A Sunny Sunday

The snow stopped sometime last night. I think we got about 4 inches. And it's been clear, sunny and beautiful today.

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For all you Steve Canyon fans out there, there's a new post up on the blog, all about George Stover and his help with the project.

So, get on over to the Steve Canyon blog and read all about it!

George was in Invader, which I worked on, and he sat in front of me in a scene in New Genesis (aka Twilight of the Dogs).

Here's George in Twilight. He's the second from the left in the front. My friend, Wendy Joines is directly behind him from your viewpoint, and I'm to your right of Wendy.

It's funny about the names of films. Every film has a working title, and when it's done it gets a final release title. Sometimes the final title sticks, sometimes it doesn't. The working title for Invader was The Killing Edge. The moment I heard the name Invader, though, I stopped calling it anything else.

Twilight, on the other hand will, it seems, always be Twilight to me. When I do refer to it as New Genesis, I always have to stop for just a second and think first before I say it, whereas Twilight just pops out with no thought whatsoever!

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Speaking of names, here is a batch of the funniest jokes about the most famous name from the last week. All this was hysterically funny earlier in the week, but it's wearing thin already.

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Io9 has a post up about the Dollhouse finale on Friday. They don't seem to think that Dollhouse is over.

I hope they're right!

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The CW will be showing two episodes of Legend of the Seeker tonight. The first one will feature Jolene Blaylock, and, judging from something on Attack of the Show, the second one will, too. Check your local schedules and check it out!

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Everett sent me six emails, each with 50 photos (that's 300 photos, folks!) of the RenFair and other stuff. Once I have a chance to wade through them, I'll start getting some of them up on the blog.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Brace yourself! Here comes the week and a new month! May you have a wonderful one!

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!

New Knitting Product!

Yesterday, while I was out, I picked up my mail. Tuesday, the mailbox was full of trash. I sorted through it and it all went in the trash can. But yesterday, I got a pile of catalogs, including a special sale yarn catalog from Herrshners!

Now, I used to get some catalogs from them in the mail, and they had a lot of stuff for cross stitchers, paint-by-numbers, and a few, junky acrylic yarns. Well, asking for their catalog is a good deal because from time to time, they have big yarn sales and those catalogs have some really nice yarn, and some of it at amazing prices!

Well, I paged through it quickly last night, but then looked at it again today, which is when I noticed that they had a new product for sale. As it turns out, they've sold out of most of it, but Jimmy Beans Wool has the same thing at the same price.

The new product is Regia ABS Latex, which is intended to go on the soles of slipper socks or the palms of knitted mittens, gloves and mitts! It's available in black, blue and red, and there is a stencil to create interesting and decorative designs with it. The drop down menu has the other colors and the stencil, which also has some flower designs that you can't see in the photo.

The hearts and the star are great, and the cat paws are just too cute. The flowers are very pretty, but I have no idea why someone would want to put a car on the bottom of their sock or palm of a mitten. I suspect that if this works, I'll want to make a whole stencil that has several shapes with overall dimensions that are perfect for a mitten/glove/mitt palm. A group of stars for me, hearts for Holly, Kyle and Malaia, and maybe rows of dots or wavy lines for other traction situations.

There is a pamphlet available that comes with it on other sites, but that wasn't mentioned at Jimmy Beans. I ordered it anyway, because that was the only place that had it. I desperately wanted to order one each of the colors, but since it's approximately $12 each, that would have been $36 plus shipping. Also, the frugal part of me wants to try it out before ordering two more colors. So, since I'm about to make some red mitts for a friend, and am almost finished the stigmata mittens for Robin (which have a red mark on the palm) I opted for the red latex, even though I may not have anything else to use it on. By the way, the stigmata mittens have a matching crown of thorns hat, both of which are threatening to turn into WIPs in the bad sense.

So, anyway, the order is in, and I can't wait for it to arrive! I'll let you know how it goes.

I tried the puff paint that was suggested to the Yarn Harlot for the bottoms of her felted shoes, but it didn't seem to provide much traction. It's chief feature was the texture that it provided, but I can't imagine it actually would prevent you from sliding on a slippery floor or help you grip a steering wheel.

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More knitting news about an episode of NCIS. The person who wrote the article is (obviously) a knitter and has gone ballistic (I would, too) about an episode which has someone killed using a knitting needle on a plane!

First of all, as any knitter who has flown would know, they won't let you take those kinds of knitting needles on a plane! And (I didn't see the episode) the killer is apparently not a knitter. So where did he get the needle? How did he know a knitter would be on board?

I can understand that the show might not want to keep a knitter on as a consultant, but you would think that they might ask a knitter before considering putting on a show like this.

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January is Thyroid Awareness Month. You may be getting tired about hearing about this, unless you have read the list of symptoms. It's estimated that over 40% of Americans have hypothyroidism. If you've been having strange, nebulous symptoms or have been told by a doctor that there's nothing wrong with you, you should read the symptoms. Then go to your doctor with a list of the symptoms you have and demand a (T3 and T4) test (if you have many of the symptoms).

Apparently, there was something on TV today about it. They didn't cover the subject fairly, but they did a better job than most, from what I heard. I missed the actual broadcast.

But you can read about it here!

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While we're on the subject of health, check out this post about drugs you might not need! OK, I can understand that a pre-disease might not be a disease, but it does seem to be common sense to try to prevent it from becoming worse and developing into a disease. However, taking Fosamax is very counterproductive!

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Now that I've gotten completely off my usual track, I'm going skipping off into the sunset, while wishing you a wonderful evening! Have fun!

iPad! I Don't Want to Comment on the Name, but I Can't Help It!

Well, the iPad has been announced today!

For those of you who didn't see it (like me), G4 has announced that they will show the announcement presentation on Attack of the Show tomorrow at 7 pm (Eastern). Check your local listings.

In spite of not seeing the original announcement, I've heard lots about it.

Particularly it's name.

One of the comments was about if you repeat Mac's iPad over and over quickly, it sounds like maxipad!

Alyssa Milano tweeted: "iPad. Let the feminine hygiene parodies begin." In her next tweet, she referred to it as "iTampon" and provided this link. You really have to read all the comments, all the way to the end!

In an attempt to change the subject of the giggling, somebody tweeted that Steve Jobs had opened with "I'm Steve Jobs, and I invented Windows 7!" The tweeter mentioned that he thought that was improbable, thereby revealing that he didn't get the joke at all, i.e., that previous Windows systems have been so bad that Steve expected this one to be, too, and that it would make people want to use a Mac.

In an attempt to stop giggling, you can find some of what Apple has to say about their new device here. The technical specifications are here. More info here.

I was thinking that the new device would be more like a tablet notebook, and I was really looking forward to it. This seems more like an overgrown iTouch, though, not a computer. If you read down to the bottom, though, you'll see that it does provide closed captioning support! It kind of cements the idea that it's an entertainment device, not a real computer, though.

But if you really think you want one, and you're on Twitter, check this out!

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In other (science) news, Holly sent me this link to a photo of the Aurora, which happened to illuminate something else! This is amazing, if true. I have a hard time believing that there is any satellite that looks that large from earth, though.

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Holly also sent me this link to information on the last two Harry Potter movies.

Harry in 3D? I'm not too sure what I think of this. The last thing I saw in 3D was that episode of Chuck, which gave me a headache, and it didn't matter if I used the glasses or not, it still gave me a headache. And it didn't really look 3D, even with the glasses. And the glasses made a lot of the picture difficult or impossible for me to see. I really think I'd rather see it in time-tested 2D.

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It was sunny and beautiful today, and I went out and walked around just to walk around. They're predicting snow for Saturday, so Winter will be back soon, and I wanted to grab this opportunity while I had the chance.

Unfortunately, that made me late to get this post up, and the shows I want to watch are already on.

Oh, and I went for my last visit to the dentist. He checked things out, made a very minor adjustment, and I'm done until next year, when they'll clean my teeth. I have new, beautiful front teeth, and I deliberately went out and bought food that I need to bite into to eat! I haven't had the nerve to try an apple yet, though.

Have a wonderful evening and a better day tomorrow!

Hi! Oh, and Bye!

I had planned to put up a nice long post today. I'm not sure what I would have said in it, but I'm saved from the trouble of finding out because the sun is shining and it's about 60 degrees out, and I really need to pull myself together and get out there and not miss it!

I have one last dental visit tomorrow. All the work is done, he's just going to check things to see how they're working out. From what the dentist said, it should only take a few minutes. Then I have an errand to run. I know that doesn't sound like much, but that's about an hour and a half of actual riding time on the bus, plus about a minimum of an hour waiting-for-a-bus time, probably more like three or four hours total.

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For all you knitters out there, Ann Budd has started a blog today! She's already got 10 comments, and I'm jealous! I've probably had ten comments in almost two years! I guess I'll just have to get famous, too.

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Lost is back on TV tomorrow night!

Don't get too excited! The premier of the new season will be on the second of February. I suspect that this is just the last two episodes of the last season so we can all catch up and be on the same page when it starts.

But Lost is back on TV tomorrow night!

I'm so excited!

I can't stand to stay inside anymore today! Have a great day!

Oh, they're predicting snow and sleet for tomorrow morning!

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Addition:

It's Monday, isn't it? I'm sorry, Lost will be on TOMORROW night!

Miscellaneous Friday

There's not a lot going on at the moment, just a few minor things.

I'll try and get photos of knitted Christmas presents up here real soon, now.

I found a free pattern you might be interested in for a Valentines Day mug cozy. This, unlike most "cozies" seems to have an actual purpose. Not only is it decorative, but it will keep the mug contents warm (or cold).

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Caprica will be premiering tonight on SyFy! Check your local listings!

HBO will be doing it's own version of Conan the Barbarian, and they've chosen Jason Momoa for the title role!

The Questor Tapes is in the early stages of a comeback! It was originally a Gene Roddenbery show, and very good, but it has the potential to be even better. Good luck!

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Speaking of Conan and Barbarians, I got my copy of Maureen Birnbaum: Barbarian Swordsperson in the mail today. George Alec Effinger wrote a batch of short stories about Maureen, and how she suddenly disappeared from earth, and wound up on another planet and discovered that she was a barbarian swordswoman. Her adventures in other dimension/on other planets have been faithfully recorded by her friend, Bitsy, and collected into one volume for my reading pleasure! I've read some of the stories, and they're too funny for words. I can't wait to read the rest of the stories. I'm pretty sure that the first story I read about Maureen was in Don't Forget Your Spacesuit, Dear, which is a collection of short stories based on moms and the way they act and the things they say. The stories have names like Your Face Will Freeze Like That, and Don't Put That In Your Mouth, You Don't Know Where It's Been, and What's the Magic Word? and they're wonderful!

The title is based on the cliche "Don't forget your sweater, dear," with the definition of sweater being "A garment a small child wears because it's mother is cold." It's a great science fiction book for anybody who is a mom or has had a mom. And there's also a story in there that's one of my all-time favorites about someone who saves a whole world by knowing how to spin!

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On a completely different tack, here's a health warning for everyone. Studies have shown that non-stick surfaces on cookware and non-stain fabrics can have adverse health effects on your thyroid gland. And, speaking as someone who has hypothyroidism, you don't want to harm your thyroid gland in any way, believe me!

Have a wonderful weekend!

It's Wednesday! Also Known as "Guess the TV Show" Day!

I'm currently playing "Guess the TV show" due to the fact that there is no digital TV guide data being displayed by Comcast today!

After three phone calls, the best they can do is blame it on my DVR (that they just gave me--brand new), and send someone out on Monday. That someone will probably decide that the only way to fix it will be to take away all my recorded programming and give me a completely different defective DVR.

All this past week, it hasn't been displaying any programming for Wednesday. I unplugged it and restarted it after I got tired of this, and after the fifth or sixth attempt, it did display information for Wednesday, briefly. But now that Wednesday's here, it's not displaying any information for any channel or day. At all!

So, here's some information I found for you when companies do this to you and won't give you satisfaction:

You can complain about it to the FTC here. Once you're at that page, there's a big brown box on the upper right side of the page to click for the actual complaint form.

It probably won't do much good in a case like this, but if everybody complains about bad service, sooner or later the numbers of complaints may get them to do something about it. We can only hope!

After the third call I made to them about this (to get their email address because the FTC form asked for it and it's not available anywhere, not even if you call them and ask for it), the person I spoke to promised me that they'd have a supervisor call me. That was several hours ago. I'm not holding my breath. And the typical response for a really severe and repeated complaint is for Comcast to classify it as the "highest priority." Please notice that that classification doesn't entail actually doing anything about it. It's just changing the priority to make you feel like it's important to them, even though they couldn't care less.

Regardless of what happens, I plan to get a TiVo if I can ever save the money for it.

After looking for TiVos on Amazon, I found this DVD-R/RW Recorder/TiVo Series2 DVR Combo for significantly less than those available from TiVo. Yes, I know it's used and not ATSC, but it represents a significant improvement over the piece of junk that came from Comcast.

And you can get two weeks of digital TV guide with TiVo! And with that box, I'll be able to watch my DVDs again (if I can ever get them back from Holly).

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I'm sorry. It's almost 5:30, and I'm just now recovering from waking up and finding my TV service only semi-operational! Sorry to be so cranky.

I had planned to talk about something else, but I can't think what it was at this point.

Tomorrow three programs start their new seasons: Burn Notice (USA), and Vampire Diaries and Supernatural, both on the CW (?). I know that because I marked it on a calendar, not because I could get any TV programming information on cable! I know Burn Notice is on USA, and I think the other two are on CW, but I can't verify that because my digital TV guide doesn't work!

Yes, it's on the CW. I checked online!

On Friday, we'll have the premier of Caprica on SyFy! And, if memory serves, Dollhouse and Ghost Whisperer will be preempted. Fox is really leaving us in suspense on Dollhouse!

I hope you're having a better day than I am!

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Addition:

I take back some of what I said. Maybe complaining to the FTC does do some good.

I got a call back from one of the supervisors at Comcast, and he apologized for the problem and took $15 off of this month's bill! That's the first time I've ever had them do something like that!

It was probably the fact that I called them to ask for their email address and explained it was to fill in the complaint form for the FTC.

I'd rather just have good service from them, but the money off does make me feel better because if they do that with everyone who has complaints that they can't solve, it's going to affect their bottom line, and I don't think there's any better leverage to get a corporation to shape up.

January is Thyroid Awareness Month!

January is Thyroid Awareness Month!

I mentioned this on Twitter and on Facebook, but I got a phone call earlier today that makes me want to put information about this up here, too.

The phone call was from a friend that I've been annoying for a while. I'm going to make every effort not to mention his name here. For the past year, I've had him telling me how bad he feels. I've been telling him to get his doctor to check him for hypothyroidism. He did discuss it with his doctor, and was told that there was no point in doing tests for hypothyroidism because he didn't have any of the symptoms.

Since I posted about this on Facebook and included a link, he read it, and found a list of symptoms. I hope that he read this list, because it's the best and most inclusive one I've found.

Anyway, he called to tell me that he'd read a list of hypothyroid symptoms, and it sounded like a perfect description of what what wrong with him, and he intends to make sure that the doctor tests for hypothyroidism next time he sees her.

He sounded so happy, like there was hope again in the world. I do remember how wonderful it is to find out what is wrong with you, and have the promise of health ahead of you. It's an enormous weight lifted from your shoulders, and the future holds hope again.

There's more information in the article that you should read, but here's the list:

Less stamina than others
Less energy than others
Long recovery period after any activity
Inability to hold children for very long
Arms feeling like dead weights after activity
Chronic Low Grade Depression
Suicidal Thoughts
Often feeling cold
Cold hands and feet
High or rising cholesterol
Bizarre and Debilitating reaction to exercise
Hard stools
Constipation
No eyebrows or thinning outer eyebrows
Dry Hair
Hair Loss
White hairs growing in
No hair growth, breaks faster than it grows
Dry cracking skin
Nodding off easily
Requires naps in the afternoon
Sleep Apnea (which can also be associated with low cortisol)
Air Hunger (feeling like you can’t get enough air)
Inability to concentrate or read long periods of time
Forgetfulness
Foggy thinking
Inability to lose weight
Always gaining weight
Inability to function in a relationship with anyone
NO sex drive
Failure to ovulate and/or constant bleeding (see Rainbow’s story)
Moody periods
PMS
Inability to get pregnant; miscarriages
Excruciating pain during period
Nausea
Swelling/edema/puffiness
Aching bones/muscles
Osteoporosis
Bumps on legs
Acne on face and in hair
Breakout on chest and arms
Hives
Exhaustion in every dimension–physical, mental, spiritual, emotional
Inability to work full-time
Inability to stand on feet for long periods
Complete lack of motivation
Slowing to a snail’s pace when walking up slight grade
Extremely crabby, irritable, intolerant of others
Handwriting nearly illegible
Internal itching of ears
Broken/peeling fingernails
Dry skin or snake skin
Major anxiety/worry
Ringing in ears
Lactose Intolerance
Inability to eat in the mornings
Joint pain
Carpal tunnel symptoms
No Appetite
Fluid retention to the point of Congestive Heart Failure
Swollen legs that prevented walking
Blood Pressure problems
Varicose Veins
Dizziness from fluid on the inner ear
Low body temperature
Raised temperature
Tightness in throat; sore throat
Swollen lymph glands
Allergies (which can also be a result of low cortisol–common with hypothyroid patients)
Headaches and Migraines
Sore feet (plantar fascitis); painful soles of feet
now how do I put this one politely….a cold bum, butt, derriere, fanny, gluteus maximus, haunches, hindquarters, posterior, rear, and/or cheeks. Yup, really exists.
colitis
irritable bowel syndrome
painful bladder

Extreme hunger, especially at nighttime

Dysphagia, which is nerve damage and causes the inability to swallow fluid, food or your own saliva and leads to “aspiration pneumonia”.

This is really important for people to know because so many people have hypothyroidism and don't know it, and their doctors have been trained to not recognize it unless it's really extreme!

From what I can find out, doctors seem to be relying on the drug companies to keep them up to date on new developments, and the drug companies give them the information that will help them sell the most drugs. And if you have hypothyroidism that's untreated, you are guaranteed to feel bad, and to keep coming back to your doctor for help! And if it remains untreated, or is treated with Synthroid, there are a lot of problems you'll continue to have that they can sell you expensive drugs to "fix." For example, cholesterol medicine, sleep apnea machine (this is expensive), antidepressants, osteoporosis medicine, Viagra, antihistamines, and more over-the-counter drugs. And after all those medications, you'll still feel bad because they haven't fixed what's actually wrong!

I keep hearing people tell me that Synthroid (T4) is all you really need and that some people can get along on it. Well, I'm here to tell you that when I switched from Synthroid to Armor Thyroid, it was like waking up from a long, horrible four-year nightmare!

I've had doctors tell me that I don't need anything from the natural thyroid medication except the T4. One of the the things that's in there that I supposedly don't need is calcitonin. Then, they go on to prescribe calcitonin separately as a drug! Well, surprise! You just contradicted yourself! The amount of harm that doctors have tried to do to me on the subject of hypothyroidism should be criminal!

I'm sorry about the rant, but if I save one person with hypothyroidism from continuing to suffer from it, I'll be happy!

Hope you had a great weekend and will have a great week!

Red Alert! Red Alert!

Blogger, which has been a great place to blog until today, in it's wisdom, decided that it should remove everything I put up there for your and my convenience. So, almost everything in my sidebar is GONE!

I'm going to fix this as quickly as I can, but for the time being, you can't find the free patterns, or a lot of other great links.

I am so angry I could spit nails!

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Check out the article about a Wonder Woman sweater here! You can get the general instructions (more of a recipe) here. All I can say is--WOW!

These general instructions would work well to make other types of superhero sweaters, too, so if you want a sweater for some other hero, here's your chance!

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Learn to design a shawl! If you've always wanted to design your own knitwear, this is the best time to start! I have a pattern on Etsy for a simple triangular shawl that you can make out of any weight yarn you want to use. It's less a pattern than it is instructions on how to design your own. I've talked to a few people who have bought this pattern, and I've gotten rave reviews, along with a batch of photos of finished shawls. The best thing about these photos is that all of them are very different!

The two above are ones I've made from the pattern, and the one below was made by a friend from the pattern.

Of course, whatever shawl you make from the pattern will be perfect for you.

And any sales of the pattern before or on the 28th of February will get half the price ($3) donated to Doctors Without Borders (in the name of the person who buys the pattern) for help in Haiti. I am about to list that information on Ravelry, so you will be able to find the pattern in their special section soon.

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I have so many things to do at the moment. Listing the pattern on Ravelry, fixing my blog (which will be done a bit at a time over a period of time), and lots more.

I hope you're having a great weekend!

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Addition:

I found out what's happening. Blogger has been publishing my posts to a different blog! I've found the posts and put them up in this blog, so I'm up to date, although some of the posts have the wrong time and date on them.

Sorry!

TGIF!

As you can probably tell from the title, this post was actually posted on Friday, but Blogger messed up!

Let me get you all caught up on what's been happening around here.

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Tuesday, I went back to the dentist for what I thought was the last time. I was almost right about that.

He gave me a shot of Novocaine, removed the temporary front teeth and filled a cavity on a tooth next to the ones he was replacing. The cavity was so small it was almost nonexistent, and now that I know that, I wish he'd skipped the shot.

He then put on the new caps, so I have my permanent caps at last. I can now bite into a sandwich or cookie if I want! I'm planning to get some corn on the cob next time I go to the supermarket.

At this point, the area that the shot affected is not hurting as much, and in a day or two (hopefully) I won't be able to feel the ache anymore.

I have to go back in two weeks just so that they can check out how the new teeth are working with my existing teeth, the alignment, etc. There may be a few minutes of adjustment, but that's all.

Corn on the cob! I've missed it!

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Wednesday was a nightmare of trying to get my computer to work properly again. John was an enormous help, and after reloading the last upgrade to the system, some of the problem seemed to be fixed. My browser still wouldn't open. I tried to use Software Update to update it, but it said I wasn't connected to the internet, and I couldn't do it. Then it asked if I'd like to update my software. I said yes, and it informed me that I had a big problem with my browser and asked me if I'd like to fix it. I clicked yes, and it's fixed. Well, it's still a little slow and glitchy, but at least it works somewhat.

I still have some other programs that I have to repair or replace before I'm back to where I was before it all crashed.

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Thursday I saw the doctor again. She told me that I need to do more walking, and I told her I've been discouraged about doing that because I feel so bad after even a little walking. She looked at me like I was crazy.

So, after thinking about it for a bit, it finally occurred to me that if she thought it was that weird, maybe there is something wrong. She thinks I'm not getting enough vitamin D, and I'll be getting a test for that. I should mention that I'm taking lots of vitamin D supplement, but the gastroenterologist did say that I probably have big problems absorbing certain kinds of nutrition.

I went to JoAnn Fabrics and (finally!) got the yarn for Everett's Christmas present!

Yes, I know how late it is.

Getting to the store involves what is a lot of walking for me, and I felt terrible last night, and still feel like someone beat me up yesterday. I had planned to go to the post office today to return the yarn I bought that looks very different in real life than it does in the photo, but in light of how I feel, I think it's going to happen Monday instead.

I feel bad enough that I don't intend to be on the computer for very long today. I just hurt everywhere!

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There's a new post on the Steve Canyon blog! John recorded a new interview for the next and last of the Steve Canyon DVDs! All the information on it is on the blog. It's very exciting!

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January is Thyroid Awareness Month! I see people all around me almost all the time with very obvious hypothyroid symptoms, and their doctors insist that there's nothing wrong with them and won't even test them, so I feel that this is an issue that people need to know more about because I can promise you that your doctor doesn't know much about it. And if that doctor is an endocrinologist, he probably knows even less about it than a GP, but thinks he knows everything (from my personal experience), and therefore won't listen to anything you have to say.

By the way, there was a study done where they sent out questionnaires to patients with hypothyroidism, and they discovered that, out of patients who had hypothyroidism for two years or more, 95% of them knew more about hypothyroidism and it's treatment than the doctors who were treating them!

The problem with this is compounded by the really bad tests available for it, and most doctors' misinformation on the subject of thyroid testing. Not only are the tests bad (as in not giving accurate results, especially the TSH), but what's considered "normal" is skewed so that it misses all but the worst cases. If the drug companies can keep you sick, they can sell you osteoporosis, cholesterol, and other medicines and make more money from it.

Check out the symptoms here, and if you suffer from many of them, see your doctor! If you actually do see your doctor, print out the list, and check off all your symptoms. He probably won't listen to you unless you do that.

Wow! I just read that list and I have 41 of the symptoms! I knew that I wasn't getting enough natural dessicated thyroid because Armor Thyroid (which is what I'm taking) was reformulated about a year ago, and although the stated amount of hormone is in each pill, the filler that they changed makes it difficult or impossible to absorb the medicine, and everyone who's been taking it has had hypothyroid symptoms. I'll be switching to Naturethroid as soon as the drug store gets it in, and that should solve the problem or at least help the situation. But I didn't realize how bad it really was!

If you have many of the symptoms, check the sidebar for more info.

And don't let your doctor prescribe Synthroid! Ask for Naturethroid or West Throid! Or even Armor Thyroid, once it's available again. They're reformulating it again to make it the same as it was before last year. Doctors keep telling me that some people get along fine on Synthroid, but it's really hard for me to believe because I feel so bad when I take it. Taking Synthroid is like being short on sleep every night. When you fist take it, it's an improvement, but over time, you just feel a little worse every day until it's even worse than not taking anything at all. Switching to Armor Thyroid was like waking up from a nightmare for me!

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Sanctuary has been on SyFy all day today, and there will be a two hour season finale on tonight!

The next-to-the-last episode of Dollhouse is still scheduled to be on Fox tonight according the electronic TV guide on Comcast, but somebody on Twitter was tweeting that it will be bumped to put on a program about the earthquake in Hati. So, at this point, I just don't know.

Other new episodes on tonight include: Ghost Whisperer and Medium.

Tomorrow, BBC in America will be showing the Doctor Who episode The Shakespeare Code, and a new episode of Demons.

Have a fabulous evening, and a wonderful weekend!

Christmas Presents Gone!

Most of the Christmas presents are finished and gone. Holly came over yesterday, and since she was sending presents to some of the same people, she took those so that she could mail just one BIG box to the recipients. She also took the presents for people she would be seeing real soon. I'm sorry that these didn't get out sooner. Mailing was delayed mostly by weather, snow, sleet, extreme cold, and/or wind, plus a couple of days that I was feeling really bad.

Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that I've finished all the presents.

I've been going crazy trying to think of a present for Robin. It's really difficult, because Robin has so much money that he can buy whatever he wants, so he has everything he wants, and I'm so short of money that I can barely afford anything. But, after 3 months of looking for the perfect present for him, inspiration finally struck. Actually, two inspirations, one to make, and one to buy. The one to buy has been ordered over the internet, and has been shipped and is on it's way. I bought most of the yarn for the other one yesterday.

The other person who hasn't got a Christmas present yet is Everett. I've been trying to find yarn to make his present, but haven't had any luck so far. We looked at Michaels, and AC Moore yesterday, and neither had what I needed. Well, actually, Michaels had three of the six balls I needed in the color I wanted, but in different dye lots. So, I'm still looking.

While out, Holly and I stopped a Borders. I finally got a calender for the new year, plus the Septimus Heap book that is the fourth in the series (Queste), and out in paperback at last. I have the fifth book (Syren) ordered at the library, but it will be a while before I get it. Holly had a 33% off coupon for me, and I used it to buy The Sorceress of Karres! Now I have lots of great stuff to read!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Holly gave me a gift certificate to Knit Picks for Christmas! Now I'm mulling over what to buy.

Knit Picks has piqued my imagination with their new designers program. I have got to make some designs for them and for myself! I'm considering making a hat for my first project.

While we were out, we stopped at the WalMart that's at the Manassas Mall, and were amazed! This WalMart is so big and has lots of stuff that the others don't have! Having all that stuff available would seem to be an advantage, but it is so big that I got tired of walking before I got everything.

We topped everything off with a trip to Ruby Tuesday and a lot of catching up and fun.

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There are lots of programs on TV tonight with new episodes! They include: Chuck, Heroes, Castle (this is the episode with Alyssa Milano), Fringe (on a different night), and The Big Bang Theory! Unfortunately, Heroes, Fringe and The Big Bang Theory are all on at the same time, thus exceeding my DVR's capacity to record two shows at once.

I promised John that I would finish the work he wanted me to do on the Steve Canyon poster today, and it's not done yet, so I have to go.

There will probably not be a post tomorrow due to my last dental appointment! There will be drilling and a dubious filling will be replaced, and I will get my final caps, and I'll be done. I don't feel that I can really say that I'll be happy to go, but I'll be happy to get it finished!

Have a great evening and a wonderful week!

Gettysburg: The First Night

I promised Lynn that I would write about my trip to Gettysburg in 1959, but there's just so much information that it would take me a whole day to begin to cover it all, so I'm breaking it down into parts. Probably three parts, but who knows at this point?

We got to the campground at Spanglers Spring late in the afternoon.

This is a current satellite view of Spanglers Spring, where we camped. The green square is where the Andersons pitched their tent, and Jean, Art and I, et al, pitched our tent in the blue square. The aqua circles are where people came along later and pitched tents in a row. The red circle is where we made a campfire.

The area where we pitched our tents was along the line of the high ground of the field. It sloped down to the road at the bottom of the map. That kind of thick, dark, meandering line on the right side of the map is actually Rock Creek.

Anyway, we said hi to the people who were already there, which were mainly the Andersons, and started pitching our tent. While we were doing that, other people started arriving and pitching their tents along the line that we had established. Don Steiner camped next to us, and brought Harry Lamb along, and they camped next to us. When things were unloaded from the cars, they were moved away and parked elsewhere.

Once everybody had set up and changed into their period clothes, they started coming out of their tents and being sociable. We built a campfire near the road, and in front of the line of tents, more-or-less in front of Andersons tent and settled down to making and consuming our dinners. I was wearing cowboy boots, jeans, a shirt, a rust colored, suede fringed jacket, short hair and a blue Kepi.

This was kind of a motley crew because Art and the Andersons were Yankees, in the 150th Pennsylvania Volunteers (the Bucktail Brigade). I don't remember which group Don (a Yankee) was from, but Harry was in Hampton's Legion (Rebels from South Carolina).

As it started to get dark, the campfire got to be more attractive, and most of us gravitated to it and sang Civil War songs. A lot of the adults there had brought along spirits, and were loosening up by drinking them. Huck and (I think) Randy had their fifes, and I had my Melody Flute (from grade school--I eventually got a real fife), and Huck was really annoyed with me because he and Randy had fifes in the key of B flat, and my flute was in the key of C, and he insisted that I couldn't possibly play it with them. I, on the other hand, wanted to try and transpose the songs to play them in B flat, even though I was using the key of C. It got pretty rowdy! At the campfire, I got to meet Jack Davis for the first time.

Somewhere during the night, somebody got sufficiently drunk that they thought it would be a good idea to fire off a canon. I think that they must've told us that we couldn't fire muskets or canons on the campgrounds or something, because somebody thought it would be a wonderful idea to cross Rock Creek to do it.

We had a short stop at Andersons tent while Huck and the boys pulled out a small canon that was a bit longer than a foot, plus powder, etc. We then walked down behind the row of tents and crossed Rock Creek on a rickety two-board bridge.

By "two-board" I mean that there were supports, and between each support were two long boards, one for each foot. They were so long, and they bounced with each step on them. That was bad enough with one person crossing the bridge, but with a whole troop, it was very treacherous. There was a hand rail on one side of the bridge, but it was so far away from the boards that it was almost useless. The bridge was at least 20 feet above the creek, so it was interesting!

Once we got to the other side, we took a very short walk through the trees, set down the cannon, loaded it, and set it off. Huck thought it would be spectacular to add a lot of magnesium to the black powder, and he was right, it was awe inspiring! Looking back on it, I'm surprised that we didn't kill ourselves!

After firing it off, we all trooped back (across the rickety bridge), and caroused around the fire for a while before eventually going to bed/passing out.

The next morning, I woke up, came out of the tent, and found myself looking down the barrels of some very large cannons! Another group had arrived during the night and started a new row of tents on the other side of the campfire, making a company street. They had their cannon parked next to their tent, and pointing right at our tent.

The next part of the Gettysburg saga is expected to be the battle itself.

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ABC Family is having another Harry Potter weekend! If you like the Harry Potter movies (and didn't OD on them over the holidays), check it out!

BBC in America is showing the Doctor Who episode, Smith and Jones (which is partly over as I write this), followed by the first and second episodes of Demons, in case you didn't see the first one last week.

Don't forget Chuck is on tomorrow night, two whole hours of it, followed by more Chuck and Heroes on Monday night, all brand new!

I have a lot to do, and I'm way behind, so have a great weekend!

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Addition:

I just realized that I wanted to tell you about the connection between hormones and losing weight. It's a great article!

Hi! Sorry to ignore you for the last two days, but I've been busy trying to finish up the Christmas presents.

Yes, I know how late it all is, but they're not done yet. Once I finish them all, I plan to start knitting for next Christmas almost right away.

Anyway, I have to get back to finishing them and, more important, packing stuff up to go to the Post Office.

I apologize to almost everyone. I've been trying to get to the post office for two weeks, now, and there's been either bad (snow, sleet, ice) weather, or intense cold accompanied by gale force winds! Since going to the post office involves waiting for a bus (and it seems that when I come home, they always have a bus out of service and I have to wait for at least an hour and a half) and a lot of walking. Please note that when I'm leaving, there are places to sit and places to get out of the wind and cold, but on the way back, it's out in the open with no place to sit, so that's where the bus doesn't come.

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I hope you all got to see the Chuck Marathon last night!

Here's a list of SF stuff that will be either premiering or coming back to TV all new in thee next few months. Enjoy!

There will be a new Ghost Whisperer, Medium, Sanctuary and, best of all, Dollhouse tonight! Only two more Dollhouses to go after tonight!

Have a great evening, and a wonderful weekend!

Happy Twelfth Night!

Happy Twelfth Night!

This is the "Twelfth Day of Christmas" from the song. During the Middle Ages, it was the culmination of the Christmas celebration: the BIG feast, where you gave and got the biggest presents!

I have lots to do today, so I just wanted to get that sentiment up there.

Tomorrow is Distaff Day! More about that tomorrow!

Eleventh Day of Christmas

I want to thank the anonymous person who commented about the last post and the Hindenburg disaster. I had never before seen a color photo of the accident, and was quite surprised to find the one that I posted. As it turns out, no color photos were taken and the one I posted was colorized. I chose it because it had color in it, although I have to say that what I saw was much more brightly colored than the photo, largely because that photo was originally black and white.

And I have to say that the original event was much brighter than the photo!

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I've been meaning to mention that I talked to Holly on the phone the other day, and we made a deal about something.

Once I get some things rearranged and make some space, I plan to put up a table (which I don't have yet) in a yet-to-be-determined location in my apartment. I'm leaning toward putting it in the bedroom because I expect it to be messy a lot of the time, and the bedroom location would allow me to just shut the door and block the view of the clutter. Anyway, I plan to put my sewing machine on it so that I can get back to making clothes.

The deal is that once this is done, Holly and I will plan a project for her, and buy the materials and I will make it for her. Then we'll plan a comparable project for me, she'll buy the materials, and I'll make something for me. Etc. Some projects will be sewn, some may be knitted, some may be a combination.

She has the money, but not the time, while I have the time, but not the money. That way, we will both get spiffy wardrobes.

I woke up yesterday morning with a project for her completely designed in my head. I'll let you know about it after I talk to her and it's approved.

I'm excited, though.

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I was checking Twitter today and came across an article that I think everyone should read. It's about how to deal with doctors. If you think there's a possibility that you could ever become sick or that anyone you know could become sick, this is required reading. I strongly encourage you to read it.

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For all you ladies out there, here's a link to some nice beefcake! There's some great SF info on the site, too, so even if you don't like Kevin Sorbo, you will be interested in this!

There's a lot more on the site, and if you like that, you might want to follow Kevin Sorbo's website. That first link mentions a new series he's in on SyFy, but doesn't give any other information about it.

I did a search on the SyFy Channel's site, but didn't find anything. I guess we'll hear about it eventually.

Have a great evening (don't miss Heroes) and get ready to Twelfth Night tomorrow!

The Tenth Day of Christmas

It's the tenth day of Christmas today. In the Middle Ages, people would have been gearing up for the biggest festival on Twelfth Night. In the Current Middle Ages, people are doing just that. With any luck, my Christmas presents to myself may arrive in time for Twelfth Night, or maybe Distaff Day.

Sorry, people who are in the SCA or used to be have a tendency to speak of dates in Medieval holidays.

I woke up today much later than usual today, and the Mummers Parade was on TV! It's been ages since I've watched the parade on TV!

While I never went downtown when I was a kid to see it, I have watched the Harrowgate String Band strut their stuff on Frankford Avenue!

This is a photo of the Frankford String Band, which I've also seen strut in person.

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Last night, I saw the final episode of Doctor Who with David Tenent, and it was good!

Previous doctors have met their ends suddenly, and without warning. Well, Tom Baker's Doctor could tell it was coming, but didn't use the information to his advantage. I don't want to give away any spoilers (well, I really do, but some of you may not have seen that episode yet), but this time the Doctor has a lot of warning (the Ood have been trying to get hold of him for ages to let him know), and even after the deed is done, he still has a chance to see old friends before he's gone.

So, anyway, we have a new Doctor! Geronimo!

By the way, Geronimo seems to be the new Allons-y.

Somehow, it just doesn't have as much class.

Anyway, Doctor, "Your song is ending, but the story never ends."

Heroes is back tomorrow night with an all new two hour episode!

The holidays always inspire lots of reruns, but it's wonderful go get back to real TV! You know, new stuff! January will see lots of shows returning with a new season.

One of those shows coming back is Chuck, and you can get ready for the new season by watching a series of back-to-back reruns on SyFy Thursday evening starting at 5 pm here.

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Speaking of TV, I have a spooky story for you that I was reminded of by TV (Ghost Hunters, to be exact).

John keeps telling me I have to tell you more about some of the things I've done in my life, and this is one of the odder ones, so here goes:

My aunt and uncle used to be involved in N-SSA. I know I've mentioned that before, but for those of you who haven't read about it before, it's a group of Civil War reenactors.

Jean asked me to go to some of their events, and the first one I went to was at Lakehurst Naval Air Station. If you ckick the link, you'll find that it has a different name, now.

We arrived on Friday evening, and had enough time to pitch our tents and get set up before it was dark. There wasn't much to it, just a line of tents of the participants, and, at right angles to that, Sutler's Row. Sutlers are merchants. Yes, this was a shopping opportunity, too!

This was my first skirmish, and I got to meet a lot of people and sit in one of their tents and sing Civil War songs. It was lots of fun.

The next morning, I woke up to a strange, droning sound. I dressed quickly and got out of the tent to find a heavy fog. Somebody told me to look up and pointed up at the sky in a direction that was behind the tent. I kept saying "I don't see anything" (due to the heavy fog) and they told me to keep looking.

Suddenly, out of the fog, about 30 feet up, there appeared an airship! It was right there, so close it startled me!

It went right over my head, and then another one appeared, and another and another! I don't know how many airships there were, but they kept coming in overhead, one after the other!

I was told that they had been waiting something like two weeks to land. In order for an airship to land, the air has to be very still, and we'd had too much wind for a while.

Later on that day, there was a special tour that had been arranged for us visitors to the air station, and a bunch of us went off on a military bus. We got to see lots of things. One that stands out in my memory was the flight lind (which we didn't actually get very close to, and they wouldn't let us off the bus).

I do remember a lot of planes parked on the ramp with their wings folded up like this:

They were painted in the Naval design, and the place above doesn't really look like the ones I remember, but the wings fold the same way.

But the big event was Hangar One!

Hangar One is unbelievably BIG! The gentleman who was giving the tour told us all about it at length. There was a lot to talk about, and he gave us all the details. At that point in time (I'm told there are bigger ones now, but I don't know why), it was the biggest open interior structure in the world. It was intended to house airships, and could hold quite a few. It was also so big that it sometimes developed it's own local weather patterns, and they had known it rain inside the hanger, even when it wasn't raining outside. When we saw it, it was empty.

I missed a lot of what the guide was telling us because I kept being distracted by the oddest thing I'd seen so far (I was 16, and still in high school). The scene looked peaceful, and nothing seemed to be happening, but right in front of the hangar was something that is hard to describe.

I could see the scene as it was, but I could also see something else. It was like there was a huge photographic slide that I was looking at it through. The slide was moving (as in video), and I could see it just as clearly as I could see the ground in front of the hangar.

But what was in the slide was not calm and peaceful, it was turbulent and full of fire! An airship was there, and it burst into flames! It was very chaotic, and it just went on and on with flames bursting out of the airship and consuming it as if gradually fell the last few feet of it's landing.

Finally, the guide came to the end of his tour of the hangar and asked if anyone had any questions. I asked him if anything unusual had happened at that particular place, pointing to the spot where I was still watching the airship burn. He said "Oh, yeah. That's the exact spot where the Hindenburg crashed and burned!"

This is what I was looking at:

This is the first photograph that I've ever seen of the Hindenburg fire that's in color. It's even more impressive when you're looking at the real thing. Fire tends to overload film and increase the contrast, but when you see it for real, it's a lot brighter and redder. It looks a lot scarier, too! And this photo was just the beginning. The fire spread and engulfed the whole airship, and I got to watch the whole thing in horror and fascination!

Ghost Hunters, by the way, really amazes me. It takes one of the most exciting topics I could imagine, and makes it so boring that I can't see how they could possibly do it! They dismissed the area where I saw this by saying it looked spooky, but nothing was happening. If you see that episode, by the way, the spot they show has changed a lot. It's well paved and decorated with a marker. It wasn't when I saw it. It was just an empty patch of land.

My sister, Lynn, came along on this camping trip, and she swore she'd never go to another one again!

The incident that inspired this was making a sandwich and finding a bug in it when she ate it! She started screaming bloody murder about finding a bug in her sandwich and my then-uncle, Art, told her not to complain because it could be worse. She demanded to know how it could possibly be worse, and he said "You could've found half a bug!" That was when she went nuts and insisted she'd never go camping ever again!

I had lots of fun that weekend, and hated the smell of black powder when I first smelled it. On Sunday, we had a shooting competition for muzzle loaders, and I got to sit behind the line and watch it with Jean and some of my new friends. A sutler came by selling ice cream, and I at a small tub of vanilla ice cream that was black powder flavored (from all the smoke in the air). After that, I enjoyed the smell of black powder.

Well, enjoy the last little bit of your holiday!

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Addition:

I found a trailer for the new season of Doctor Who, and I thought you might like to see it:

Happy 2010!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We'll see how it all goes.

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I broke down and bought myself some Christmas presents!

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

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

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

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

Another of my favorites is Antique Rose:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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