So, last night, our modem was actually working, and I was uploading pictures to my favorite online printing service at about 9:20 when . . . naturally . . . the power went out. Obviously, it’s a plot to keep me from spending time on the computer. Now, we’ve just had our electric lines and transformers completely replaced to prevent this sort of thing happening, but we had a wild thunderstorm going overhead last night, so I don’t think it’s really fair to blame this on the electric company. Chappy, of course, jumped up, barking from his sleep to make sure that everything was okay (if dark). Mom had just come upstairs because she was sure the power was going to go out and didn’t want to be left downstairs all alone. Mom and Dad ended up going to bed early. Well, I did too, actually, but I read by candlelight until about quarter to eleven.

I finished Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond series yesterday–spent practically the whole day on the couch, reading. (Mom kept asking if I was mad at her because I wasn’t chatting. Um, no, Mom, it’s a good book, and very emotional. I’m kind of involved, here!) Excellent, amazing book (sniffle).

The current book is Jasper Fforde’s “The Big Over Easy”–a spin-off from his Thursday Next books, involving “Nursery Crime”–Detective Jack Spratt and his assistant Mary Mary are called in to solve the death (or is it murder?) of Humpty Dumpty, who’s fallen off his favorite wall after a drunken evening at a charity gala . . . Yes, I know, it sounds like a children’s book but in fact, it’s not. It’s just another entry from the wacky mind of the man who brought us re-actualized dodos and mammoths, the LiteraTec literary detectives, and of course, Jurisfiction, the policing arm of the world of fiction.

As to knitting–I have been knitting. The problem is that since I’ve frogged that copper Zephyr stole, and my Union Square Market Pullover, while moving along, hasn’t noticeably changed since the last photo–not to mention that I’ve barely touched the socks in weeks–there really isn’t anything to show you. You’ll just have to believe me when I tell you that I am, in fact, still knitting every night. I did cast on for something new last night, but it’s an experimental design of my own, and I don’t even want to tell you what it is because (1) I might jinx it and (2) if it works out, I want the surprise factor when I show you the finished product. All I’ll say is that it’s being made out of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock yarn, in the “Pine” colorway, and involves beads–a first for me. Anything else, you’ll just have to wait until I have something I satisfied with that I can show you!

Oh well. I guess I’ll just have to wait to get prints for my photo album . . . it’s not like I’ve been neglectful, or anything. The last pictures I have in there are from Christmas. I mean, that’s only 8 months ago, right? What’s one more day? I do like this service, though–there are a number of online photo places where you can upload pictures and get high-quality prints. (Yes, there are personal printers, too, but I’ve tried them and the consumables of photo paper and toner just get too expensive and the quality’s never quite as good as I want it to be.) Anyway, what I like about Shutterfly is that they have prepay plans where you can pay in advance to get bulk-rate pricing, but you can take as long as you need to use up all the prepaid prints. I like that! It takes a couple days to get the prints in the mail, but since it ends up costing me less than going into town and having them printed there . . . no complaints.

Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning, Reading // 1 Comment »