Busy Week!

This has been such a busy week!

Monday, I went and did my monthly shopping at WalMart. 

Tuesday and Wednesday there was supposed to be freezing rain all day, so I tried to stay in. Thankfully, the temperatures didn't get down to freezing, so it was just a lot of rain.

Wednesday I had a dentist's appointment, so couldn't manage to stay in. I rushed over there, and the dentist's assistant was out sick, and doing fillings is a two-person job, so they made an appointment for me yesterday.

Yesterday, I went back and had two fillings removed and replaced. Then I walked over to the clinic and picked up my medicine. I had a choice of two bus stops to go to (the clinic is at one point of a triangle between two bus stops at the other two points). I chose to go to CVS for something my local CVS doesn't have and caught the bus nearby.

Then I went to the Post Office to mail a pattern to Germany. The Post Office charged me $1.75 instead of the $30 they said it would cost on their website.

By the time I got out of there, the temperature was dropping (along with the sun) and the wind was picking up. Luckily I didn't have long to wait for the bus, but it was long enough to get really chilled. Then I stopped at JoAnn Fabrics, which was having a fabulous sale. Unfortunately, this particular JoAnn will be moving next month, so they haven't been ordering new anything, so although the prices were great, there wasn't much to buy. I bought a couple of balls of Paton's Classic Wool in the blue rag color. Somewhere in my travels (I think it was at the clinic) I lost one of my mitts, and had to keep my hand in my pocket when I was out for the rest of the trip. I'll get more yarn tomorrow and make a couple more. Normally, I make three at a time, but I ran out of yarn at the end of the second one, and was going to get more tomorrow to make the third one.

Today, I need to take some books back to the Library and pick up a DVD I requested and then stop by Safeway. Oh, and taking down the Christmas decorations might be nice, too, if I get the time.

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In between all of this, I managed to almost finish the second Christmas stocking! I'm down to the white part in the toe. I'm hoping to knock out one of these a week if my wrist and hand hold out.

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Right before I left for the dentist yesterday, there was a knock at my door, and the UPS guy delivered my DVD recorder. I didn't have time to do more than open it and marvel at how wonderful it was at the time.

Today, I tried to wade through the instruction manual, and I have to say, that although I was responsible for putting together the instruction manual (and repair manual, wiring diagrams, etc.) for the BMEWS project, this thing is written in gobbledygook! It says that upsampling makes a better picture and you should always use it when playing back DVDs, but it also says that all the outputs from the recorder are disabled if you use upsampling. It also uses lots of words for which it doesn't supply a definition, and is written in the kind of pidgin English that you get from having a native speaker of another language try to translate to English without any knowledge of English grammar.

I also have to read the whole manual and determine what I need to buy to make it work. Some of the cables it says are included don't appear to be there. Plus, I definitely haven't gotten any blank DVDs to record to.

It will be an adventure.

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I've recently discovered something interesting about the current depression. It's been more than a week since the Safeway near me had any Coca Cola in two liter bottles. I asked the manager of the store about it, and she said that they can't get any more than that from the distributer. So, although the store is able to sell two or three times as much Coke as they do, they can't because the distributer won't supply it.

I believe what the manager of the store said because when they are out of Coke, so are all the other supermarkets in the area. And I'll bet that the CEO of Coke is wondering why their sales are half of what they should be.

I've noticed the same pattern with other groceries, too. Stores are out of certain items half the time, and when one is out, they're all out. Which means that those companies could be selling at least twice as much if they made the goods available.

Another point in case is the WalMart near where I live. I suspect that WalMart and Caron made a deal, because the only place that you can buy the new Caron Simply Soft Eco yarn is at WalMart.

Except that you can't buy it at WalMart. The local store put out a limited display of it about three months ago, and promptly sold out almost all of it. End of story. No more has been put out on the shelves. They have an empty section marked for that yarn with only a few balls of yarn left from the original supply.

And the WalMart in Manassas doesn't carry it at all. There aren't even empty shelves for it. If you want to buy it, you have to go to the WalMart in Dumfries. They have a beautiful (usually full) display of beautiful colors available. The display changes, and there is usually a difference in the display that shows that they're stocking the shelves and selling it.

The other WalMarts could be selling it, too, but they don't bother putting it out on the shelves.

What is wrong with American business? I understand that there's a depression on, but these are things they could sell if they bothered to make them available.

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As far as science fiction on television is concerned, brace yourself for a roller coaster ride! All the great series are coming back for their midseason premiers this month, and they're showing reruns leading up to the new shows in the meantime.

Next Wednesday evening, ABC will be showing a Lost marathon! That will be preceded, of course, by the usual Lost marathon on the SciFi Channel on Monday evening. And G4 is also showing episodes of Lost almost every day. They really seem to want to get people excited about the premier in a couple of weeks.

USA is having a Psych marathon during the daytime today, in case you're in time to catch the end of it.

And, of course, SciFi is having a Stargate Atlantis marathon every day during their daytime rotation this week in preparation for the season finale tonight, witch will be followed by a new Sanctuary.

Well, I need to get moving. There's lots to do today.

Have a great weekend!

Happy Twelfth Night!

Happy Twelfth Night!

During the Middle Ages, Twelfth Night was the big celebration of Christmas. Just like the song The Twelve Days of Christmas. Each day, you'd give everyone a slightly bigger, better present and have a bigger, better feast until on Twelfth Night the festivities climaxed.

For all you fiberartists out there, there's a special Christmas/Twelfth night series of art on The Panopticon, starting here.

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There's supposed to be sub-freezing temperatures today and tomorrow with freezing rain and other miseries today. I went to the store yesterday so I wouldn't have to go out at all today in honor of the festivities.

I have lots of things I need to get out to do, but I'm avoiding them at all costs.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to avoid the visit to the dentist tomorrow. After my last visit, I have little fear of dental work done. He did the worst, and it wasn't bad, so that's not a source of stress. It probably wasn't bad because of the heavy-duty dose of Valium the doctor prescribed and I took pre-appointment. I'm just not looking forward to going there in the freezing rain that will be continuing at that point, and will have had about a day to build up some under-foot problems.

At least I'll wind up with some more teeth that look like original teeth without fillings. I feel like what the doctor is doing is magic. It's really amazing. 

And getting rid of most of the metal in my mouth may actually improve my health.

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The SciFi Channel showed six episodes of Lost yesterday, and I had one additional one from G4 to watch yesterday. That's a total of seven hours of Lost yesterday! All I can say is WOW! I suspect that they're up to season four, but I could be wrong. I think there was an episode that was skipped, but I can't be sure.

I suspect that what they're trying to do is bring everybody up to date for the beginning of the fifth season later this month (Wednesday January 21st).

the SciFi Channel is also having a Stargate Atlantis marathon during the day, every day this week to build up to the season and series finale on Friday. They seem to be skipping around between seasons, though.

Have a great Twelfth Night!

Twenty Days Until Christmas!

But if you celebrate Twelfth Night, you get an extra dozen!

On that cheery note, here is a photo of my progress so far on the first Christmas stocking I'm knitting as a commission.

That's the sample stocking on the left, some of the yarn bought for the stockings, and the small amount I've gotten done so far. For nonknitters, you should understand that stockinet stitch (which is what this is) tends to roll until it's blocked. That's why the bottom is rolling up over the date. I'm actually about to start the icicles at the bottom of the white section at the top. This seems like slow progress, but since I haven't yet found the yarn for the Santa face on the other side, it's just as well. The upper left hand ball of yarn is the fuzzy stuff for Santa's beard and the fur on his hat. I thought I'd have trouble finding something good in the store, but it was almost the first thing I found. Instead, it's the skin-tone yarn I'm still looking for.

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While I was out yesterday, I got some rechargeable batteries for my camera. I had planned to get some of the new, ecologically superior hybrid ones from Amazon, but saw these in the store and snapped them up.

The fine print on the package was very fine, and I didn't discover until I got home that their claim to ecological superiority depended on the fact that they used slightly less packaging materials (thus saving a bit on landfil) and the fact that (like all the other rechargeable batteries)... they're rechargeable! So you don't keep using and tossing non-rechargeable batteries.

Bring your glasses and read the fine print when you're shopping.

Now that they're home, I'll keep them, because I really do need batteries, but I'll get the better ones from Amazon in the next month or two.

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Tonight, we have the usual, but all new episodes of Ghost Whisperer, Stargate Atlantis
(along with a rerun from last week in case you missed it) and Sanctuary.

The SciFi Channel is doing a dragon theme on Saturday, and they're rerunning Dragon Sword along with the rest. For you fans of really, exceptionally bad movies, you'll want to tune in to Grendel. It's truly horrible. I couldn't stand to watch much of it, but several other bloggers did, and wrote glowing reports of it's total hideousness.

On Sunday, they'll be running Tin Man again, and later, a movie called Tristan and Isolde. I haven't seen the later movie, but I love really old stories, so I can't wait to watch.

Of course, don't forget The Legend of the Seeker on the CW on Saturday evening, Harry Potter all weekend on ABC Family, and The Librarian movies (afternoon and evening) and Leverage on TNT on Sunday. As usual, check your local listings.

I came across some really neat SF stuff on the internet, too.

There's more about The Librarian series on io9 here.

There's some Doctor Who fanfic (?) from the BBC site at Planet Galifrey. I haven't read all of it yet, but the little I did read looks interesting.

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I played around with my camera the other night (the first night that there was no cloud cover) and snapped this photo of the moon.

One thing I discovered was that even though it's got an anti-shake scheme, you still need a tripod to photograph something this far away. But I like it. That's the full frame, nothing cropped. I love this camera!

I know I keep saying this, but I really have to get the apartment reorganized and set up for Christmas.

Today!

Well, at least started today.

I hope you have a great Friday, and a wonderful weekend!

Fun Day!

I woke up later than I intended yesterday, and scrambled out of here to get to the dentist.

Once I was in the chair, he said it was going to be a "fun day." What he meant by that was that he was going to clean my teeth.

Well, maybe I missed something along the way, but tooth cleaning was never very high on my list of fun things to do. I can never imagine myself saying "Hey, guys, let's cancel that tour or Europe! My dentist has agreed to clean my teeth!"

The other fun thing he had in store was letting me in on his plan for getting my teeth in shape. This will take four visits. He'll start with fixing all the teeth on one side. Then it's time for all the teeth on the other side. Finally, he's going to get around to doing the work that's going to be more and more unlikely to be successful the longer it gets put off. This doesn't seem very logical to me. It seems to me that it would be more constructive to do it in the opposite order.

He will be taking out some (but not all) of my metal fillings and replacing them with a composite material. This may turn out to be a really good thing. The dentist keeps insisting that the metal fillings (including mercury) could not possibly have a negative impact on my health. I really don't understand why dentists do that. It seems to me that putting something toxic in your mouth isn't a good idea, and I don't need an "expert" telling me that it's OK to realize that it's got to be bad for me.

So, anyway, I got a flu shot on Wednesday, then followed it up by getting up early, going to the dentist (after taking a Valium plus some antibiotic) and getting my teeth cleaned. By the time I got home on the bus, it was about the time that I usually wake up. I was in a daze. I went back to sleep.

I still feel like I'm dazed from it all.

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But I do have some more photos from last weekend's trip to Baltimore, courtesy of my sister, Lynn.

Here I am at the train museum.

And another photo of me on the water taxi.

 Holly's turn for a photo at the train museum.

Holly and I on the dock, waiting for the water taxi.

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I've gotten back to the Celtic sweater, and am now down to the bottom of the pockets on the front. I still have to do the back and sides to catch up to the front. The pockets are diagonal, and the two front sections are knit, followed by the pocket linings, sides and back in one piece. When I get all three pieces to the bottom of the pockets, it will be joined again, and then all I'll have is to knit down to the bottom. Well, and then the pocket linings, which won't be knit below the join. Sewing involved will include sewing down the pocket linings and tacking the button loops down. The way it's knit, the loop crosses itself, which makes it want to pop up three dimensionally rather than lay flat. There will be a few stitches to flatten it. Then there will be only blocking and sewing the buttons on. If I do actually sew them on. I'm thinking that I might prefer to sew them to backer buttons and put them through the knit. Then they'll be removable for washing. 

It'll be good to have this finished. Finally.

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I got a call from John last night, and helped him make decisions about the appearance of the menus for the DVD. It was fun.

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Tonight we have a new Ghost Whisperer, Stargate Atlantis, and Sanctuary. The last two are on SciFi. Check your local listings!

Have a great weekend!

Happy Medicare!

Today, the place I live in had a special presentation of information on Medicare.

Well, that's what the information posted about it lead me to believe, anyway.

In reality, it turned out to be a sign-over-the-money-you're-already-paying-to-Medicare-to-us,-give-us-some-extra,-too,-and-we'll-improve-your-coverage event.

I have Medicare at this point, and I can't get much info about it from anyone.

Oh, sure, they sent me a whole book to explain the coverage, but everything that actually says something is followed by a note explaining that this may or may not apply to you, and may be different from the description if it does apply to you due to circumstances too numerous to mention. So, it really doesn't tell me anything. 

And calling them up doesn't help. Everything they tell me is preceded  or followed by a disclaimer that this may not apply to me. So, why did I have to give you my Social Security number, name, address and phone number before you could tell me all this stunning information that "may not apply to me?"

The meeting started at 2 pm, and I managed to escape at just after 4 pm. The gentleman who made the presentation was a very nice person, but he had a style that was as fascinating as Grunthos the Flatulent. I was considering gnawing off my own leg in an attempt to survive! I'm thankful I took along my knitting!

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I had planned to go to the grocery store after the meeting, but it was late, and there was a drizzle outside with a prediction of more rain possible off and on. So, I decided to do it tomorrow.

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Tonight, there will be Ghost Whisperer, and on SciFi, Stargate Atlantis, and Sanctuary!

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Here's a little something to make you happy:

Have a great weekend!

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PS

You have to see these great Halloween Pumpkins on io9!

I Found a Good Doctor!

I went (after a little searching) to an almost brand new clinic in Woodbridge. I had a little trouble finding it. but once I did, the rest of the experience went very well!

The doctor not only gave me a 6 month prescription for thyroid medicine, but quizzed me on my hearing problem and the problems I'm having with my bones, and gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and a Medrol dosepack to clear up my ear. 

I could weep from happiness!

Then, I went over to CVS to get my prescriptions filled, and they told me that all of it was going to cost nothing!

I came home about an hour ago, and have loaded up on all the prescriptions, and plan to feel very well real soon now.

For those of you who have never had steroids (which is what the dosepack is), it's not really good for you, but it will make you feel soooo good, soooo fast you wouldn't believe it. At least if it's something that you really need to take.

The good thing about the dosepack is that they give you a heavy dose the first day, and a bit less each succeeding day for a week. Because it's done that way, you get the same benefit you would if you took a decent dose every day for a month, but you take a lot less actual medicine. 

The goal is to clear out all the inflammation and blockage in my ear, hopefully permanently. If it does that, I will be so happy about it!

I expect to feel very well tomorrow.

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I got a copy of the confirmation for the room in Baltimore for Stitches East yesterday, and an email from Lynn. I'm starting to get really excited about it!

I'm going to get to go to Stitches East!

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Tonight, we have all the usual Friday night stuff on TV: Ghost Whisperer, Stargate Atlantis, and Sanctuary.

Tomorrow sometime, Dragon Sword will be on SciFi again. I really love that movie!

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And tomorrow, I'll be getting some Jersey tomatoes for the first time in about three years!

And, speaking of food, there's this:

Have a great weekend, and don't expect a post from me tomorrow!

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!

Tropical Storm Kyle on the Way

It was overcast and rainy all day yesterday, and it looks like it will be for a while. I usually tune in to the TV station that just says what the weather will be for today and a few days into the future.

But it doesn't show a map with information about highs and lows and so forth. I should watch the map more often because I had some meteorology training when I attended ground school to learn to fly, so I can look at the data in raw form and usually come up with a more accurate forecast than the weather people on TV.

So, we're going to have bad weather for a few days. Well, rainy, anyway.

I have to get moving if I want to get to the library during a lull in the rain, so this will be short.

The SciFi Channel will be showing Knight Rider tonight along with a new episode of Stargate Atlantis.

The episode of Knight Rider seems to be a repeat of the premier earlier in the week, which I missed because it was on at the same time as two other shows I really didn't want to miss, and which wouldn't be shown again until reruns. I am a little ambivalent about Knight Rider, but I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt until I actually get to see it.

One new show that's really exciting (at least to me) will be on tonight on the History Channel. It's called Hacking History, and is about the history of more recent technology. There was an article about this on io9, but I can't find it anymore. It raved about Nicola Tessla, and his experiments with electricity. The show's listing says it does deal with the history of electricity. I don't know if that's all it's ever going to deal with, or if that's what it's about this week. But it sounds like it will be fun finding out.

I have to run, now. Have a great weekend!

Progress Is Slow

Well, I'm below the waist on the Celtic Sweater, but haven't done the sleeves yet. If I had been able to finish the sleeves and get just a little further, it would be a race to the finish, but I haven't and it isn't.

I finished the front part of the pocket on the right hand side. 

As you can see, the pocket opening will be at an angle. I think that looks good on most people, and it seems to help keep things in the pocket rather than spilling out onto the floor.

There is a simple, narrow cable forming the edge of the pocket. On the right, you can see just a bit of the cable for the front.

I am finding more and more reasons to love the Options needle I have. I've bought a set of size 8 points, and several lengths of cable, and they are wonderful!

The two front sections each get knit in a separate piece, and the back, sides, and pocket linings get sewn in another piece. Normally, I would put each pocket lining on a piece of yarn to hold it, but with the Options needle, all I have to do is take off the needle tips, and replace them with stoppers, and don't have to thread them onto the yarn, and later have to pick them up again. I love them.

I've shifted the points to the other project, the wimple. I want to finish at least one of the projects I started for the Ravelympics, so I want to get this done. And I want the 24 inch cable from it for the other front pocket piece. You can expect a photo of the wimple tomorrow.

In the meantime, the SciFi Channel has run out of current Doctor Who episodes, which has downgraded their Friday evening offerings.

There is still Joan of Arcadia, which is wonderful, and Stargate Atlantis, though.

Somewhere, yesterday, I read that SciFi has canceled Stargate Atlantis. Ah, yes. It was on Joss Whedon's blog? Yes, it was!

I'm not happy about the cancellation, but not as upset as I was about the cancellation of Stargate SG-1.

Not much else happening around here except for more and more forms to fill out (and the universe finding more and more ways to separate me from my money) and lots of knitting to do.

Don't forget that I now have yarn and lots of knitting stuff in addition to books in my Amazon Store. The various yarns have been selling out quickly, and you need to grab the bargains when you see them because they may be gone soon. There's lots of wool, including the wool I'm using for the Celtic sweater, and lots of silk.

Have a great Friday, and a great weekend!

Old Friends

Today, I got a comment on my other blog from my ex-husband, Steve!

I was really glad to hear from him since it's been a while, and he's fun. I didn't really want to lose touch.

He's starting a blog at http://www.xanga.com/etienne56. There's not much there yet except the standard "Hi, this is my first blog post, what do I do now?" kind of thing. But check it in a few days.

He's involved in SCA and lives in Chicago. It could develop into a fun blog.

Here is the URL for the trailer for Faintheart that I told you about yesterday. Some people had trouble seeing it on the other blog.

I really want to see this movie, but even if I never do, the trailer is priceless!

Back to the Ravelympics and knitting!

I got nearly 10 inches of the top back done last night. Almost to the bottom of the armholes. Here's what it looks like:



I'm currently thinking about ripping out the top of the back. The cross is just too small. I put a sort of "frame" around it because I thought it would be small, but it's smaller than I thought it would be.

Although I love Viking Patterns for Knitting, I really don't like the way the cables and motifs are charted. The system used doesn't correspond to any charting system I've ever seen, and there is no legend to say what the symbols mean. I can almost figure out how to do them just by looking at the photos of the finished work, but I want to redo the charts so they're easier to read.

In this case, though, I'm going to have to redo the chart just because I want to make it bigger.

You would think that being a graphic artist, I would have no trouble with charting, but I'm beginning to realize that I hate it!

If I ever manage to get together all the charts for this, I think I'm going to sell the pattern. For a lot of money!

Back to the subject!

Last night, I switched back to knitting the wimple for the Ravelympics while I think about the sweater and what I really want to do with it.

If I redo the back, that will mean that I have to work out the whole chart before I can start reknitting. That's a lot of work and will make it much harder to finish in time. It will definitely mean that I will almost certainly not be able to finish the poncho in time for the deadline.

Who am I kidding? It will make it impossible to finish the poncho in time. Period. And it will mean that there's a good chance that I won't even get the sweater finished by the deadline.

But then, if I don't redo it, I'll always wish I had, and every time someone complements me on it (and it will be complement-worthy, even with the smaller cross), I'll think about how wonderful it could have been.

At this point, I think I'm going to leave the back and continue knitting the wimple while I spend some time charting. If I can get the chart done in the new size, I'll rip it and redo. If I can't possibly manage to get the chart working at all, I'll continue with what I have.

I'm really hoping I can get the chart to work.

I've seen some other really nice Celtic knots that I'd like to have charts for. I was going to say that I'd like to chart, but that really isn't true. I just want to knit them, not chart them.

As they say: back to the drawing board.

Joan of Arcadia will be on tonight on SciFi, along with a new Stargate Atlantis.

There will also be new episodes of Psych and Monk on USA.

There will also be some old Doctor Whos and a new Primeval on BBC in America tomorrow. If you missed the pilot of Primeval last week, they'll be rerunning it before the new episode tomorrow.

Primeval is interesting, and could develop into a good show. We'll see. 

Anyway, it's based on the premise that an anomaly/wormhole/something odd has opened up in the Forest of Dean in England and is linking that point with a time when there were dinosaurs, and some of them are getting through. The main character's wife disappeared a while before this, and he thinks she might have gone through the anomaly, and he's hunting for her.

Well, I have lots to do today, and not much time to do it in, so have a great weekend.

Oh, and birthday presents will be gratefully accepted. See the donate button in the sidebar.

Have a great weekend!

Busy Day

Today will be a busy day for me. I need to go out and buy all the vitamins, minerals, medicine, and miscellaneous stuff I expect to need for the next 5 weeks.

That entails a bus trip that is 15 or 20 minutes to walk to the bus early enough to be sure to catch it and then wait. The trip itself is about a half hour, and then the same on the way home. Plus, of course, the actual shopping.

In TV news, the SciFi channel will be showing Jake 2.0 during the daytime tomorrow, and Special Unit 2 will be daytime fare for Friday.

And, of course, on Friday evening, there will be the second episode of Joan of Arcadia, a new Doctor Who, and a new Stargate Atlantis.

In knitting news, here is a photo of the beginning of the navy hood.


It looks much lighter in this photo than it actually is. The yarn is Caron's Simply Soft, and it's really navy. I think they call it "dark country blue."

OK, I apologize. It's not a natural fiber, but it was in my stash when I was looking for something to knit.

And, just for fun, here is a photo of an interesting cloud/sun formation that was in the sky about a week ago.



It looks like there should be a myth to go along with this. Something like the Fenrir wolf eating the sun or something.

Make up your own myth and let me know about it in the comments.

Have a great Wednesday!