33 Days Until Christmas!

This will be a post full of holiday ideas.

And, if you've never noticed, there's a widget at the bottom of this page that tells you how many days are left until Christmas, so you can check back here anytime.

First of all, since it's coming up later in the week, Crazy Aunt Purl has put up a post about how she's making stuffing and turkey at her house. These are good, easy and workable recipes, from a no-nonsense knitting writer, so get on over there and check it out if you're someone like me who never knows how long to cook a turkey.

She's doing her turkey in a crock pot, which is something that I've often thought would be a good, foolproof way of doing it but have never tried. Mainly because I don't have a crock pot. But I think I'll get one and do my Christmas dinner that way if I'm home for Christmas. She says the crock pot keeps it from overcooking and guarantees that it'll be nice and juicy! Sounds good!

If you want to do a more traditional roasted turkey, you can find all the instructions here. This seems like the best general outline I could find for times and temperatures for roasting.

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Now I'm switching the topic to Christmas presents, which people are beginning to think of with increasing panic at this time of year.

I came across a great listing of handmade presents for geeks. If you plan to buy something for a geek, you might find some good ideas here.

I was in a Borders store yesterday, and they had e-readers on sale this week. If you know someone who reads, you might want to check it out. I tend to lean toward the CruzReader and the Cruz tablet.

If you actually go to a Borders and look at both of them, you'll see that the Cruz tablet has a much clearer, easier-to-read screen than the CruzReader. The reader is a reader (duh), but the tablet is more like an iPad, more like a computer than just a reader. Both of them are color. There's not that much difference in price, so I tend to think I'd prefer the tablet because it'll be easier on the eyes, and will have a lot more functionality.

If that Cruz tablet sounds like a good deal, check out the Nookcolor. It's also a small tablet computer, that runs on the same system (Android) as the Cruz tablet (and some Android based phones), but it's about $50 cheaper and has a higher resolution screen than the Cruz tablet. Both tablets are smaller than an iPad, but both have or will have similar functionality as the iPad (from what I can tell) with a much smaller price tag.

Both have expandable memory (to 32 gigs) by the use of an SD card for the Cruz and a mini SD card for the Nookcolor. Both of these are also small enough to be almost pocketable, too! I especially like the loop on the Nookcolor so you can put a hand strap on it to help prevent dropping it. From what I understand, most of the apps that are available for my phone (I have a G1 from T-Moble, and I highly recommend T-Mobile as a phone company) will work on the Nookcolor as is or with a program converter. But there will be a whole new app store out for the Nookcolor in January, so it'll be even more computer-like.

I also feel I should mention that there's an app available for my phone that's similar to the one available for iPad that shows the night sky when you hold it up to the sky. I'm guessing it should work for the Nookcolor and Cruz tablet, but I have no proof of this yet, so take it with a grain of salt.

I went into my local Dollar Tree yesterday, too, and they have small lumps of (plastic) coal to put in someone's stocking or give as a present for someone who has been naughty this past year. Two lumps for a dollar.

And speaking of stockings, I will have a series of about 10 hand knit Christmas stockings available for sale in my Etsy or Art Fire stores. More on that in the next few days. They'll all be multicolor red with a white fur yarn "cuff," beading on the leg, white, glittery heels and toes, and knit stars on the hanging loop. I should have a photo or two in the next two or three days, and if you like it and want more than one, let me know so I can reserve them for you.

This now concludes the extended infomercial!

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We're having another new Chuck, The Event, and Hawaii Five-O tonight. It looks like Castle will be off TV for this week and next. The holidays always interfere with regular programming!

Have a fabulous Monday night!

The Prisoner is Over

The Prisoner finished up last night. This link has lots of spoilers in it if you haven't seen it yet. And if you haven't seen it yet, it'll be rerunning starting on 29 Nov. Check local listings. I think it's worth watching.

It's very different from the original Prisoner, and I didn't like it at first because of that. The original Prisoner was about the dehumanization caused by modern life, and about someone who fought back.

In a way, the new Prisoner is a prisoner, too, and so are the people in the Village, but for very different reasons. I think it would have been much better if they hadn't copied the name and some of the conventions of the original.

If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend that you DVR, TiVo or tape it. Once you see the ending, you're going to want to watch the whole thing again, and you're going to find that it's a very different story the second time around.

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Yesterday was my dentist's appointment. I had three caps on my front teeth, so I thought I knew what I was in for this time around, but I didn't.

When I got the first three caps (two around '79 or '80, and one about a year later), they took an impression, cut down the teeth, and did another impression, then put on temp caps in one visit. The stuff from the dentist went to the lab, and when the finished caps came back I had a second visit where they installed them.

This time, in the first visit, they took an impression, removed the cap that was broken and that they intended to replace, cut down the tooth that they were replacing, took another impression, broke another cap, did two more impressions and installed temp caps.

This second visit was not to put in permanent caps, it was to clean up the part of the tooth that was under the cap that broke. When they replace a cap, there's old cement or glue that was used to hold on the previous cap, and they have to get it ready for the new one.

I have another visit scheduled for the first of December to do impressions for the finished caps. There will be another appointment for checking the metal part of the caps. If everything is OK at that point, they will go back to the lab and have the porcelain part applied. If it's not OK, there will be another visit. Then, finally, I will get the new caps.

I told the dentist "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!" He said it would be close, but I might get them in time for Christmas.

So, I have at least three more visits before I'm done, maybe four. I will be so happy when it's all done!

When I got home yesterday, after all this, I was so tired, having gotten up at 7am to be able to get on the bus at 9 for my appointment at 10. I took a nap, but there was something wrong with me all day. I didn't seem to be able to actually do any one thing for more than 15 minutes without wanting to stop and do something else. I was still so tired I wanted another nap, and didn't seem to be able to do that right, either. I finally did take another nap and eventually started feeling better by evening. Can Novocaine cause something like this?

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The apartment place stuck a notice in the door today saying that the USDA food program (which I'm eligible for and still signed up for) will be delivering food on Thursday (tomorrow), and that there will be a small, frozen turkey for each person!

So, after the apartment place just gave me a new stove with a new oven, the government is now giving me something to put in it! I guess it's kind of a "chicken in every pot" deal.

I'll be having Thanksgiving with Holly, Robin and all the friends they've invited. Everett and Jeff will be there, plus another guy I swear I don't know but Holly says I do, plus someone I don't know from Ireland. I'd love to find out more about Ireland from someone who grew up there! So, aside from the fact that Robin's a world-class chef, there's lots of reason to look forward to Thanksgiving.

And I haven't even mentioned all the good things there are to look forward to. I haven't seen their new 52 inch TV, and I'll not only get to see it, but Holly says we can pick out which BluRay movies we want to see! As if that wasn't enough, Holly won't feel like driving me home afterward, so she's planning on giving me the car keys and sending me home in their car. I'll bring it back later in the weekend, but they usually don't want to do anything or go anywhere on Black Friday, so the car will probably go back on Sunday.

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Just before I pick up my Thanksgiving turkey, there is a special meeting for people who want to talk to a Comcast representative, and boy do I want to talk to someone. We had a "weekly test" yesterday afternoon, and again today around one pm. They are disgusting in so many ways! I have to bring along the book where I've been writing everything down.

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In knitting news, the beautiful lavender Alpaca yarn arrived on Monday! I'm not really ready to start working on it yet, but it'll be good to have it here when I'm ready for it. The color is soft and subdued, and the fiber itself feels so good! I had planned to make a hat, wimple mitts and maybe a second hat or something, but since I can't start yet, I'm also entertaining ideas about what I could make instead. I don't think the person I'm using it to make something for will want a vest, but I'm thinking about that. Is there enough for a sweater, maybe? That might work.

I've gotten far enough down the wimple from the top so that I need to start to increase, but I haven't planned that far ahead, so it's on a temporary hold while I think it over and decide how I want to proceed. I not only have to plan for the rest of the wimple, but also have to plan how I'm going to do the hat to go with it, and think about if I'll make a second hat or mittens to go with all this and the mitts.

Decisions, decisions.

In the meantime, I'm finishing up the second sleeve of the slinky ribs sweater. I expect to finish the sleeve tonight, and then the only knitting left on it will be the finishing on the pockets. That will leave weaving in ends, blocking, and sewing down the pocket flaps to finish it completely.

It's rapidly becoming apparent that there is too much knitting and too little time before Christmas! There are only 37 days! Less if you have to mail a present to anyone!

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Tonight, we do not have another episode of Eastwick! I did a little checking, and there will be one available next week, the evening before Thanksgiving!

And that's all the SF/fantasy TV viewing news available for tonight, sadly.

Have a great evening!

Be seeing you!