Happy October!

The weather outside still feels like summer, although there's a noticeable chill in the evening air, but it's now officially October.

When I was a teenager, this was the time of year when you actually needed a Winter coat. Global warming is probably not something you notice if you're currently a teenager, but if you've been around like me, you can't miss it!

This month includes Octoberfest and Halloween! The TV stations will start airing their spooky shows, building up to the end of the month. I, for one, can't wait!

Tomorrow is also the Fall Fiber Fest, and it's been raining for most of the week. OK, so it's sunny today. After attending the mud fest they had a few years ago after only two days of rain and one sunny day, I have serious doubts about attending. I talked to Holly last night and told her that although I'd like to go, I have serious doubts about the ground out there, and if she doesn't want to go, I won't be upset with her about it.

Later on in the month, Holly has a knitting retreat, and a project she has to knit for it. And even later in the month, the Renfaire is over, and we're hoping to squeeze in just one more visit.

It's going to be a busy month!

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Tonight, we have brand new episodes of Medium and Supernatural, and an episode of Human Target that may or may not be new. I know it's new season is starting soon, but I'm not sure if this is it.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Four Wheeling and Miscellaneous Information

I'm having a dull weekend at home, but Holly and Robin have gone four wheeling in their new Hummer this weekend!

This is a photo taken with Holly's phone, and it shows how much fun they've been having! She said they've also scratched the paint. I can see from the photo that they've gotten and installed a roof rack, spotlights and a grill over the front of the vehicle. Oh, and they've also installed a lot of mud!

Looks like they've been having fun!

Speaking of fun, Holly and Robin and I are going to go to the Renfaire on Labor Day! Everett and Jeff have been invited, but I don't know if they're actually going to go. I am so excited I can't wait!

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I've been mentioning information about thyroid problems from time to time on the blog, and ran across a useful post on the Stop the Thyroid Madness blog. Check out Ten Thyroid Tidbits!

There were a few things that surprised me in it. I had heard that most cooking oils tend to suppress thyroid function, and that one of the best things is to switch to coconut oil for cooking (and be sure to cook at a lower temp--coconut oil burns at a much lower temp than most cooking oils), but she sounds like she's talking about eating it. Which sounds gross, except that I've cooked with it, and it tastes sweet. Her recommendation of coconut milk would probably be the way to go if you're not planning to cook with it. One thing you do NOT want to do is drink Silk (soy milk)! Not only does it suppress thyroid function and promote weight gain through that mechanism, it also adds lots of extra estrogen to your system. As a country, we're using so much soy that the excess is causing pollution that's making fish hermaphroditic.

Anyway, if you're interested in your health, check it out!

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In science fiction news, I just found some information about the new season of Doctor Who! The way it's explained, it sounds good, but all I know about it is in the article, so check it out.

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There is a blog that I've been reading since 2004 (wow--six years) by fibermom which is an interesting blog, or I wouldn't have been reading it so long.

I'm mentioning it today, though, because she's doing something she's been doing since before I started reading her blog. She's going to participate in the Holiday Grand Plan, which is a plan which happens to start today, and is intended to get you ready for the holidays without getting frazzled. You can read about it at the above two links.

Yesterday, I suddenly decided I need to start making a list of Christmas presents to get/make for friends and family, so I guess I've already started in a way. Mind you, I didn't actually start making the list, but I thought I should do that since most of the presents I give are hand made.

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Have you ever watched TV and saw someone use a gun with a silencer and wondered how it works? Well, you can find out right here.

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It's getting late, and I've been thinking for a while that I need to try to get out and walk every day. So, I'm going to go and do that. I'm taking my camera! Just in case.

Have a fabulous week!

Recap of Sunday

Well, as it turned out, the only two to show up for the Renfair on Sunday were Holly and Everett.

The weather people said that it would stop raining around noon, so I thought it would probably be pretty muddy, plus probably overcast (so not so good for taking photos), I didn't want to do too much walking and endanger walking next weekend, and I didn't have any money to spend. So I opted to save Holly two to three hours of driving time and not go. I live in the opposite direction from the Renfair, so she would have had to spend a half an hour or more (depending on traffic) to get here to pick me up, plus the same to drive back to where she would have been if she hadn't picked me up, plus the same to take me home.

I'm really torn about that decision. Holly says it wasn't muddy except in a few spots. She and Everett didn't do much walking, and mostly watched shows. She says she didn't buy anything. Then she adds that she bought a replacement for the sash from her costume (which she lost). Then later on in the conversation, she says she bought Everett a shirt.

The skies were magnificent around here, and I guess that she had similar weather there. We'd have bright sunlight, with a huge pile of thunderheads building up to the side of the sky. Then it clouded over entirely and was overcast. Then there was sun again, etc, all afternoon.

But the part of her story that's driving me mad is the part about a sgian dubh at Black Sword Armoury. That last link to the Armoury will take you there, but a lot of what they have isn't listed. Holly described it as having a hilt with a Celtic knot and a blue stone set into it. At the price, $15, I suspect that the "stone" is glass, but it sounds very pretty! Judging by her description, I want one! Lots and lots!

So, anyway, the two of them had a wonderful Sunday walking around the Renfair and seeing the shows.

Holly told me about a place that has some fabulous stuff made from antler that's new at the fair, too. I can't wait for our visit in October.

But the thing I'm really excited about right now is the Fall Fiber Fest, which is this coming weekend! My mind has been working overtime on what kind of a hat I would make for Heather. She doesn't want me to make anything original, though, so the yarn is going back to her along with the Hermione hat that she requested.

But I've designed at least two fabulous hats in my head, and I want to get yarn to knit them in, along with matching scarves (or wimples), mitts, and possibly mittens. I've found some nice yarn in Knit Picks, too, but I'm excited about looking at the FFF. I don't expect to be able to afford more than yarn for one set, but at least I can look around and have fun.

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The only real science fiction on tonight is reruns of Warehouse 13 (which is always fun), but don't miss Eastwick tomorrow night!

Have a great evening!

Lost Fan Alert!

For any of you Lost fen out there, I hope that you were watching Flash Forward on Thursday or Friday! The pilot for it contains clues for what's happening in Lost! Check it out here! The article has all the information in it, which is a good thing, because I certainly didn't catch that billboard in the background of that shot!

I think that it's pretty sneaky to put clues to one show into another show in the form of a billboard!

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What, you may ask, am I doing blogging when I had planned to be at the Renfair today? Well, it's been raining all afternoon. They said that they expected to have a couple of inches of rain today. I did go out for a little while, and it was more than enough. I came home after walking to the grocery store (a very short walk) soggy and wishing I hadn't been out at all.

They're saying that it will rain tomorrow morning, but that it will clear out during the afternoon, and there might even be just a little sun. Holly said that she and Everett, et al, want to go tomorrow. Even if it does stop raining, it's going to be muddy and unpleasant. I'm charging some batteries so they'll be fresh to power the camera tomorrow, and I'm charging the battery in my little camera, but I'm really questioning whether it's really worthwhile to go tomorrow. Holly and I agreed to talk about it sometime today.

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Have a great weekend! Wherever you are, I hope the weather is better than it is here.

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Addition:

Yesterday, Nathan Fillion said on Twitter that he was going to be on TV last night. He neglected to mention what he was going to wear while he was there.

As you can see, he wore a kilt, and not just an ordinary fabric kilt, but a leather one. Most of the conversation centers on the topic of kilts, and it gets mildly risque, so be forewarned.

For instance, when asked the inevitable question about what he's wearing under it, Nathan says something about the proper answer to that question is "Your mother's lipstick!"

I Think I'm Back, Now

I haven't been feeling really good for a long time, now, but the antibiotics and decongestant I've been taking have been having side effects that have had me feeling worse than usual for the last week or so. But I've just taken the last antibiotic pill, and so I assume that I'll be feeling better soon. At this point, I don't think they have improved the general background low grade sickness, though. I was really hoping they would.

So, anyway, it looks like I should be back to posting almost every day soon.

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Holly is coming home today from her weekend trip. I heard from her last night, and the trip was good and bad. She had severe plane delays on the way out, but did get to Hoagie Man at least once, and planned to go again before she left. This was complicated by the fact that her phone managed to quit working, necessitating a trip to the phone store to get it going again. It quit again soon after being fixed, but then was fiddled into working again. The renfair trip on Saturday seemed to be a success. At least she said that she'd bought a really beautiful ring that I can't wait to see.

She didn't want to hang on the phone for long last night when I talked to her, so I got a sketchy report of Sunday's renfair trip, and it wasn't pretty. There was a lot of rain, and it was chilly, which didn't go at all with her pirate costume, which, you may remember from the last post was a bit skimpy on warmth. Her wool felt tricorn hat may never recover. Heather got fed up with it and left, then promptly had a car accident due (I presume) to the bad weather. I get the impression that although there was a lot to enjoy, the general misery from the weather cut into the merriment.

I wish her a safe trip home!

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I managed to knit the entire ankle, a heel flap, turn the heel, and most of the gusset on the last blue sock for Holly on Saturday while watching Children of Earth again on my DVR from last weekend's BBC in America extravaganza. I've gotten the green yarn wound into balls (actually cakes) and am into the heel flap on the first green sock for her. I've discovered that the green dye on the socks is coming off on my hands, so now I have green marks there. That's the first yarn I've gotten from Knit Picks that's done that. So, now I'll have to wash the green socks before I can give them to her.

I washed Heather's yarn in shampoo and conditioner in hopes of softening it, but with no real improvement. It looks like somebody sold her the first yarn they'd ever spun. It's a singles, which can be OK to knit, if the spinner knows what she's doing. A singles is inherently not a balanced yarn, and will tend to skew. Overcoming this tendency is delicate, and easy to mess up. On top of being a singles, as I said, one skein looks like it was the first thing someone ever spun. It's not even structurally sound. Some of it is thinner than sewing thread and overspun, ready to snap at the slightest tension, and it has slubs, which are spaced far apart and not a relatively even design feature, that are thicker than some of the bulkiest yarn. The other skein is more evenly spun. It has some thick and thin, but is nice, stable, handspun.

Whoever spun it tried to make it act like a balanced yarn by boiling the heck out of it while dying it with logwood, which produced a stunningly beautiful lavender color, and turned some perfectly good wool into something that feels like steel wool. While boiling, they didn't put any tension on it, so there are a lot of kinks that are felted into the wool.

I'm thinking about plying the two skeins in hopes of removing a bit of the bias, which is till there, and making it actually structurally sound before knitting it. I'm having a hard time trying to decide how to handle it because it's really bad. I don't think it would look good in the Hermionie's Hat pattern. Actually, once it's plied, I think it would look good in a very plain hat pattern to show off the slubs and inconsistencies of the yarn. I'm thinking it over while I knit Holly's sock before I do anything. This is turning into trying to make a silk hat out of a sow's ear. Whoever ruined this wool should be ashamed of themselves!

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This week will see the beginning of a number of new shows, so pay close attention to your TV guide, and prepare to be entertained!

Being Human is on daytime BBC in America today! Later on, we'll have the season premiers of Heroes, Castle, and The Big Bang Theory!

Tomorrow is the season finale of Warehouse 13! If you've heard about it but missed the beginning and want to see it (and have a way to record it or have the day off) you can watch the whole, entire first season of Warehouse 13 on SyFy tomorrow, starting early in the day!

On Wednesday, the premier of Eastwick will be happening on ABC. This show looks interesting!

Thursday will see the premier of Flash Forward! I've been seeing the trailers for it, and I'm excited! This premise has a lot of potential. The season premier of The Mentalist will also be on!

Also on Thursday, we'll get to see the second episode of the season of Fringe and the third of Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries. Well, you might get to see The Vampire Diaries. I won't. I can only watch two programs at a time, and I'd rather see the second episode of Bones. The premier of Supernatural was as wonderful as I'd hoped. I have the second episode on the DVR, and I'm saving it up for a special treat!

And on Friday, we have the long-awaited premier of Dollhouse! Of course, there's an episode between the last one aired and the new premier that you won't have seen unless you bought the Dollhouse DVD. I think that's really chintzy of Fox, but then they are the same people who managed to kill Firefly, which is one of the best shows I've seen on TV since Babylon 5.

And, just before Dollhouse on Friday is the season opener of Ghost Whisperer!

Whew! My DVR is going to be really busy this week!

I hope you have a great week, and enjoy all the great shows on TV!

Holy Cow! It's the Renfair!

Holy Cow! The Renfair was fun! Today is the last day, so if you haven't gone, it's too late. You'll have to wait until next year.

Unfortunately, Everett couldn't come along. He just got out of the hospital where they finally determined that he didn't have pneumonia. I'm glad about that, but he's still pretty sick.

Holly said she had a phone call from him yesterday morning. It started with a lot of coughing, followed by "Does that answer your question?"

Holly ordered a custom-made guitar strap for Robin, and tried to get them to commit to making a sheath for her dagger (the one with the heart cut into the blade), but the woman who actually would make it wasn't there.

She bought an incredible mask! If I'd been thinking at all, I would have taken a photo of it while it was in the store, but I was asleep at the switch. It's got a very spooky, long angular face when you see it from one side (as I did when I first looked at it). But if you walk to the other side, there's another face. It's outrageous! I told her that once Robin sees it, she's going to have to fight him for it.

We walked until we didn't want to walk anymore.

They had a showing of something called "MacBeth in 20 Minutes" which was hilarious, Holly said. I missed it.

And we got some JERSEY TOMATOES! I am so happy. I had a tomato sandwich this morning!

Yes, I know I reported that there had been a frost up there, but apparently not. I got an email from Lynn yesterday which said, in part: 

"I need to correct myself. We have not had temps lower than the high 30s one night. Sorry, it's hard to think it's not colder when you haven't turned your heater on yet. Billy hasn't cleaned the heater yet. He's only had all spring and summer to get that chore out of the way. He says "Sometime this week". I even told him about the noise I heard in the house. I listened closely and followed the sounds. I found myself in the basement standing next to the heater when I perked my ears to faintly hear the whispers. "You must gather your husband to perform the yearly cleaning of my innards so you can have heat in your home emitting from other than your stove burners."  

"Obviously, Billy was listening quite keenly till the heater started whispering to me."

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In knitting news, I found some beautiful Red Heart Symphony yarn in my stash that had been earmarked for a couple of ponchos, and started one of them yesterday morning so I would have something to knit on the ride to and from the Renfair, and while I was there. It's a beautiful lavender, and I think the color has been discontinued, which is unfortunate, because it's beautiful!

I didn't want to drag the Celtic sweater (in progress) around with me yesterday. I was at a point where there was some cabling going on, and I lose cable needles around the house all the time. That means that I find them again within a few hours, but if I lose one at the Renfair, it's gone forever.

Last night and earlier today, I did some more on it, and I'm almost at the bottom of the sleeve. It's turning out very nicely! The cables are crossed at the bottom of the cross, and will (later) be continued as I-cord that will be threaded through the row of eyelets. This can be left almost as a surface design to have a sleeve with a belled shape, or pulled tighter to make a bloused sleeve with a ruffle around the bottom. This is going to be so cool!

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Today, I checked my email and there was a special offer from a clothing company. I wanted to buy a nightgown/dress that I had been discussing with Fibermom on my other blog. I tend to buy/make clothes to wear around the house that are comfortable enough to sleep in, but look nice enough that I don't mind stepping out the door or answering it. Clothes that look good and don't really look like nightgowns. Something perfect if I ever get to go to Pennsic again.

Anyway, there's one I had planned to buy so that I would have something pretty to wear at Stitches East in the hotel (I don't actually plant to wear it at Stitches).

Anyway, the place that has it for sale had it on sale, and not only is the price reduced, but they're throwing in express shipping and they're giving me a cabled cotton knit blanket! 

I snapped that one up right away!

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I watched Tomb Raider on TNT earlier today, and I want to get off so I can finish watching Cradle of Life, which is on now. If you're disappointed you missed it, set your VCR or DVR. It's on again late tonight (early tomorrow morning).

I found a ton of really neat stuff on the Joss Whedon website today.

Dollhouse won't be ready in time to be a midseason replacement, so we may have to wait until next Fall. You can find the information here, scroll down the page a bit.

The cutest thing is about to be available. A maquette of Kaylee! She is just so adorable!

And Firefly has added a new word to the dictionary: Browncoat! I don't know how many Firefly fans there are out there, but they sure are vocal and sincere! And now Firefly, like the Yarn Harlot, has added a word to the language.

And I found a photo of James Marsters (Spike from Buffy) wearing a Jayne hat!

I want to get back to Cradle of Life, and finishing the sleeve so I can start the other one.

I hope you had as great a weekend as I did!

No Renfair for Me Today

And how, you may ask am I able to blog today from the Renfair?

Well, the answer is that we aren't going today. We'll be going next Saturday.

Holly called early this morning and let me know that some unavoidable disturbances at her apartment meant that she was able to get only a half hour sleep all night last night, and she didn't plan to go.

This was added to the last minute information that John and Malaia would not be able to go today due to last minute problems.

The two bright spots are that I will be able to do some more on the bedroom today and that I will be going next Saturday!

So, I'm blogging.

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Here's a peek at the cross from the  right sleeve of the Celtic sweater.


Looks nice, doesn't it?

Well, the sleeve looks awful, and there's no way in the world to fix the sleeve without fixing the shoulder.

And, of course, there's no way to fix the shoulder without ripping back to it.

So last night a took a deep breath and bit the bullet. I frogged all but the hood and the shoulder tops (which will have to be lengthened).

Frogging something like this is no joke.

It took about 3 hours and a lot of physical effort to frog about 3,000 yards of yarn!

I lengthened one shoulder strap this morning and have started on the left front. Again.

But look at all the fun knitting there is in front of me to do! It's all pretty and new again.

This time, I'm going to knit the sleeves when I get to the end of the sleeve opening in the body!

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There was an email in my inbox today from Amazon. There's a new Canon Camera out that they thought I would like to know about. They were right.

It's the brand new Canon Powershot SX10 IS! I haven't been able to find out yet about it's ability to use filters, but I can't imagine that they would make it impossible to use them.

I sent Canon an email asking about this, and I'll let you know.

Have a great weekend

Renfair Tomorrow!

Friday the Thirteenth is on the daytime rotation at SciFi today.

Tonight, they'll be having a new episode of Sanctuary, plus a new episode of Stargate Atlantis, preceeded by last week's episode, which was continued to this week, so if you missed it last week, you might want to watch it tonight.

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Renfair is tomorrow! Holly, Malaia and I will be going, and I assume that John, Everett, Jeff and Ashton will go, too. You can expect no post tomorrow.

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I have a lot of work to do on the bedroom today if I want to have any hope of being ready for inspection on Tuesday, so you may notice that this is a very short, quick post. So, here's another photo John sent me for your entertainment.

Have a great Friday and weekend!

September Charms Homework

You may or may not be aware that I have joined a Harry Potter House Cup KAL on Ravelry.

Each month (or in one case, each week) there is a homework assignment posted for any members who care to participate.

The September Charms assignment was to choose either Lumos or Wingardium Leviosa to knit something for.

For Wingardium Leviosa, we need to make something that shows something that flies, or, for extra points, is something that flies itself, like a kite. The sweater I did for an earlier HP KAL would have been perfect. One year, for Christmas, Harry gets a blue sweater from Mrs. Weasley with a snitch on the front of it. Of course, since I did this for a previous KAL, it's not eligible.



For Lumos, you need to make something that shows something that lights up, or, better yet, something that actually lights up.

I made this Christmas stocking with beads (some of them star shaped) and white yarn that are glow-in-the-dark, so that when the lights go out, the stocking lights up by itself.

You can see other finished projects here.

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Yesterday, I planned to do a lot of things, but then reality intruded with it's own plans, and very little of the the things I planned actually got done.

I'm finding that the current second great depression is causing a lot of the same effects as the first one There was a discussion I heard on the radio about it because of a book that had been written on the the great depression. 

The author said that it tended to separate people by their reaction to it. Some people became very nasty and treated others badly because those others could no longer afford to pay their debts. Some of these people went so far as to abandon their children.

In other cases, whole communities banded together to help each other survive in the best way possible.

Yesterday, annoyed that my bank had imposed fees that they previously had told me they wouldn't do, I went to close an account with them. I was amazed to find that they refunded some of the fees, changed my account to one without fees, and added in several nice things I hadn't even thought to ask for! So, now, according to the new set-up, I not only have a little money to spend at the Fall Fiber Fest, that money shouldn't be spent on anything but fiberarts, and I really need to spend it to avoid bank fees! This is the first time in my life that somebody else wanted me to spend money at a fiberarts sale!

So, now I'm really excited about the Fall Fiber Fest on Saturday! There has been some rain last week, and it looks like it might rain now, so I'm not sure about the footing we'll find this weekend. I'm taking my Wellies. But the weather sounds like it would not be better if we were given an air conditioning controller to set it up! The high for the day will be about 70, so we may want a little something to keep warm at some point, but it will not be too hot, even in the sun that is expected!

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So, here is the schedule coming up for a while:

4 Sep 08  Fall Fiber Festival

18 Sep 08  Maryland Renaissance Festival

6-9 Nov 08  Stitches East

And then, of course, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year and Twelfth Night.

Wow! What a lot of wonderful stuff to do!

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John and I are getting down to the end on the front cover of the New Steve Canyon DVD. We are pretty much agreed on the cover except for the colors for the title. We worked on it for a while yesterday.

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Tonight, Pushing Daisies is back on ABC for it's season premier!

In non-SF TV news tonight, it will be followed by Private Practice,  and Bones will be on at the same time.

Knight Rider will also be on (NBC) at the same time, which creates a conflict for me. I found the premier sufficiently intriguing to want to watch some more, but it will not be on again later in the week on the SciFi Channel, so I'll have to make some hard choices in order to see it.

Tomorrow evening, get set for another new episode of Supernatural, which has developed into the best spooky show on TV for a long time.

And on Friday, the premier of Sanctuary will be lighting up the SciFi Channel.

Have a great rest-of-the-week!

The Maryland Renaissance Festival!

The Maryland Renaissance Festival was wonderful yesterday.

It was also way beyond warm and into danger-to-life-and-limb territory.

A lot of walking can be a problem for me, but yesterday I didn't do much walking because of the heat.

It was so good to see Malaia and John again! They are both so much fun! They showed up in Renaissance garb, and Holly was determined to do the same, even though she arrived wearing shorts.

Everett, Jeff and Ashton were welcome additions to the group, too.

After looking around a bit, she found and bought this outfit. Very Pirate. She later bought a tri-corn hat to complete the look.

I was afraid that I would be having so much fun that I would forget to take any photos. Well, I remembered, but I didn't take many photos, and that's always a mistake. One of the major secrets of really great photography is to take lots and lots of photos. Some of them will be exceptional just out of shear happenstance.

I didn't take enough photos of Malaia and John, and this is the poor result:


Well, we'll be going back to the Renfair again before the end of the season. I know. Holly bought me a two day ticket, so I still have it left for the next trip.

I bought a few pieces of really beautiful rocks (amethyst and fluorite) and a cup from the Dancing Pig.

This has a rounded bottom on the inside, and that means it's useful for scooping out small items stored in it. Oh, and it has a star on it. I love stars.

I finished the mittens (which only required blocking--I'll do some garter stitch at the cuff next time instead of going right into stockinet stitch) and the boot toppers witch also required a bit of steam in spite of having a garter stitch border.

Here's a photo of two of the mittens. Since they're ambidextrous, I always make three so that when you lose one, you still have a pair.

I haven't gotten around to taking a photo of the boot toppers yet. When I finish the scarf, I plan to take a photo of them all together.

On Monday evening, (early), the SciFi Channel will start rerunning the entire Lost series. I know so many people who love that series, and who swear it's science fiction, so here's my chance to find out.

I watched two or three episodes from somewhere in the middle, and didn't get it, and didn't see anything to suggest that it was SF. So now I can find out if I was wrong. They'll be showing the two hour pilot, and two more episodes, so I can get a good, big dose of it.

You may notice that they'll also be showing Charlie Jade later (early Tuesday morning). I had heard a few good things about it, but it's very muddled. The plot seems to mill around in a circle most of the time.

John Ellis is bugging me to finish this post and get it out so he can see the photos.

I hope you all got the chance to see the big announcement on his blog yesterday. If not, check it out here.

I hope your weekend was as much fun as mine!

Hi! It's Friday!

It's Friday, and tomorrow I will be at the Renfair, so don't expect a post.

And today, I have lots of stuff to do, food shopping (because I need some), a trip to the library (a book came in), filling out more paperwork (because it's the only way I'll be rid of it) and laundry (which I hate, because it exposes me to all sorts of allergens and makes me want to pass out afterward). So, I have to get started on that.

The paperwork will be easier because I finally got System 9.2 installed, so I can now use Quark XPress to write letters. I know that XPress is overkill if all I wanted to do is write letters, but I have it so that I can do other things with it, and since I'm so used to working with it, it's a shame not to use the program that makes things easy for me.

Finally! It's taken me more than a year to get this computer up and running and capable of doing what I need to do on it! And, I even got the cable earlier this week to plug into the internet permanently and not have to run a cable across the living room floor and then unplug it when I'm done with the internet. 

I have a whole pile of knitting projects that just need a few more stitches and/or some blocking to be finished. If I don't get them done tonight (unlikely), I may make a stab at them on Sunday, depending on how bad I feel. I expect to be doing a lot of walking tomorrow, and that usually makes me feel bad the next day.

I know. That actually means that I should be doing more walking every day to build up to it.

So, anyway, photos coming up real soon now.

There is news on Dollhouse! Check it out!

For all you Steve Canyon fans, be sure to check the Steve Canyon on DVD blog tomorrow! There will be big news. I've been sworn to secrecy (due to having gotten details wrong in the past), but can tell you that John has big things planned. While you're there, you can get the special edition DVD at a good discount. 

H, have a great weekend!

Photos and Science Fiction

No, I don't have  a photo of the mittens yet. I haven't blocked them.

But I have so many photos today that another one would really jam things up.

Friday, after I left JoAnn Fabrics, I was standing out by the curb, waiting for the bus and I looked up and saw this:

One of the prettiest skys I've ever seen. The fact that hurricane Hannah was arriving later in the day may have had something to do with it. It really was pretty, though.

Yesterday, I bought my bad weather boots. By that I mean boots for bad weather. Pay attention to this. It doesn't seem like it, but this will eventually be knitting-related.

I have a choice between a long scarf and boot toppers or a really long scarf to finish up my blue multi set of stuff.

I chose the boot toppers. So, the finished parts of the set include: mitts, watch cap, and mittens. The still-to-be-finished part includes a scarf and boot toppers. The boot toppers haven't been started yet.

So, the photo shows you what one of the boots looks like all by itself.

I have to have my charms project for the Harry Potter KAL done by the first of October, and I just got the final component to make them, so I started on that last night.

Here's a photo of the sample swatch. I just want white (glow-in-the-dark) stars strewn across a dark blue background. I used the fluorescent orange beads for the sample because I can't envision a project that could possibly use beads in orange, so I can keep the swatch without unravelling it because I know I won't need the beads.

Here's where I've gotten so far:

The navy yarn does not glow in the dark. All the white stuff does. It's going to be very Ravenclaw.

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Now on to the science fiction news!

The SciFi Channel is putting on some neat stuff this week during their daytime rotation.

Tomorrow will be a synopsis of the first year of the new Doctor Who, starting with Rose, and finishing with The Parting of the Ways. Since there are too many episodes to fit in that time frame, they will be skipping some of them. One that will be skipped that I will miss is Boom Town. The story isn't among the best, but I love the scenes with Rose, Mickey, Jack, and the Doctor. They're such a terrific group! 

But The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances will be included, as will Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways. So, you'll get to see the episode where we seem to first get to meet Captain Jack Harkness. You'll also get to see where we actually first get to meet Jack in The End of the World, even though you won't recognize him. And you'll get to see what Rose does that will change Jack forever.

Oh, and, very important, the Doctor Who episode Blink will be on SciFi on Friday morning at about 5 am. Blink seems to be everyone's favorite episode, and the Doctor hardly appears in it at all!

Continuing with the daytime schedule on SciFi, Wednesday will bring us Stargate SG-1. Highlights from that include 200, where the team tries to help Martin Lloyd with a script for his TV show, and The Quest (a two part episode) followed by Line in the Sand, where the team has an adventure based on the Arthurian legend.

Thursday during the day on SciFi we have The Twilight Zone, followed by Dark Angel on Friday.

Tuesday evening, SciFi will be showing a new episode of Eureka, (Phased and Confused) right after they show again the episode from last week and two weeks before that. If you want to watch Fringe, the new Eureka episode will be rerun later.

Tuesday evening will also be memorable for the premier of Fringe on Fox.

Well, it's Fall on TV. We new that good, or at least new things were coming.

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In the meantime, I'm looking forward to Saturday and the Renfair. The question is, do I want to dress up for this? Holly pointed out that Malaia and John will be wearing garb, and she probably will, too, unless it's really warm.

Well, that about does it for one day.

Have a great Monday!

Castle

For all you fans of Firefly, who are keeping track of the actors who were in it, there is a new TV series coming up midseason this Winter that you'll be interested in.

The new show is called Castle, after it's main character, Nick Castle, played by Nathan Fillion.

Just click on the the link for Castle, it says it all much better than I can. OK, so it's not science fiction, but it looks like it's going to be good.

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Today, Holly and I went out together.

First stop was Michaels, where I bought 4 balls of white glow-in-the-dark yarn for the Christmas stocking I'm making for my September Charms homework in the Harry Potter KAL.

I have a swatch for the beads nearly done, and there will be at least one photo tomorrow.

We stopped at WalMart and picked up some miscellaneous necessaries, and then it was over to TJ Maxx in the Potomac Mills Mall to get the boots I saw on Friday and didn't get. Photo tomorrow.

Then we walked around the mall a bit, and Holly got one of the prettiest heart necklaces I've seen. She had it engraved "Holly" on one side, and "Robin" on the other.

We got pretzel dogs from Aunt Annies, and while we were sitting and eating, she said "I have bad news for you. You're going to have to get up early next Saturday morning." I was delighted!

Yes, it's true, we'll be going to the Renfair on Saturday. I'll try to remember to take pictures, but usually I'm having so much fun that I don't remember to take pictures.

It's been a long day, and I did a lot of walking on Friday and today, so I'm going to cut this short.

But not before I remind you that the premier of Fringe will be on Tuesday night on Fox.

I hope you had a great weekend!

Holly's Back!

Holly was able to find the bus station in Baltimore, and get back to DC by about 7 pm.

She called at ten to let me know that she was alright.

She had something interesting to say, too. She and John went right past the Howard County Fairgrounds on their way into Baltimore. Holly pointed out the location and said it was where the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival was held, and John surprised her by telling her that he and Malaia will be living about 5 minutes away from there.

When she told me, I asked her if she warned him to expect a whole batch of people arriving to stay at his place on the first Friday of May and staying until Sunday. Holly was giggling about the plans I was making to arrive on Friday evening, get a good head start early on Saturday, and then stay over so we can get back and get what we forgot on Sunday.

She was trying to explain to John why he really wants to go to the festival. She doesn't have to explain it to Malaia, who has been there several times while she was growing up.

But they did discuss the Maryland Renaissance Festival. John loves the RenFair, no matter where it's held. He was flabbergasted when Holly told him how long it runs, and I don't think he has any concept of how big it is, even though Holly tried to tell him.

He was really upset about some of the people he'll be missing in the Toledo area, but he was even more upset about being away from Malaia, even though that's going to be for a short time. They're hoping that Malaia will have moved out here by the end of August. Just in time for the RenFair.

I'm finally starting to get excited about the Celtic Festival.

I don't know what's the matter with me. The festival just hasn't seemed real to me this year. Or maybe it's the problem I have with time. The fest is real, but it feels like it's two months from now, so I'm not really excited yet. In real time, Lynn will be arriving later this week and the fest is on Saturday.

I just have so much I want to talk to Lynn about. And Holly. I want to hear all about the party. And I really want to see photos!

The silk yarn is washed and dried and ready to wind into balls. Knitting will commence on the rune bags this evening.

I'm almost finished rereading "Small Favor" from the Dresden Files books, and I still really want to reread "Deathly Hallows." I read it twice last summer, and then wanted to read it again, but got distracted with something else. What can I say? I guess I just LOVE wizards named Harry!

There's nothing but The Hulk on SciFi during the day all week. Good luck with that.

I planned a post telling you how to take good photos with the equipment I told you about, but it's going to have to wait until tomorrow or later this week. I also changed my recommendation for a camera. Further investigation showed that the one I recommended has a bad track record for reliability, although it's otherwise very nice. Canon cameras have a number of features that are really good for this kind of thing, and are usually quite reliable. What happened to this particular model, I don't know. There are some new camera bags in my store, too, and a new section for cool DVDs.

Have a great Monday!