Forgot to put this up!

Yep, I have actually been knitting.  Some sailor baby, (or marine baby, but sailor is more likely), will be getting this one.  I finished the pink, and it just needed something.  I added the white fringe, and I think it just made it a bit more complete looking.

Right now I am working on a yellow blanket, and a multi-color blanket.  Both pretty simple, so I can just pick up and stitch when ever I get the mood.  I have found the 70's TV show "Emergency!", (Hulu is rather addictive), and I am having fun watching that in the evenings, which means I can put the hands on autopilot... With the exception of yesterday, when I realized I'd dropped a stitch about 3 lines down, and had to tink a bit to fix it.  BUT, it didn't take long, so I was back and knitting again not long after discovery.

The funny thing, I had two short notice things happen.  One, a gal I knit hats for Christmas presents to give to local kids, I had written her a few MONTHS ago. Please let me know soon. I really need some time to knit up some hats.  Do you need hats this year?  What is the hat situation??

Nothing...

So, I wrongly assumed no hats were needed.  About a week ago, I received a short note saying she loved the hats I'd made last year, and any I could send this year would be great.

Oh.  Er.  Well, so far I have... One.  2, if you count the one that is tiny... As small as it is, it might go to the hospital for the babies, because it would probably not fit a child of any size.  Meh, it will go someplace!  But... I will not be knitting any 50 hats the way I did last year!  Mom suggested next year, just assume she will want the hats.  Probably a safe bet.  And if she doesn't, I know several charities that do.

The second one, a friend of mine passed away, and his "thing" at faire was carving an apple.  I wrote a note to the head of faire, I wanted to donate an apple tree to the fairegrounds on his behalf.  I then received a reply, oh, yes, and would you like to help with the memorial?  I said yes.  I am now hoping that "helping" doesn't mean I plan and put it on... Eeeep.

I have also been reading (um, ONE of the things I have been reading, I am up to six books at the moment), Eat, Pray, Love.  I am truly enjoying this book. (Which is probably why it's being drug about the house, while the others are moldering away, locked in one spot...)

The rain has finally shown up here.  Just out of curiosity,  I checked one crack we had in the soil outside, I stuck a yardstick down into it.  It stopped about 16 inches.  I think the only reason it didn't go down past that was because the crack curved some...  Most of those have been sealing up since, so hopefully our place won't look like an earthquake hit now.  The bittersweet part, though, is that it has been cold enough that the garden is pretty well gone.  I did get lots and lots of tomatoes, some beans, a few crookneck, turnips, kohlrabi, and some peppers.  It wasn't the best year, but it wasn't bad.  The corn stunk, didn't get ONE EAR... Not even a scrubby one.  I just don't seem to have a knack for growing corn.  Oh, well, that's what farmer's markets are for, I guess...

I have been walking, and now, I have been waiting for the school bus to go by.  It goes by like an Indy Car going for pole position, and I really don't want to have wind and rain take my hat off.  I haven't seen the farm hand's dog since I changed to a heavier jacket, I don't know if he doesn't 'recognize' me, or if he is just being held in check somewhere, but it's nice not having a 21(hundred) bark salute every time I go by...

So, that and some running around, the usual house and such, and I am (yes, one of those) started on Christmas shopping.  Not much, but I have a few things in the Christmas Cupboard!

So, while it's not the most exciting blog this round, I have been doing something.  I will have a photo of an experiment I did this month.  I let my nails grow.  If I make it to Halloween, I will be surprised.  It has made for a STRANGE time of handling things, let me tell you!

The Case of the Man in the Sheet.

I haven't read Sherlock Holmes in quite a while... High school or college, I believe.  I enjoyed reading them.  I suppose it was a 'been there, done that' thing.  I don't re-read a lot of books.

But I'd been hearing about this Masterpiece Theater version of Sherlock.  It sounded interesting.  I decided to take a peek...



(I started with season 2.  No, I didn't realize it was season 2.  I now have season 1 on hold at the library.  Which is saying something, as I don't like using the hold system at my library.  If it isn't there, I usually just wait.  I am still waiting for The Hunger Games, if that gives you any idea...)


I was reading about it, and realized it was a MODERN take on Sherlock.  I don't know why, but I don't like... Hmm.

Well, for example, Shakespeare.  Modern clothes, modern housing, etc, and then I hear Thee's, Thou's, and all the Elizabethan speech, it just grates on me.

(The lady doth protest too much?  Mayhap... Meh.)


So, I was hoping it wouldn't be all Victorian speech, with cell phones.  Cell phones, yes, Victorian, no.  Well, except perhaps for "A Scandal in Belgravia"...  Wait.  That wasn't Victorian, it was Victoria's Secret!  (Sorry, had to do it...) Seriously, I was highly impressed.  I thought the stories were updated well, the actors were excellent (um, and Benedict Cumberbatch is cute), and it made me want to read the originals again.  


Today it's raining like crazy.  There is not much I need to do, except maybe a bit of laundry, and make dinner eventually.  I am going to read "The Adventure of a Scandal in Bohemia".  


Re-reading is nice, every once in a while... In this case, it's like being re-introduced to an old friend you'd not seen in a while, when you met up with one of their children.


So, I recommend a viewing of Sherlock BBC's "A Scandal in Belgravia" , a nice cup of tea, and a rainy day to enjoy them in.  


(And the book, too, so you have the rest of the stories when the movies are over...)

TV. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

My family and I have very different tv watching habits. (Heck, HUSBAND and I have different habits, but I will get into that in a minute.)

At home, the TV is on. Mom uses it like I use music. Background noise. Something so the house isn't quiet. Dad watches movies a lot since he's retired. (They have cable, so they get movie channels.)

I have come to the conclusion that the title above can fit my TV watching.

The good. Obviously, this is me, and others (coughHusbandcoughcough) wouldn't agree, but that's why they have Nielson ratings, right?

I like Criminal Minds, CSI: all of 'em, Law & Order, Perry Mason. (Detect a theme here?) While they are 'cop' shows, several of them have puzzles, or I guess the whodunit part. I try to work out the 'bad guy', and how they came up with it. I get "The Cleaner", Mom records it for me, as we don't have cable. I just like the story line. (The main character, Benjamin Bratt, has absolutely nothing to do with it, either. Ahem. Nothing. Am I protesting too much? No, he is not the reason I watch the show. Now... Heh... ) I enjoy Nova NOW, Merlin, Mental, House, Lie to Me, and probably one or two others, that I catch as I remember to record. (I get up early, so staying up to watch shows is really not possible. I would doze off before ever they showed the opening.) Most of these get recorded, and watched later, as I find it nicer to watch when I have time, rather than trying to get them watched on any sort of schedule. This can lead to a week or three of no TV, than a marathon weekend when I watch several in a row.

The Bad. I probably watch more than I should, but my preferences seem to be... sharpening? Narrowing? Something. I try and watch a program or two that friends talk about on shows they watch. For example, one of my friends loves "reality tv". (A mis-named item, if ever there was one.) To humor her, I watched "There Goes the Neighborhood". To sum it up:

Bunch of folks stuck inside of a walled area, the houses seem to be lacking electric, and they do silly little games, and who ever wins said silly little game, gets to pick two families to be eliminated from the group, whereupon, all the others vote between the two to get rid of them.

Yeah...

What, may I ask, is the point?

During the episode I watched, they kept saying, Oh, it's just a game, but were plotting like they were going to be executed by torture, not just kicked off a show. One gal was just over the top crying because they'd eliminated her family.

I guess I don't understand the idea of everyone working against one another. This is... stupid? short-sighted? idiotic? I don't even know if I have the right word. I just wish they would have one where the point is working together. Have all the groups work to win the money. I do understand competition, but does every game on anymore have to be so backstabbing? Let's just say, I watched it, I know what it is now, and I have already erased the dreck from my DVD.

If you, dear reader, love these shows with an all consuming passion, would you please leave me a note in the comments as to why? I am serious. You have to like it, or you wouldn't watch. Obviously, I am in a minority, as the shows not only are popular, it seems like there is more of them on the TV of late. (I will not even go into the Marry the Millionare and other ones, my stomach has its limits. Not going there, not even wanting to sit down and watch a show.)

Several members of my family (guys and gals) watch soap operas. I have nothing for or against them, I only put them on bad, because I don't get into romances all that much, and it seems like that it's almost all who is with whom, what they are dying of, or who found out her 3rd cousin had a sex change and is now dating a goat.

You know, the usual stuff.

In all seriousness, I have sat down and watched a couple that I used to watch, and it just strikes me that stuff I watched back in 8th grade, during summer vacation, is STILL GOING ON. When I was in college, a bunch of friends and I would watch soaps. However, we would watch it, by turning OFF the sound, and adding our own dialouge. Some days were hilarious, some were, well, disgusting, but I think our group had a lot more fun. Except for the days when someone would come in and really want to watch the soap. All good things must end, I suppose.

The ugly. Remember what I said about Husband and I having differing views on TV shows? He likes This Old House, The New Yankee Workshop, Motor Week, that kind of thing. (I don't mind them, so I might or might not watch, depending on if I have a dying need to find out what the host will do with 2 x 4's and drywall patch.)

Anywho, he, on the other hand, rarely, if EVER watches my 'cop' shows. (Notable exception, we are both Perry Mason nuts.) He is not a blood and gore type guy. I find this sort of funny, I can watch most of the goriest episodes, see the autopsy with no problem, Husband is out of the room, and on the computer within seconds. I, in fact, warn him if I am going to sit down and watch one of these shows, the poor guy will turn white and look like he's going to lose his lunch. He has even thought me by turns, goolish, or crazy, as I would love to be one of the dead guys on one of the CSI:'s. (Or Criminal Minds, either would be cool...)

This not to say my husband is squeemish, however. He's the one that showed me how to butcher chickens, he has hunted deer in the past, and some of the movies he and I have watched together are definitely not Disney-esque. But the odd thing, show a plane crash on the news, and he can look at it, and not have a problem. I am ready to barf any and all contents of my innards. I guess I know that the folks on the table on the 'cop' shows are going to get up, wash off the gore 'n goo, and have a beer. The folks on the news, not so likely. So.

The point of this? If you invite me over for TV, don't make it Survivor. Or I will vote myself off the island.

Drug into the new Millenium by my toes...

Well, today I watched "HD" television some. Due to the 'DTV' switch, and I being, um, rural, and... Um... Cheap, uh, frugal, and that I don't watch a lot of TV, I wasn't in a real big whoopee rush about getting the "secret decoder ring" for my television, aka HD Converter Box.

I guess 15% of people with televisions don't have cable or dish or anything like that. Me, part of the few, the proud, the cheap! Heh.

Anyway, therein lies the reason for the switch. So, I went to Arkansas Mart, didn't get to look at the 2 they had for sale there, (they had none on display), and the help seemed inclined to just want me to get it and leave, so I just left. Sans converter. I wanted a Converter box with a pass through for analog, because we are in a spotty area. This means it either comes in great... Or not at all. And it's as often as not the latter. So, I talked to Dad, and he said we could do this manually, making an antenna pass through.

And they say the stuff is ALLLLLL changing in February of 2009? Horse Nuggets! I found that channels that are low power, or channels that are 'repeater' stations, i.e., if you watch channel 2 on channel 45, the channel 45 probably WON'T be changed until a later time. And some areas aren't changing at all! I saw a map of Oregon, and the better part of a third of the state isn't covered by the change. Now some of it is very rural, like the area around Harney County, but the coast doesn't seem to be covered either, if I was looking at it right. So, I wanted to make sure if I wanted to watch a station that ISN'T covered, I still could.

So, I then went to Electric Bits and Pieces, and they did have one I could look at, but told me the only analog pass through ones were ON LINE. Great... I called Dad, we discussed if the one I was looking at would work, (he was pretty sure it would), and I whipped out the handy-dandy-do-all-card our Government saw fit to provide (told ya I was cheap), and got one. (Well, I did have to shell out an extra 20, but I figure that covered the frustration of dealing with Arkansas Mart.)

So, I found out, the little box, as well as giving us extra channels, gives us Closed Captioning, (it didn't work before, for some reason.) It gives us Extended Program Guides, and different screen sizes, and probably a few other things, which I will probably find as I wander through the morass of buttons on the new remote... But, I hate to say it, it still looks like there is HOURS AND HOURS with nothing on...

But! I can still watch Perry Mason. And I hope that Paul Drake looks even cooler in HD. Stay tuned!

Homer-ic Teachings. (D'oh!)

I found out that Springfield, Vermont was the winner of the "real" home of Homer Simpson. (Springfield, Oregon came in 3rd. Boo, hoo...) For some reason, that amused me. And made me think of the one time Homer Simpson was actually helpful...

I was working in a remedial reading class, assisting a boy one one one. He was working on reading "The Little Red Hen". The teacher said, he is having some trouble with a few words, see what you can do. (I worked one on one, so the child had a lower stress time reading, I would make notes on what had been mis-pronounced, and we'd work on it...)

Sooooo, we start reading Red Hen. Everything's going smoothly, until he reaches the point where said roan colored poultry starts making the bread, and makes DOUGH.

"The little red hen makes the DOO-Gah."
"That's dough, hon."
"Oh, OK."
"Then the little red hen put the DOO-Gah in the pan."
"Uh. Dough, hon, the stuff bread is made of? Dough."

He did remarkably well with the rest of the story, and I asked him to read it to me again. He never seemed to mind this, and started the bird book again...

Then the dreaded DOO-Gah. Again.

I knew this was the trouble spot, and I knew he had a great memory, if I could link the word to something he knew. I tried the normal, this is what bread is made of, tried to explain the "gh" sound, (note to teachers, if you have someone working for you that reads English texts, remind them "plough" confuses the living CRAP out of American kids...) and a few other things, with NO result.

DOO-Gah.

Crap.

Finally, in a burst of insanity desperation inspiration, I said, "Say, hon, have you ever watched the Simpsons?"

The dam broke. Not only did he watch the Simpsons, he thought Bart was terrific, he wanted a sister like Maggie, but not Lisa, andandandandandand and...

Uh, OK. Easy quiz, kiddo, what does Homer say when he messes up?

"D'OH!"

"OK, great. See this word? Dough? When you see it, say it so it sounds like Homer's D'oh. OK?

"OH!! Dough?"

Eureka!

"Yes, hon, dough. Not DOO-Gah."

I was pleased. The connection had been made. Perhaps too well.

"Then the little Red Hen made the (LOUDLY) D'OH! And she kneaded the (LOUDLY)D'OH! And she put the (BELLOW)D'OH in the oven to bake...

I didn't know if I should laugh or cry. He DID get it, but the reading of Little Red Hen in that manner was... Shall we say, unusual? About then, his teacher came in. Bless his heart, the little guy beams at his teacher, and says, I can read it through, no mistakes!!!" I am mortified. I hadn't had time to tell him not to bellow D'oh.

Oh, Gawd.

He proceeds to read to the teacher. D'OH! D'OH! D'OH! I watch, hoping I had a job when he finishes. The teacher had a rather strange expression when he finished. "My, that WAS a good reading. Um, perhaps I can borrow the IA (me) for a minute, you go find a toy, let's give you some free time for that great reading."

We walk out the door, and I am getting nervous, she hasn't said a word to me all the way out, and still has this odd expression on her face.

We go out of the classroom, she closes the door, and bursts into unrestrained, over the top laughter. "I LOVE IT! HE GOT THE WORD! I would have never thought of HOMER SIMPSON!"

You're not angry, I ask?

Angry? NO! I have been trying to get him to understand that for a week! Homer Simpson... Whereupon, she burst out laughing again.

It all worked out, except when I subbed in that school, the teachers, upon seeing me, would walk up, and instead of Hello, for the rest of the year, I was greeted with...

D'oh!

Yeesh...