My Middle Name is Patience

My cousin was out on business again and while he waited for parts to show up, we went to the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda. Wow. Just wow. I had no idea. For one thing, those aircraft carriers are HUGE and this one's been decommisioned for decades. For another, it's the carrier that picked up the crew of the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12.

   

Roomy, eh? Yikes.

 

Mobile Quarantine Facility. The crew of Apollo 14 spent two weeks here after their venture on the moon. Hopefully they got along.

 

Possibly the USS Hornet. Possibly the carrier next to it.

Look what Amy aka Knit Think sent me! MN apples! They actually crunch. I'm srsly contemplating moving to MN. If only I could move the ocean with me.

 

Ignore the fact that I look like I have werewolf wrists. Altho- WTH?

 

Current knitting obsession, Spinnity's Larus + Ardea. It's twined knitting, which is basically knitting with both ends of the ball of yarn, alternately, always carrying the new yarn over the old yarn. Weird that the contrast color looks blue, IRL it's a purple/black that Spinnity graciously wound off from her ball of yarn during her class. I still can't believe I brought a single project, no extra yarn or needles to a Knitting Retreat. Normally I carry a set of dpn's on me, just in case and overnight anywhere? Several projects. But if you go unprepared, go with knitters.

What's On TV:

(I think. TV and I are on the outs.) But I'm still watching DWTS Monday nights (Go Kelly! Go Louie!), Castle at 10pm, House between dances.

Tuesday: NCIS at 8pm. I want to like NCIS: LA because it has a great cast but so far it just hasn't gelled for me. Sons of Anarchy at 10pm on FX.

Flashforward on Thursdays. Joseph Fiennes character had better get his act together, the way he's moping around about his wife's future-so-far-not-actual affair would pretty much drive me into the guy's arms. Man up, dude.

September Reading Update:

Cardinal Richelieu and the Making of France by Anthony Levi (library) (bio) 2001. Started 8/26, finished 9/21. The author is known for his lit crit so I'd love to read his take on the literature of the period. Richelieu suffered from migraines, dealing with Louis XIII, his mother and their court? Not surprisingly.

1634:The Galileo Affair by Eric Flint and Andrew Weber, 2004 (library) (Alt Hist) 2004, 675 pages. Started.....? And still not done. I've been reading it in snatches of time and while I'm around 150 pages into it, they're still setting up the plot which is why I think it's been taking a backseat.

September ended up being an uncharacteristically social month between cont ed, knitting retreats, visiting cousin, ancient friends popping up from LA and oh!

I saw Carol Burnett last Thursday night at the Paramount in Oakland. It was billed as an evening of laughter and reminscences, she took questions from the crowd and showed some video clips. I'm sorry to report that when they turned the lights back on after the first clip, I was deeply annoyed I'd left my knitting at home.

Tips for Tomorrow Or Why I don't Get My Post Ideas From Typepad

  Although that might actually be a widget. Whatever, it looked stupid. Tips for tomorrow? Don't stare directly into the sun. Don't take any wooden nickels.

There. Forewarned is forearmed. You may thank my father for these pearls of wisdom.

Doesn't Hez look adorable? She likes the EXACT CENTER of the couch, thankyouverymuch.

One of the problems with starting and abandoning posts then sporadically posting them is trying to figure out what the Hades I had in mind when I was writing what looks like utter gibberish now. (It might still but there was an effort to make it reasonably cohesive.)

It may have something to do with coming to grips with my recent one-of-those birthdays. But probably not.

Brigitte aka Wrapped Around My Finger had a birthday (the 2nd) AND she's getting an orange kitty boy. And she's stalling on celebrating said birthday until this weekend. Good plan.

Bookish links! First up is Aarti'sBooklust, mostly because she's been hosting a Rosie Riveter weekly column on her blog and I contributed to it some time back -  so naturally now is when I link it. 

 - In her own words (as mine were insufficient - you'd think I read enough to turn a decent phrase occasionally) - Rosie's Riveters is a weekly posting written by Booklust readers about riveting females in literature. Many readers have strong reactions to the women in the books they read- either very positive or very negative. These are the characters we find riveting, for good reasons or bad ones, and they form the population of Rosie's Riveters. Through this weekly post, we can discuss females we love to hate, or love to love. And maybe, just maybe- we can determine why we react so strongly to them.
- she still looking for contributors, hint, hint. She writes some thoughtful reviews and is at least as annoyed with some heroines as I am. and has a way with words.

Puttermeister is trying out some interesting lists for books, check them out.

July Books:

Argh. Too hard. (Getting book cover pictures) 1)1633(L)  UF 2004 688p by David Weber and Eric Fint. I enjoyed it, they got out of Thuringia and into France and England finally meeting up with Richelieu, Oliver Cromwell and Spinoza but really, the Ring of Fire short stories should be read before as it sets up 1633. (Bitter about this! bitter! Ridiculously bitter, really but there you are.)

2) The Thirty Years War by Samuel Gardner 1916 (L) Great overview, dated language but it read aloud so evocatively. I should have been an itinerant small town preacher, I'd've loved the sound of my own voice.

Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak in 3)Killing Grounds pb M 1998, 4) Hunter's Moon pb M 1999, 6) Midnight come Again pb M 2000, 7) Singing of the Dead L M 2001, A *0 Fine and Bitter Snow L M 2002, 9) A Grave Denied pb M 2003, 13) A Taint in the Blood pb M 2004. I've stalled at A Deeper Sleep L M 2007 but Kate and Mutt continue to run across murder most foul and their love lives remain convoluted. Actually what I think I like most about this series (other than taking place in the imaginary Park in Alaska which I just find fascinating. Imagine living in a home where you had to stock up for the winter and probably wouldn't see another soul for a month or two? I can't decide if I'm envious or not) is the love between Kate and Mutt.

10) Breathing Out by Peggy Lipton (L) (B) I so wanted to hang out with Pete and Linc and Julie when I was a kid. My dad was a cop, and a cop in Oakland during the 60's and the counterculture was not exactly promoted in my house growing up. Peggy Lipton had what I think of as a typical I'm Not Really Beautiful life, which is to say, I was totally dismissive of her and her suffering until it finally reached me that she didn't have it all that easy and everyone has to fight to be free. (Hey. That might make a cool Tom Petty song).

5 The Solitude of Prime Numbersby Pablo Giordano. I had mixed feelings about this book. Mattia and Alice's parents were completely clueless for two completely different reasons. That poor Alice feels she has to throw herself over a cliff - or at the very least, when she's laying broken at the bottom, she's relieved she doesn't have to compete skiing anymore - made me want to shake her father until his teeth rattled.

Mattia I felt less sorry for but even so, being so inextricably tied to his fraternal mentally challenged twin Michaela frustrated him that while I couldn't believe he left her in the park (with instructions not to move) I couldn't quite fully despise him for it. It was a sad story but beautifully written.

11) The Sword Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe 2005 (SF) (L) It's billed as Sam Spade in Sci Fi and it was, kind of.

12) The Age of Reason Begins by Will and Ariel Durant (1961) (L) Overview of the Reformation era. They have such a chatty style of teaching history, no wonder their books are still some of the best to turn to for historical perspective.

August Reads:

1) Moral Relativism by Steven Lukes 2008 (L). Oh man. I started this is July and it just took me forever to read it. Party because I was questioning what I consider moral standards and how flexible I am in relation to others violating said standards, be it in person, in the past or from a different culture and partly because so many of the moral standards that seemed to be in flux were in regards to women and the treatment thereof. That gobsmacked me. There's a question of culture and morality when it comes to women? And not, say, race? religion? politics? Yeah, exactly. It turns out I'm somewhat inflexible and don't have much problem judging.

2) Ring of Fire by Eric Flint and edited by Eric Flint & a huge group of great guest writers featuring side characters in the main series. Mercedes Lackey had my favorite short story, To Dye Forfeaturing Tom Stone, Grantville's resident hippie.

3) Thirty Years War by Geoffrey Parker 1997 (L) Really, a delightful breezy overview of the military skirmishes in the 30 Years War and those most involved. Just because it took me two months to read 182 pages is completely beside the point.

 Look what Angie (Purling Oaks) sent me! Cow pies! Oh, and some Artyarns fiber, sugar scrub, scented soap and what she claims is "catnip". From her cats no less. Suuuuuure. 

Opal (aka The Akamai Knitter) (she's having a Labor Day sale btw) sent me some Indian Corn BFL fiber and some truly gorgeous orange earrings (the money shot up the page wherein I also discover that the zoom on the iPhone isn't really a zoom but a clip but considering it's a stationary camera lens......  and what she claims is packing fiber but is soooo pretty (it's really not a bright electric blue though. I took an outdoor picture because the colors are generally better and also display my poor pathetic single eggplant. That you can't see.

Hey. I know  Squish (aka Purling Dervish) sent me earrings and I think fiber and no pictures? I am remiss.

Altho -  you all know I don't actually know how to spin yet, right?  I have a spindle, I'm signed up for a class (in a lighthouse! Well, at the lighthouse grounds) but I have not yet spun anything but Fickleknitter's yarn she had (the devious enabler) at Stitches West.

Nothing else was finished (and no modeled shot of Undulating Waves yet either) but OTOH, no new projects were cast on. That statement may only be good until I get home. WANT WANT WANT

This is Melchior (until I'm told her actual name). She loves us and Hez. Hez does not love her. I hope, someday, to get a halfway decent picture of her without Hez chasing her off.

Cowell Smokestack, July Book Round Up, Pt Reyes Seashore

The Cowell Smokestack is no more. I'll never be able to find my house from Mt Diablo again.

The demoliton, beginning, middle and end. Whoops, no end picture. Between not having my camera and the iPhone scrambling the pictures (why does it do that? Why? It's really annoying). (Hey! I found my camera cord! Yippee!)  

The end will come. I promise.

Hmm. Oh, the June book update. Is it really already July? I've got to start writing these as I finish the books.

Regions of Germany by Dieter Bose (L) 2005. I picked up this book as a direct result of reading 1632 by Eric Flint - I know nothing about the 17th Century and less about the German provinces.

Margaret Pole: Loyalty, Lineage and Leadership by Hazel Pierce (B) 2003 273p. A girl can only go so long before returning to the 16th Century and England.  Margaret Pole, a woman who had more right to the crown than Henry VIII did, whose brother was executed when Catherine of Aragon came from Spain to marry Arthur, still formed a great and lasting friendship with Catherine, was a loyal friend and godmother to Mary, Henry & Catherine's daughter (and not say, Mary Tudor, Henry's sister that my gorgeous Alice Starmore sweater was inspired by), a landowner and power in her own right (due to the death of her husband, a marriage that for all intents and purposes seemed to be quite happy). If she hadn't tangled w/Henry VIII over property rights - 15 years worth! She might not have made herself quite so disagreeable in his eyes and ultimately sent to the Tower and executed as a dowager of 67. Maybe. Henry VIII strikes me as easy to offend, especially when you have something he wants.

Dissolution by CJ Sansom (HB) (M) 2004, 400p I've had this on my TBR shelves since 2004 (hence the hardback bit) but I was disappointed. Matthew Shardlake isn't as smart as he thinks he is and despite all his own flaws and circumstances, only too willing to believe the mores of his times.

Mallory's Oracle by Carol O'Connell (L)(M) 1994 286p My new favorite heroine, Kathy Mallory is rescued from the streets at the age of ten (she says eleven) by Louis Markowitz, New York City cop. His wife immediately falls in love with the child and they raise her as their own. But Mallory (as she insists everyone, including Louis, call her the day she becomes a policewoman) has been badly emotionally damaged as a child. (Not physically, of course. She's the requisite angelic blonde with amazing computer skills and physical prowress.) The series follows her as we discover what happened to her as a child (not in this book) and how she gradually grows a soul. (Website has spoilers.)

Paradise by A L Kennedy (L)(N) 2004 286p. Wow, what a wallop. Amy of Knit Think (whoops, wrong reviewer! Sorry! [name deleted] Ex Libris had posted a review and I had to read it, if only because of the quote she cited.  We follow Hannah, an unrepentant drunk. Her justification, her story, is both mesmerizing and flat out horrifying. Why she searches for oblivion, how she deals with the day to day reality of frequent blackouts - her view that reality is a story that she tells herself, oh, it has to be read to be understood. But that said, I feel that I was given a tour, an apalling but thorough tour, through the mind of an alcoholic.

Breakup by Dana Stabenow (M) 1997 242p. Back into the arms of Kate Shugak. It took me a bit to process the death in the previous outing but it was handled well. Breakup, aka, Spring, a time of new beginnings in Alaska, or maybe more of the same amplified. Kate has more on her plate than usual, what with two bear encounters in the first few pages, a plane crash and a body turning up in the thaw a scant three miles from her homestead.

The Man Who Cast Two Shadow by Carol O'Connell (L)(M) 1996 336p. Mallory on the hunt for the killer of a woman at first thought to be Mallory herself. The act that set the murder into motion would have never occurred to me so the murder was a mystery until the denoument. Don't fall in love with Nose, the cat.

Killing Critics Carol O'Connell (L)(M) 1997 400p. Oooh, I thought that Nose was heartbreaking (albeit thankfully ambiguous). The murder victim and the eventual........well, not the killer. The killer was awful but the eventual discovery of the...accomplice, I suppose, was heartrending.

Jumper by Stephen Gould (L))(SF) 1992 352p. I've got to pick up the DVD, I have a feeling I'll like Hayden Christiansen better as Davy Rice than Stephen Gould's Davy came across in my imagination. A wee bit too weepy and clingy but it's not as if the boy doesn't have good reason. And oh, how I wish I had his ability.

The Stars Are My Destination by Alfred Bester (L)(SF) 1956 197p. I didn't love this one as much as I thought I would either but it sure was a wild entertaining yet thought provoking ride.

The Uncrowned King: The Sensation Rise of William Randolph Hearst (L)(B) 2009 466p. Provincial mouse that I am, I expected this to take place in San Francisco and San Simeon. It appears the boy had a life before and after the Examiner - one as a newspaper editor to be reckoned with in New York with his recently purchased Journal. He went up against such luminaries as Joseph Pulitzer and Charles Anderson Dana. I learned that I knew nothing about yellow journalism or the Spanish American War. I didn't even realize the Spanish American War was over Cuba. Gah.

Death Masks by Jim Butcher (L)(SF) 2003 378p. Harry Dresden! I knew I hadn't read Jim Butcher's last Harry book, Turn Coat, but I didn't realize I was missing three in the middle. This time out, Harry is facing a duel with a Count in the White Court, looking for the missing Shroud of Turin and tangling with various folks on both sides of Good Guy/Bad Guy.

Stone Angel by Carol O'Connell (L)(M) 1998 400p.  Mallory finally confronts the demons of her childhood and we find out what happened.

The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugresic (L)(N) 2005 257p. Any book that starts with a poem from Marina Tsestaeva starts out on the right foot. It's an uncompromising look at Tanja Lucic, an emigre from the former Yugoslavic states, who has landed a teaching postition, and her students and their "new" life in Holland. Bleak, sure, but the author has an eye for phrasing and description.

I'm sure you'll all be happy to know, California, land of sunshine and movie stars, is broke and will be issuing IOU's.

I'd like to throw out every last legislator, Republican and Democrat alike.

Dudes, it's not your party, it's your STATE.

We're stuck with an extra 3 billion dollars of debt, thanks to the missed budget deadline.

I love that the special election, when we told them to find the money someplace other than police and firefighters, the elderly and the children, they read as "Oh, the voters don't want to decide" and not "Morons, some things have to be spent".

I mean, of course, other than their nifty car allowances and per diems.

Oooh, this just in. State parks can revert back to Federal holdings if the state doesn't keep them open so Angel Island and the top of Mt Diablo will stay parks. Hurray for the Feds!

(pictures: Cowell Smokestack from the top of Cowell Road, the view from the deck of the Pt Reyes Lodge, Pt Reyes beach, the trail to the Whale Watch at Pt Reyes Lighthouse, Point Reyes Lighthouse. Do you see that walkway down to it? THIRTY STORIES. Darn. It's not open on Tuesdays. It was Tuesday.)

(also pictured: the Trellis Lace washcloth and what Adrie calls my Fair Isle Finger Cot. See? Knitting. That's the stole, the stole that appears to be 50 inches wide. How long does that need to be to be a rectangle when it grows up?)

Hez says "This mouse looks tough but he sure is lazy. Is he a California legislator?"

News of My Demise Shouldn't Be Much of a Surprise

Or: How I Survived Two Weeks of Pain. I don't know how really ill people can stand it. I'd give you the TMI version but suffice it to say that one week I was doubled over in agony and the next week I had the most awful non-migraine headache ever. I never thought I'd miss a migraine but at least w/a migraine I'm out in a dark, soundproof room and it lasts maybe 3 days tops. This headache was sufficient to make me wish I'd never been born but not enough to stay home from work, especially with the IRS looming over a client or two.  

Unfortunately the IRS was all I could handle a day. I dragged myself out of bed, dressed, worked, came home, went to bed, rinse and repeat. I missed concerts, birthday parties, two friends from out of state, two weekends - the Maker Faire! Grrr!

New month, new health. I'm back to my regime of exercise and good eating and maybe it was my iron plummeting that caused the headache (it was something like 12 when I saw my doc which is why I've got a gastroenterologist appt coming up). Cross your fingers it works this month.

I was watching Unwrapped: Deep Fried  Monday night (what? Doesn't everyone?)  and it ocurred to me how mind numbingly dull it must be to work on an assembly line. As much as my job fries me (hahahaha), it's good to think. (Although I'm sure you can't totally zone out - easy way to lose a finger/arm/limb/etc).

Also I really want to go to the Minnesota State Fair and eat a deep fried candy bar.

Books read in May:

1. Suits Me: The Double Life of Billie Tipton by Diane Wood Middlebrook (L) (1998) 326 pages. Wow. Her life as a man was both easier and harder. Just goes to show how dumb gender stereotyping is.

2. The Periodic Table by Primo Levi (1975) (233 pages). Excellent, excellent book by a chemist who lived through the Nazi regime and told about it in this charming novel/autobiography.

3. Cattery Row by Clea Simon (L) (2006) 238 pages. Music and cats, what's not to like? And the ending is fabulous.

4. 1632 by Eric Flint (L) (2000) 597 pages. I really liked this time traveling geo-shifting tale although it's sent me on a binge of historical background digging. My knowledge of 17th century Germany is vague at best.

5. Blood Will Tell by Dana Stabenow (L) (1997) 257 pages. Another mystery w/Kate Shugak. I was seriously bummed by one of the character's death in this book. So much so that I haven't brought myself to pick up the next in the series yet, but that won't last long.

6. Her Husband: Hughes & Plath-A Marriage by Diane Wood Middlebrook (L) (2003) 350 pages. Hmm. Maybe they were a match made in - - poetic justice.

7. A Concise History of Germany by Mary Fulbrook (L) (1990) 263 pages. Nice background on Germany! It covered too little of the early centuries, which is what I was interested in and too much of WWI and beyond but very helpfu.

Now that I'm done with Mary Tudor, I'm at a bit of a loss. Okay, what I really should be knitting is my Dad's cardigan and my mother's stole but they are boring. Notice how even after knitting this repeat eleventy billion times, I can still manage to muck it up (by the cast on edge). It's a design feature. I used to have two skeins of the yarn too and now I can only find the one. I'm hoping the other is somewhere in my stash.

I Resolve to - - - - well. That was quick.

Inspiring resolutions! Intriguing justifications for not resolving! Good thing there isn't any governing body that will actually check up on us. Therefore:

1) I resolve to organize and catalog my stash. 


Great start for the new year, eh?  I pulled it all out (well, most of it. I stumbled across more during the day but cowardly left it in hiding).  The plan was to sort it by stitch gauge, all the heavy wool together, the finer gauges in one bin, the theory being I could pull something together and do a little stash busting BEFORE I bought more of what I've got a lot of. (Who is cringing in horror at that sentence structure? LOL).  

The plan devolved into separating the stash more or less by season, the summer stuff going up into the closet, the winter stuff close at hand so that when I had the urge to cast on something new, I don't have to ransack the house to find a suitable yarn. There's now a bin for Yarns I Cannot Conceive of What On Earth Can Be Made From Them but They're Pretty......

I even managed to get one bin (more or less) up on Ravelry. I had to take pictures, the blank squares were too reproachful. The Excel spreadsheet is awesome.

And oh yeah. I found some abandoned projects. The Keyhole striped summer tank. Several mittens. A ribbon tape pullover swatch. The vest I was making for my Dad when he started losing weight. Like the rest of the world, he's put it back on and since he's been on a futile quest for a cardigan, it's getting sleeves and pockets, hopefully by his birthday on Sunday (but doubtfully).

2) I resolve to eat more mindfully.

That second Snickers bar I ate at 9:30pm last night? I ate it thinking the entire time, I really don't need this. Mindful and in touch with my health!

3) I resolve to be less impatient with others.

This is going pretty well, although I've taken to holding my thumb and middle finger together in what I fondly presume is Zen style while driving through town and intoning things like "I am at peace that if you drive any closer to me, I'm getting half your estate in the divorce"  or "I am at peace that I am sharing the road with selfish moronic drivers who wouldn't recognize a turn signal if it was BEATING ON THEIR HEAD".  

4) I resolve to save a considerable portion of my income.

After I buy books and yarn. I'll just get used to going without food and shelter. After all, the Apocalypse is coming, at the very least the Next Great Depression. Stock up now! Hmm. I should look for sheep.

Okay, enough of the good intentions.

Mary Tudor's sleeve has been frogged and I'm at the beginning of the 2nd chart repeat instead of at the end of it, but now she's spending time in The Tower for treason because she did not knit up fast enough.

The Curve of Pursuit needs to be about two squares bigger to be as big as I want it to be. I need more  yarn.

My sil's scarf is going to be really gorgeous, if I ever finish the thing. I love the cable pattern but it's complicated! I've got a million stitchmarkers hanging off of it still.

Adding a sleeve to a vest where one more or less randomly decreased is a PITA. I'm going for the pick up and knit down version now, I hope it's loose enough. (It should be, but while math doesn't lie, gauge does).

TV is coming back! Damages started Wednesday nights at 10pm on FX. Leverage, my new favorite show is on at 10pm on TNT. Psych and Monk started their new season last Friday 9 & 10pm on USA. Burn Notice returns Jan 22nd (my mom's birthday. Uh oh. If I finish that cardigan for my Dad for his birthday will my mother expect one too? Yes. Yes, she will. Luckily the odds of me finishing the cardigan by Sunday are roughly the same as winning the Lottery and I don't buy tickets).

Reading: The Nightside novels by Simon R Green. I'm reading them pretty much in reverse order, which is kind of fun.

It's so nice of Typead to be concerned about my gainful employment. It's so slow to load, it's impossible to do anything on it at work but I don't particularly want to jump on the computer all the time when I get home either. Not to mention, at home, I have a furry apendage hanging over one arm which means I'm typing one handed.

Hez sez, "You're not going to keep typing on that thing, are you? I want to sit in The Chaaaaaiiiiiiir."

If It's October Does that Mean It's Fall?

You must visit Union Purl and see her Q addition to her abecedarium [pictured at left].  Not only a *coolaphonic rendition of a Q in a cable quatrefoil but she includes so many interesting bits of information on the provenance of q's, architecture, Disney, photos, knitting, word origins, as she has on all her entries to date. Don't miss them. For example,Wynkyn de Worde? Truly, as Union Purl says, a beguiling name. Of course he was a publisher and printer, it seems almost ordained. I'm just thankful he didn't dabble in the winkin' forms of publishing.

My poor mother was in a hit and run accident last Friday afternoon. Luckily she was not seriously injured (her car was pretty slammed up, front end/side damage and the seatbelt broke. Broke and smoked. There's apparently a battery in there somewhere)and the hit and run driver was caught almost immediately. but she has the most spectacular bruise on her chest and she has refused to let me take a picture of it and post it on my blog. Can you imagine?

You Are Blackmail

You are a good detective. You have dirt on everyone you know. And instead of gossiping, you sit on information that may be useful to you someday. You love power games. Especially if (and pretty much only if) you have the upper hand. You are brilliant and calculating. No one knows what you have in store!

What Felony Are You?

From the ever felonious Purling Dervish, of course.

WHAT'S ON TV: 

Mad Men last night was creepy. What's with Betty? And Glen, who is what? 10 years old? and living in the backyard. Her reaction was so inappropriate. I was surprised she actually called his mother. 

Tonight?: Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. (Fox 8pm) I do love this show but I hope it's not going to turn into Cameron: Misunderstood Killing Machine.

Heroes at 9pm. Sylar might be good? Maybe. Maybe not. Mohinder's special power turned out to be his abs. Who knew?

Tuesday. Once again the networks hate me. I have to decide between NCIS or House? Gah. Normally I'm all about House but I flip to NCIS at the commercial break and get hooked on Mark Harmon. Thankfully by 9pm, it's all cable. Either Supernatural Science on the PBS stations or Ancient Discoveries on The History Channel.

Wednesday at 8pm Bones on Fox, of course. 9pm is Project Runway on Bravo. At this point, I'm rooting for Jerrell to win. Possibly Leanne. Maybe Korto. Not Kenley. 10pm is another tough choice. Either Lipstick Jungle that I basically watch for Paul Blackthorne (and pine for the departed Dresden Files) but Kim Raver is on it too. I hate Kim Raver. Or do I watch CSI NY where the romance between Danny and Lindsay seems to have vanished?

Thursday: Ugly Betty (ABC) 8pm. I've gone two whole seasons without ever seeing this show but nooooo, I had to catch it in Cambria. I hear it's not as good as it was, but it's pretty cute. Not to mention that Gray's Anatomy follows it which is back to being  Must See TV for me (really, Must See Kevin McKidd) (and possibly pray for George's untimely demise).

Life on Mars at 10pm (ABC) looks interesting. Here's hoping it's just as good as Journeyman and lasts longer. Oh rats. The Eleventh Hour premieres in the same time slot and looks equally intriguing.

  September Books. This'll be quick. I finished two whole books, Maureen Corrigan's Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading and Stephen Budiansky's Murder, By the Book. I enjoyed both. I couldn't help but think that Maureen Corrigan would love Budiansky's mystery novel as Dorothy L Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey and his wife figured so prominently in it.

September Knitting No, I didn't finish ANYTHING. No steeking, not done seaming the brown cable cardigan (but closer). I may or may not have started some Christmas presents...

Hez sez there are no new pictures of her since she's basically glued to my arm whenever she deigns to come in the the house. She missed me.

* (You may blame Bloody Hell It's a Book Barrage aka chartrooose for that term.Cool wasn't enough. Now I'm using coolaphonic and I am positive I am #1 too old and #2 the wrong crowd to be using that term