CBS Is Helping Us Save Money

There was a show on CBS at 8 pm that said it will help you save money. Well, if you earn a quarter of a million each year, it might help. For somebody like me, it would be a disaster.

They started off by telling me that I could save money by only spending $7 per meal. The fact that I spend less than half that for a typical meal, and often less than a dollar means that this would not save money. They did recommend thrift stores, and that was a good tip, but something I already do when possible.

Other than that, they showed how to have a wedding for about five times what I spent on both my weddings combined, and how to get 4 round trip flights to 3 European cities and Tokyo for $600, which is where my perceived reality differed so much from theirs that I erased it from my DVR.

Actually, if I didn't need the space on my DVR, I might have saved it for it's ridiculousness. They said they could save me $120,000! 

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I have gotten to about 13 inches long on my shawl, measured along the front edge. I need to get to 16 inches in order to have completed one quarter of it for my Charms OWL in the Harry Potter House Cup KAL. So I'm far enough along that I'm reasonably sure I'm going to make it by the end of the month. Since it's an OWL, I have three months to complete it, but I have to be a quarter of the way through by the end of this month. 

I'm hoping to get a hat like Hermione will be wearing in Half Blood Prince done for Muggle Studies, too, by the end of the month (see the last post).

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I still don't feel good from all the walking, and have not mustered up the courage to walk somewhere to get a screwdriver, so I'm still sitting on the chair that hurts, so this will be a brief post. I'm planning to walk to the library, CVS (for the screwdriver) and Safeway tomorrow. 

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend, and if you live in the DC area, get out there and watch Rolling Thunder!

A Little Progress

I've been swatching for the shawl I'm knitting for the Harry Potter House Cup KAL on Ravelry. Well, I've been finishing up some Mrs. Figg String Bags and swatching.

I have the pattern settled for the beginning of the shawl, but I still don't have a good pattern that I like for the border around the bottom, and haven't even started to try anything about the edging that I'd like to put on. I could, conceivably, just do a picot bind off, but I'd really like a nice edging.

But I finally got impatient with not starting. We're more than half way through the month, and I have to be at least a quarter of the way through the project by the end of the month. I'm doing an OWL for Charms. OWLs are a three month project. So, I do have time, but still have to be about about 18 inches along, measured on the front edge by the end of the month.

Since I do have a pattern designed for the beginning, I thought I ought to get started on it. Here's what I've got as of this morning:

I'm using Knit Picks Options needles with the nickel finish, but I'm thinking I might like to use Harmony tips for this because they'd be just a little less slippery, so I ordered a pair of tips in size 6 today. Getting another set of tips in the right size will let me experiment with stitch patterns for the border without having to keep switching the tips from the shawl to the swatch, too.

I already did a project for the regular charms class, and I have another small project planned. They asked for projects that could be worn in the muggle community without making the wearer look odd to muggles, but that would identify that person to the magical community as a witch. I'm planning to make a lucet cord which can be tied into a bow around almost anything that the person is wearing/carrying in blue with silver knitted stars on the ends. It seems obvious to me that tying such an article to my handbag (which is blue) would identify me as a member of Ravenclaw. Not to mention what a great Christmas ornament it would be!

I'm planning to make another project for muggle studies. We were asked to make an item from muggle TV or movies to help us look more like muggles and blend in. While placing my order at Knit Picks, I ordered three skeins of Merino Style yarn in fog to make a hat like Hermione will be wearing in the  new Half Blood Prince movie which will be out this July. 

This is the only photo I've been able to find of it so far. There are instructions for copies of the hat that I've seen, but I didn't think that any of them looked enough like the photo to suit me, so I'll be designing my own for this one, too.

Sorry to put all the science fiction and stuff in yesterday's post and all the knitting in this one, but that's the way it worked out.

Have a great evening! Oh, and there's a new The Mentalist on tonight along with a new Reaper!

More Steve Canyon Excitement!

John put up a new post on the Steve Canyon on DVD blog, and he's not the only one that's talking about our favorite pilot. The people over at TV Shows on DVD have an article up about the cover and label art. Go on over and check out what mischief John and I have been up to.

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I finally got around to starting on the project for the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup on Ravelry. You may recall that I bought some yarn over at JoAnn Fabrics last week. I didn't read the label as carefully as I should have, and it turned out it wasn't worsted weight, as I thought it was, but chunky or bulky instead. I'd have liked the lighter weight, but Now that I'm actually knitting it, I love it! It looked like the print on the yarn would look too tweedy for Spring, but it looks like it will be the perfect Spring color. 

I still have severe doubts about the way this is going to turn out. I know I can do the Mobius, I know I can add a hood, but is it going to fit the way I want it to? I suspect that all I can do is try it out and see.

This yarn is acrylic, but it's so nice that it's making me think about going back for some more. It does look a bit tweedy, but not too much so for Spring or even Summer, and it feels so good!

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The SciFi Channel is having some really good stuff on this week on it's daytime rotation. I hope you realized that Charlie Jade is on today so that you are watching it. Tomorrow, they'll be doing Stargate Atlantis, Thursday it'll be Doctor Who, and Friday they have The Twilight Zone.

On TV tonight, we have an all new Reaper, and a Mentalist rerun. Pretty slim pickin's.

I hope you got to see the premier of Castle last night. Nathan Fillion was his usual lovable self, which would be reason enough to watch, but it may be a really good series. 

Have a great day!

I Made It on My Schacht Contest!

Schacht is having a contest for spinners and weavers. Read all about it here.

I'm wondering (since I no longer have a Schacht wheel) if I could submit something spun on a Schacht Navajo spindle. The prize is a Schacht matchless wheel or a loom, which is silly when you stop to think about it because you have to have one of those in order to enter.

Check out the entry form.

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I spent a few hours on the bus today and went over and paid my Comcast bill. I got information on my account. The bill is due on the last day of the month and must be paid by the 5th of the following month. Which means that unless I pay a month in advance, I'll have to pay a late fee every month. Since my entire income for the month arrives on the third, this is a bad arrangement. I can't mail in a payment without incurring a late fee.

If you have Comcast "service" (and I use the word service very loosely), check your bill. If you see something on there listed as a "one time charge," it's really a late fee. Check your billing date, due date, and the date of the last day you can pay without incurring a late fee.

I'm really disgusted with them.

My DVR started to record two programs tonight, and then just stopped. Then it turned itself off. I restarted it, and eventually started (on my command) to record one of the two programs it was supposed to record, but wouldn't start recording the other one because it said it was already recording that program, but it wasn't.

If I complain about this, they'll claim that the DVR is defective (which it is), and tell me to bring it back. The problem with that (other than the fact that I just spent the day going over there and back, and don't want to spend tomorrow dragging a big DVR over there and back) is that all their DVRs are unreliable and only work some of the time. I've had at least one other DVR, and have talked to others who have them, and all their DVRs are just badly engineered, and exchanging it for a different one is not really going to fix anything.

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While I was out riding around on the bus, I stopped at JoAnn Fabrics and found some really nice yarn for a project for the Harry Potter House Cup contest on Ravelry. Photos of the yarn and the beginning of my insane project soon. I'll have further news about the project, too.

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Tonight, USA is showing the season finale of Burn Notice! If you missed it, it's usually repeated sometime early Saturday, so check your local listings. It's about to start here in a few minutes, so I'm going to quit now.

Have a great Friday!