New Vehicle for Holly and Robin!

Well, it's not actually new, but they're trading in their old car and getting a newer Hummer H3.

The dealer didn't have what they wanted on hand, so it's getting shipped in from North Carolina, and it's on it's way. It's supposed to be dark green, but the dealer sent her photos, and they're of a blue one. I'm guessing that the photos are generic ones and not of her particular vehicle. But here goes:

It's a shame, because the blue color in the photo is really pretty.

Here's what the front seats look like.

Once again, I think this is a generic photo because the seats in the car they're getting are supposed to be black leather. Back seats look like this:

And here's the cargo area:

It looks like the back seats go down to provide even more space if you're not carrying people, too.

I am so excited! I can't wait to ride in it! Holly says it has lots of blind spots, though, so I'm less than eager to drive it.

Something seems to be in the air, because Lynn got a new vehicle, too. You may remember that I recently had photos up of her beautiful, not-very-old Prius with it's front smashed in. I can only guess that the insurance people thought she should get a new one rather than fix the smashed one.

But here are the photos:

The front seats:

And the cargo area:

And I think that's enough car photos  for one post.

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The Monday before last, I had something happen that embarrassed me.

There is a lady who lives across the hall from me, Ms. Ray. She's a really wonderful, friendly person.

Well, I rode downstairs with her in the elevator, and she was telling me that in spite of the soundproofing in the building (which is very good), when I laugh, she can hear me all the way across the hall! She said that she enjoys it, though, because every time she hears me laughing, she has to giggle, too.

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There's some great science fiction on TV this weekend! You need to check it out for yourself because there's just so much! TNT will be rerunning The Librarian trilogy on Sunday. SyFy will be serving up a lot of serviceable "B" movies most of the weekend, and don't forget to check out BBC in America. There will be a new Being Human on Saturday. Oh, and Hallmark seems to be running all the Mystery Woman series on Saturday, so if you like mysteries and haven't seen them, it's worth watching.

I'm not going to give you any more hints than that because there's just too much to list, so check out everything!

And have a wonderful weekend!

Crash and Burn!

If I hadn't procrastinated so much in the beginning, I would have been all right.

But then, that's the story of my life!

Late yesterday afternoon, when I was still hopelessly behind but knitting my heart out and still trying hard not to admit how far behind I really was. I thought it would be a good idea to go find the small amount of black fabric that I was sure I must have somewhere and needed for the project.

Guess what?

I didn't have some somewhere.

So, I still haven't finished my entry for the contest that closed at midnight last night (1 am locally).

Since I'm not going to be able to finish the project and submit it by last night, I'm now free to tell you about it. I'm going to spread it out over a week or so, though.

I didn't take any photos earlier when there was some good daylight, so you're going to have to wait until at least tomorrow for photos of my unfinished project.

The knitting on the mitts is done, and also on the hat. The knitting is only a small part of those two projects, though. It's the embroidery that's going to make it though. They look like nothing right now.

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Brace yourself!

Last weekend, I was missing Comic Con (and if you missed Comic Con, too, be sure to see the rerun of the Psych episode that was on last night). This weekend through the following two weekends, I'm going to be missing Pennsic! I plan to pass on Tweets about it along with the photos that go with them, though, so for a taste of Pennsic, stay tuned and check the sidebar! As usual, I plan to reread Murder at the War, a murder mystery set at Pennsic.

Lots to do today, gotta go!

Have a great evening!

Update on the Imagination Contest

If you read this blog all the time, you know that I set myself the challenge of entering the Lion Brand Imagination Contest.

Well, it has to be submitted tomorrow, and I'm not even done the knitting, let alone the finishing, which is going to be extensive, so this post will be short, and you can expect nothing up here tomorrow!

As usual, it's my own fault. I have a hard time finishing/letting go of projects because if they're done, what will I have to do?

And this is especially boring for you because, I can't publish photos of it! You're going to just have to imagine that I'm busy and doing lots of really neat stuff to finish this.

But if you want some really entertaining stuff from a knitter, you should read today's post from The Yarn Harlot. Actually, her post isn't really about knitting, it's about baseball, and it has a very funny science fiction twist at the end.

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If you're reading this and it's still daytime, the SyFy Channel is running a Primeval marathon on their daytime rotation as I write.

But don't touch that dial just yet! BBC in America is doing the same thing with Torchwood!

There's a new Warehouse 13 on SyFy tonight, and a new White Collar and Covert Affairs on USA, too!

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I have to get going. I have a lot of knitting and even more finishing to do, and somewhere in all this, I really need to get some groceries, so I'm going to be very busy today and tomorrow.

Have a wonderful week, and I'll be back later!

San Diego Comic Con Saturday

I was going to mention that there's been a Doctor Who marathon on BBC in America for a while, and it'll continue on into the evening, but then I discovered that G4 is showing Comic Con live on TV!

I'm continuing to retweet stuff from people at the con, so you can read it in my sidebar (or follow me on Twitter).

In a slightly odd juxtaposition of events, the Yarn Harlot is behind on her spinning for the Tour de Fleece, and seems to have gone into panic mode. She's putting beer in the fridge, watching TV and spinning. She also commented that she thought that chilling beer with a single look would be an excellent superpower to have!

I was on the computer a while ago, and John caught me on Facebook for a chat direct from the halls of Comic Con, where they happen to have free wifi! We discussed some things that he's working on that seem to be going well at the con. He didn't want me to talk about those things until they were certain, so this is really disappointing, isn't it? Why did I even bring it up? Sorry!

Considering that I'm not even at Comic Con, I'm having a lot of fun with it.

If you follow Natalie Moralez on Twitter, she's roaming around the con and Tweeting photos.

I'm just going nutso over all this!

Hope you're having a great weekend! I'm going to go try to watch several things at once on TV! I'll be Tweeting any breaking news today and tomorrow!

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Addition:

I've been so excited about this that I forgot to add the photo John put up direct from the con!

That's him on the right and Charles Chioto on the left, and they seem to be doing something related to Steve Canyon, which is normal behavior for John!

Well, I feel dumb. They were in shadow, so I lightened it up and didn't lighten up the part where Charles is holding up two of the DVDs with the covers I did! You can see better images of the DVDs here, though.

Science Fiction Conventions

The weekend of the 10th and 11th (weekend before last) was the weekend of Shore Leave.

Shore Leave is a Star Trek/science fiction convention that I started going to around the time it started, but I haven't been to lately, and I miss it!

There was an odd sort of convention that John and I went to not long after I met him. It wasn't open to fandom, you had to be an invited guest, and everyone who went was someone who was normally a guest at Star Trek/SF cons. It was kind of a relax-a-con for people who were normally guests at cons. And John was one of the people invited, and he brought me as his guest.

I got to see some people I already knew and got to meet more, and it was fun. It was in New York state, and held in the winter, and I don't think it got above, or even near 60 degrees inside the house the entire time we were there, so there were a lot of chilly people.

I had wrapped myself up in a blanket, and was sitting on a couch waiting for the Star Trek episode that was scheduled to start, and a guy came in and sat on the floor. He was nearly turning blue, and was trying not to shiver. I sat down on the floor next to him and wrapped the blanket around both of us, announcing that I didn't believe that anyone should have to be cold. That's how I got to meet Alan Asherman.

I also got to meet Howie Weinstein there, and John tried to introduce me to Joanie Winston, but Joanie told him that she already knew me. Howie wrote one of the Star Trek animated episodes, which involved tribbles.

At a later con, a bunch of Howie's friends showed up wearing T-shirts that said "Howie Weinstein Fan Club" on the front, and "Howie Who?" on the back.

Joanie was one the people on the con committee of the very first ever Star Trek convention. She said that she realized that the people she had designated to answer phones had been at their posts too long when she walked into the phone room and hear one woman answer the phone with "Lieutenant Uhuru speaking!" What she couldn't hear was that on the other end of the phone was Leonard Nimoy who said, "Spock here!" then proceeded to describe his problem with finding the hotel.

Anyway a few weeks ago, I called my friend, Nancy, and she was getting ready to go to Shore Leave, and I realized that I'd missed it. Holly and I had been discussing things and wanted to get back to going to SF cons, so I was disappointed. It's the weekend after the 4th every year, and so is the trip to Clinton Bay, and she doesn't seem to want to miss that, so she may miss it next year, too, but I'm determined to save some money and go next year.

Which brings us up to this weekend, which is San Diego Comic Con, something I've always wanted to go to! But, being on the wrong coast for it, and considering that it's already started, that's not likely this year or next.

But to keep in the spirit of things, I'm going to be retweeting everything I can find out about it from the tweets of people who are actually there. Lots of the tweets will include photos, so it's worth while to check the tweets in the sidebar all this weekend!

John is already there, and I'm insanely envious of him! Reports, updates and vicarious thrills when I get them!

Here's a photo of two of my friends at a vintage con:

That's Bill Hickey on the left, and Bruce Rauscher on the right. Bill was in the first Star Trek movie as an extra in a crowd scene, and Bruce was in Twilight of the Dogs and will be starring in Tim Davis' movie, Nudist Camp Zombie Massacre, currently in post production.

Have a great weekend!

I Ignore the Universe for One Day, and It Gets into Trouble

I had lots to do yesterday, and was online for about a half hour, and then went to do my stuff. As a result, I didn't get to read much on Facebook or really connect with other people.

I thought that would be all right. I mean how much trouble could all of you get into, right?

Well, John's sister, Doris had a heart attack and died. I found out about it when I got on Facebook today.

I feel sad about that. The last time I saw her was right after she'd had heart surgery. There's so much I want to say, but words are failing me at the moment. We'll miss her.

Then I read down further on Facebook and find that his daughter, Sara's boyfriend was in a theater when someone started shooting randomly. He's OK, but someone else was shot and died.

What's wrong with the world? I can't leave it alone for a minute!

There were a bunch of things I wanted to talk about today, but this has really taken the wind out of my sails. Everything will be postponed until later except for the TV info.

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Tonight, the new shows on include: Warehouse 13 (SyFy), White Collar, and Covert Affairs (USA).

On Saturday, BBC in America will be having a Doctor Who marathon, culminating in The Pandorica Opens, and The Big Bang, two episodes comprising a two-part story, and the last two episodes of the season. They showed The Pandorica Opens last week, and it is so good! I expect that the final episode will be equally good, maybe better.

And, as if that weren't enough, it will be followed by the first episode of the new season of Being Human.

I am so excited to see the last episode of the season of Doctor Who, but am expecting to be really sad that it's over.

For any of you out there who haven't been watching the Doctor and thought there was no way for you to catch up, BBC in America is giving you the chance to see the whole (new) thing, right from the beginning. They've been airing Doctor Who episodes every day at 5 pm (here), and they've cycled through, and will be starting with the first new episode (Rose) on Thursday!

Do not be discouraged by watching by the first episode. It's almost a rip-off of one of the old series, and not one of the better ones, either, but it sets things up for what is to come, and the stories get better and better as the season progresses. For Torchwood fans, you can get to see the beginning of Captain Jack Harkness in the two-part story The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances! Those two are followed by Boomtown, which has a kind of reunion party vibe, and Rose wears a beautiful knitted scarf. And learn about the founding of Torchwood itself in Tooth and Claw. Eventually, you'll work your way along to Blink, which is one of the best little horror stories I've ever seen. If you don't want to see Doctor Who, watch for Blink anyway, because it's a teriffic stand-alone story that you won't want to miss! And Captain Jack reappears from time to time, and fills in the blanks about what happened when he was absent from Torchwood.

On Friday, there will be a new Eureka and Haven on SyFy! Haven (the series) is based on a Stephen King book, The Colorado Kid, which I haven't read, and so can't comment on, but the series is shaping up to be good.

So, now I'm caught up on the TV part of the blog for the next few days, at least through Saturday.

I plan to blog before then, but if something happens and I don't be good and have fun!

Miscellaneous Sunday

I have a batch of unrelated stuff to report on today. There will be lots of pictures!

Last weekend, Holly and Robin went to Clinton Bay, along with a lot of family and friends.

Here are all the ladies that went. That's Holly on the far left in the front, and Heather at next to far right.

Here's (L to R) Holly, and her sister, Heather.

Here's Holly, Chad (her brother) and Heather.

I shamelessly copied these photos from Facebook. I'm going on the assumption that if they didn't want these on the internet, they wouldn't have put them up there.

These photos are not from Clinton Bay, and some are from a Renfair, but they're more family photos.

Here's Malaia, my granddaughter and her husband, Johnnie.

And the same pair in Renaissance gear.

And Johnnie at a Renfaire.

Finally, for this group, is Malaia.

Next time, she shouldn't ask a dwarf to take her photo!

You've all heard me talk about my friend, John Ellis, and I thought you might like to see some photos of him to give you a better idea about the person I keep talking about.

First, to segue from the above photos, here's a drawing John did of Malaia when she was in her teens.

Here's a cartoon he did of himself.

I usually think of him more this way, though.

This was from a while ago, and I think it was while he was working on I Go Pogo.

Here we have John and Phil Cook with one of the models from Invader, so you can see that this was a while ago, too.

Here he is setting up dailies, and I'm pretty sure this was also on I Go Pogo.

John is currently working on getting out the last Steve Canyon DVD, which I'm doing the covers for, and you can see the finished covers for three of them, and the preliminary cover for the one that will be released real soon now if you click the link.

He's also going to get to go to the San Diego Comic Con! I envy him! I'm going to give him a list of freebies I want him to get for me. I asked for The Middleman DVDs last year, but nobody was giving them away. I don't truly expect to get anything out of it this year, either, but I'll probably harass him with requests anyway.

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In other family news, my sister, Lynn had a car accident the other day. It's almost the same thing that happened to me: someone pulled out right in front of her.

The most important thing to know about this is that she's all right. She skinned her right knee, and got a scrape from the seat belt, but is otherwise fine.

Her car can't say the same:

It's so mangled, it's hard to tell, but that's a Prius, and it's really not too old. I feel sad just looking at it.

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Finally, I'm getting around to the knitting portion of this post:

I got a new garment steamer to replace the incontinent one that I'm now afraid to fill with water and plug in, and I finally got around to taking a photo of it. It's sleek and beautiful, with big wheels, and I will try it out any day now.

I love steamers for blocking knits! Steamers are fabulous for knitters. They can change a knitted item from something that looks clumsily homemade to something that looks skillfully hand crafted! There's probably not much that you can buy that will change the finished look of a garment more than a steamer!

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I hope you read my Tweet yesterday about the Being Human marathon on BBC in America today, because it's almost over, and I wouldn't want you to miss it! They're getting everybody ready and up to speed for their Being Human second season premier next Saturday.

In that same Tweet, I also mentioned the Doctor Who marathon that will be on BBC in America tomorrow.

There will also be a rerun on The Big Bang Theory tomorrow night. Check it out!

I hope you've been having a wonderful weekend and will have a terrific week coming up!