Hallelujah! I hope

KNITTING  I think - I really do - I think I've managed to knit one of the sleeves of That Da****d Orange Thing. It's been entirely knit top down style and attached to the body of the sweater without any horrible rippling and bunching - it needs to be blocked, no question about it and I can't keep a consistent gauge to save my soul but it looks like that top is going to have at least one sleeve!

Which is good because I have to finish it before I can start my next project and it is whimpering and pleading and carrying on so I'll start it. Not to mention the three pairs of socks I have on the needles. 

TV - I think tonight is Mike Logan's last appearance on Law & Order Criminal Intent. [sob]

At 10pm, Mad Men's new season starts, the final episode of Who Will Be the Next Food Network Star (I'm hoping that they all are forced to share a show. Lisa is a wee bit pretentious,  Adam is occasionally far too goofy and Aaron freezes) and In Plain Sight  just to make sure I miss something.

Monday: 9pm TNT The Closer.
Lost Royals on the PBS station at the same time looks good too.

Tuesday: Eureka's back! Eureka! I can hardly wait.

Wednesday: Project Runway (Blayne can stay. For a bit. He was so cutely apologetic when he was caught mocking Cheroin's Leatha mantra. It's such a change of pace to find someone in the wrong who doesn't go on the offensive but actually prostrates himself before her.)

Thursday: Burn Notice, baby! I love this show.

Friday - Monk & Psych will have to wait until Dr Who and Stargate Atlantis are done with their season. (Really, until Saturday when they air sometime during the day)  Dr Who was Part One of Two and - [gnashes teeth] I will be SO MAD if David Tennant is"regenerated" off the show! I thought I couldn't get over Christopher Eccleston (I can't do it twice. Shut up.) But the next season of Dr Who doesn't air on BBC until 2010.Two -oh and freaking TEN.

Shhh. Hez is stalking two birds hopping around the rose bushes. The better pictures are on the other computer, along with the pictures of Lambtown week ago Saturday.

I finally downloaded Firefox and solved all my problems with slowness on Ravelry and Typepad. The only thing I can't do is comment hallf the time at Musings of a Bookish Kitty. It endlessly loops on the word verification.

Oooh, I shifted Princess Hezekiah off of my hand (I like the blood to circulate, oddly enough) and she bit me. Not breaking the skin biting, but scraping teeth to indicate displeasure. Also the keyboard is too noisy.

Cross your fingers for me that I have an actual finished object soon! With SLEEVES!

And that I can get the claws out of my thighs.

Finally Friday

Who knew sitting around a hospital would be so exhausing? But her shoulder surgery went well on Wednesday, we got there on time and I was home before Project Runway started. I can't believe that Blayne didn't get "auf'ed". That outfit was atrocious.

Yesterday was Continuing Ed or as I like to call it - Knit All Day. This was what I started with. but not what I ended up with. The pattern and the yarn were competing and they're both too pretty to let that happen. Mash Up socks by Kristi and the yarn is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress hand dyed by Bellamoden.

I can't tell if those links worked or not. The insert stuck forever. If only Typepad would allow me to post a wee bit faster or even type. Gah. You know how my middle name is Patience? It's a LIE.

The bunny says "You can't catch me!" And he's right. But since it's the summer and he's hiding out eating the apricots, they're hoping to lull him by the time winter gets here.

It was the bunny picture when I posted it. Weird.

Have a good weekend!

Television and Two Circs

From Knitting In the Shadows: 

you are seagreen #2E8B57

Your dominant hues are cyan and green. Although you definately strive to be logical you care about people and know there's a time and place for thinking emotionally. Your head rules most things but your heart rules others, and getting them to meet in the middle takes a lot of your energy some days. Your saturation level is higher than average - You know what you want, but sometimes know not to tell everyone. You value accomplishments and know you can get the job done, so don't be afraid to run out and make things happen. Your outlook on life can be bright or dark, depending on the situation. You are flexible and see things objectively.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

From Knitting In The North:

 

See? Calming. Not Evil.

 

 

TELEVISION: At last, a weeks worth of TV worth noting (not that you'll be able to take any of my Sunday advice in the East, thanks to TypePad's continued "improvements". )

 

Sunday: 9pm:New Episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent (although I hear Chris Noth is leaving and Jeff Goldblum is going to attempt to take his place. Fat chance.

10pm: A toss up betweenIn Plain Sight and The Next Food Network Star, of which I'm getting seriously addicted to. I wanted all five of them to win, but alas, Shane is OUT and only one of the remaining four can be [da dum] The. Next. Food. Network. Star.

 

Monday: The Closer is back! 9pm TNT. There's Ancient Ink on the History Channel at 9pm that looks pretty good too.

 

Tuesday: Mega Disasters on the History Channel at 10pm

 

Wednesday: Project Runway! Bravo at 9pm. I have heard virtually nothing about this show this season. 

 

Thursday: Burn Notice.10pm USA  Bruce Campbell. Sharon Gless. Jeffrey Donovan. Gabrielle Anwar. Awesome.

 

Friday: Dr Who and Stargate Atlantis on the Sci Fi channel at 9pm and 10pm but also Monk and Psych on USA at the same time. Of course.

 

KNITTING: I learned how to knit a sock on two circs! It was pretty easy. Alas there are no pictures because 1. I took it with the  iPhone and I'm afraid to connect it to the computer and 2) there was  a bit of a learning curve and while I might have lived with the slightly too big scalloped edge, the two dropped stitches defeated me.

 

 

Now this is evil. Walking away from me. Plodding away, actually.

Meandering Monday

Oh, thank heaven. I thought I was much eviler than that. Found at - where else? Evil Incarnate's blog (aka Purling Dervish)

You Are 52% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side. Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

How Evil Are You?

Oh, I could have mastered the Dark Side but fear not, I have turned from Evil and am working my way back to Good. Lethargy and apathy help. It's also hard to knit while doing evil.

I also neglected to tag on my last post - I'm officially tagging The Knitting Moose, Everywhere Knitting, mumblings, Cottage46, moonfrog. and The nice thing is that you can take your pick of memes. 

Books read in June:

1. Agnes & the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer.  Jennifer Crusie books always entertain me. One of my favorite quotes: '"Oh God, what did Brenda do the dress?"Agnes thought, seeing the entire wedding go south as the bride killed her grandmother in the gazebo with the cake knife. Barbie Clue.'
2. The Unnatural Inquirer by Simon Green.  A pretty solid addition to the Nightside series following the further adventures of paranormal PI John Taylor.
3. The Devil You Know by Mike Carey.  Easily my favorite new author/favorite new series. Felix Castor is an exorcist in a world lately overrun by ghosts. But is his latest job on the level? And who is the ghost and is she haunting or hunted?  I'd gotten this book on Audible but while I really loved the narrator (Michael Kramer), I had to pick up the book and finish it off becaused I HAD to know what happened. I read much faster than he narrates.
4. The Book of Lost Things by John Connelly. Interesting take on human/ fairy tale folk. It was pretty misogynistic but since it was a young boy dealing with a stepmother, not difficult to understand. Dark tale. Definitely not YA.
5. Subterranean by James Rollins. Stand alone novel, not one of the Sigma Force novels. I have to admit, about 400 pages into it, the action was getting a little repititious and I skipped to the end to find out what happened. It's the story of a beautiful archaeologist with a broken heart and a young son, a brash New Zealand cave explorer with a murky past, a military man with a missing brother and a cave deep in the Antartic with secrets of its own. If you can't tell who ends up with who from that sentence. you're not trying.
6. Italian Lover by Valerie Martin. Nicely written prose. If a lesser writer had written this book, I'd've [side note: I'd've: word or abomination?]probably dismissed it as drivel but the story of Lucy, downtrodden ghost writer visiting the villa of her recently deceased best selling author/employer and her Italian adventures kept my attention.
7. House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier. Possibly the first gay time travel story. Bookfool had warned me that the mode of time traveling was ludicrous and she was right. Swallowing a potion and being transported in time I could swallow but only the mind while the body flailed about in the current time was just.....well, ludicrous.
8. The Hollow Crown by Miri Ruben. Worth slogging through. It would help to have a thoroughly grounded feel for the 13th through 16th centuries. She doesn't go into a great deal of detail about royalty or the nobility which made it a little hard for me to track but the detail about the towns, the townspeople, the jobs, the work, the land, the weather, the times, was masterful.

 Anyone recognize this relic?

Found while cleaning out the office. I'm trying to think which computer and how long ago that floppy was actually used.

I snapped this picture on my way into work.

  It's an annually booming cactus - I'd dithered about snapping a picture of it this time last year when nature decided for me and the bloom, as they say, was off. I was hoping and praying it wasn't a century flower.

There'd be knitting pictures if I'd finished the second sock. So very, very close, but no cigar. [Sole]. I'd stopped and started the Trellis Lace Washcloth just to teach the SS a lesson but it fooled me. The Trellis Lace body was easy but the lacy border baffled me.

• Do I cut the yarn? Cast on with waste yarn? How do I knit the 5th cast on stitch and the first live stitch of the body together when the 5th cast on stitch is at the other end of the working yarn? Cut it again?

Hez sez: "I'm not looking at you. Why would you think that? Delusional paranoic." (Followed by someone injudiciously getting out of The Chair and losing said chair before I stood up fully. Cats are quick.)

Beautiful Beautiful Blue Skies

Stolen from Good Girls Kill For Money Club (Authors, not assassins). (I think).

• Your favorite word? Taught
• Your least favorite word? Try
• The word that is the most fun to say? Defenestrate
• What word should be banned because of overuse? Whatever

Tara tagged me way back at the end of May: 

• Who’s your all-time favorite author, and why? Alice Hoffman. Jack Higgins.
• Who was your first favorite author, and why? I'm not entirely sure I knew books had authors. I did like Edith Nesbit, Noel Streatfeild, Elizabeth Enright along with Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames (Yes, I realize the last set are series and not authors) Do you still consider him or her among your favorites? Now this is a peculiar question. Do I reread them? Yes. Are they still my favorites? Well, my tastes have matured somewhat.
• Who’s the most recent addition to your list of favorite authors, and why? Jim Butcher and Deanna Raybourn.
• If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth? See above and add Allison Weir, David Starkey.
• Are there any you’d add on a moment of further reflection?  Undoubtedly.

Bridget tagged me  with this one. Rules: You must answer the questions using only one word. Then tag four others

• 1. Where is your cell phone? Desk
• 2. Your significant other? Imaginary (or: Furry)
• 3. Your hair? Short
• 4. Your mother? Aquarian
• 5. Your father? Loyal
• 6. Your favorite thing? Books. Yarn
• 7. Your dream last night? Crazy
• 8 Your favorite drink? Coffee
• 9. Your dream/goal? Hobby
• 10. The room you’re in? Cold
• 11. Your hobby? Reading/knitting
• 12. Your fear? Legion
• 13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Upright
• 14. What you’re not? Dating
• 15. Muffins? Bran
• 16. One of your wish list items? Castle
• 17. Where you grew up? Suburbs
• 18. The last thing you did? Type
• 19. What are you wearing? Clothes
• 20. Favorite gadget? Remote
• 21. Your pets? Peculiar
• 22. Your computer? Square
• 23. Your mood? Moderate
• 24. Missing someone? Yes
• 25. Your car? Serviceable
• 26. Something you’re not wearing? Jewelry
• 27. Favorite store? Amazon
• 28. Like someone? Yes
• 29. Your favorite color? Now?
• 30. When is the last time you laughed? Yesterday
• 31. Last time you cried? Yesterday

Courthouse Skies. Smoky. California is on fire. It's a little scary when you can't go outside because of particulates. I've never even heard the term in connection to air. Air that I breathe. I have never been so happy to see blue skies in my life. The smoky pic was last week, the other was this morning.

Sock I was knitting on during Jury Duty:

Sock (12 st Ribbed Lace from Sensational Knitted Socks) started after deciding above sock looked pathetic and frogged it. I am however, deeply in love with the Eye of Partridge heel flap.

Sock as of this morning, modeling gracefully against the basil and ......some other herb.

It's only now I realize how much that resembles the Horcrux Socks (you'll have to scroll down). Oh well. The other sock patterns in my queue need a solid color or the cables/lace/patterns won't show well.  

I'd post a pic of Hez but either no batteries work in my house or I really did break my camera dropping it off the bookshelf. I wouldn't mind terribly breaking the camera, I hates it. Any suggestions for a moderately priced camera that takes decent pictures of socks and cats?