Tuesday, April 14, 2009

What Lies In The Shadow Of The Statue?

Chaos
The Girl and The Boyfriend got mad at my husband last week and spent Wednesday through Sunday at his mom’s house. They have taken up spending a lot of time over there, which is odd because before The Baby was born The Girl acted like The Boyfriend’s family was pure evil. I think they were just being pissy and I think they are over it, but it is hard to tell. They are going over to there this weekend as well because it is The Boyfriend’s birthday on Sunday. I am sure they will be causing trouble and I worry about The Baby, but I am not sure what I can do about it. The Girl admitted she had been giving The Baby formula while over there. She said it was because The Baby wouldn’t eat, but I worry it is because she was drinking or doing drugs. I kept these thoughts to myself because I have no current proof, just past behavior and I keep hoping that she really will grow up. I will say this about them being out of the house, as much as I missed The Girl and The Baby, it was nice to be just my husband and me again. Not that we did anything exciting, but we could go where we wanted, when we wanted. I miss that. I did get some new shoes. They are a pair of grey felt Haflinger clogs. They are awesome. I had a pair a LONG time ago that I had bought on a sale and I loved them. When I received my bonus at work (several months ago) I decided I would buy myself another pair and I finally got around to doing it this weekend. Here is what they look like.
I also bought myself a really fancy pair of slippers. They are Acorns and were originally marked at $34 and I got them for $17. They are fantastic. I wear only slippers when I am at home, so having a good pair is important. These have a rubber sole and lots of cushioning. I am pretty sure they are the nicest slippers I have ever owned, I could be in trouble…

And Taxes
I did my taxes over the weekend. Normally, my sister the CPA does my taxes, but since I have been disowned from my family because of The Girl, I had to do them myself. I don’t have complicated taxes, but it still took several hours. I am quite disorganized when it comes right down to it. I did them online at TaxACT and it went pretty well and it was cheaper than my sister. I still hate screwing around with them. It seems like there should be a better way.
I will be getting money back… about enough to pay my property taxes for the year. Sigh. Taxes. Bah!


And Darkness
My MIL & FIL arrive this afternoon. I really am not looking forward to the visit. They are just a lot of work to deal with. You have to be careful what you tell them and how you tell them so they do not completely freak out. It just is exhausting. I have not started my vest yet. However, I did wash, block and measure my swatch, which is an accomplishment since it is more than I normally do. I got stitch gauge, but not row gauge. I do not think it will be too big a deal since normally things are way too long for me anyway. I am short and fat and apparently heavy set people are supposed to be tall. I used my Knit Gauge app on my I-touch to figure out the gauge. It is totally sweet! If, like the current pattern I am working on, you have a repeated design, you can measure one repeat and put in how many stitches there are in that repeat and viola, it figures out your gauge. It is too cool. I love my I-touch.
Anyways, in-laws… We don’t have much planned for while they are here. We are going to the opera on Saturday. We will be seeing the Barber of Seville. We still need to make dinner reservations or something before hand, but I think it should be a good time.
I am taking Friday off of work. Maybe we will all go to the zoo. Well not all of us, because The Girl has a doctor’s appt in the afternoon, but maybe we can take The Baby with us. We will have to see.
The weather is supposed to be perfect all week, okay, there might be showers on Saturday, but that is not a big deal.
DH has not told his parents that he has class on Wednesday so I am not sure what will be expected of us that night. DH has been taking spinning classes. They are going quite well as far as I can tell. I am so proud of him and I will post some pictures as soon as I take some.
Hopefully, The Girl will not be too cranky and the In-laws will not be too judgmental about The Boyfriend.
Uff Da, I think it is going to be a long week.

And Death
Well, what can I say about last week’s episode of Lost? I loved it. Of course, I love Ben and a whole hour of him is more than I could ask for. It is good to see that Ben really is better than Widmore (as I suspected). I do realize that is like saying it is better to get bit by a great white vs. a tiger shark, but I do not care. Ben does not kill Penny because he does not want Charlie to not have a mom. He doesn’t want Alex to not have a mom, okay, technically she did not really have a mom around, but Ben did not kill her so she could have one eventually. Surely that counts for something? I do not think Ben expected to see Locke when he woke up and I do believe that he was telling Sun the truth, dead is dead. Perhaps Locke is something else? Old Smokey perhaps? Time will tell.
The Temple and Egypt: I have been thinking about all of the Egyptian stuff in the show. I was thinking that if this was once an island that followed Egyptian religions and then moved, perhaps the culture was isolated and then corrupted or evolved into something else. That could explain why the hieroglyphs are so primitive looking and why the statue (who I believe is Anubis) has shorter ears than he does traditionally. I would like to go back to my idea of the Island being Atlantis. If the Island is moving around, who is to say that it did not start around Egypt and move up by Greece and to the South Atlantic and then to the South Pacific.
Why did Ben shoot Cesar? During the 2nd viewing of the show, it occurred to me Cesar was shot because he had the shot gun. Here is my thought process. If the office was Ben’s, that means that the shot gun was Ben’s. So when he sees Cesar has the gun, he has to assume Cesar has been digging around in his office. Ben has to assume Cesar could have seen something which would raise suspicions, maybe not right away, but eventually and Ben can not wait for eventually. So he shoots him. I was really stunned by Locke’s lassie faire attitude. Really, Locke normally gets more worked up about things.
I am really looking forward to this week’s episode. I love Miles as well. It should be interesting.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

What Do I Call This?

No clever title today. I have not been feeling well for several days. I have been dizzy and my left hand has been tingly. I do feel a little better today, but I feel worse as the day progresses. I am not sure what is wrong with me. I looked up my symptoms on WebMD yesterday, but to no avail. It could be anything from vertigo, a stroke or MS. I actually think I might have a pinched nerve in my neck or shoulder. It seems to get worse when I stand up and walk around.

Actual Knitting PHOTOS!!
I know. It is very exciting.
Here is a picture of my Daily Sweater.


The actual color is a little darker than this photo, but this was the best I could do. I think it is going to take a long time to finish. It is not hard or anything, but just tedious. Just knitting around and around and around… I think that if I were to knit the pattern again, I would add some details to punch it up. However, I do like the knitting from the top down. I like the idea that when I am done, I will not have to sew pieces together, which is a major hurdle for me. I have tried this on and it does fit over my breasts, so I am happy. I think this will be a very comfortable sweater just for hanging out in, if I ever finish it.

Here is the beginning of the Fox Island vest swatch.
I have finished the swatch now; I just need to block it out. I like how the colors look. I think it is going to be really lovely once the vest is finished. I need to get the vest cast on before next Tuesday when the In-Laws show up so I have to block the swatch ASAP.

I knit up a little baby hat, but it came out extremely small, even after I blocked it out. I think I will try to knit the same pattern up with bigger needles and yarn. It called out worsted weight with size 8 needles, which is what I used. It has a herringbone stitch around the bottom part and I knit it way too tight. I think that was the main problem because the lacy part was okay.
I do not have a picture of it because, well it was a failure and I do not want to show it off. Okay, it is not a total failure, if I come across a fairy that is headed out to the Renaissance festival, this would be perfect for her to wear.

Some thoughts on last week’s episode of LOST (What’s Happened, Happened):
I still do not like Kate; I do not think I ever will. I actually think it has less to do with the character of Kate and more to do with the acting. I really do not understand why going back to the island to find Claire is nobler than anyone else’s reason for going back. I mean really, they have been gone 3 years and it just occurred to her that Claire might want to be with her son. I was right that Aaron is with his grandma, although I was wrong how he got there. Of course, I personally think he should have been with her to begin with. I have to assume that Mrs. Littleton will be staying in L.A. with Aaron since I am not sure how she would get him out of the country. Maybe SuperKate had fake documentation made up for Goober just in case they had to hit the road.
I had to disagree with Cassidy’s evaluation that Sawyer broke Kate’s heart. Maybe I missed something, but I seem to recall that Sawyer asked Kate to stay with him in New Otherton and Kate declined and went running back to Jack. Kate chose Jack. Why would Sawyer stay with her? Plus, I do not think Sawyer really wanted to go back to the real world. He had nothing there. Honestly, I do not know that I would leave the Island.
I thought the scenes with Roger and Kate were just creepy. He was really flirty with her. Of course, it would be ironic if they took up with each other since Kate killed her abusive “father” only to take up with someone who is abusive to his child.
Jack – what can I say? He is just a total ass. He is a doctor, how can he refuse to treat a kid? I think this bothered me more than anything I have seen on Lost in a long time. He is a doctor; don’t they take an oath not to let people die? Of course, by not saving Ben, it leads to him becoming evil Ben. Way to go Jack! Now, some people have been blaming Kate for this, but to me, this blame lays solely with Jack. If he had helped, Ben would not have wanted to ever join the Others since he thought Sayid was an Other and who is going to join up with a group that shot them. Of course, I think that someone else would have joined the Others and lead the destruction of the Dharma Initiative. But it would not have been Ben and that is all I care about. I love Ben. I hope he doesn’t die tonight. Being judged by the Island does not seem like a good a thing.