It's Dead, Jim!

It's not quite dead yet, but my TV is well on the way to the dump or wherever old, broken, malfunctioning TVs go.

Last Wednesday, I turned it on, and my hearing aids started buzzing. I figured that one of the pieces of equipment must have started leaking an RF signal, and the aids were picking it up. But there were thin, staticky white lines running across the picture, too.

I spent a few days trying to figure out how I could test to see if it was the TV, TiVo or RF converter. While I was doing that, I turned on the TV when I wasn't wearing the aids, and still heard the buzzing, so it wasn't an RF leak.

I continued trying to figure it out.

Today, I woke up really early, and decided to check the weather for the rest of the day before I went back to sleep. I turned on the TV, turned the sound down, and read about the weather. Then I hit the button on the remote to turn the TV off, and it went to black and restarted! I tried that about 5 more times, then tried the button directly on the TV (which did the same thing) and it restarted each time. I finally had to unplug it to actually turn it off.

Later, when I actually woke up for real, I plugged it in, waited 5 minutes (to let it warm up), and hit the on button on the TV. Nothing happened. Then I tried the on button on the remote, and it started. I tried hitting the volume button on the TV without effect, and after a few tries with the remote, I was able to adjust the volume on it so I could actually hear it!

Doctor Who is on Saturday! Friday of next week is the royal wedding! New episodes of Chuck, The Event, Castle, Hawaii Five-O, The Mentalist, Supernatural and Fringe will be on, too! Will it last? Will I be able to see them?

At this point, I'll be lucky to have enough money for food for the rest of the month, let alone money for a new or even used TV.

I'm bummed!

But the TiVo is recording The Fall of Sam Axe, so I'm going to get to see that tonight, at least.

I hope your weekend has been better than mine!

Help! I've Been Kidnapped by Miles Vorkosigan!

A while ago, I finished up reading some books, and looked around for something else to read. I realized that I hadn't read the Vokosigan series in a while, so I started on that.

Not long after I started, Amazon sent me some of their spam that recommends books for you. Actually, it's probably not fair to call what they send spam, because they actually recommend books that I like, and want to read. One of them was a new book in the Vokosigan saga called Cryoburn.


Being short on money, as usual, I immediately went to the website for my local library and checked their listings, and it was there. I requested that they send it to the nearby branch, and picked it up on Thursday of last week.

I skipped a few books and am now up to the volume called Miles in Love, which includes two novels and a novella: Komarr, A Civil Campaign, and Winterfair Gifts.

To give you a better idea of what these books are like, I once asked a friend if he had read any of the books. He said he had, but had given up reading them. I asked him why: didn't he enjoy them? and his answer was "No, I enjoy them, but I'm tired of staying up until 5 am because I can't put them down when I have to get up at 6 am to go to work!

This is what's happened to me this past week. I haven't done a lot of things that I should be doing because I can't tear myself away from the books. And so far, I've been reading ones I already read and know what's going to happen! If you think potato chips are addictive, you ain't seen nothin' yet!

One of the things that has kept me from blogging about the books is that it's complicated!

The novels first came out as individual books, as they were written. But Lois McMaster Bujold also wrote some short stories and novellas which were published in science fiction magazines.

Then the publisher started publishing "omnibus editions" which each included at least two novels, and sometimes some short stories and novellas so that you could read them all in order. At this point, they're all available in hardback, paperback, and a batch of ebook formats.

If you want to get started on them, either get the omnibus edition, Cordelia's Honor, or the two novels that are included: Shards of Honor and Barrayar. I was astounded when I looked up the link for Barrayar. They're out of print now, I think, and the first one I found was a hardback edition for $75! You won't find most of them on Barnes & Noble, but if you look around for ebooks, you can find the B&N format (epub) in those titles, probably free. If you have Kindle, Sony, or other reader, you can get them by searching for ebooks and selecting the correct format for your reader. I was going to set up a more comprehensive listing of all the books, but it's way too big a job to list all of them in all the formats they're available in.

Oh, and the books have chronological listings in the back of the titles of the books and short stories, etc.

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Last Saturday was fun. Holly and I went shopping, partly at Michaels, and then at WalMart.

I got some neat swag at Michaels. Boye has a "Yarn On The Go Bag" which will hold a ball of yarn. It's got a long enough strap to go over your shoulder or cross-body. The strap can be snapped off if you don't want to use it, or you can tie a knot in it to shorten it, or tie it something. Inside, near the top, there's a short tab with a snap so you can snap it around the yarn where it leaves the ball. And it's got two bags in each package at a very low price! This is great if you're doing Fair Isle colorwork because you can put one bag on each side and keep them tangle-free!

It's available in red, as shown, but also in other colors, and each package has two bags, each in a different color. I got a package that had a blue one and a purple one. You might want to find a store that has these, because the colors are random, and you can pick out two you like in the same package if you do it in person.

Holly liked them so much that I gave her my purple one. These are very high quality for such a low price!

I also got their last ball of Loops & Threads Santa Fe yarn in Blue Suede Stripes. I've never seen the Santa Fe in the store before, but they were almost sold out when I was there. It's very pretty, and I'd like to buy more, but it looks like they only had it available for about a month.

When we went to WalMart, I needed to get new fluorescent bulbs for the ones that are wearing out in my kitchen, and I did that.

I had also found a vacuum cleaner I liked (judging by the reviews at WalMart and elsewhere), the Hoover Nano Light, but they said they were out of them online. I looked around the store anyway, because the report that said that was a few weeks old. I looked for it again online, and on Sunday, the website said they had it! I ordered it right away, and it arrived yesterday.

My old vacuum had been progressivly losing it's suction, so I wanted to replace it.

The new vacuum arrived yesterday, late in the afternoon, and I sat down and assembled it right away, then vacuumed a few square feet of carpet, just to check that I had assembled it correctly and that it was working. I thought it would probably pick up a lot because I knew that the old one was dying, but it still didn't leave the carpet looking like it had anything on it or was dirty.

Then I took this photo so I could post it here.

After I took the photo, I looked at it a little closer, and realized that the dust cup was FILLED! I could not believe the amount of dirt that was in that small space of carpet! I'm going to move everything heavy in the apartment over the weekend and vacuum under it all so that all floor surfaces have been cleaned.

Oh, the handle collapses down, and I photographed it with the handle folded down. That's nice, because it fits under my kitchen counter with the handle down. It's small and light, and easy to maneuver around things and does an amazingly good job!

While I was in "walking around looking mode" I happened to find a 2 quart saucepan right next to the vacuums. I've been looking for one in stainless steel for about 4 years. I have two 1-1/2 quart saucepans and a 3 quart one, but I often want to heat something that really only needs a 2 quart.

During the last 4 years, the cheapest one I've found has been $40! But WalMart had one for $15! It has a copper clad bottom, which I didn't really care for, but did I mention it was only $15? I snapped it right up!

It's so nice when you find something you've been looking for for a while! And I got three of them this week! The yarn bags, the vacuum cleaner and the saucepan!

I feel like having a party!

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I'm going to watch the reruns of Supernatural and Fringe, and the season finale of Merlin.

Have a great weekend!

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Hope You Had a Happy Equinox!

Yesterday was the Equinox, and I hope you had a good one.

Yesterday, Jupiter was the closest to Earth it has been for 47 years, and the closest it will be in our lifetimes.

I have a camera with a looooong lens, but this was the best photo I could get of it last night. It looked very bright when I was just looking at it, but the photo made it almost invisible. I had to hike up the contrast drastically in PhotoShop to be able to see it. I was hoping to be able to see the moons, but just couldn't. It's possible that the light fog that was present was responsible for that.

While I was out there and taking photos, I took a picture of the moon and Jupiter together:

I had to hike up the contrast to be able to see Jupiter in this one, too, in spite of the fact that Jupiter and the Moon looked equally bright to me. I only messed with the contrast on Jupiter, not the moon in the photo above. The sort of halo around the moon is because of the mist we were experiencing where I live at the time.

Tonight, though, the moon will be full, and maybe the mist won't happen. We'll see. And although Jupiter was at it's very closest last night, it's not like it's moving directly away from us, so it'll still be pretty close in case you missed it last night!

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Tonight, we have a bonanza of good shows on! Season premiers include Bones, Fringe, The Big Bang Theory, Grey's Anatomy, and (I think) The Mentalist! Vampire Diaries premiered last week, so there will be a new episode, but not a premier.

While we're on the subject of the media, my friend, Tim Davis is currently filming a zombie movie (Nudist Camp Zombie Massacre), and the last day of principle filming will be on Sunday. I'll be going (doing make up), and I just found out that Tim needs some extra zombies, so I'm going to ask Holly if she wants to be a zombie for the movie. Yes, Holly, you will get a credit on the movie if you do this!

I'll be taking my cameras along, and snapping lots of pictures. I already told Tim I'd give him copies of all the photos that turn out well. I'll see if it's all right with him to show some of them on my blog. It sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun, plus I'll get to add more credits to my IMdB page!

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As you can see, there's not much happening around here, just celestial events and zombie movies! I probably won't get a chance to blog tomorrow, though.

Have fun tomorrow and I hope your weekend is as fun as mine's going to be!

Miscellaneous Middle of the Week

I don't have a real direction for a post today, but a lot of random thoughts, so I'm starting this and will add more thoughts throughout the day.

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I watched some of the 911 documentaries on the History Channel on Saturday, and saw for the first time the film of George W. Bush when he was informed initially about what was happening. It was on film because he was with a bunch of grade school kids in Florida and they were already filming it.

When informed, he looked thoughtful for a moment, and then nodded as if to say "OK, everything's on schedule." and that was all. I know he was in front of a bunch of kids and probably didn't want to scare them, but I would have at least expected a momentary look of surprise if he hadn't known what would happen in advance.

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I'm getting so excited about going to the Fall Fiber Fest on the second of October! I just can't wait!

I found a free pattern for one of the most beautiful and unusual scarves (and yarns) ever! You can find the information here, but you'll have to sign up for a free membership to get the free pattern. To act as an incentive, here are photos of it:

The yarn is what makes this so beautiful, and it's a new yarn out by Bernat called Mosaic. I saw the actual yarn at AC Moore and at JoAnn Fabrics.

They also have a beautiful hat pattern (which doesn't appear to be free) for the same yarn. The hat is done in a different color than the scarf, but you could certainly do them in the same color. The hat pattern also has a matching scarf pattern.

The pattern for this is in the booklet section, and it appears you have to buy it, although it's out of stock. If you buy the mosaic yarn, you'll find many patterns on the ball band, so you might want to check that out first. It looks like this yarn would look fabulous in entrelac!

The photos they show of the different colors really don't give you much of an idea of how they'll ultimately look, so if you click the free patterns tab or the booklet tab, you can see other patterns (which you might or might not like) that will give you a better idea of how the colors look made up. The scarf pattern I showed first is made in Ambrosia, and the hat is made in Mosaic, and I have a hard time deciding which I like better. There's also the Ninja colorway, which I love, too. Here it is made into a cowl:

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There's a contest that's just started to win a Macintosh Trackpad! Of course, I entered immediately! Click the link and enter!

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He's back! The season premier of Chuck will be on Monday! It looks like it may be the first or one of the first programs back for the new Fall Season!

As far as TV tonight goes, it's time to break out the DVDs! Nothing worth watching at all!

But tomorrow night, it picks up with the season premier of The Vampire Diaries (OK, so Chuck wasn't the first, after all). At the same time as that, the last two episodes of Fringe will be on in preparation for next week's premiere, and also reruns of The Big Bang Theory leading up to next week's premiere. Three things on at once, and I want to see all of them! Hard choices!

Dig out a DVD and have a great evening!

Fiberarts Update

Ever since the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, I've been thinking a lot about spinning. I got some (4 oz.) roving that's 50% merino, 25% silk, and 25% bamboo, and it's a dream! It's space dyed in one color, and goes from navy blue to natural white, with all the shades of blue in between represented. I'm spinning it with some slubs in it, and I'm going to ply it with some medium blue corriedale that I'm making slubby, too. I'm pretty sure I have a lot more of the med. blue, so I'll probably have a solid yarn to mix with it in a project. Here's the variegated blue.

And I've not only been thinking about it, I've been doing it! I have about half a bobbin of the medium blue spun, and I just started on the variegated blue yesterday. This is what I did yesterday.

I also got 8 oz of the same stuff that's hand dyed with lavenders and blues. It's in two 4 oz bags, and the bags don't seem to exactly match, so I think I'll use one bag for one ply and the other for the other ply and make it a slubby two ply. MAYBE, I might even sell it in my Etsy store!

All of the roving shown here is from Bullen's Woolens, and it's just dreamy, and a joy to touch or spin!

Oh, and while I was at the Sheep and Wool Festival, I got a bag to hold a sock project. It's a Hiya Hiya small project bag. The good part about it is that I can close the zippered top most of the way, and the yarn feeds out through the space left, and it's got a small zippered pocket inside to hold stitch markers, sock needles (I like to knit most of it on two circular needles, but the heel is much easier for me to knit on double points, so I like to have the double points with me for when I get to the heel.

The sock that's shown with it still needs the cast-on yarn end woven in, but it's a sample of the yarn I bought on Mother's day. I love self-patterning yarn! It's Red Heart Heart and Sole yarn in toasted almond.

I also bought a beautiful pendant knitting needle sizer from Carolina Homespun, although I believe it's distributed by Deborah's Garden. The one I bought is the light lavender one, and it's much prettier than it looks in the photo! I have to get a cord or chain for it!

I also ordered some stitch markers yesterday. These are being sold by Seeking Sanity on Etsy, and she's currently having a sale of some really beautiful stitch markers. She's about to move soon, and would rather sell her stock than move it, so check it out if you're in the market for stitch markers because she's got some great deals. The ones I ordered are, first a set of small markers (left) for socks. The end-of-round marker is a lavender glass, and the others are blue goldstone.

The medium markers on the right are a pale lapis, and very pretty. She's also made me a set of medium markers in blue goldstone. They were shipped today, and I can't wait for them to arrive! I was just looking at her site and found another listing for stitch markers that I like.

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For you science fiction fen, here is a reminder that Towel Day is rapidly approaching, and you should prepare your towel now! Towel day will be next Tuesday, the 25th of May!

As you can see, carrying a towel on Towel Day is mandatory, but there are a lot of other ways that you can celebrate. You'll have to scroll down pretty far on that link, but there are all kinds of celebrations all over the world, plus other ways you can celebrate, such as wallpaper for your computer.

42!

Oh, and if you don't understand that, you urgently need to read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

Oh, and BBC in America has started showing Doctor Who and some other SF shows in the afternoons and Tuesday evening. Check your local listings for exact times!

Tonight, we'll be seeing a brand new Fringe and The Mentalist! If you check your guide and find a rerun of The Mentalist, keep looking. There'll be two episodes on tonight!

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I keep meaning to mention this and keep forgetting. My granddaughter wanted to buy some of the Sookie Stackhouse books, and asked me to put them in my Amazon store. So, I created a whole separate section for those books and videos. Check it out here. It has an advantage if you're shopping Amazon anyway. Amazon lists the first few books with the number of their order in the series, but quits after the first three or so. Then it's hard to figure out which is the next book. These are all listed in order, ending with a collection of short stories and the DVDs of the TV series.

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Comcast really surprised me yesterday!


First of all, they called me three or four times on Tuesday, to ask if the problems that have been going on for more than three years had magically healed themselves the way Christian Scientists think they can do. After being told that no, they hadn't magically gone away, they called me several more times yesterday to ask if the problem had cured itself, and did I still want someone to come out. I assured them that I did.


Then, nobody showed up!


Well, they told me that the supervisor (instead of a regular repairman) would be checking the whole building, and might not come to my door, but that was before I requested a new DVR.


I didn't realize until last night that he must have come and fixed whatever was wrong with the building. It took about a half an hour of watching before I realized that I had a crisp, clear picture that wasn't freezing or breaking up every 5 minutes or so. The sound didn't cut out at any point, or drastically change it's level, either! And the closed captioning continued to display, not fading out every so often. Then I started watching some recordings on my DVR, and, while not perfect, they were much better than they had been! I don't know what he did, but I can't help but wonder why he didn't do it thee years ago.


I have to say that I'm stunned and amazed! I'm almost afraid to say this out loud (because I'm afraid that if I say it, it will all go away), but I think they actually fixed it!


If this keeps up, I could even get to like Comcast!

I'm rethinking my need for a TiVo. I'm sure that I'd like a TiVo better, but it costs money, and the DVR I have didn't. It's a hard choice.


Well, I'm going to go do some spinning and enjoy my newly functional TV reception!


Have a great evening!