Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a great Christmas (or what ever holiday you might be celebrating). My was very good. Here is our stockings and tree.

We have it in a different locale in the living room this year. I actually like it better here.

The Girl liked the hat I had knit for her... she wore it around the house all morning. We also bought her a Snuggie (she wanted it one) and she loved that. She woke up at 4 am so excited about Christmas and then had to wait till we woke up and then she went in and woke up The Baby. I think it might have been a little too early for her...

Overall, it was a great day, although we did not go to the movies because there is a lot of snow out there and we did not want to be bothered to go out and about. We are planning on see "Sherlock Holmes" tomorrow. I will post a review if we go...

Happy holidays.

Ain’t Life a Funny Thing?

It has been a few weeks since I last wrote so I thought I would give an update to my exciting life.
Last Friday (12/4), one of the owners of the yarn shop I interviewed at called and said that they decided to hire me for a temporary seasonal sales position. I am now working Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings at the shop. This week has be a bit difficult because there was illness in the house and The Baby had to be picked up twice at the school daycare. I really like the job. Everyone is very nice. The owner who had mention the possibility of me doing the computer stuff brought it up again, however the owner who called to tell me I was hired was very specific that this was just for the season. I am not sure what is going on, but I am not going to push anything, because I really do not want to be in the middle.

In other news, I had a phone interview with an aerospace company in Kansas. I am in the final 6-8 and after the phone interviews; they will decide who will come in for a whole daylong trial of test and meetings. If I am chosen for that, it sort of sounded like I would have a good chance of being offered the job. If I were offered the job, they would want me to start on like January 5th. I am somewhat conflicted. I know The Girl does not want to move down there because she is almost done with school and she does not want to deal with the custody crap with The Ex. I am somewhat concerned about going down and living somewhere by my self since it has been a long time since I have done that. However, it also sounds like this job would require a lot of time just being at work. The place sounds completed screwed up. Part of just really wants to go somewhere else and part of does not want to go work someplace extremely stressful. I honestly did not expect to hear from them at all when I applied. I just basically looked at it and thought, “I am qualified for this job”. We will see. I think the interview went well, but I never know with these things.

Knitting wise… I am working on a never-ending scarf for my mom beau. I do not think it is ever going to end. I am thinking about ripping it out and making it into a hot water bottle holder. Of course, I am about ½ through so I really probably will not do that, but it is tempting. I hate knitting scarves!!! Plus I still have to knit one for my mom. I am think I might just cast on her scarf (since she wants a skinny one) just so I can divert my attention from the never-ending scarf.
Here is a photo of said scarf.

I will blog soon and let you know if I have to go to Kansas City.

Happy Thanksgiving

I don’t blog for a month and now 2 postings in as many days. WTF?

I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you had a great day. Ours was fabulous. There was good food (The Hub came through big time). The Baby ate real some real food. She really liked the stuffing and the cranberry sauce. The Hub used a recipe from Food Network which was cranberry apple sauce. It was very good. I am not a huge fan of cranberry sauce and I did like this.

I want to say what I am thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day.
I am thankful:
that The Baby is healthy and happy
that I have a great husband (who haz mad cookin’ skillz)
that I have a home and food for the table
that I have The Girl, who is overall entertaining (in spite of her trouble making ways)
that we are all healthy
that I have a future which is mine (no matter what happens)

Take a minute today to remember all of those whom you love and be thankful that they put up with your sorry ass. I am!

Oh, I almost forgot. I have a new cool product on Zazzle. It is a tie with old seed bags on it. Just the thing for the man in your life who loves farming or old advertising. Check it out (Zazzle is also having a sale this weekend on ties and other items).

Even My Henchmen Think I'm Crazy, I'm Not Surprised That You Agree

This title is a line from Jonathan Coulton’s “Skullcrusher Mountain”, it is a love song sung by a mad genius. I really like his work, it is funny (in a geeky way) folk music. My favorite is actually “Re: Brains” which combines co-workers and zombies.

I have not been blogging lately, not because I have been busy, rather because I have been too lazy to actually write. Sorry. I know you all probably thought I had fallen off the face of the earth.

So what have I been doing lately? Well, I have done a lot of knitting. I know that the retail value of the PC version of “The Price is Right” video game is $30. And that the Big Deal of the Day is usually not behind door number 1. So you know, I’ve been busy…

Here are some pictures of items I have knit:


Hat for The Baby


Hat for my FIL


Fingerless gloves for me


Bed sock for my MIL

See, lots of knitting. I have also knit a hat for The Girl for Xmas, but I do not have a photo of that yet. I am almost done with the bed socks for my MIL. Then I am going to make her an eyeglass chain (she requested one). It will be beaded, not knit. Then, I have to make something for my mom and her beau (who is not doing well, health wise). I planned on making a pillow for her and I am not sure what to make for her beau. It is hard to know what to make him, maybe I will make him a water bottle cover. I am actually getting worried I will not be able to finish her present. If all else fails, I will have to make something smaller for her. Plus, I need to make another hat for The Girl and some stuff for The Baby...

BIG NEWS
On Monday I had an interview for a part time job at one of my local yarn shops. I thought it went well. Although it would not really help me financially since it would just be 2 days a week, it would basically just lower my unemployment amount. However, I thought it would be nice to work somewhere that I could get a discount and it would get me out of the house.
Well, one of the owners called me today to tell me that I did not get the job. BUT, the other owner wanted to have me come in and talk to her next week. They are thinking I could help out with the web page, PC stuff, inventory etc because right now she does all of that and she thinks she might need help. I am very excited.
Honestly, that is exactly what I would like to do… computer stuff, websites etc. It would be great experience and a lot of fun. So wish me luck!!

What To Do When You Can’t Sleep

I have been having trouble sleeping lately. It is not that I am not tired, I am. It is now 2 am and I am exhausted. I go to bed and I just lay there. So then I think, well I will listen to some pod casts and play some games on my ipod. Next thing you know, I am up in the middle of the night. Last night I went upstairs to read my latest issue of Skeptical Inquirer and I fell asleep. It was about 7:30. I dozed for about an hour and a hour total and then by the time the news came on I was awake again. I suspect it has to do with not having a job and spending all day in the house. Anyway, I am really tired, so please excuse me if this blog posting does not make much sense.

Boo! (Movie Review)
The Girl and I went to see “Paranormal Activity” a couple of weeks ago. We went on a Friday afternoon and they were carding people so the underage teens did not get into the movie. They did not really card me since, well, I was obviously NOT a teenager. The movie is a LOW budget horror film (rumor has it they made it for $15,000). It is basically about a young couple who are having a seemingly supernatural problem in their home. It was good, a very pared down film. No gore to speak of, (I know you are all shocked that I saw something not filled with blood). Mostly, it is a creepy film filled with bangs and flickering lights. However, it was good to see it with The Girl (she declared it the scariest movie she ever saw and that she did not think she would ever sleep again) and a theater full of teenagers. I am sure all of them found it scarier than I did. Will this movie terrify you? I do not know. However, I did find it entertaining and creepy. There is a knitting in the movie, even though, I do not think the actress could actually knit. It sort of looked like she thought this is what knitting looks like. But, it was an honest effort. I am giving it 3 out of 4 knitting needles.

Knitting stuff
I have been knitting. Of course, the photos I took of my stuff is stuck in the camera which is currently in The Girl’s possession. I think she would be mad if I woke her up to get it. So I will just tell you what I have been up to.
I knit a hat for my FIL for Christmas. He was complaining that they no longer make the kind of hats he likes to wear. The navy blue ones like Brando wore in “On the Waterfront”. I told him I could make him one and he said that it was too much to ask. LOL. I knit up the hat in a few days when I got home. He is a funny guy.
Then I knit up a couple of pairs of socks for The Baby. She is the Houdini of the sock world and none of them will stay on her feet for very long (sadly including the ones I just knit her), but I just keep putting them back on her. Her feet will get just like ice!
Right now I am knitting some fingerless gloves made out of alpaca. They are really nice. I am done with one and ½ way through the second.
Next, I have to work on some more Christmas presents. I think I will make my MIL some bed socks.

Other Stuff
There is not much else going on right now. The Girl is on again and off again with the Baby Daddy. The ex-Boyfriend apparently wants her back. Who knows what will happen? It is like a freaking soap opera around here.
The Baby has a cold and has not been to daycare all week. On Monday night, we took her to the urgent care and the doctor said it was just a cold. Since The Baby was happy (she usually is) and she had her pacifier in her mouth and was breathing through her nose, and she did not have a temp she was okay. The doctor said a way to know if it was something more was if she could not breathe through her nose. Who knew? If we had known that before, we would not have bothered with the urgent care.

Well, it is now 2:30 and I should go up and try to get some sleep. Talk to you soon.

Look Mummy, There’s An Airplane Up In the Sky

We have been back from our trip for a little over a week now. I was going to blog while on vacation, but I just did not get around to it at the In-laws and once we were at the hotel, I would have had to type it up on my ipod, which would have taken me forever to do. So here is vacation update.
The flight down was good. We had decent seats and we actually arrived in ABQ early. We got to the rental cars place and got our car. No problems. We arrived up on “The Hill” about 4 pm, right on schedule. We were very tired though so it was dinner and a little visiting and bed. Unfortunately it was very hot in our room that night and I had trouble sleeping.
The in-laws have been having chipmunk problems (they were nesting in the engine of the Prius) so my FIL built a live trap to catch them. On Sunday morning he had caught one, so after church, we went to take it to another canyon (over by the airport). Here it is in the cage. It is not a very good picture, but it was the best I could do.


Here is the canyon area where we released it.


One of the other highlights of the trip was going down to ABQ to visit the zoo. The zoo just had a baby elephant. Here it is.

Isn’t just too cute? It just followed its mom around the pen while she was eating apples and stuff that was left around it.

I did not sleep well the entire time I was at the In-law’s place. One night it was the neighbor dog, another night it was coyotes yipping and the one night I just could not sleep.

We left the in-law’s place Thursday morning bright and early to head up to Taos for my native plants dyeing class. It was a great class. I learned a lot. Of course, it would have been more useful if I lived in the southwest, but I am confident I can do it here in MN, I just will need to use other things
Here are some samples of what we dyed.



On Saturday, the in-laws drove up to Taos and we all went to the wool festival. It was a good time. The Hub bought some roving and I bought a little bit of yarn, not much. I was really proud of myself.
Here is a random shot of the festival. The weather was absolutely perfect.

We all went to lunch and then back to the hotel. We said goodbye to the in-laws. We could have gone back to the wool festival, but by that time I was completely worn out from the trip. We just sat around the hotel room and watched crap on TV. It was nice.
On the flight home, we did not check in early so we were not sitting together. Otherwise the flight was fine. However, I am not impressed with Delta’s customer service. It is even worse than Northwest’s. Who knew that was even possible!

That Is How I Know, When I Try To Get Through
On The Telephone To You... There’ll Be Nobody Home
Of course, The Girl was home alone with The Baby. What could she have been up to while we were gone??? Well, 1st she broke up with The Boyfriend. Okay, I figured that was coming. No big deal.
Then the day that we were going to the zoo, I received a phone call. The Girl had gotten into a fight at school and the assistant principal thought it best if she just went home. That was on Tuesday.
Then on Wednesday night I missed a call on my cell phone. I did not know who it was, so we called The Girl to see if she recognized the number. She said it was The ex-Boyfriend saying he was going to call the police. Then she said he was mad because she had taken up with the baby daddy again. So then The Hub got mad that she had taken up with him again. And so they were fighting.
Of course, the In-laws (who are already worried about what kind of life she is leading) were very upset about all of this nonsense.
Then to top it off, on Saturday, when we were having lunch with the In-laws, The Girl calls to inform me that she got into a car accident, nothing serious, just a fender bender, but she did not get the ladies info and we have a huge dent in our fender.
My MIL looked at me and said “You are never leaving home again, are you?” I have to say that all of the problems did make question my wisdom of leaving her alone. However, I will say this… she really appreciated us coming home and she missed us. AND she admitted it was hard for her to take care of everything by herself. So perhaps it was a learning experience.

New Car, Caviar, 4 Star Daydream, Think I’ll Buy Me a Football Team
The Vikings are 5 and 0. This is best they have looked in years and years. I am so happy. I missed the 49’s game because I was in NM, but the Monday night game against the Packers was a fantastic game.
Here is a photo of The Baby in her new Viking outfit that The Hub bought her.

Skol Vikings!

Is There Anybody Out There? (movie review)
On Saturday, The Hub, The Girl and I went to see “Zombieland”. It was a really good movie, a really, really gory funny movie. Did I mention it was gory? I just want to make sure you understand that it is a movie about the zombie apocalypse. It is a very funny about zombies, but they still eat human flesh. It is sort of in the vein of “Shaun of the Dead” only with a really organized gamer and Woody Haralson. We all really enjoyed it. And it even had a couple of nice knit hats. Abigail Breslin wears a really cute slouchy beret, but I do not think I would look very good in it. I am going to give it 3 ¼ out of 4 knitting needles. If you like dark, bloody comedies, go see it. I think you will really enjoy it.

All In All, It Was Just Bricks in The Wall
All of the titles today were brought to by the letter P for Pink and the F for Floyd, and the number 3 (in honor of Zombieland).

Pressure

But you will come to a place
Where the only thing you feel
Are loaded guns in your face
And you'll have to deal with
Pressure
- Billy Joel

I have not been blogging lately because things at home have been bad. I was trying to figure out what to say about them, but honestly, I can’t really say anything. It has been a very stressful month. So I am not going to discuss it. Maybe some day, but not right now.

On Thursday, there was another lay off at work. This time, I went with the rest of them. I was not nearly as upset as I should have been. Well, it’s not like I have never been laid off before. I have always landed on my feet. I actually felt worse for the people who had been there for 20 years. (Just a helpful hint, do not stay anywhere for 20 years. It is too terrifying when you no longer have that security. Really, don’t stay anywhere for more than 7.) I had only hoped I could stay there until The Girl and The Baby were out of the house.
How the company works their packages, I am still officially an employee until 10/15, so with my severance and PTO, I will be paid through the end of October. So it gives me time to find a job. My biggest concern is health insurance (which will go through the end of October). The Baby needs to be covered. I figure, worse case scenario, that the In-laws would be willing to pay for COBRA.
I hate looking for a job. It is just tedious.

On the plus side, I recently had a physical and a mammogram (my 1st) and everything looked good. Although I did get quite a scare when the nurse at the clinic called to say that there was a problem with my test results. My 1st thought was, of course, cancer. Luckily, I just have a Vitamin D deficiency. I know that can be dangerous, but it is not cancer and I just need to take a couple of pills everyday. Totally doable.

Anyway, I have a week before vacation. I plan on working on the house. I will meet with the employment agency hired by the company. And I plan on getting some knitting done. Things have been so stressful this month that I have not even really done much knitting. I have only made a couple of dishcloths and a towel for a Halloween swap I am in.
Here is one of the dishcloths I made. It is my own design.

Award Winning Day

Yesterday I went to the Fair and look at what I saw…

That’s right, that is MY Christmas stocking with a ribbon upon it! I won 4th place! I was so happy when I saw it that I almost cried. I honestly did not believe that I had a chance of winning a ribbon. I actually entered because I have always wanted to enter something at the State Fair. I will let you know when I get the stocking back what points were deducted. I expect to knit something for next year and hopefully I will improve.

Here is picture of some vintage seed bags on display at the Agri-Hort building.


The rest of the Fair was good as well. The weather was perfect. However, about lunch time, my foot started to hurt a lot and we finally had to go home after we had some lunch. Perhaps if I had been wearing these shoes...

Aren’t these cool shoes? They are part of the crop art display. Those are all seeds being used as decoration!

We did get to see everything I had planned on seeing, except for the Old Mill ride. We are going back tomorrow to see all the animals and we will ride it then.

i can not take it any more

The kids got into a huge fight last weekend… over something stupid, because all of their fights are… and The Boyfriend left to go to his mom’s. The Baby has been over there as well for most of the week and The Girl has been out doing God knows what with God know who ever since. I can not take this stress. I had actually begun to believe her when she said she had changed. But now, I see no future for her or The Baby. And this is more than I can bear. Honestly, I do not know what to do any more. I am worried that when we go down to NM that she will spend the whole week getting wasted and not take care of the baby at all.
Sorry, I should not burden you all will these issues; it just makes me feel better to write it down.

On a happier note, I did knit a bag. It is the Medium Carpet bag by Noni. It is a dead simple pattern and used 734 yds of wool. I need to felt it and make a liner, but I do not think it will be too big of a deal. We will see.
Here is a picture of it in process.


I have started a scarf for The Hub. I just bought Norah Gaughan’s Men collection pattern book and it is in there. It is called the Cuvier scarf. There is a matching sweater, that is very spiffy, but I am not going to have time to make him a sweater any time soon, so he will have to settle for a scarf.

There is not much else going on. Work sucks… Home sucks…

I Can’t Think of a Pithy Title

I have finished The Baby’s Christmas stocking! I finished knitting it on Saturday and blocked it on Sunday.
Here is a photo of it being blocked.

I found that the heel seemed to be too wide and sort of bunchy, although it blocked out okay. I also think that the toe was not long enough in the pattern. I added an inch of straight knitting and actually would not think it would be a bad idea to add even more so there would be more contrast in the end.
I put on jingle bells as well, but I did not get a photo of it before I brought it over to the Fair. I dropped it off on Monday.

I also knit up a blanket buddy for The Baby.

The yarn I used was awful and so I am going to get rid of any that is left, so I am counting the whole ball as being used in this project.

Therefore, I have 1.32 km to go until I reach my 5K goal. I have knit 2013.5 fathoms. It sounds like I have done a lot of knitting when I say it that way!

I have not yet cast on for my next project. I am thinking of doing a felted bag. On the plus side, it would use a lot of yarn; on the down side, I would have to felt it when I was done and I would need to make a lining. So do I consider complete when the knitting is done or when the bag is actually usable? I am not really very good at finish up things like linings. I think it is because it is outside of the knitting realm.

I am finding it very hard to stay on the yarn wagon. It is not that I need more yarn as much as I would like to knit something big, but do not have enough of anything in one color way. Plus, of course, I see some yarn I have wanted to try and it is on sale and I can not buy it. I love a good bargain you know!


Movie Review – “District 9”On Monday, The Hub and I went to see “District 9”. It is about aliens in South Africa. Basically, an alien spaceship showed up over Johannesburg 20 years ago and it was full of starving aliens and now they are living in a slum in Johannesburg and the government wants them to move.
This is a fantastic movie. It is very thought provoking. It speaks to apartheid, to colonization, to how people treat anyone who is unlike themselves. It does not have any “stars” in it and the main human character, Wikus, is played by someone who has never acted before and apparently ad- libbed most of the movie. He is fabulous and quite honestly it was the best performance I have seen this year. I strongly encourage you to go see this movie, with a small caveat, it is violent and there is a lot of cussing. So if you can not handle the f word or people being evaporated (for lack of a better word), this movie may not be for you. There are a few nice knits. The special effects are just outstanding, it really does seem like these aliens are real and the humans are interacting with them. This is not always the case with science fiction movies.
I am giving it 4 out of 4 knitting needles. It is a great film.

Breaking Radio Silence

Greetings and Salutations. Sorry it has been so long since I last blogged. I have no good reason since I actually had started writing a posting last week, I just have not been up to actually doing it.

I have not been feeling great. It has been hot and humid (really for the 1st time this summer) and I have not been sleeping well. And I have been sort of stressed out. I think I need a couple of extra days off. I am trying to decide what days to take. The Hub and I are thinking we will spend 2 days at the State Fair this year (we never seem to be able to see everything we want to in one). So I would have 8/31 off anyway, so we will go that day. Then it comes down to opening day or a day the 1st week of September. We will have to see how it goes.

Speaking of the State Fair, I intend to enter The Baby’s Christmas stocking.

All I have left is the heel and the weaving in ends and blocking. It needs to be in by 8/18, so I have less than a week to do all of this. I do not think it should be a problem. I will probably need to steam block it.
I would have been done sooner, but I had to rip back the toe 2 times, or was it 3. Doesn’t matter, it was rework and therefore a waste of time. The directions for the afterthought heel were confusing and the length of the toe was not quite right. I think it looks okay now, but I will see when the heel is in.

No matter how he tried,
He could not break free.
And the worms ate into his brain
-- Pink Floyd
Work has been particularly stressful. Morale is low because of the layoffs (past and upcoming) and people are becoming cranky. I am on the project that will not end and I have had enough of it. I am to the point of just saying “we’re done”, and moving on. I am sick of fighting with people, I am sick of the backstabbing and the politics of the whole situation. It is not helping with my overall mental health. Again, I probably need a couple of days off…

Of course, I am taking vacation the last week of September / beginning of October. I am going to visit the in-laws in NM. I hate NM. It is sooooo depressing, brown and dry. I do not know why they can’t live somewhere fun, like NYC or London or Honolulu. On the plus side, I will be going to the Taos Wool festival, at the end of the trip and that should be fun. I am taking a class on dyeing fiber with plants.

Movie Review – “The Hurt Locker”
So on Monday I hung out with my friend. We went to lunch and then decided to go to the movies. We were going to “Public Enemies”, but it was not showing until late in the day. So I suggested we see “The Hurt Locker” because I had heard good things about it and I knew The Hub would not want to see it. It is about an Army bomb squad in Iraq. It is shot in a documentary style, not with interviews, but in that “someone is following the characters around with a camera” style. I liked it, but it was very intense, because well they are a bomb squad in Iraq. There were scenes that I thought could have been shortened, but I think the filmmaker had them longer intentionally to show the “waiting for something to happen” aspect of war. The film really is not taking any political stance, rather, it was trying to show these people doing their job and how the job affected them. It has some very graphic scenes as well. It is a sad, brutal, realistic movie. It upset my friend (Sorry TJ, next time you get to pick the movie) and I felt bad about that. Apparently I have a very high tolerance for pain and suffering. I am giving the movie 3 ¼ out of 4 knitting needles. It will make you think and it might upset you, but I think it is worth seeing.

More than Half Way to the End

I have finished my daily sweater!!!! I completed it on Saturday night. I know you are all thrilled to bits! I wore it to work on Tuesday and it was very comfortable and stylish (IMHO). Several people said it was nice. Of course, most of them were fellow knitters, but I will take it as a compliment since this is my 1st adult sweater.
I have completed 3572.6 yards of knitting, which leaves just 1,895.47 yards to finish this summer in order to complete my 5K. I think I can do it. We will have to see.

I have cast on for a Christmas stocking for The Baby; it is the Giant Jester Stocking from “Christmas Stockings: 18 Holiday Treasures to Knit”. The Girl picked out some colors and off I went. I thought there was a mistake because my stocking did not look like the one in the book, so I ripped out several rows. I then went to Ravelry to see what I did wrong and I could not find any errors etc., so I did what I should have done in the first place and read all the way through the instructions. I figured out what the problem was, i.e. that I had not read all the instructions and the picot edge is added at the end. So I ripped out a bunch of rows for no good reason. Let this be a lesson to you… always read all the directions before you start.

Sew What
I picked up my sewing machine on Saturday.


I set it up on Monday and did some practice sewing.

It seems to work. I know this sample is not very exciting, but it has been a LONG time since I used a sewing machine so you will have to take what I can give.

Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie … Who’s Not Ready Holler I
I also picked up peaches on Saturday.


The Hub and I canned them last night (Tuesday). We only did 6 quarts and this is how they turned out.

See how all the peaches are all floating at the top. They all look like they are trying to make their escape. The Hub called the local extension office and they said that we overfilled the jars so the peaches rushed to the top to avoid drowning. Okay, they did not say that last part. But, all is not lost, we can reprocess them. I will see how I feel tonight and maybe we will do it tonight. The Girl complained bitterly about how hot the kitchen was last night. I told her it is nothing compared to how hot it gets when I do jam. Mostly, because you have to stand over the hot jam pot and stir for the entire time the jam cooks.
Next, I am going to try canning cherries. In reality, the reason I wanted to can anything in the first place is because I want canned cherries. My grandmother would can cherries every year. One of my fondest memories is eating canned cherries out of the little plastic yellow bowls at her house.

Movie Review
On Monday, The Hub and I went to see “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”. It was okay. There is nothing technically wrong with it. It moved at a good pace, it had lovely hand knits and it told the story. However, it felt like a Reader’s Digest condensed version of the book. It has been a long time since I read the book, so I could not tell you what was missing, but the movie felt, well, soulless. I can not say it was a bad movie; just that it was not magical. I am going to give it 2 ½ knitting needles. It is worth seeing, but you might leave wishing for more.

What is wrong with me?

This weekend I bought a sewing machine. Why? I don’t really know. It occurred to me that I needed one. I do not actually have it yet as it was on backorder. It should be in today or tomorrow. I think I am having a mid-life crisis and it is coming out in the form of hand crafts. I am going to make some burp cloths since The Girl gets mad when I use the dish towels. She is worried about germs. However, I don’t think The Boyfriend actually washes his hands and I would be more concerned about that.
Anyway, I bought a Viking Emerald 116. It is a basic model in the mid-grade range. Of course, I went on line to look up info regarding what to buy and everyone was like “Oh, you shouldn’t get a machine that is under $1000”. Seriously… $1000 min… that is not a typo. I can not afford $1000 machine; that is madness. I know that I will not use it that much; I will not be making quilts, just a few things for the baby. So I spent $300 which I really should not have spent. I do not know what is wrong with me.

Knitting…
I ripped out the cuff I had finished on my Daily Sweater. I reworked it using the same amount of stitches as the end of the sleeve and used a smaller needle. I like it a lot better. It goes in slightly, but is not tight. I can squish it up my forearm if I need to, which I like.
I am part way done with the second sleeve. If I do one set of rows (from decrease to decrease), I should have the sweater done next weekend. Wouldn’t that be exciting?
Other weekend events…
So The Girl and The Boyfriend have been house-sitting for the people who live across the street from The Boyfriend’s mom. The Girl has been coming home for school during the week and going over there for the weekend. The Baby has been staying with The Boyfriend. Anyway, we took The Girl over there on Thursday (she does not have school on Friday) and hung out a while so we could spend a little time with The Baby. The Hub and I had planned on having a nice quiet weekend, just the two of us. On Friday evening, I was at home and The Hub had gone to the grocery store to get supper, when the phone rang. It was The Girl and she was hysterical. She was sobbing and carrying on. Apparently the two dogs they were taking care of at the house had knocked The Baby’s food off of the counter and had eaten it all. And she said she was not even getting paid for this (The Boyfriend agreed to house-sit for free) and she and The Baby were coming home. So we had no quiet weekend after all.
I took The Baby to lunch yesterday with some gals I used to work with and of course she was perfect. She is a great baby and she does like to go out and about. She does like to stay up late, but so does her mom. I think the late nights are finally taking their toll on The Girl though. Ah, sweet revenge!

It Was A Dark And Stormy Day

Okay, it is not storming yet, but it sure looks like it is going to, even though it is not supposed to rain. It has been unseasonable cool the last couple of days. This is fine by me, except they still have the air cranked on high at my work, so I am freezing.

I AM still employed. The layoff occurred yesterday (Thursday). We lost one person from purchasing and a total of 50 were let go company wide. However, no engineers we let go. Apparently, they are going to be told in September if they are going to get the axe. I am extremely glad that I still have a job.

I did not get much knitting done this week because I have been sort of stressed out and tired (I have went to bed at like 8 pm almost every night) so I do not even have any good knitting news. I did finish my mom’s rug on Saturday night and I knit her a dishcloth with the few remaining bits of yarn. She was very appreciative. I did not take a picture of either completed object. However, it did take 1600 yds of yarn, so I am a lot closer to my goal, 1964.6 yds down and only 3,503.47 yds to go!

On Monday, we went down to my aunt’s house with my mom and my 2nd eldest niece. I was showing off my knitting pictures to my niece and she was actually impressed. My cousin asked how I learned to knit and I told her via a DVD and she too was impressed. It is always nice when I can impress people without even trying.

Just like that place where they take your spine
And turn it into soapflakes -“Poor Napoleon” - Elvis Costello
I have always wondered where this place is. I know that is crazy, but I like this song and the way he sings it sounds like you SHOULD know where this place is. You know, that PLACE, where they turn spines into soapflakes. Maybe it is an English expression. I don’t know. If you know where this place is, just leave a note in the comment field.

Okay, maybe I do not have a lot to blog about today. I just wanted everyone to know that I am okay.

The Ro-Man is not like the Hu-man

This is quote from the cinematic classic “Robot Monster”. It is one of my all time favorite movies quotes because, well, who hasn’t felt like that the Ro-Man is not like the Hu-man. It is referring to the Robot Monster’s kind, not fellows from Rome. I find it fascinating the even aliens use the term robot since it comes from the Russian work rabota, it means to work as in “я работаю на магазине (ya rabota na magazineh)”, “I work in a store”. There, now you can say something in Russian! All you to do is get a job at a store in Moscow (Moskva) and you are set!

Have you ever seen Robot Monster? If not the whole thing, you probably have seen clips from it. It is the one where the guy is wearing what appears to be a gorilla suit body and a deep sea diver helmet. I think a clip of it is used in a Cars video, but I can not remember which one.

Anyway, I saw a list of 14 Movies you should see before you die by Will Ferrell and I thought well if he can do it, so can I! This list is not in any particular order and truthfully would probably change if I did it again. I have seen a lot of movie and sometimes I like things more than other times. I am not going to describe them since you can just go look them on IMDB and well, I do not think they are so out there you haven’t at least heard of most of them.

14 Movies to see before you die
1. The Godfather – This is one of the best movies ever made. It is just so lovely to watch the little details. Of course, Godfather II is just a good, so you should watch that one too.
2. Goodfellas – This is like the flip side of The Godfather, just as well made, but a less romantic look at mobsters. Ray Liotta is perfect.
3. 2000 Maniacs –by Herschell Gordon Lewis, the Godfather of Gore. He made several gory movies and they are considered the precursor to the slasher film. This movie is over the top and made on the cheap, although it does star a Playboy Playmate! Be warned, there is blood. You could watch Blood Feast instead, but I think this movie is better.
4. Drunken Master II – the Hong Kong version, not the one that was released in theaters in the USA. I think this Jackie Chan’s best movie. Plus, I love his pregnant step-mom kicking butt!
5. Raising Arizona – I love the Coen Brothers and I think this is their most accessible film. If you like this one, then go see “O Brother, Where Art Thou” which is awesome and has the best soundtrack ever.
6. Halloween – The original John Carpenter version – this is one of the best horror films ever made.
7. Strangers on a Train – Okay, you should see as much Hitchcock as physically possible, but I happen to really like this one. You could watch it with “Throw Mama from the Train”.
8. Blade Runner – the directors cut, of course. The only real down side to this movie is the cheesy soundtrack by Vangelis, but that is the price you have to pay to see one of the best science fiction movies ever made.
9. Double Indemnity – This is my very favorite Film Noir movie. I love Edward G. Robinson in it.
10. My Man Godfrey – This is a classic screwball comedy.
11. Midnight Cowboy – This is one of the best buddy movies ever made and it is probably my favorite Dustin Hoffman film. There are parts of it that are very dated, but the story is fabulous.
12. Bride of the Monster – by Ed Wood Jr. – This should be watched for Bela Lugosi’s big speech if nothing else. Ed Wood if often considered the worst director ever, but he always was trying to make a good movie, he was just bad at his job so I consider him better than some. You could try watching Plan 9 From Outer Space, but not everyone can make it through.
13. The Killer – by John Woo. Watch it in Chinese with subtitles, this is the only way to watch any Hong Kong movie. This movie is very violent.
14. Singing in the Rain – This is my favorite musical. If you can see it on the big screen, I would recommend seeing it that way since it is a Technicolor wonder.

There you have it. Go out and rent some movies.


But if you ask for a raise it's no surprise that they're
giving none away.
- Money by Pink Floyd
So there is going to be a layoff at work. Rumor has it that they are going to lay off 200 people. It looks like it is going to happen on Tuesday. This is very concerning to me because well, I have a lot of mouths to feed here. Plus, I really do not want to be out looking for another job. I don’t find it scary, just depressing. I hate looking for a job and truthfully, I just want to work for a few more years and then move to a farm. All I can do is hope for the best.

Knitting News….
I finished the baby booties. The pattern is dead simple, but it leaves a big hole right below the eyelet row. This bothered me a lot, but I could not figure out to fix it. I had just enough yarn to finish them so that is another 64.6 yards down. Anyway, here is a picture of the completed pair.

I did not work on the rug for the last two days so today I need to work really hard on it today and tomorrow. We have no big plans for the weekend, so I should have time.

Happy 4th of July

I hope you are enjoying you holiday if you are here in the USA. Of course, it is Saturday so if you are not in the USA, you can still enjoy the day.
I really do not have big plans for today. I really usually just want to stay home and relax on the 4th, so that is what I plan on doing today.

I wanted to write a quick post because I have knitting news and pictures.
I started my mom’s rug on Monday. I have gotten quite far… see.

I figured out yesterday that if I knit 11 rows a day (approx) I can have the rug done by the time my mom leaves. Now you might be saying to yourself, 11 rows, that is nothing, but I find it very painful to work on the big needles with 4 strands of cotton. I knit some in the morning and when it got to be too much, I started a new project. Yesterday, I think I did 10 rows, I am not sure, because I lost track when I was watching TV last night.

At work, I belong to a knitting group. We meet every other week during lunch and chat and knit. Anyway, at this week’s meeting, we decided that we would all make something for the annual company sponsored silent auction for the United Way. One gal was just finishing up a baby hat in blue and another had a “boy” baby blanket already made. The other gal piped up that she would do a dishcloth and get some soap. I was trying to decide what I was going to do when I was “volunteered” to do booties. So this week I have been trying to find the appropriate pattern and yarn. I finally decided on the Wave of Babies Booties by Yvonne Kao using some Mission Falls 1824 Cotton I had picked up at the thrift store ages ago. It is not a hard pattern and I do not have to turn a heel, so it makes me happy. I was able to finish one bootie yesterday.

I think it is pretty cute. I need to make i-cord for the eyelet holes, but I wanted to make sure I have enough yarn leftover before I started making it. I do not have full skein of the 1824. I am confident I have enough for the booties themselves. I can use a contrasting yarn if I have to for the i-cord.

That’s it for today.

We Danced On the Floor in The Round

Normally, I do not discuss famous people here. Mainly because famous people have very little effect on me, I do not hang out with them; I do not see them in my day to day life etc. However, I am going to discuss the deaths that have occurred in the last few days.
Poor Farrah, not only did she die a painful death, she had the misfortune to die on the same day as Michael Jackson and thereby was upstaged in her death. I feel very bad for her and her family.
Michael Jackson… I will say right now I was not a huge fan. I did not listen to the Jackson 5 as a child. However, I was in high school when “Thriller” came out so to say he did not have an impact would be a lie. I remember I had a friend who had a jacket like he wore in the “Beat It” video, okay, not exactly like since hers was bought at Kmart and was made of pleather, but it was as close as anyone was going to get in my tiny rural hometown. We were all very jealous. The “Billie Jean”, ‘Beat It’ and “Thriller” videos (especially the “Thriller” video) were shear genius and changed the world of music videos. This does not seem like much, but take a look at some of the other videos released around the same time; some of them were really quite dull (J. Geiles Band’s “Centerfold” is a prime example). It was exciting to watch the videos. The music was pretty good, but truthfully, the Michael Jackson song I liked best and still like to this day is “Billie Jean”. It has a great tune, it has interesting lyrics and I always like the imagery (especially the line I used for the title of this posting) which he used. To me, “Billie Jean” really represents what fame brings; the idea that you could meet someone once and suddenly, they want a piece of you.
However, I think one can not overlook the fact Michael Jackson spiraled out of control in the late 80s. I remember saying to someone that he needed someone to tell him no. I think when you have tons of money and fame, it is easy to surround yourself with people who agree with you and allow you to follow every whim. A person should not follow every whim; it leads to certain despair and doom. And I think that is what happened in Mr. Jackson’s life.
Still, it is sad that someone should die at 50.
Speaking of that, I heard this morning that Billy Mays (the guy from the Oxiclean ads) died over the weekend, he was also 50 and apparently he died of a bump on the head. This is very sad to me because, well, he was very amusing. I actually have been following his ads for a while. I remember several years ago he was in an ad for some sort of glue and he had obviously gained a little weight and I made a comment that he must be doing well since he was eating better. I think I was probably one of a few people who even noticed. I know, I know, there is something wrong with me. It is sad that he too is gone. And let’s face it, there will be not be hours and hours spent discussing his influences. This, I think is too bad.
Okay, this is a really depressing post so far.

How about a little weekend update to cheer you up?
I finally heard from my mom on Friday. She wanted to get together today (Monday), but I have to work because it is the holiday week and we have to work the normal 8 hour days. So instead, we agreed to meet on 7/13 and yesterday (which I will get to in a moment).
On Saturday, we went out and picked strawberries. Much to my surprise and delight, The Girl said she wanted to come with. She has not gone berry picking with us in years. Of course, it rained quite hard during the night and so I knew the ground would be wet. What I did not expect, was that it would start to rain when we got there and we picked berries in the rain. It was not a hard rain, but it did mess up my picking prowess. Normally, I get into a certain Zen state and I can pick quite a lot of berries. This year, I was able to pick only 9 ½ pounds. The Girl picked more than me (10 pounds). The Hub picked 9 pounds. So there was a grand total of 28 ½ pounds of strawberries. Normally, The Hub and I pick more than that alone. There have been years when I have picked over 20 pounds by myself. My knees started to hurt and my glasses were very wet (which is always a distraction), so I gave up early. The Girl mocked me and we had to crown her “the hostess with the mostest”. It was shameful. I was thinking about going back and picking more, but we have a lot of strawberries already and probably do not need any more. I just want to redeem myself.
After berry picking we went to breakfast at Perkins (The Girl love Perkins, I personally can take it or leave it) and we had a really nice talk. It was a really good day.

On Sunday we went down to my niece’s house so we could see my mom. My mom had given me the address and some vague directions. However, she had told me the wrong town (which she denied when we got there). So we were running late anyway and then we were driving around in a totally different area. It was awful. The Hub and I got into a fight and basically, I was really crabby by the time we got to where we were going. Of course, everyone acted like nothing had happened over the last 9 months. On the phone, my mom had said it was all my SILs (my crazy brother’s wife) fault and that no one else had cared. They are such liars! However, I suspect my mom talked to them about it in her confused manner and they all knew what they had done and had to cover it up stat.
Anyway, we all sat outside as my family is wont to do and I got terribly sunburned. I knew we would be sitting outside and I can not explain why I did not wear sunscreen. I have no excuse. Everyone except The Baby got sunburned to one degree or another. I have not been this badly sunburned in a long time and I am in a lot of pain today.

Knitting News
I finished one arm of my Daily Sweater. I decided I wanted it to be a ¾ length sleeve since I wear that length a lot. However, I do not like how the cuff part looks. It was supposed to be 2 ½ inches, which is just too long for a cuff for me on a good day, but it would have looked bizarre on a ¾ length, so I only did 1”. I like the length, but it looks weird because of the increases, it sort of flares out at the end of the sleeve. I am thinking of ripping it back and doing it with fewer stitches per round.
I will let you know what I do. I do understand what they are trying to do with the increases, it is not supposed to be a tight cuff, but it is just really floppy. It is probably worse since I did not decrease all the way recommended in the pattern.

I figured out I need to do almost 400 yards a week in order to complete the 5K by the 1st day of fall. Maybe, I will have the deadline be the end of September. I will have to think about it.

I am thinking I will start my mom’s rug tonight and hopefully I could have it done by the time she is ready to leave. I will be seeing her the day before she goes. We will see.

Hot Stuff

It has been hot. Excessively hot. This has been made worse by the fact that it is about 50° in my cubicle. They “fixed” the air in our area and now the vent blows directly on my head. I HATE air conditioning. I really do. This of course leads to fighting at home because The Girl thinks it should be running non-stop. The air causes my joints to ache and then I can not knit.
Speaking of knitting… (nice segway huh?) I have finished the Baby Legwarmers.

Aren’t they just the cutest thing?
They used about 1 ball of sock yarn. So that is 230 more yards towards my 5K.

I am have way done with the 1st arm of my daily sweater. I am confident I will finish the sweater by the end of summer. The problem I have with the sleeves is that I have to increase every 8th row. This is not hard, just tedious.

I am trying to decide if I should start another project or finish something I have started. I would like to finish my opera stole since I have been working on it forever. However, I would also like to make something using big needles and yarn so I could use up some yarn fast. I could work on the rug my mom requested since it uses 4 strands of yarn at a time and could get rid of some yarn quickly.

But I am sort of mad at my mom right now. She has been in the state for over two weeks and she has not contact with me at all. I do not think she is even going to bother to see us. This bothers me a lot because, well I am her daughter too. And who would not come to see her own great granddaughter? I suppose she has other great grandchildren so I guess The Baby I not as special to her as she is to me. Still, it bothers me. I know I should just let it go, but it makes me very sad.

Oh well.

One Small Step

I have completed my first item on my 5K knitting goal.
I present to you – Yellow Pig Potholder!


It is for one of The Hub’s swaps. It only used 70 yards of yarn, but it is a completed project never the less and counts towards my goal. Only 5398.07 yards to go!

I am also half way through some rainbow leg warmers for The Baby. So that will be another step.

I am going to go out and buy yet another size 7 – 16” circular needle in order to continue on my Daily Sweater. I actually already own 2 of this size, but they are both in a box which is MIA. This box actually contains 95% of my stand alone circular needles and most of my dpns. I am very concerned where it might be since I have looked everywhere I could think of. However, I can not wait any longer to continue on my sweater. I wove in the ends on the body and just need to put on the sleeves and I will be done! It is so close…

MOVIE REVIEW
On Saturday, The Hub and I went to see “Drag Me To Hell”. It is a good horror movie. It is directed by Sam Rami and very much in the vein of “Evil Dead II”, only there is a gypsy instead of the Necronomicon. The basic plot is that a gal angers an old gypsy woman and the gypsy curses her. The plot is not terrible surprising and you will see the end coming a mile away (I know I did), but it is an entertaining ride. There are several really gross scenes and it has really tense music so I was very jumpy. I personally found it pretty scary, but The Girl did not (they went later that night and we babysat). However, I believe that horror is a very personal thing. What I am scared of is not necessarily what you will be scared of. I find dead things not staying dead very upsetting, where others may find demons upsetting and still others find blood upsetting and so on.
There were not and hand knits per se, because it takes place in sunny CA, but the gal does wear some nice lightweight sweaters that I could image being translated into hand knits.
Overall, I am going to give it 3 knitting needles out of 4. If you like horror movies, I say go see it. It is very much an over the top horror film.

Hello It’s Me

Greeting and salutations! I am sorry it has been so long since I last blogged. I started summer hours this past week and it really has taken it out of me. The best part of summer hours is that this year I am taking Mondays off and it gives me extra knitting time. I can knit in larger chunks of time.

I have quite a bit of knitting news!
I finished a hat I have been working on since, well winter. It is the maple seed hat pattern and I used Mountain Colors Mountain Goat. I think that is the yarn, I can not find the tag for it, it might be a different Mountain Colors yarn. I had not been working on it because I could not find my size 8 Dpns. I still have not found them, I just went out and bought some over Memorial Day weekend so I could finish this hat.
Here it is:

Pretty snazzy, huh?
I am glad to have it done.

Last weekend I participated in a shop hop. Every year there are 7 shops which host a shop hop and you go from one to the next and sign up for prizes (which I never win) and get a free goodies. This year it was charms and patterns. I was not able to go to all 7 shops, but I did go to 5. However, the last shop was out of charms and I got an IOU I was supposed to turn in at the last shop I went to, which of course I did not make to any more so I only receive 4 charms. It is okay and I think I will make them into stitch markers since I really have no other use for them. There were a couple of notable things that happened while I was in the stores. First, when I was in one of the stores, I looked at The Expectant Knitter and I fell in love with a couple of patterns in it. Okay I should back up, I had heard about the book at Knitpicks because they were featuring Her First Party Dress and I thought it was too cute so I was actually looking for the book. Anyway, I thought about buying it, but it was $28 and just could not bring myself to do it. So on Sunday I went to the library and checked it out.
Second, I bought more yarn including yarn for my mom’s Christmas present. I will get to buying yarn issue in a moment.

Here is the result of getting my hands on The Expectant Knitter: it is the Girl’s Summer Suit.

Here is my granddaughter in her new outfit. She just tried it on since we are in a cold snap and it was way to chilly for her to wear.
It is really easy to knit. The hardest part is sewing it together. I made it in cotton (the red part is cotton blend) and cotton is not the easiest thing to sew together.
I think I will make another one only I am going to knit the top in one piece. I am going to make the skirt longer (even though I made this one longer than the pattern, it is still really short on her) and do it in a feather and fan lace pattern to girly it up even more. And I am going to use a thinner yarn for the skirt. This one was a bulky even though the pattern calls out for worsted. But I really liked the color.
I am also going to make Her First Party Dress and the leg warmers out of the book. I actually think I will end up buying the book, but I will have to see. There are just so many cute things.

On to the issue of buying more yarn. I have been buying a lot of yarn lately. And I need to stop. I have way more than I am going to be able to knit up in a timely fashion. So I am going to take a moratorium from buying yarn. Yesterday I bought a little bit, mainly, I bought some Rowan 4 ply cotton from the NU Outlet in order to make previously mentioned party dress for The Baby. So I am going to try to avoid buying yarn from stores or Ravelry or the internet etc. until October. Why October you ask? Well, we are planning a trip to New Mexico to see the In-Laws and to go to the Taos Wool Festival. So I can buy yarn then.
I also need to try to get through some of the yarn I have. At last count, I had over 78 miles or 125 kilometers of yarn. This is a LOT of yarn. One day my DH made a comment about knitting a marathon. And this has got me thinking… perhaps I should try to knit 26 miles worth of yarn. But I think I need to work my way up to it, so this summer, I am going to knit at least a 5K, which works out to about 5,468 yds. Since the yarn in my sweater is still considered “stash” by Ravelry and that is where the number is coming from, it is going to count against the running total. Get it… running total… 5 K! Ha I crack myself up!
So starting today, 6/7/09 and going through the end of September I will attempt to knit a 5K. Wish me luck.

Family – Bah
So last Sunday my nephew (The Girl’s brother) got confirmed. We went down to the church to witness the confirmation, we were late, because The Girl can not get anywhere on time, but we only missed about 10 minutes and since the service ended up being like 90 minutes long, I think that is pretty good. However, overall the whole thing was a disaster. Not one of my family members came over to see The Baby after the service, well, my nephew who was getting confirmed came over. I was forced to talk to people I have not seen in 20 plus years and try to remember who they all were. It was a miserable experience and it really upset The Girl. She really thought that actually seeing The Baby would make them change their minds. In fact, when her brother and her went outside to visit their mom’s grave, everyone was standing outside and they all stopped talking when they came through the doors. When we left the church they were are still standing there and only my oldest nephew said anything to us. Oh and we saw my crazy brother on the sidewalk on the way to the car and he felt obliged to say hi and look at The Baby although you would think we were pulling out his fingernails as he did it.
Over all, it was a very unpleasant experience. Plus, my mom arrives in the state on Tuesday and she had already said that she would not be spending any time with us since we do not have room. She said that she would stay with my oldest sister’s girl and we could come down there and visit. Given the icy reception my niece gave us on Sunday, this seems unlikely that this visit will occur. So I suppose I will have to call my mom and tell her what happened, but in reality, I do not want to look like I am complaining so I have been putting it off. I hate family. It is more political than work, which is saying a lot!

Well, I have a lot of knitting to do. Talk at you later.

Good Evening Mr. & Mrs. America and All Ships at Sea

I am paraphrasing Walter Winchell. You will have to insert the beepty-beepty- beep noise at the end yourself. I have always loved the way he would start his broadcasts, especially the “ships at sea” part. It makes whatever announcement was to come seem so much more important.

So what important announcement do I have? Why I have knitting pictures! What could be more important than that!

I am actually making progress on my Daily Sweater. I have been plugging away on it while I watch TV and I gotten to the part where I have created the split at the bottom. I am almost done with the back ribbing. I do not have a photo of that, but I do have a photo of the body of the sweater.
This photo is a lot closer to the actual color. I have been trying it on as I go (I really like knitting from the top down) and it is fitting really well. I am very proud.

Since I have so many things on my needles, I decided to start another! I started working on the Great Goatsby kit I bought at Shepherd’s Harvest.
I know, socks, I am so terrible at finishing socks. And I have my superbad socks almost done and I have not worked on them in more than a year. Why would I start another pair of socks? Well, because these are so darn cute and they are called Great Goatsby! Who doesn’t what socks with goats on them, especially if they have a clever literary title?
Here is my progress so far…

Okay, I am actually farther along then this, but this is how far I was when I took the picture. I am at the body of the goat

And here is a close up of the pattern…


It is from Blackberry Ridge. I bought the Sheep Tea Cozy kit from them and was very pleased with the yarn and the pattern. I am enjoying this one as well. I love this yarn as well. It is a wool silk blend. If I finish the socks and they fit, I think they will be quite nice to wear. I am concerned about them fitting because I have really big calves. I did the large size, so we will see.

Also, I promised a picture of the Briar Rose yarn I bought.

Isn’t it delicious? I have 3 skeins of it, which works out to 1950 yds. I should be able to make something with that amount.

Movie UPDATE
We went to see Star Trek again this week. I want to make a small correction to my movie review. Spock does mention that Vulcans and Romulans share a common ancestry. Not sure how I missed it the first time, but there you go. I loved it just as much the second time around. I think I might try to see it one more time in the theatres before it is gone. If you have not seen it yet, what are you waiting for, go to your local cinema right now!

Dammit, I Am A Buyer Not A Physicist!
But luckily, my FIL is a physicist and I was able to ask him some questions regarding the Lost finale. I know you are wondering why I am still prattling on about that, but I love Lost so you will have to bear with me.

In regards to the size of the core: my FIL could not give me details as to what the size would actually be (due to it being classified), but he said if you can accept the rip in the time space continuum caused by time travel, you could accept that the core would fit into a backpack. My FIL has a very good sense of humor! However, he said it would be really heavy so carrying it around on your back would be unlikely.

He then explained that by taking the core out of the hydrogen bomb would mean that it would no longer be a hydrogen bomb, rather a standard atomic bomb. Basically, an atomic bomb using fission and a hydrogen bomb uses fusion. Here is a direct quote from my FIL: Fission works by chain reaction. If you put too much plutonium in one place, it will spontaneously fission and melt down. So there's a limit on how much nuclear fuel you can pack into a fission bomb (not to mention the cost of making it). Fusion only works if the hydrogen isotopes are really, really hot, and under a lot of pressure (think the solar interior). The result is that there is no serious limit on how much fusion fuel you can use, and you can achieve tremendous yields, like tens of megatons. The trick is to set it off. You have to use a fission (plutonium) explosion to do it. It's what puts the "thermo" in "thermonuclear." So a hydrogen bomb has two parts: a plutonium primary and a hydrogen-fuel secondary. So what the Losties are carrying around is no longer a hydrogen bomb, rather it is an atomic bomb, which is still pretty bad.

I also asked if you could rig the bomb to explode on impact. He said that bombs built in the USA since the 1940s have been built specifically NOT to explode upon impact because they did not want them to go off in a plane crash. However, if was poorly designed, it is a possibility, but it would not be as big of an explosion.

Which brings us to what would happen, explosion wise?
Again a direct quote: Since you didn't set it off properly, you would only get a fraction of the design yield. Maybe a few hundred tons of TNT equivalent. But that would still be about a hundred times the power of the biggest (4 ton) conventional bombs dropped from an aircraft. How much effect that would have depends on the setting. Out in the open air, it would be pretty impressive (a kiloton of ordinary chemical explosive makes a nice mushroom cloud), but far underground, it wouldn't do much. (I was part of a chemical kiloton underground test in the early '90s, and there was very little effect at the surface). However, if I were dropping this thing down an open shaft, I would want to stand clear!
I do not think there would be much left of Dharmaville or the Others.

There has been some discussion out there that the bomb going off caused the Incident. Or that the electromagnetic field is holding the blast in the hole. And that the button being pushed is releasing the atomic blast in bits. Okay, my FIL said an atomic blast would destroy any electromagnetic field, (his exact words regarding containment were “Not bloody likely!”), and so Faraday actually did get that right. FIL said that to contain an atomic blast with an electromagnetic field, you would need the pressure you would find in a black hole or the center of a star, not in hole near the surface of the Earth.
He also said: The second reason that the explosion would not be contained is the same reason why we don't yet have a working fusion reactor. Since around 1950 people (myself included) have been trying to confine very dilute thermonuclear reactions with specially designed magnetic fields in the laboratory. This has proved to be extremely difficult, because the hot plasma keeps leaking out. It's rather like trying to pressurize Jell-O by squeezing it with your bare hands. So if the guys in the movie have solved that problem, I wish they would tell the rest of us the answer.
I just love that last line, so I had to include in my synopsis. He has never heard of Lost so he did not realize it was a TV show rather than a movie.
I want to thank my FIL for all of his help. He really is the smartest person I know so I was pleased he was willing to help me out with this nonsense.

Overall, I think this all supports my idea that there was not an explosion, rather it was some other flash (a time flash IMHO) and that is what caused the bright white light.
We will have to see.

I’m a Pisces!

This was my favorite line in the Lost finale. I’m a Pisces too so it just brings me closer to Ben! My 2nd favorite line was when Frank saw what was in the cargo box and he just said “Terrific”. Frank is just such a cool cucumber. As you may have guessed, today I am going to discuss the season finale of Lost. I know that normally I discuss the show a bit closer to the air date, but I want to watch it again, just to make sure I did not miss anything.

Jacob
Who is Jacob? What is he up to? Well, I think that he is the Jacob from the bible, Esau’s brother. I think the other guy on the beach is in fact Esau. Now I have sort thought about Jacob being this guy for a while, although I never said it because, well all I could remember about him was that he tricked his dad into giving him a blessing by dressing up in animal fur because Esau was so hairy. Once the other guy showed up, I decided to look Jacob and Esau up.
Jacob and Esau were twins (Bad Twin?). And they fought inside Rebekkah’s womb and when she asked God what was up, He said that she had two nations inside her.
Esau was born first and therefore entitled to his father’s land and blessing. One day Esau came in from field feeling faint and sold his birthright to Jacob for food. This does not seem like a very good deal to me, but according to the Bible Esau figured he was going to die if he did not get some grub so the birthright would not do him any good.
Now Isaac (dad) liked Esau best because he was a hunter and would bring him venison. But Rebekkah liked Jacob better. Now when Isaac got old and blind he sent Esau out to get him some venison and told him when he got back he would bestow his blessing on him. Rebekkah took this opportunity to dress Jacob up as Esau and trick her husband into giving the blessing to Jacob. By giving Jacob the blessing, it meant that Esau became subservient to Jacob. And Esau vowed to kill Jacob. However, God sent Jacob a dream and then told him he would have a bunch of kids across the lands and blessed him. And in the end Esau did bow down to Jacob. Now Jacob because Israel and Esau became Edom, I am not sure why the name change, but I have to assume it in reference to the 2 nations in the womb thing. This is my summary of the story from Genesis. I skipped a bunch of stuff, so if you want to read it yourself, it starts at Genesis 25:20.
Okay, now let’s look at these guys on the beach. Jacob is obviously more powerful since he can bring people to the island and the Anti-Jacob (this is a term someone on Ravelry used and I am going to use it as well because I do not know he is Esau) can’t stop it. Anti-Jacob wants to kill Jacob, but can’t because well, we don’t know why, but I think it is because he is Esau and therefore has to kowtow to Jacob. So he is looking for a loophole. --- Enter Locke, the mighty hunter. I think that if this guy is Esau, he has been influencing Locke the whole time he was on the island. So he is the reason Locke can go out and find boar and kill it with a knife and track anything. The reason Locke feels special is because he has been being “spoken” to, not by Jacob, but by Esau.
Jacob spins and weaves, which also would fit in with the bible story as it says he likes to “stay in tents”, which I guess is code for he is more fit for cooking and such. Now Anti-Jacob is obviously a man of action. He wants to go to Jacob’s, he wants to go now. He killed a boar and brought it to the Others.

Locke
Poor Locke. He really did spend his whole life being duped. I feel really bad for him, because I think he was a good guy. I also think he is dead. Which I think is a loss for the show. However, he did what was needed of him and I can not see what reason the show would have to keep him on.

Jacob and the Losties
We saw Jacob visiting our Lostie friends in the past. Now all of those he visited (and touched), except Locke and Sun, ended up in 1977. Is this a coincidence? I don’t think so. If fact, I think that if Ben had not killed Locke, he would have ended up back then as well. Sun, I think is in a separate time so she can contemplate how much Jin means to her.
I think Jacob arranged for them to end up in the past so they could come to the future and stop Anti-Jacob when needed, i.e. when he Jacob died. I think that is who Jacob was referring to when he said “They’re coming”. They will join up with Team Statue. The real question is who will The Others follow? Richard or Ben or Anti-Jacob? If I were an Other, I would go with Richard, but one can never tell in Lost.
Does it matter when Jacob spoke to them? Most of them were touched by Jacob pre-flight 815, only Sayid and Hurley were visited since the crash. Are Sayid and Hurley extra special? Sayid did not look in good shape at the end of the episode. Of course, if they stay on the Island, that might not mean much since he wasn’t dead yet. A person seems to be able to survive a lot on the Island. I have always thought Hurley was special so hopefully it will come to pass. Especially when we get to see what is in the guitar case. I think there is probably something very important in the case.

Ben
Poor Ben. I feel bad that his life has been so bad that he feels like he has no other option than to kill Jacob. I do understand blaming him for all the bad stuff that happened to him, but really, I do not think it was Jacob’s fault. And in many ways, Jacob is like God, he gives you freewill and you decided how to live your life. He is not there to baby sit you or make sure everything goes great. It just isn’t his job.
However, I came up with a thought as to why Anti-Jacob chose Ben to kill Jacob. Ben is the Loophole because he was brought back to life, not by Jacob, but by Anti-Jacob. He is tainted. And not because he had a choice, someone else decided to do this to him. He lost his freewill.

Jacob’s Cabin
I do not think Jacob has been in this cabin in a long time. In fact, I think it is the same cabin Rose and Bernard were living in circa 1977. They did not say they built the cabin, only that they had been scavenging for food and avoiding the Dharma gang. I think they broke the ring and Jacob got out. I do not think it was Jacob who was in the cabin when Locke visited; I think it was Anti-Jacob because he wanted to set up his pawns. Locke to feel he was special and Ben to feel he wasn’t. In fact, I do not think Ben had any communication with Jacob during his reign as leader since Ben did not seem to know that Jacob had a 2nd home.

The End
I do not believe the hydrogen bomb went off. As anyone who has read any of my recent Lost posts knows, I have never been really keen on the whole feasibility of blowing up a hydrogen bomb and making the past no longer exist. Even though people might be the variable, what’s done is done. For example, Desmond was able to save Charlie a few times, but Charlie still died. I do not think anything they might do will stop the plane from crashing, because maybe Desmond was not the reason flight 815 crashed. Maybe Jacob made it crash. I actually woke up on Thursday morning with the answer. The white light was not an explosion, it was a time shift. Jacob’s death caused the Island to shift the gang in ’77 back to 2007. Where, they will fight Anti-Jacob for control of the Island.
That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it!

You Are Invited To Advanced Ball Screws 201

I know you are thinking “Damn, how to I get invited to such a cool event?” Well, all you need to do is start buying bearings and you get your name on all the hottest event lists!
Seriously, I opened up my work e-mail today and I saw this and thought the firewall had broken and I was getting pornographic material delivered to me. But no, just some engineering class regarding ball screws. Sigh.

I was going to post earlier this week, but I have not been felling up to it. On Saturday DH and I went out to Shepherd’s Harvest and I actually took photos! I know, I remembered my camera AND I remember to take pictures. So here is a brief look at the day.

We saw a lady spinning directly from an angora rabbit. She is there every year. The rabbit is molting so it is not in any pain.


Here are some of the other rabbits we saw. They are just so cute and fluffy.


Shepherd’s Harvest takes place at the Washington County Fairgrounds, but most of the vendors are indoors, although the doors at both ends of the buildings are usually open. It was quite chilly this year, so even inside it was cool. Here is a shot inside one the buildings. So many vendors, so little time…



Here is a shot outside. Please note the kettle corn vendor on the left side of the picture. They make the kettle corn right there and it is delicious.


There was a yurt on site this year. Someone actually makes them and you could buy one. It was warmer in the yurt than it was in the metal buildings. Even though there is a big hole in the top of it. I sort of wonder how they keep the rain and the snow out of it.



Here is a shot of lunch. Mmmmm lamb brat!


Here are a couple of alpacas that had just been shorn.


And last but not least, here are some pictures of a sheep having her nails clipped and one being sheared and some sheep in a pen waiting to be sheared or just done.


I did buy some stuff on Saturday, but I do not have any photos of it yet. The one thing I will mention though is Briar Rose Fibers. Her yarn is just drop dead gorgeous, of course most of it is merino so it is verboten to me, but I did find some BFL I could buy. I will definitely post a picture of it. She also had knit the Icarus Shawl in a sport / DK weight fiber and bigger needles and it was beautiful. I think I might try doing that as well because even though I like the look of Icarus, it always seemed beyond my capability. I am not sure why. I think it is because the model in Interweave is so skinny, I could not image the shawl actually on my sizable frame.