Dark Mark Scarf

Yes, prepare to be bored with yet another dark mark scarf that I've made

I tried to take a photo of this that would show just the stripes, but the mark on this one just doesn't want to disappear. In a lot of ways, it's the best one I've made so far.

This one is for someone else. At some point (maybe now, so I'll have it for the movie opening) I'm going to make another one for me.

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Last weekend, on Sunday, Eli Stone was listed on the Digital TV Guide. I told the DVR to record it, and it wasn't until last night that I got around to watching it and discovered that it's a new episode! 

That's right, Eli Stone fans, it's back!

The network said that they were absolutely, positively canceling it, so I didn't even check to see that it was new. When I watched it, at first I thought it was an episode I'd missed, but no, it's brand new!

So, don't miss it this week. Oh, I'm so happy!

I realize that this isn't a science fiction show, but Better off Ted is back tonight on ABC, and I can't wait!

For those of you who don't know, Ted works  for a huge corporation, Veridian Dynamics, which is everyone's worst nightmare of big business. The things the company does are beyond belief. One of the highlights of the show each week, is a commercial for Veridian Dynamics, which the company shows off how it has, once again managed to react totally inappropriately to reality with screamingly funny results.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

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Addition:

Find out how some of the best condiments and sauces got their names here.

Economics and Politics

I am probably the most apolitical person you've ever met.

But our new president is trying to get me involved, and the economy is making his attempts very personal.

If you're a knitter looking for knitting news, it probably won't make it into the post, and the same goes for science fiction news (except that David Hewlett will be on the Closer episode that's less than an hour away). Edit: it's taken me a while to write this, so it's now half over.

Anyway, I have a problem with people who think they're helping out, but they're really helping the people who don't need it and/or are able to take advantage of it.

President Obama put a link up on Twitter to this page on YouTube. It's about healthcare reform, and he wants to know what questions people want to ask.

But in order to ask a question, you have to have a movie camera, the ability to make a movie, and the ability to get it up on YouTube! That means that the poor and homeless have no way of asking a question!

Yeah, it's great that technology has made it possible for some people to take advantage of this opportunity. I mean Lincoln couldn't have gotten an answer from the citizenry of the US about anything. And I do respect and admire the fact that he's the first president who's asked!

But once again, the only people who can ask a question or register an opinion are people who are already reasonably affluent!

By the way, if you want to contact the president about anything, you can use the contact form at this website. I just asked some questions about healthcare.

I was in Safeway the other day, and they had a sale. That sounds good, so far. But the sale was "Buy three, get three free." And it was an item that I'd buy more than six of in the next month.

That sounds good, on the surface, but these were large, bulky, heavy items. For someone who is rich enough to have a car, that's a good deal. But for someone like me, who doesn't have transportation other than my own two feet, it's an impossible situation.

Anyway, I went over there today, and brought along a cart to lug stuff home in. 

And they had sold out of it!

Which was a problem for them, because I walked out of there and bought two of the items elsewhere. Which means that I didn't buy a whole list of stuff that I planned to buy while I was there. So, they actually lost sales because of that sale.

Oh, and the other thing is Yowza!! Please note that the two exclamation points are part of the name, not a punctuation problem on my part. You can get coupons and sales and all sorts of savings, but they haven't bothered to make it widely accessible. If you have an iPhone, or iPod Touch, then you can save money. So, once again, you have to have money to save money!

Sorry to gripe at you!

I hope you're having a great day!

New Doctor Who Tonight!

Don't forget that the brand-new, never-seen-before-in-the-US Doctor Who Christmas special, The Next Doctor, will air on BBC in America tonight! Check your local schedules!

I didn't realize it until I checked Amazon, but this is also available  on DVD right now!

You can watch it on TV before Amazon can possibly send it to you now, but while I was looking for it, I found out that you can also get the next episode on DVD from them real soon now!

Planet of the Dead will be available on DVD on the 28th of July, which is two nights after it will be on American TV.

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One of the things Holly wanted to do when she came over today was to block the silk scarf that she's finished knitting.

She washed it to remove any remaining sericin, and it wasn't dry yet, so she's planning on doing it all tomorrow.

Gotta run! Lots of stuff to do today!

Have a great weekend!

Rhode Island?

Did you know that Rhode Island isn't the whole name of the state? I certainly didn't! Read about it here.

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Holly sent me a text message and said that the birthday present she ordered for me arrived, and she wanted to know if I wanted it now or if I wanted to wait until August to get it.

Silly Question!!!

Of course I want it now!

They don't call me hyperactive for nothing!

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Don't forget that the new Doctor Who Christmas special, The Next Doctor, will be on BBC in America tomorrow! I can't wait!

Gotta run! Have a great weekend!

No Air Conditioning!

Yesterday, about 4 pm, the temperature in my apartment passed the 80 degree comfort mark, headed up, up, and away.

I turned the air conditioning down (toward cooler) and fully expected the situation to right itself. It didn't. It's been no lower than 80 degrees in this apartment ever since about four yesterday.

I talked to my neighbor across the hall this morning, and she said that the maintenance people had been up all night, and they kept muttering phrases like "no water pressure," and "we're still not getting pressure."

The heating and cooling in my place is provided via water pipes set into the cement floor. They send warm or cool water through the pipes and the building stays a comfortable temperature, theoretically. In practice, it works pretty well, except for those times that the weather is changing back and forth, and they haven't fully changed over to air conditioning. This building tends to stay warm, though. With the heat and AC turned off, it still seems to either generate or hold a lot of heat. And the next few days are supposed to be around 90 degrees.

I've had the windows open all last night, ever since the outside temperature got lower than the inside temp. But it's about 80 degrees in here, and 85 outside, so the windows are now closed. I don't need to import warmer air. The drapes are also closed to keep the afternoon sun out, which is a big offender in the warming-up department.

Not much knitting has been happening due to the warming effect caused by actually knitting something, so there's no news there.

I think I'll lie down with a book (Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince).

Stay cool!

Merlin

Well, I watched the first two episodes of Merlin this weekend, and I was confused and disappointed. I had the apparently misguided idea that this series might possibly be about the Arthurian legend. In spite of the fact that it includes characters called Merlin, King Uther Pendragon, Prince Arthur, Morgana, and Guenevere, it has nothing to do with that legend, unless you take the "once and future king" to heart, and reincarnate all the characters 900 years into their future with lots of changes to their stations and relationships.

The original King Arthur was supposed to live during the early 6th century. The castle, armor and clothes are from the 15th century in this series. After the first 20 or 30 anachronisms I saw, I just stopped counting and realized that it's really set 900 years after the original legend was supposed to have happened. There were several people wearing knitted mitts! And that's one of the most minor of the inaccuracies! I could go on for a half an hour just listing the anachronisms. The mitts were probably accurate to possibly as early as 1200 (almost certainly to 1300), but not during Arthur's time! The problem with clothes from that era is that little survives, so we have no way of knowing with absolute certainty. And what does survive is special, usually ceremonial clothing. I base the mitts statement on the fact that simpler knitting must've happened before some of the more complicated knitting that we know existed later.

Merlin (an adult), took the baby Arthur to be fostered by different parents in the original story. In the series, Merlin is younger than Arthur, who, by the way, is a nasty, spoiled, arrogant bully, rather than the humble, hardworking, polite squire he was in the original legend. And the way this is set up, the sword in the stone can never happen.

Morgana has some real problems, too. She was his half sister, but in the series, is dying to marry him in order to become queen. Yes, I know that in the original, the two had a son, Mordred, but although there were several versions, in all of them the two were unaware of who the other was when the indiscretion happened, and were both embarrassed by having a son with a sibling.

And Guenevere is a servant in this series! No matter which way you slice it, this is not the original legend, and I know that legend has a lot of variations, but this is not it!

Oh, and there's a knight named Valiant! Maybe from the comic strip I used to read in the newspaper when I was a child???

Another character that didn't appear in the original is a dragon that Merlin has conversations with! There seems to be a lot in this series that's treated with such disrespect of the original legend that it tends to resemble a comic strip.

The credits mentioned that these stories were based on a book or series of books, but it all obviously has nothing to do with the original legend. Other than borrowing the names of the major characters. The name of the books and the author are not listed on IMdB, though, and it went by quickly enough that I missed it, and had to erase it because my DVR is too full.

NBC also did everything in it's power to ruin the start of the series by scheduling one thing and then broadcasting golf instead, and running over the time limit and into the time allotted for Merlin. The result of this is that if I hadn't noticed this and just let my DVR run, I would have missed the last 20 minutes or so of the second episode. Way to go, NBC! 

I'm not sure if I want to keep watching this. On the one hand, it may be a good story, even though it's not the story of Arthur and Merlin (despite the names). On the other hand, it's shaping up to have all the horror and fascination of a train wreck that you just can't stop watching even though you want to.

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Comcast has broadcast THREE "weekly" tests in less than three hours today! They broadcast two of them within the space of a half hour! I do understand that they are required to do this weekly, but cable companies that actually want to keep customers usually try to do this sometime between the hours of 2 and 4 am once a week, not on a several-times-daily basis during daytime TV and prime time!

This is just one more example of how much Comcast doesn't care at all about it's customers! I hate them! I've already tried to find another service, but the building I live in doesn't allow it.

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The Philanthropist debuts tonight on NBC. I know it isn't science fiction, but it may be as much wish fulfillment as Leverage witch is on at the same time on TNT. Unless you have a DVR, you'll have some hard choices.

I have been knitting and knitting, but there's not a lot different than there was yesterday, so it's probably best not to mention it.

Have a great evening!

The New Doctor Who Will be on Saturday!

On Saturday evening, the BBC in America will be showing the first special of the new season of Doctor Who, The Next Doctor! That was the Christmas special for the series this past year. I was hoping that there would be some information on their website about the future schedule of the Doctor, but all they're giving away is the schedule for Saturday (and Sunday morning). I eventually did find out that the next episode of the Doctor will be on July 26th. These will be separate stories, and they appear to be spreading them out more.

Instead of doing a whole season, the budget crunch prompted the BBC to do several specials rather than a whole season for both Doctor Who and Torchwood this year. The Torchwood specials will be in the form of a mini-series, called Children of Earth, and will be coming up in July, starting on the 20th. They'll be shown on five consecutive nights and form one whole story.

After all the nothing we've been experiencing on TV for the last month, the summer season will be starting real soon, now. Burn Notice is back, and Leverage is back in reruns, with the new season starting on the 15th of July. Neither of those is science fiction, but they both have brilliant concepts for this bleak economy. Each week, somebody with a lot of money and power gets his/her comeuppance due to the brilliance and hard work of someone who makes things as right as they can be after the bad guy messes things up. Action/adventure shows off it's best!

We have a bit more to look forward to, though. On the 7th of July, the SciFi Channel will cease to be, and it will emerge under it's new name, SyFy. They seem to think that the concept of science fiction is too confining, and want to introduce a broader concept. I think there is a lot of SF and fantasy that they could be showing on their network, but they're not doing it. Instead, they seem to be dedicated to showing Chupacabra, Dark Seas, Grendel and Beowulf a mind-numbing number of times. Actually, the first time was too much for these clunkers. No, I'm being too kind. They are some of the worst movies ever made!

I got off the subject, which was stuff to look forward to on TV. SyFy will be kicking off their new name with Warehouse 13. 

Remember at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when the crate holding the Ark is wheeled into a warehouse and stored? Well, the place it would have been stored is Warehouse 13. I sense that the name of this show will slide into American slang as almost a synonym for The Twilight Zone. Unless SyFy has managed to mess this up, too. But the concept is great, and I have high hopes for it.

And the following Friday (the 10th), Eureka will be back with more of the same, if we're lucky.

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Yesterday, I went to the library, and thought you'd like to see the work they're doing on the small bridge that I usually cross to get there. It's closed at this point, and this was taken a few days ago, but I was unloading photos from my small camera and thought you'd enjoy it.

You may notice that although they are making it safe, it still sags in the middle. It's still very pretty, though.

Yesterday, on my walk, I saw something that looked just a little like a stork. But not quite. It was some kind of wading bird, and I wanted to take a photo, and even still had my camera out, but before I could get it up in position, the bird took off. It was beautiful, and I enjoyed it, though.

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Earlier today, I finished mitt part of the Ravenclaw "Wristwarmers" I'm knitting for the Harry Potter House Cup KAL/CAL. There are three because the mitts work fine on either hand, so I make an extra so I'll still have a pair when I lose one.

When I knit, I usually put my yarn in a large plastic bowl that I got at the dollar store. It keeps the yarn from rolling away, picking up lint from the floor, and generally getting dirty. But after knitting these three mitts, the bowl had lots of navy blue lint in the bottom of it. I plan to be adding silver stars to the mitts, and all that lint got me thinking that I might want to wash the mitts themselves before attaching the stars to see if the color is going to run. So, these are finished and ready to wash.

Here's a photo of the yarn I bought on Saturday. It's the new brand of yarn that Michaels is carrying. 

I love the  colors in it, and I originally thought I'd make a scarf out of it, but while I was at the library, I checked out a copy of Sally Melville's third book in the Knitting Experience Series. This one is the color book.

She has a beautiful sweater made in tweed stitch out of variegated yarn like this and a solid. It's beautiful, and I've been thinking that I need a new vest. I've been wearing my navy one (which I love) for more than ten years. The best thing about the vest is it's pockets! I really love pockets!

I can't recommend the books in The Knitting Experience series enough. I'm a very experienced knitter, and I found lots of really neat ideas, techniques, and tips in all of the books. This third one includes instructions for grafting in garter stitch, and it's the only place I've found real instructions for knitting back backwards, and purling back backwards. Those last two are techniques I've wanted to learn for a while. I think I'm going to have to buy a copy of this for myself!

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While I was taking photos yesterday, the camera told me the memory card is full, so I was going through all the photos while unloading it today to either archive or trash them, and I found this photo of John and Holly and I from a couple of years ago, when John was out here to work on Fade Out (which eventually got in the middle of a power struggle because everyone wanted it, and then everyone just seemed to forget it existed, and it faded out).

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I'm sure there's more I wanted to say, but I can't think of it at the moment, and it'll be nice to still have something to talk about tomorrow.

I had a fabulous sunset out my window yesterday. The photo doesn't do it justice, but here it is.


Have a great evening!

Happy Summer and Dad's Day!

We get to celebrate two things today! An excess of riches!

First of all, a Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!

Also, today is the Summer Solstice! This is the longest day of the year! Get out there and do something in all the sunlight! And I hope you are having lots of sun on the official first day of Summer!

I know that many people consider Memorial Day as the beginning of Summer, but for thousands of years, the summer solstice, Litha, has been the traditional first day of summer.

It seems to me that the perfect celebration for the day would be to go to the beach.

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Holly and I went out yesterday, and managed to hit two craft stores in the same day: Michaels and JoAnn Fabrics!

I got all the yarn I need for two projects I'm making, both scarves. One is from someone else's pattern because It's such a great pattern and I'm too lazy to reinvent the wheel. The other is from an idea I got from a scarf someone else invented. The pattern is published in a book, and I just plain can't afford the book (OK, I'm really to cheap to buy the book), so in this case I am reinventing the wheel. We'll see how it goes, but the yarn is just gorgeous! Photos real soon, now!

At JoAnn, I got some more beads for the purple beaded shawl I'm making so that I don't run out at the end. They also happened to have kilt pins in stock and I got two because they're so good for fastening shawls and other things that I don't want to put buttons and buttonholes on. Photos of that, too, soon.

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Eureka is on the SciFi Channel all day during what would be their daytime rotation if it were during the week. Check it out if you read this soon enough.

And don't forget Merlin tonight!

Have a great beginning of Summer!

Zombies In Area! Run!!!

Last night on the news here, there was a report of obscene signs on the GW Parkway yesterday morning. Along with the report they showed photos of these signs:

Sorry about the poor quality of the photos. I took them from the TV screen. 

It turns out that they left a lot out of the news report. The (apparently) correct report about the signs can be read here. It's titled "My, My, GW Parkway, Aren't We Saucy Today?"

From what I can tell, the signs shown weren't actually shown on GW Parkway today or any other day, but, in fact showed up in Austin, Texas, and you can read about this much funnier episode here. Scroll down and watch the video. There's a commercial on first, but the rest is good. If you don't want to watch the commercial, check out the same video, below, commercial-free:

OK, I know that this is a safety issue, but it's also funny!

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Don't forget that Father's Day is on Sunday! Just thought that if you haven't seen seventeen thousand commercials yet telling you about it, it might help if I reminded you.

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My care package from Knit Picks arrived today with the 16 inch needles for the Christmas stockings I plan to knit and, hopefully, sell! 

There's also some yarn in the package to knit "wristwarmers" in Ravenclaw colors for the Harry Potter House Cup KAL/CAL. I'm using my own mitts pattern for them in navy blue, and I plan to sew silver colored stars on them. I know the book says bronze, but I really like the silver/grey color from the movies better, so that's what I'm doing. I'm also doing two more mitts in the light grey to go with the one I already knitted from the leftovers of the copy of Hermione's hat. Since the mitts work on either hand, I always knit three so that there are two left over after you I lose one.

Here's a photo of a mitt I made for photos to go with the pattern.

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By last evening I was feeling much better than I was earlier in the day. On Wednesday, my monthly order of non-prescription "medicine," in the form of nutritional supplements, etc., arrived, and I bought some 7-Keto this month, which I haven't been able to afford for a long time.

Some people did a study, years ago, where they found a group of the sickest people they could find, and another group of people that were the most healthy they could find, and just tested everything about them that they could think of to test. The idea was to see if there was something inherently different between the two groups.

Surprisingly, they did find one big difference. The healthy people had a lot of DHEA, and the sick people had little or none. They didn't know (and to the best of my knowledge, still don't) why that is, but they tried giving DHEA to sick people, and their health improved. They have several theories: that sickness "uses up" the DHEA somehow; that people with more DHEA naturally just don't get sick or as sick; that people are sick because they don't make enough DHEA, etc., etc.

But I've found that I have more energy, and feel healthier when I take DHEA.

There's just one catch.

Some people (and that includes me), get a rash when they take it as a supplement. I happen to get a rash all over my face. Which can be embarrassing.

But more research was done on this topic, and they found out that it wasn't the DHEA itself, but a metabolite, 7-Keto that really did the trick. Luckily for me, this doesn't put a rash all over my face.

So, I'm guessing I felt down because I just wasn't feeling good, but I'm feeling much better now.

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Well, I've had True Lies on TV while I'm writing this, and I want to get back to it, so I'm going to wish you a happy weekend (and Father's Day), and get back to it.

Don't forget Merlin on Sunday!

Depression

No, this time I'm not talking about a financial depression such as the great depression, although I'm sure that there are a lot of you out there that are feeling bad because of it.

This time I'm talking about being bummed out.

I haven't got a reason in the world to be so down, but I am for no reason at all. And the fact that I know there's nothing wrong and I'm still bummed only makes it worse.

Maybe it's due to the prevalence of rain ever since the middle of April that's got something to do with it.

It started yesterday, and might have had something to do with the fact that I was thinking about going to see a doctor. 

Yes, my sinuses are still doing their absolute best to drown me. 

Yes, my ear is still clogged up, and I suspect that anything that will unclog it will also unclog the other ear, too. 

Yes, my bones and joints hurt all over every time I move. 

And yes, I've gone to see doctors many, many times about all this in the last 35 years, and usually those doctors tell me (in spite of obvious, visible evidence to the contrary) that there's nothing wrong with me. 

Except for one doctor, who seemed to have it in for me, and refused to prescribe anything that wasn't harmful, and the thing he really wanted me to do would have been lethal! And telling him that I'd already tried it and nearly died from it seemed to make him even more excited, and anxious to try it again right away!

I really don't understand doctors in the United States. They seem to have lost all contact with the idea that they're trying to promote the idea that they'll do something good for your health. 

Most of them are obviously not doing anything good for your health, but at least they used to pretend they were.

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I've been meaning to go to JoAnn Fabrics all this week, and it's been raining all this week. Today, I thought I might have a chance, but it's been cloudy, overcast and rainy all day. Now that it's too late to go, the sun has come out, of course.

JoAnn is having some great sales today. If there's one near you, look up some great coupons on the internet, plus a list of sale items (scroll down for yarn, etc), and get on over there on or before Saturday!

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There's a new Burn Notice on tonight! That link will take you to info on tonight's episode, plus games and other neat stuff.

Merlin will be premiering in the US on NBC on Sunday. This is a show that was on in England a while ago, and is finally coming to the US. I don't know what the quality is like, but it's got a lot of potential, so I want to at least check it out. The NBC link is here. It has some fun games, too! Check it out!

And BBC in America has released some more information about Children of Earth, the new season of Torchwood. The whole season consists of one big story which will be shown over five evenings, starting on July 20th! I, for one, am very excited! Check out the Children of Earth link. There's a sweepstakes for a trip to Wales!

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I was distracted by finishing other projects, but I'm back to working on the purple beaded lace shawl. There's a lot of it to work on, too. After all the frogging I did, I'm back to where I was before I went berserk, and just a  little further.

You know, the sun has come out, and I'm starting to feel a bit better. Maybe it's just all the gloom and rain we've been having that's got me down.

I hope you're feeling better than I am!

Good Deal

I got my Comcast bill, and it didn't have the discount I applied for (which you're supposed to be able to get on your internet service if you have income under $18,000 per year), so I called them. 

I called them, and got to talk to someone at their main office, who had no idea of what I was talking about. But she said that there is currently a promotion for Comcast internet customers, and if you call up and ask for it, they'll charge half price for six months! I said to sign me up, so my current bill is suddenly substantially reduced!

If you have Comcast internet, call them up right away!

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Not a whole lot is happening around here. The biggest news seems to be that they're forecasting rain for the whole of the upcoming week.

Oh, joy!

It's been pretty much steady rain with only occasional sun ever since the middle of April. Bummer!

I would be glad for the plants (which are thriving) if I didn't know that all this rain is guaranteeing a bumper crop of ragweed this Fall.

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There's a rerun of The Mentalist and Burn Notice tonight, plus a new episode of Mental.

Have a great evening!

Deadlines!

There are two deadlines I'm thinking about today.

The first is Christmas. No, don't laugh at me. I know it's 194 days until Christmas, but if you're a crafter, you can't start too early. 

It's time to get out that notebook and list all the people you want to make presents for and get started on them. It helps if the notebook is small enough to carry to the craft store with you. If you give each person their own page, you'll have space to brainstorm and write down anything you think of that will make a great present for each person, and, if it's something you plan to make, maybe there will also be space to list the supplies you need for each project. That's where taking it to the craft store comes in.

I am personally thinking about making Christmas stockings to sell on Etsy. After finding that great yarn at Herrshners, I want to get some more and make some glittery stockings!

The other deadline is coming up fast! This is your wake-up call!!!

There are only 32 days until Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince opens!

Are you ready, with something fabulous to wear to the opening? Something that says "I am not a muggle?"

If not, you'd better get a move on! There are lots of great things you could be knitting or crocheting! 

My first thought was to search for Harry Potter patterns on Ravelry, because I know they have a lot of them. But if you're on Ravelry, you already know that, and if you're not, any link I give you won't do you any good. But I found a looooong list of patterns at the Leaky Cauldron! I haven't checked them all out, but with so many to choose from, you should be able to find something you want to make. One of my favorites is the Golden Snitch Hat. There are sparkly yarns out there that would work well for the snitch, too. The pattern calls for black yarn, but the photo looks like it was done with navy blue yarn, and I think I'd like navy, personally, but then, I usually prefer blue. Even if you don't like the hat itself, you can click on the chart to put the snitch design on something else.

Anyway, wander around and have fun on the list. I don't want to see you at the movies without something distinctively wizardly!

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There's a new post up over at the Steve Canyon on DVD blog! Jet on over there and find out what's happening!

I hope you've been having a great weekend!

World Wide Knit in Public Day!

I hope you're out there knitting for World Wide Knit in Public Day, unlike me.

I had planned to go to the Potomac Celtic Festival today, but felt just awful when I woke up.....

I was going to describe how I felt, but when I read the description, I realized it was just too gross. I'll leave it to your imagination.

If you don't knit in public today, you can also try for it tomorrow. Since I knit in public all the time, I guess I'm covered for this one day.

I'm going to get off the internet so I can watch Serenity on TV, now, and recuperate.

Have a great weekend!

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Addition:

Check out this article about the new Steve Canyon DVD!

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Even More:

People are talking about Steve Canyon on the web, too. Check it out here, and scroll down for a couple of entries.

Errands

I took the shoes that don't fit back. Thankfully, that's over!

Wednesday, I did all that running around, and, surprisingly, did not feel too bad. Yesterday, I went to the library and the grocery store and came back feeling awful! I've been analyzing what I did differently on the two days in order to prepare for all the walking I expect to do at the Celtic Festival tomorrow.

I have bunches of stuff to do before tomorrow morning so that I'll be ready. Got to get busy and do it all.

Have a great Friday evening and wonderful weekend!

I'm Excited About the Celtic Festival!

After all that, Holly got an email back saying that Everett was all excited about the Celtic Festival and couldn't wait to go on Saturday! It's going to be a full car, and lots of fun! I can't wait!

I've been trying to get geared up for it. Yesterday, I had some errands to run, and combined them with a trip to the WalMart down in Dumfries, which isn't as bad a ride on the buses as I was afraid it would be.

I found the right size sandals in the color I had previously wanted and bought them. The part that left me sad was that they also had them in navy blue, which I would have rather had. The problem was that they didn't have navy ones anywhere near my size. But at least I did get a pair. Now I have to go and return the ones I bought the other day. I'm thinking I should wear the new ones when I go and do that. Then I'll see if there will be any problems with them during the first extended wearing. I don't want to turn up there and limp around with a batch of blisters. I don't think I will. The sandals are pretty comfortable, but it would be nice to know.

I'd also like to get some new (lighter weight, cooler) pants. Some new T-shirts wouldn't hurt, either.

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Monday night, the SciFi Channel showed some episodes of Star Trek, the Next Generation, and they had the Tin Man episode on. This was written my my friend, Dave Bishoff, and I remembered how excited I was to see it the first time.

After Dave wrote it, they made some changes to it, and the credits only reflect the names of the people who worked on it most recently, so Dave's name doesn't appear on the credits, but he wrote the original story.

To find out more about how this works, you can read Trouble with Tribbles by David Gerrold. In fact, if you want to write for TV, this is a must-have book. It follows everything that David Gerrold did to get this episode written and sold, the whole long, strange trip.

Anyway, I enjoyed it all over again.

When I first met John Ellis, he had just moved up from Florida, and was sharing an apartment in Adelphi, Maryland with two others, one of whom was Dave Bishoff. Later, John moved out, and he and I shared an apartment right around the corner from Dave's place.

This time around, I noticed that they referred to one of the other ships, and the other ship's name was the Adelphi. I thought that was neat.

Oh, well, you're probably bored with this by now.

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I hope you got to see the rerun of the first episode of Leverage last night. It was as good as it was the first time. If you missed it, the DVD will be out three days from now, so you can catch up on the whole season all at once, if you want.

There's a brand new Burn Notice on tonight! Check it out on USA.

I have to go!

Have a great day, and if you read this early enough, enjoy Tru Calling on SciFi!

Leverage!

For anyone who missed Leverage last time around and would like to watch it, reruns of the first season are starting tonight on TNT! Check it out!

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I've had a busy day, and didn't expect to post today at all, but I wanted to let you know about this!

Have a great evening!

I'm Not Ignoring You

Honestly! I'm really not ignoring you. I've just been really busy, and I'll be really busy tomorrow, too.

I don't know what's going on with the universe, but suddenly things that I've been looking for, for two to six years are suddenly appearing, and I'm getting them!

I've been looking for "Christmas" yarn for a couple of years, and lo and behold, Herrshner's suddenly sent me an advertisement for some, and in the colors I haven't been able to find. The yarn I've found that's sold as Christmas yarn in the past is yarn (usually in Christmas colors) that has a metallic strand plied in with it. I've made some fabulous Christmas stockings with that type of yarn, and want to start knitting stockings to put up on Etsy. So, I'm really happy to find this.

About six years ago, I found some beautiful over-the-counter reading glasses. But they were expensive and I'd just lost my job. I found a pair that are almost the same, and even prettier on Sunday, and they were a lot less expensive. I snapped them up.

This is going to sound silly, but about three years ago, I bought a set of flatware. It was one of those things at a grocery store where you buy teaspoons one week, and forks another week, and then knives, etc. That set, in itself, was something I'd been looking for and couldn't afford for a few years.

But the soup spoons are barely larger than the teaspoons, and not really useable for soup at all. I've been looking for some nice, plain soup spoons that would at least not clash with the set, and Monday I went into the dollar store and found exactly what I had been looking for. Three spoons for a dollar. I only bought three. I thought I'd take them home and see if I liked them. But I do. I'm going to have to go back and get some more.

I have a busy day planned tomorrow, so I may not get to post then, so have a great couple of days!

Beverage Explosion!

Holly and I went out yesterday, and something happend to me that has never happened in my whole life (thank goodness).

Holly and I went to WalMart in Manassas, and I had a few things in my cart, and happened to go past a display of wine coolers. I grabbed a 4 pack of fuzzy navels, and there must've been a loose bottle on the shelf that wasn't where it could be easily seen. Anyway, as I lifted the  pack from the shelf, a bottle hit the floor with the sound of a gunshot, sending wine cooler and shattered glass shards in a spectacular explosion! 

First of all, I didn't get hit by any flying glass. But I got soaked instantly with 12 ounces of orange and peach liquid, followed by lots of Coca Cola! It took me a second to realize that although I got an initial drenching, that I was also standing in a continuing shower.

I had a 2 liter bottle of Coke in the basket, and it now had a knife-size shard of glass sticking out of it, witch was quickly expelled by the spray of pressurized soda from the bottle. The only thing I could think of to do was remove the bottle from the cart and set it down where the spray was hitting the shelf and creating a small puddle on the floor rather than soaking everything in sight.

A woman who works at WalMart assured me that it happens all the time, and that I shouldn't worry about it. Well, it may happen all the time, but I've never done anything like this before! I was thoroughly embarrassed, and soaked!

And I was sticky for the rest of our trip, until I got home. My clothes were wet, my hair was wet, and everything in the cart got at least a light spray.

After I had a chance to calm down, I realized that I was really lucky that none of the shrapnel hit me in the face, and especially that it spared my eyes.

Usually, I enjoy excitement, but not this kind!

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Holly stopped off at the Textile Museum on her way over to meet my friend, Betsy, and pick up the fleece I bought. I couldn't wait to see it because the only description I had of it was that it was grey, and that the sheep's name was Daisy. The color of a fleece is hard to judge until it's washed, but it appears to have a white undercoat (that's very crimpy and fine) with a black outer coat. Which means that I can make something that's fulled, and warm, with what will look like a black mohair haze. If I want, I should be able to dye it to whatever light color I want.

First things first. I have to wash it. Which will be smelly and messy. But ultimately worth it.

I'm thinking about what I can make with it, but any concrete plans will have to wait until it's washed. Then I'll see the real weight, once the lanolin and dirt are washed out.

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Next Saturday is the Potomac Celtic Festival! It looks like Holly and I will be going together. 

Everett has to be out of his old house on Saturday, and into the new one. So, it looks like he and Jeff won't be going with us. Holly asked him anyway, and I don't think she's gotten a reply, but I've moved before, and it's not fun! Or quick. Or easy. Three years ago, I was the one that missed the Celtic Festival because I was moving. It was awful!

I hope you've been having a great weekend!

Another Rainy Day

Most of the time around here, we have sunny days with a few overcast ones and some rainy ones, but mostly sunny.

Since the middle of May, we've had mostly rainy days with just a few sunny or overcast ones.

I'm getting tired of it!

Getting wet once in a while is OK, but I'm starting to feel like I'm drowning. There is a flood warning for this area today. The other night, the parking lot was at least an inch deep in front of my apartment building. The water was running off the essentially flat lot as fast as it could, but it was coming down so fast that it was an inch deep (more in places).

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I got an ad in with my email today, and discovered a really neat new tool called a Snag Lite. Sorry, that's what it's called. I hate people who do that. Advertisers seem to be determined to do their best to ruin the English language. It's a latch hook with a light in it. The best things about it are the latch hook, and the cover for the latch hook, so that you can carry it with you without endangering either the hook or it's immediate surroundings.

Sorry this is such a short post. It's just too overcast and wet to want to do anything but drink hot chocolate and knit.

Have a great weekend!

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I read The Panopticon today, and Franklin had something to say about the lace shawl that he's knitting that applies equally to the one I'm knitting:

So. Will this shawl marry a rich-but-gentle peer of the realm and retire to a quiet life in the country? Or will it perish at the hands of Jack the Ripper after stumbling out of an opium den?

Time will tell.

Burn Notice!

The USA Network has turned into the "all Burn Notice, all the time" channel, at least for today. They will be showing Burn Notice all day, and premiering the new season later tonight, followed by a premier of their new program, Royal Pains.

I know very little about the new show, but Burn Notice has become one of my favorites. I suspect that shows like this, that show people who take advantage of others getting what they deserve should be very popular about now. The tendency of a lot of people and especially companies to take advantage of people around them/their customers should make this kind of show very popular. You may not actually be able to get rid of Comcast, for example, and the ways they find to take advantage of you (including not giving the service you're paying for), but these shows give the illusion that there might be a way to get back at them.

Tonight is a great night for TV! A rerun of Supernatural will be on, and at the same time, the premier of The Listener, which will be followed by the another episode. Or possibly the first episode will be on at 10, according to the link. It's a little hard to tell from what they said.

So, here's the problem, and the solution. Burn Notice, Supernatural, and The Listener are all on at 9 (at least here). Tune your TIVOs/DVRs to Supernatural and The Listener at 9, then catch the rerun of the Burn Notice premier at 12:17.

The Mentalist, although not strictly SF, will have a rerun of an episode at 10, too. Simon Baker is always worth watching.

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I looked over my progress so far on the purple beaded shawl, and found a lot of mistakes. I really didn't like that many mistakes, so I frogged most of it. The very beginning of the shawl was a royal pain, and didn't have any errors, so I didn't frog the first 3 or four pattern repeats. I was amazed at how many beads came out of it, though. And how long it took just to rip!

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My old spinning group on Ravelry, Fluff and Nonsense, (the one I haven't been able to attend for a while due to lack of transportation) got together and bought all the fleeces in a particular flock in Iceland, and I got one of the fleeces. Now I have to arrange to pick it up and pay for it. It's a grey Icelandic fleece, and I can't wait to see it! I'll have more news on this as it develops.

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It's a grey, overcast day here, very dreary. It makes me thankful that Holly said she's coming to visit on Saturday, and I can do all my WalMart shopping then rather than going out today when it might rain.

It's Wednesday

Well, that's the most exciting thing I can think of to say about today.

I planned to go to WalMart today to do my monthly shopping, but got busy getting ready and doing stuff, and still haven't gone, so I don't think it's going to happen today. If I get there tomorrow, I may not post. If I turn on the computer, I'll be lost, like today.

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Last night, I tried to use my bluetooth headset with my phone, and the phone thinks it doesn't exist. The headset is  at least two years old, and I'm assuming it has just quit bluetoothing. It's been not connecting and randomly disconnecting for a while. This was one of the things that distracted me today. 

I got on the internet to find myself a new headset. I'm suddenly discovering that my phone is almost useless without it. I need to call Comcast and ask them some questions, and it's a real pain because you get an automatic answering system that says "If you are calling about cable TV, press 1; if you are calling about high speed internet, press 2...." and whatever you press, it takes you to another menu. So you have to put the phone to your ear, then flip the top back and press a button, then whip it back to your ear, etc. It's a real pain!

I like my G1 a lot, but they were careful not to make any buttons/ports on the outside of the phone. There's a rocker button for volume, a button for taking photos, a port to charge it, buttons to answer or turn off the phone, etc., but there's no place to fasten a wrist strap and no place to plug in a corded headset. 

Actually, that's not really true. They include a headset with earbuds that plugs into the USB recharging port. Unfortunately, I don't think it has a microphone, and earbuds never work for me, anyway. 

I put them in my ears, and after a very few minutes, my ear spits them out. At velocity. 

I don't know why. 

I see other people use them, but they never work for me. I have to sit there and hold them in to hear. Which kind of defeats the purpose.

This caused no end of hilarity for one of my former co-workers, Lee, who derived endless amusement from encouraging me to try them one more time and then falling off her chair laughing when they came flying out a moment later.

So, anyway, I finally ordered a headset from Amazon, and you can see it here. Out of all the headset reviews I read, this headset had almost every review start off by saying how LOUD the headset is. It has also been out for about four years, so the price has come down drastically, and it has a lanyard so you can wear it around your neck. Actually, my old one does, too, and I never used it, so I don't know why I'm excited about that.

While I was at it, I ordered a copy of Mathemagics, too. I got both for less than I expected to pay for the headset alone.

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There are no regularly scheduled programs on tonight, It's a very boring night on TV! We'll have to wait until next month to see anything fun on Wednesday evening unless a network airs a good movie.

Hey, I just checked, and there are a couple of good movies on tonight!

Hope you're having more fun than I am!

It's June!

This "It's June!" thing would have been far more effective if I'd done it on the first day of the month rather than on the second. Oh, well, I think we'll all survive.

But the fact that it's June means several things: the Virginia Renfair is in full swing, but will have it's last day on the 14th; the 9th is election day here in Virginia; and The Potomac Celtic Festival will be happening on the 13th and 14th!

There will also be a lot of summer series coming back this month or next. The ones that are coming back in June include The Next Doctor, which is the Doctor Who Christmas special (on BBC in America on the 27th), and Burn Notice on USA on the 4th. Burn Notice isn't science fiction, but some of the tech they use might as well be. It is action/adventure, and lots of fun. Most of the new/returning series won't be starting until next month.

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Fibermom mentioned something on her blog that made me think of one of my favorite books. It's called Mathemagics by Margaret Ball, and I just love it! I lost my copy in one of the many moves of this decade, and I really want to order another. It's a book about a character that was in the Chicks in Chainmail series, so be forewarned. I love the chicks series! It's totally outrageous and fun, as is Mathemagics. It's about a woman who has found a way to travel between her home dimension, where she is a warrior, and the "planet of the paper pushers," in other words, earth.

I may have a busy day tomorrow, so don't worry if I don't post.

Have a great evening!