes me feel a little sad when it's done.

But then again, there's always next year's war to look forward to missing.

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Yesterday, Holly came over and we went out together and she got to show off her new HumVee!

If I had to choose a single color name to describe the color, it would have to be grey. But it looks very blue sometimes, too, probably from reflections from the sky. Once in a while, you can see some green in the color, too.

We went to AC Moore, WalMart, and then to Ruby Tuesday. She said that she'd take me to Olive Garden for my birthday, but some other time because neither of us was really hungry, and you need to be when you go there.

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Check out this neat article about yarnstorming (with lots of photos)!

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Well, it's been a wonderful weekend for me! I'm all ready for my birthday tomorrow. Lynn said I should expect my birthday present from her to arrive on Saturday, but since the apartment place I live in doesn't let the post office deliver packages on the weekend, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get it.

I hope you've had as good a weekend as I have, and a fabulous week coming up!

The Persieds Meteor Shower!

There's a thunderstorm rolling in, and I want to get this post up fast, and get my computer turned off, so this will be a short post.

The Persieds Meteor Shower will be at it's best tonight! Don't miss it! It's one of my favorite things about Pennsic, and one of the things I like best about what the universe does to celebrate my birthday!

There's more stuff about it on the internet (check your favorite search engine), but I wanted to get something up here before I got off the computer.

While I'm on the subject of celestial stuff, there's been a new asteroid discovered, and it tells us about the origin of our solar system!

I've been running around most of today gathering financial information for my yearly review here at the apartment I live in. My new eye doctor seemed to be really great, but she (and everyone else in her office) seem to be either having as much of a problem hearing as I do, or they just don't understand the English language.

I ask them for a note with a recommendation for Vitamin A, Billberry and Lutien for my eyes because the expenses incurred in taking those nutrients will help to lower my rent, and I get back "No, you don't need a prescription for that. You can buy it over the counter!" After ten minutes of speaking loudly and clearly, they still didn't get it.

I didn't get the recommendation, either.

Even though they said that taking that stuff is good for my eyes.

Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.

Well, the last of the information needs to be in tomorrow, so it'll all be over, one way or the other by the end of the day.

Hope you're having a better day than I've been having! Enjoy the meteor shower tonight!

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Elizabeth Zimmerman!

There really are a lot of birthdays in August, and I forgot most of them!

I'm chagrinned to have missed Rob Rekley's birthday, which was on the second! Happy birthday, Rob! I hope it was fun!

The big news for knitters is that yesterday was the anniversary of Elizabeth Zimmerman's birthday. For those of you who don't know, EZ has gone to the big sheep and wool festival in the sky, and left us poor mortals to struggle through without her help. One of my favorite bloggers wrote a post about it here. You have to read this--it's funny!

Of course, I mentioned that the sixth, last Friday was Kyle's birthday, and I'm going to hear more about it on Saturday when I see Holly. They did celebrate by taking her to a bar on Thursday night at midnight so that she could show her ID to the bartender the instant she was 21! She got either free or $1 drinks all night, and everyone seemed to conspire to get her the worst-tasting drinks possible.

And yesterday was Tim Davis' birthday! Happy birthday, Tim! I hope you had the most fun, ever!

The next one coming up is Bob, Kyle's boyfriend! It's on the fifteenth, the day before mine. He got to accompany Kyle for her birthday, so I'm sure that they'll celebrate his birthday on Sunday.

Then, of course, there's me! Don't miss my birthday wish list on Amazon! Used books or DVDs are OK! There are some expensive presents, but there are some that are under $5 including shipping! I got a call from Lynn yesterday to check my address so that she could send me a present. I'm all excited about that!

My cousin, Barbara, is also having a birthday on the 18th!

And Facebook surprised me and let me know that later on this month (the 18th, too) Rick Foucheux will be having a birthday! I know Rick from working with him when he was in Invader.

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This is going to be a bad week for me to get posts up due to the fact that I have to turn in all my financial evidence for some benefits, and I've been running all over getting it together. Yesterday I spent all afternoon making a trip to get some info I need, and I have more stuff I need to do today and Thursday, and Friday I have to turn it all in. So, don't expect a lot of posts.

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Holly called me earlier today to confirm my address during the process of buying her new car. She said it really is green, and not the blue it appears to be in the photos, but that it's a "funny shade," whatever that means. She took the day off of work to go get it since it arrived late last week, and she'll have the evening to actually go somewhere if she wants to. I tried to encourage her to come here and show it off, but she said she didn't want to be on the highway during rush hour, so she's not going to bring it down here until Saturday.

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I found this on the internet today and just had to share it with you! A young woman who seems to prefer to remain nameless, quit her job by sending an email to everyone in the company (and I hope she sent this to the owner, too) with this series of photos. This is priceless. I should warn you that my computer gave me several warnings about a slow script on the page, but it's really worth wading through and waiting to see it all! I love it! And I wish her all the best!

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I just got a call from Holly, and the financing on the car was ridiculous, so she's checking with her company credit union to see if they'll finance it on much better terms instead of the finance company that works with the dealer.

So, she hasn't actually got the car yet, but should have it either tomorrow or Thursday. I'm a little disappointed, but they'll get the car this week no matter how it turns out.

She said the car is a dark green, but that the green has a lot of grey in it. She looked at all the colors available on that model and year of Hummer while I was talking to her on the phone, and she said that none of them are called green, so she's not sure about it.

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I need to get going and get something done today, Hope you're having a wonderful week!

Happy Birthday, Kyle!

Today is Kyle's birthday, and her mom arrived last night out there in Wisconsin to be with her on her one and only twenty-first birthday! After scaring me the other day, I still hope she has a good birthday.

This will be a short post, today.

I went to the eye doctor, and they put lots of drops in my eyes, and now it looks like I smeared Vaseline all over my eyes. I'm sure it will wear off in a few hours.

The good news is that my eyes are essentially healthy, and everything's OK. The bad news is that they've changed more than I thought, and I probably should get new glasses. For the lenses (if I use the frames I already have), they quoted a price of $150, which they insisted was the cheapest I'll find anywhere. I think I'll check out the sales for the next month since I don't have the money to get them right now anyway.

I finally found out what that blurry spot in my left eye is, though. The other doctor gave me a big long word (or maybe three) and didn't explain it. This doctor says that it's basically a large floater, and that it's something to keep checking on, but not something to cause worry in and of itself. She said I can expect to have it forever. She said that she had an incident of retinal detachment when she was 20, and has had floaters ever since. Holly had them a while ago, too, so I guess I'm lucky that I never had it happen until I was 62.

But the computer screen looks all smeary, and the good stuff is coming on TV, so I'll catch up with things later.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Happy August!

I intended to write a post welcoming August on the first day of the month.

Yeah, we can all see how much good that intention did!

But August has been here for a few days, and it's nice to take notice of the fact.

I tend to think of August as birthday month. Yes, I was expecting that! Yeah, it is the month that my birthday is in (on the sixteenth, and my birthday wish list is here and I should mention that there are a lot of great presents available used for under $5), but that's beside the point.

I worked for two different companies where over 75% of their employees had birthdays in August, so they had a big birthday party for everyone in the company in that month! Both companies employed a lot of creative people, and most creative people seem to be born then. I don't know why. I'm not trying to say anything with that statement. It's just an observation. Although it has made me think a bit more favorably about the idea of astrology at times.

So, lets get on the subject of birthdays!

Today happens to be the birthday of the president of the US! Yes, Barak Obama is celebrating his birthday today. Or, more accurately, he's having a birthday. I don't know what his plans to celebrate are, but I do know that people all over the country are throwing birthday parties for him even though he probably won't attend.

I know all this because Michelle sent me an email last week asking me to sign a birthday card for him, and I also got an invitation to a party for him in Fairfax.

Living in the DC area has always been fun that way, but I think the internet has brought what used to be a DC phenomenon to the world, or at least the rest of the United States.

Continuing on the birthday theme, Friday (the 6th) is also my granddaughter, Kyle's birthday. Holly will be going to visit her on her birthday. She will be 21 on Friday!

I have a friend that I haven't seen in ages, Whitlock, who was born on the 15th, and there were a couple of years that we started celebrating on his birthday and finished up at the end of mine.

That doesn't seem like a lot, does it?

August is the month that August Party used to be held in (of course). For those that don't know, August was the month that the original Star Trek cast and crew would have a wrap party each year, and the Star Trek fen used to hold August Party, which was a Star Trek convention each year. It's the con I met John at, and I always remember it even though it's not happening anymore.

August is also the month that Pennsic happens! Pennsic is one of my favorite things ever, and I'll be missing it again this year! But I'll be keeping up with what's happening by retweeting stuff from Pennsic in the sidebar, in my Twitter feed. You can keep up with it there, too, should you be interested.

Here are some random photos I found on the internet, to give you an idea of what Pennsic is like.

And here's a photo of the entrance to the Clan Lurkr camp, where I stayed quite a few years ago. As you can see, Wookie (Viscount Sir Wulfbrand Lurkr) likes red!

There are buildings and towers! People make them pre-fab and take them to the camp ground and store them there between Pennsics. I wish I could find some of the photos I took there.

So, stay tuned to the sidebar, or follow me on Twitter to keep up with what's happening if you can't go.

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For the fiberartists out there, Knit Picks is having a contest with a prize of enough cashmere blend yarn to knit a sweater as a prize! If you're not acquainted with them, Knit Picks has quality yarn in natural fibers available at very reasonable prices. You should check them out!

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Note to Lynn: I promised you that I would see an eye doctor for an exam, and I've been putting it off, but I have an appointment for a check up on Friday.

And I think I've run out of steam for today. I'll blog more often in the future!

Have a great rest of the week!