Some random links to keep you all happy while I finish up section B on my shawl–which should be tonight!

One of the most adorable mother/daughter pictures I think I’ve ever seen. (Taken by the photographer Dad, too, to make it a full-on family effort.) Honestly, this picture is pure perfection.

This explains a lot about why customers always show up in groups.

Did you know that Bon Jovi recorded a song to help support the Iranian election protestors? Stand By Me, sung with Iranian Superstar Andy Madadian … the point of this song is to show support and to spread the word, so download it, link to it, spread it as far as you can!

Aren’t these the niftiest collection of keyboards you’ve ever seen? I particularly like the one from old, round typewriter keys.

My good, shepherdess friend Susan was written up in Cape Cod Life magazine–a magazine that we just happen to have floating around the office, so I was able to see it in person.

And then. One other thing. It kind of breaks my heart, but I need to get rid of, well, a lot of my books. Like, I’m shooting for half (though I don’t know if that’s actually possible). I’m VERY attached to my library. I’ve shown you pictures, remember?

At most recent count, I have 3,052 books–although there are a handful I haven’t logged into my database yet. But still … three thousand books. There are books I can’t bear to part with, books I love, but … there are still some I really don’t need to have any more. And there are some I can live without (though I’m convinced I’m going to need every single one of them just days after they leave my possession).

Among these books are some knitting books (sniff), some cookbooks, some magazines … Have I told you that I have just about every Vogue Knitting going back to something like 1988? Not to mention that I’ve got a wide variety of books because I have a wide variety of interests. I was thinking about assembling some of these dearly loved books into lots and offering them for sale for something like $30-$50 a shot, here on the blog. Is this something you folks would be interested in? You’d promise to give them good homes, right? Or should I just call a local used bookstore and ask what he’d offer me for the lot? (sniffle)

(And, yes, this prospect makes me very, very sad. I absolutely hate giving up books…)

Tags: General, Reading by --Deb
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Today’s mission, if you’re willing to accept it:

Watch episode 1.5 of CHUCK!

Chuck vs the Sizzling Shrimp

To make their cover more convincing, Chuck and Sarah have a “Night with Morgan” and stumble across a Chinese spy working undercover at a local restaurant. It must be time for Chuck’s first official stakeout–but, don’t worry, he’ll bring a mix tape to help pass the time!

Since Chuck isn’t slated to come back for Season 3 until March, that gives just enough time for everyone to watch all 35 existing episodes, one week at a time, to be all set and ready for Season 3. If you don’t have (or can’t beg, borrow, steal, or rent) the Season 1 DVD, you can watch season 1 at the WB.com. And … not only should you watch … but if you Twitter, join in and tweet about it to all your friends.

Tags: General by --Deb
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First, there was granola. In this case, homemade granola. The batch I made last week was so tasty, I was inspired to make more.

Mom and I stopped at Whole Foods yesterday–and, say what you will about their prices, their coffee is actually pretty cheap. $10 for pound and a half of good coffee beans can’t be beat. So, while there for coffee, I browsed my way down the bulk goods aisle and brought home a bunch of goodies. What you see here is a combination of oats, almonds, soy nuts, pepitas (pumpkin seeds), dried cranberries, coconut, and a sprinking of flax seeds and wheat germ for good measure. Mixed together with 1/4 cup each of honey and vegetable oil and then cooked in the crockpot for about 3 hours.

Love.

What do you like in YOUR granola??

It’s pretty, too–all those golden-y shades of brown with hints of red (cranberries) and green (pepitas).

I’m really enjoying making my own granola, and have cooked some into my morning oatmeal every day for a week. Not to mention just standing there, nibbling on it. About the only fault with this recipe is that, since you need to periodically stir it in the crockpot to keep it from burning, any “clumps” get broken up, so it gets a little messy to eat with your hands. (Luckily, Chappy likes oatmeal and helps keep the kitchen floors clean.) Seriously yummy, though.

I turned the rest of last week’s granola into bread (recipe courtesy of the 5-minute Artisan bread book). I’ve only had one, tiny piece so far, but … yum! And it turns out that, much as I love cherries, I prefer my dried cherries to be baked into something. Just “straight” in a batch of granola isn’t my preference. In this bread, though? Fabulous.

Bread and granola aren’t the only things I baked this weekend, though. I put together a cake, too. I was really in the mood for carrot cake, but we didn’t have everything necessary, so … I kind of made up a recipe with pureed, baby food carrots, apple butter, brown sugar, spices and a dash of lemon juice. I have no idea (yet) how it tastes, but it looks good!

(Although, you can tell in that picture that neat frosting isn’t really one of my priorities when finishing a cake, huh? It’s all about the taste.)

Not only did Mom and I stop at the Whole Foods yesterday (a rare treat, you understand), but look who we saw at the Madison library? Yep, Jessica was giving a spinning demonstration. This was the first time I got to see her since her surgery, and it was nice to chat for a bit and watch the wide-eyed kids come up and try to figure out what on earth she was doing (grin).

Though, the wide-eyed looks she was getting were NOTHING compared to this person. Fun and playful, yes, but kind of intimidatingly weird to the small-fry, huh?

Oh, and for the record, no, I have NOT yet started knitting the Gray Cardigan I swatched for weeks ago for two reasons. One, I needed to get my shawl to certain (undefined) percentage-done before I could mentally add in another project, and Two, I’m still trying to figure out what to do with my gauge. I ordered some KnitPicks wooden needles in size 3 the other day, and will try those when they come. Because, honestly, it doesn’t matter how I hold my yarn, how I tension my fingers, how big or little I make my stitches, I just can’t seem to get my gauge under control–it is just way, way too relaxed. Sigh…

On the plus side, that’s two sunny days in a row. Even if there are still clouds up there, that’s a huge improvement.

The thunderstorm that rolled through last night even missed us, though I’m pretty sure Chappy heard it. He certainly acted like he had! The other night, he started woofing at the thunder, which I told him is NOT acceptible behavior … especially since that would probably escalate into full-blown barking at every storm which would REALLY not be acceptible! But, still … two sunny days in a row!

Hey, can you draw a giraffe?

Now, about that whole spinning thing … my Little Gem DOES seem to be sulking in the corner a bit, even if she IS getting a chance to bask in the sun. But what I really need to do? Get that quilt piled in the corner finished ASAP … while I still have a corner to stash it in!

[Read more →]

Tags: Baking, Friends by --Deb
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Tags: Eye-Candy Friday by --Deb
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It’s the weirdest thing … the sky was this bizarre color. Like, a kind of BLUE. Not gray, like nature intended.

It’s just not natural.

Hey, Chappy has a store! Okay, it’s not really MY Chappy, but still.

I’m still dumbfounded at Michael Jackson’s death. So sad about Farrah Fawcett (who really deserved to have some more time of the media’s undivided attention), but her death wasn’t a surprise. But Michael Jackson? Wow.

Now, I’ll admit, I wasn’t a big fan. Thriller was HUGE when I was in high school, but I was busy listening to the Beatles, but there’s no way you can miss that kind of impact. His influence on pop and culture was enormous, and his sudden death at 50 years old? Just really shocking.

And, actually, I took that picture weeks ago, I just hadn’t gotten around to using it yet. But it’s still true that we had sunshine today for the first time in weeks. Talk about shocking.

Tags: General by --Deb
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Did you know that the state of New Jersey is 345 years old today?

It was on June 24, 1664 that King Charles II’s brother James, the Duke of York, signed the Royal Grant establishing the English colony known as New Jersey.

Thanks, James!

Susan posted yesterday about the eBook we put together for her birthday–a cookbook meant to be sold as an eBook to help support the farm. I can’t wait until she gets the links up so you all can see it. It’s got some great recipes in it, and it looks fabulous (if I do say so myself).

If you haven’t donated to Claudia’s annual MS ride, this week is your last chance–don’t let it slip by! Just $10 gives you a chance to win one of many, many fabulous prizes.

And, oh my, how embarrassing. This group, devoted to making English the official U.S. language had a … well … look at the picture. You’d think that they, of all people, would know HOW to use the language, huh?

Tags: General by --Deb
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So … last week I told you about my DVD-recorder woes with the (censored) Samsung I have in my bedroom. The one that’s caused me nothing but trouble with the clock all along, but whose tray now doesn’t open at all. It’s a brick that just keeps making noise, so now it’s unplugged and just sitting there, holding up my television.

I’m just really thankful that, if it was going to happen, that it didn’t happen with a DVD inside … like one of my Chuck DVDs! (The horror!)

Well, my woes continue because, now, the DVD-recorder in the family room won’t burn any DVDs. Or at least, I got an error message for each of the last 6 blank DVDs I put in there. It plays fine, it records onto its hard-drive fine. (Yes, this is one of those so-2005 units that has a hard-drive and a DVD-burner, but which is NOT a true DVR like Tivo.)

This means that the only functioning DVD-recorders in the house are (1) the one in my computer, which isn’t particularly helpful for television, and (2) the VCR/DVD combo unit I bought recently to convert our old VHS tapes.

THAT unit is working fine (knock wood), but since it doesn’t have a tuner, its timer is less than helpful, and until/unless I go climbing back there again to reroute cables for a third time, it still doesn’t help me get my shows off the harddrive of the one unit onto a DVD.

Sigh.

See, people? THIS is why we still have VCRs in this house. The quality of the recordings may not be as good, and they may be bulkier, but … they’re not so high-tech.

The only solution I can really see at this point? Other than spending another $200 or so on a DVD-recorder that HAS a tuner that I can put in my bedroom? (And they are getting harder to find, too.) Finally caving and paying for a cable box from Cablevision so that I can use IT here in my bedroom to record the channels it’s tuned to. But, can we really afford another $10 a month just for cable television? No, not really.

Here’s my complaint about technology. I LOVE technology. If I had all the money to spend in the world, I would have all the newest, latest, coolest stuff because it’s fun, and I LIKE the new, cool, latest stuff. But, I don’t have thousands of extra dollars to spend, and so I’m trying to make do with with I’ve got, or what I truly need. Hence the cellphone that mostly just does phone calls (much as I’d love to be able to Twitter and check my email and websites on my cellphone). Hence why I can’t print anything out from my laptop because the printers in the house don’t “do” wi-fi. (And, believe me, not having a printer is challenging for a writer!) Hence the fact that I still just have basic cable in my bedroom. Hence the fact that we don’t have a single DVR unit in the house.

Yet, the manufacturers seem to believe that everybody out there (here) IS keeping up with the latest technological developments. Why would we need a tuner in our DVD-recorder? Everybody has a cable box, right? Why would we need a harddrive in the recorder, when everybody has Tivo or a DVR from their cable/satellite service? Why would we need a VCR when we can record to DVD or to a unit’s harddrive?

Not to mention that more and more “basic” cable channels are disappearing because, in their efforts to provide us all with wonderful, free, high-definition television viewing, they’re turning all their stations “digital.” And not the “digital” switch that the government has been talking about for months. Oh, no. But just so they can provide “better” service. Except that, to get the better service, you need to PAY for a cable box … but, gosh, everybody has one of those already, right? And, doesn’t everyone have an HDTV-compatible television?

If not, why not?

Um, manufacturers, can I just remind you that we’re in a recession and people really just don’t have the money to willy-nilly go out and buy new televisions and new services that they don’t need? You can’t assume we’re all keeping up with the latest innovations. Some of us can’t afford to. And, believe me, I know a lot of people at work who have never watched a television show on their computers, don’t own a DVR, and, heck, don’t even own computers. (I know, I don’t understand that one, either.)

So, here I am, stuck with no way to record anything to DVD in my bedroom–so, no recording shows that Mom doesn’t like to catch them later in my room. That is, not unless I use my 10-year-old-VCR because it’s the only thing left that works. And I certainly can’t burn any of those Chuck episodes to DVD to lend to my friends to try to get them hooked on my favorite show because, well, that DVD-burner isn’t working any more, either.

As it is, I’m the only one in the house who understands how all the cables behind the television, VCR, DVD-player, new VCR/DVD unit, and the cable box interact. If anybody else wants to do anything other than simply watch television, I’m the only one who knows what buttons to push and which remotes to use. If I need to try redirecting a whole, ‘nother line from the current DVD-recorder to the new unit just so I can try to burn some of the things in the harddrive to DVD also? That’s starting to get confusing for me, too!

Okay–in other news, per one of my favorite science-fiction authors, today is Science Fiction and Fantasy Author Day.

This/These are genres that I’ve loved for, well, forever. Ever since Mom read me fairy tales and took me to see Disney cartoons with magicians and glass slippers when I was little. My favorite book when I was 8 was the Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews, and all through high school, I think I pretty much read nothing BUT science fiction and fantasy.

I’m forever grateful to all of them for stretching my mind with all the wonderful possibilities that weren’t really possible.

Just to name a few? Anne McCaffrey. David Eddings. Susan Dexter. Robin McKinley. Jack Finney. JRR Tolkein. Katherine Kurtz. Sharon Shinn. Diana Wynne Jones. Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Sean Russell. Roger Zelazny. Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Tags: General by --Deb
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Now I completely understand why it took me years to figure out that my hair is actually curly.

Usually, I comb my conditioner through my hair in the shower, and then towel-dry it ever so slightly afterwards, and scrunch in some gel. And that’s it. No other combing or brushing all day, just that one time in the shower. Anything else is going to pull the curl out and break up the curl “clumps.”

The other night, just to be different, I combed my hair out after the shower–like I did in the old days–and, wow, what a difference! All those years of combing the tangles out after the shower, who knew it was pulling so much of the curl out of my hair?

Because, usually, my hair has more curl …

Not only that, but it’s getting really long. The picture just above is from right after my last haircut in January. That’s five months ago, and when I combed out the dripping wet hair the other night? It came down well past my bra strap. I can’t remember the last time (ever?) that it was this long yet, surprisingly, it hasn’t been driving me nuts … yet.

If I’m really smart, though, I’ll pick up the phone tomorrow to make a haircut appointment because if I wait until it IS driving me nuts, then you know it’ll take weeks before I can get one.

I know, you’re all fascinated about my hair, right?

So, how about this–check out my afghan mentioned on the Twist Collective blog!

Because tonight’s post is obviously all about ME (grin).

Well, with a mention of my grandmother. It was 33 years ago today that my mother lost her mother, and I am grateful every day that MY mother is still here. She was 34 when her mother died, and I’ve had mine for 42 (and counting). I’ve been thinking about you a lot today, Grandma! I truly regret that, since I was only 9 when you died, that I never got a chance to really get to know you. I know, though, that you were the one person Mom used to get really silly with, like she does with me; and that you were the one person she regularly squabbled with, like she does with me. I think that you and I would have gotten along just wonderfully.

Tags: Family, General, Hair by --Deb
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Today’s mission, if you’re willing to accept it:

Watch episode 1.4 of CHUCK!

Chuck vs the Wookie

An old friend of Sarah’s shows up to recruit the team to help recover a stolen diamond–but it turns out that she has a history with Casey, too. (One that involves handcuffs in a hotel room.) Chuck is starting to feel the strain of keeping his spy-life a secret from his friends and family–especially when he finds out that Sarah has been keeping a big secret from him.

Since Chuck isn’t slated to come back for Season 3 until March, that gives just enough time for everyone to watch all 35 existing episodes, one week at a time, to be all set and ready for Season 3. If you don’t have (or can’t beg, borrow, steal, or rent) the Season 1 DVD, you can watch season 1 at the WB.com. And … not only should you watch … but if you Twitter, join in and tweet about it to all your friends.

Tags: General by --Deb
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For months, now, blueberries have been ridiculously expensive. Like, $4 for a half-pint, which is crazy. But when Mom and I stopped at the A&P yesterday to pick up stuff for a Father’s Day pie, they were on sale for $1.28 for a pint.

So, naturally, I bought blueberries! Six pints of them.

So, I baked a blueberry pie, using a recipe from one of the “America’s Test Kitchen” cookbooks, which are always fabulous. The only problem was that I didn’t have the recommended potato starch for thickening, so I used cornstarch instead.

Um, there’s a reason I don’t make pies very often. (grin) I’ve basically got blueberry soup in there, and a half-raw bottom crust, despite the fact that it was in the oven for well over an hour, as per the recipe. It certainly looked done to me! Except, obviously, with this much liquid UNDER the top crust, the bottom crust had some challenges, so, well … Dad liked it, anyway.

In addition to the pie–which used only 4 of the 6 pints I bought, I made this cake, which was entirely successful. This was the Brown Sugar Blueberry Cake from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking. This is a fantastic cookbook, and this cake? Wow. Really simple, and the batter was so light, the blueberries sank to the bottom and turned into this intense blueberry flavor with a delicate flavor on top, and … yum. This recipe is a keeper.

I made granola, too, for the first time. I got this recipe from Coconut & Lime–Almond-Cherry-Coconut granola. It came out great, too, and the interesting thing? Every other granola recipe I’ve ever seen has the granola spread out on cookie sheets and baked dry in the oven. This one uses a slow-cooker, which I just thought was really intriguing. It doesn’t have the “clumps” that granola usually has, but then, it didn’t have the quantity of oil and honey that some other recipes have, either. And, of course, the stirring probably broke up a lot of the clumps, too, but that’s fine with me. I actually prefer non-clumpy granola.

The irony is that I never actually EAT granola. I eat oatmeal for breakfast in the morning, so a bowl of granola with milk isn’t going to happen, and I don’t eat yogurt or ice cream to sprinkle it over. (It’s that dairy product thing, you know.) I DO add some to my oatmeal, when we have it in the house, and did you know it’s great for baking with? Granola baked into muffins or bread … mmmm. That said, though, I’ve been eating this by the handful all day. It’s yummy!

Otherwise? I don’t think we’re ever going to see the sun again. Although, there WAS about half an hour of sunshine today. I figure that was a special Father’s Day treat.

Tags: Baking, General by --Deb
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My DVD recorder hates me.

I try not to complain, really, but I think I just have to accept that my DVD recorder–a Samsung DVD-R135– hates me.

First, there’s the time thing. It’s consistently an hour off, no matter what I do. I can tell it the correct time zone, manually program the correct time, turn off the automatic time set feature, and do all of these things over and over again, but it doesn’t make any difference. Its clock ticks to its own drummer.

You may remember that I’ve tried to have this fixed. I sent the unit away to be repaired back when it was still under warranty. It was gone for four months, and when it came back, the clock was correct for several whole months … until the first time I had to adjust the time for Daylight Savings (don’t get me started on that subject), and ever since then?

Back to its own drummer.

The sad part is that it’s not even consistent about being wrong. It’s not, for example, constantly thinking that we’re on Central Time instead of Eastern Standard. It’s not using the old dates for Daylight Savings Time. It’s just always wrong. Except for rare days when, for some reason, it will suddenly be right for a few hours, or a day, or even a week … but the minute I start thinking it’s going to stay correct, it switches back.

What does this mean in daily life? Well, it still plays DVDs fine, so the time doesn’t matter for that. Since the clock is constantly showing the wrong time, though, it throws me off every time I glance at the television, so I keep it wastefully powered on all the time, so the screen shows the channel its tuned to rather than the clock. It DOES make recording television shows difficult, though … Sometimes I’ll set the timer according to its own, private time zone, only to have it record according to the real time. Or vice versa. But, you understand, this just adds to the fun.

Which brings us to this week.

I told you about CHESS in Concert the other night, and how much I’ve always loved the music. So, naturally, I wanted to record it, so–carefully accounting for the hour’s time difference between my bedroom and the DVD recorder–I set the timer.

I even planned ahead and set up some backup, by programming the VCR to record it on tape. This is a worst-case option, though, because CHESS in Concert is two had a half hours long. See, it’s possible to copy a VHS tape to DVD via the dual unit down in the family room, but it’s got an automatic two-hour limit. There’s no changing the speed of the DVD recording when dubbing, so two hours is IT … so any recording longer than 122 minutes is going to get cut off (which is NOT good television). So … while I could crawl around with cables and such to feed a VCR into one of the other DVD recorders … well, it’s not an easy process. But, still … backup is good.

Especially lately.

Because, guess what happened Wednesday night? Not the weird time thing, no. I set it to start recording at 7:00 its time and that actually worked. But … even though I set the DVD recorder to record in the LP setting–which should have given me four hours of recordable time–it recorded in SP, which means that two hours into the performance, it stopped recording. Argh!

And then, there’s the other glitch. We had a tiny but powerful power outage a couple weeks ago, and since then, if there’s a DVD in the tray, the machine keeps trying to, I don’t know, load it? Play it? Queue it? Something, anyway, that makes it periodically whirr, click, and clack. So that, when it stopped recording at 10:00 pm, it kept making these noises while I was trying to at least watch the rest of the show. And when I got up and tried to eject the tray? It wouldn’t open. I finally had to unplug the entire unit from the wall (which was fun in and of itself) to get it to shut up.

I did finally get the disk out, though, and when I found out CHESS in Concert was being aired again this morning at 1:00, I figured I would try again. I set the timer, made sure the recording speed was set to LP, and went to bed.

At a little after 5:00 this morning … click, whirr, clack …. silence … clack, whirr, click … pause … whirr, whirr, click …

Sigh.

Did I get out of bed to try to shut it up? No, I didn’t. I figured the effort of trying to outthink it (not to mention having to turn the bedroom light on to find the plug) would have woken me up more than the every-few-minutes-interrupted-sleep. But, still!

When I got up (a few minutes late, because for some reason I was tired this morning), I ejected the DVD–thankfully without any difficulty other than its taking about 3 minutes to process what “Open” meant. I got dressed, ate my breakfast, and when I went back upstairs to get ready for work, I was curious, so put the disk in and hit Play.

Yep. It recorded for three full hours BUT it started one hour into the performance. I forgot to adjust for the hour’s time difference when I set the timer.

But, the true, bitter irony?

After ejecting the disk and turning the power off to try to get the “Load error” message off the screen (because, of course it couldn’t load a disk, I took it out, stop trying!) … When I turned the power off?

It was magically showing the correct time.

I tell you, this machine is just messing with me now!

As much as I’d love to buy another DVD recorder and throw this one out the window, I’m stuck with it. But you know, there really are times I wish we had a DVR/Tivo like most other people in 2009 have.

Sigh.

I’ve got two more possibilities for getting this show onto DVD. (You know, other than actually buying the thing.) One is to convert my VCR backup, which is possible but involved. The other is to check the family room’s DVD recorder–it’s one of those DVR-wanna-be units. A DVD recorder with a hard-drive, so that while it doesn’t automatically record like Tivo does, you can record programs into its memory and then decide later if it’s worth burning it to disk. I set its timer last night also, with strict instructions to Mom to make sure the cable box was set to channel 13 before she came upstairs. I haven’t checked yet to see if that worked or not … she says that she did, and that machine is pretty reliable, but with all the rest of these difficulties … You’ll forgive me for being skeptical.

Maybe I should just stick with the CD of the album and give up on the video altogether?

Tags: General by --Deb
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If you ever wonder why so many of my photos have a yellowish cast, it’s not JUST because my room is yellow and my dresser is golden-brown wood.

The lampshade is wooden, too.

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Tags: Eye-Candy Friday by --Deb
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Hey, I finished section A of my shawl! I’m down to just 419 stitches now, so I suppose the rows should go at least a little faster, huh?

Since I take most of my knitting pictures at night, I’m having a hard time getting the green to photograph correctly, but trust me when I tell you it’s just about my favorite shade.

I laid out Chappy’s blanket so I could show you how the border is coming along…

…And he promptly came over to check it out. See? He DOES like it!

He seems to feel that I’m not spinning enough, though, because he came and sat behind it the other day.

Well, it was either that, or he wanted some protection from the thunder in the distance. Or the fact that his Grandma was broiling steak downstairs. Our broiler pan smokes no matter how well Mom cleans it, and the smoke always worries Chappy so that he runs about as far as he can get from the kitchen when she pulls it out. (This is not a reflection on her cooking, mind you, just that he doesn’t like smoke.)

What else?

My favorite shepherd is having a contest for some gorgeous yarn … all you have to do is follow her on Twitter and tweet about it. Easy!

I’m watching CHESS in Concert on PBS right now. I’ve told you about my 21st birthday in Trier, Germany, right? The trip that was pretty disastrous, and even my walkman died so that I couldn’t listen to the soundtrack of Chess, which I adore. Well, not exactly the soundtrack. The version I love is actually the original concept album, long before the show was ever produced on stage. I mean, how can you NOT love a show with music written by the ABBA team paired with Tim Rice, and which manages to tell the entire history of the game of chess in a few minutes? Not to mention having some of the most beautiful duets and quartets around. Love it.

Anyway, here’s a link to an article about the Chess in Concert recording. And about the show in general.

(…And, darn it, my DVD recorder just stopped. Drat! That means I won’t have the last half hour. There should have been NO trouble recording 2.5 hours on that blank DVD!)

Take a look at these amazing trompe l’oiel buildings.

Doesn’t this homemade granola sound wonderful? Almonds, cherries, coconut … and made in a slow cooker! I’ve never heard about that possibility before!

And, you know? I’m really liking my new header!

Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning by --Deb
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Today’s mission, if you’re willing to accept it:

Watch episode 1.3 of CHUCK!

Chuck vs the Tango

Tonight, Chuck goes on his very first real spy-mission … but first, he needs to learn how to Tango. (No, really!) But, what’s going to happen when the assassins follow him back to the Buy More? Can Casey move enough merchandise to help save him? (Really, if nothing else, this is worth watching for the two Tango scenes alone.)  (And, yes, I said TWO!)

Since Chuck isn’t slated to come back for Season 3 until March, that gives just enough time for everyone to watch all 35 existing episodes, one week at a time, to be all set and ready for Season 3. If you don’t have (or can’t beg, borrow, steal, or rent) the Season 1 DVD, you can watch season 1 at the WB.com. And … not only should you watch … but if you Twitter, join in and tweet about it to all your friends.

Tags: General by --Deb
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If you normally read in a feed reader, you won’t have noticed, but I just changed the Header to my page. I was getting tired of the blue header and the dark blue (paint) background.

So, I changed the background to some of my handspun yarn, and am trying to decide which of two headers to use.

The mostly monochromatic background, or …

The one with more color in the background.

The background of the page itself is now light yarn, instead of the colored stuff. Definitely an improvement, I think, over the dark blue paint background that came with the theme, but I’m having a hard time deciding which combination I like best.

Which  basically gives me four options:

All white.

White header, colored background.

Colored header, white background.

Colored header and background.

(You can click all four of those to see bigger options if you like!)

What do you think? (And, I’ve been playing back and forth a bit, so heaven only knows which of these four you’ll see when you click, though I’ve definitely narrowed it down to these four options.)

Oh, and on my photo transfer from the old Typepad blog to photos-on-Flickr? I’m until to June 2007. Seven months to go!

Otherwise, today?

I went through hundreds of video tapes downstairs in the family room. We’ve had a VCR since Christmas 1981, and our handmade video collection goes back exactly that far. I don’t mean home-movies, I mean home-recorded versions of movies. Lots and lots and lots of movies, usually three to a tape. They’re all stored on the bookcase on the right side of our fireplace in the family room. (The bookcase on the left side is filled with purchased movies on both VHS and DVD.) Well, this morning, I went through them all and pulled out the 25 or so tapes that had movies that (1) we hadn’t doubled-up on by purchasing a copy and (2) was still interesting enough to warrant shelf space.

Which means I’ve got two big boxes down there right now filled with VCR tapes with lots and lots of movies. And that’s not even counting weeding out the purchased ones on the other side of the room!

On the plus side, the shelves all look much neater now, and the tv-show DVDs (which, frankly, we watch more often these days), all have their own shelves now, instead of being stacked in front and on top of those rows of formerly-blank VHS tapes.

And, before you ask, no, I don’t rent movies. It’s been at least 8-10 years since I have bothered to rent one, it’s just easier to own a copy. If you can buy one for $10 or less, why not just buy it and HAVE it, rather than paying a couple bucks every time you want to watch it? And, if you can record it yourself when it’s broadcast, why not? There’s a reason we still have VCRs attached to each of the TVs in this house. (And, no, we don’t have a Tivo/DVR box in the house at all. I’d love to have one, but refuse to pay extra to have them. Although, since I’m probably going to be forced to get a cable box for my room one of these days … for something like an extra $7 a month … that may change someday, too. But right now? It’s not exactly a necessity, you know?)

Tags: General by --Deb
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Well, today was an interesting day!

First, Mom and I drove up to the Palisades Center Mall, with my Lendrum in the back seat. Where we met up with Jane and her husband, and shortly thereafter, I no longer had a Lendrum … but she did!

Good luck together, you two! (I did take a picture of the handover, but it’s really not the best picture, so it doesn’t seem right to post it … you’ll have to take my word for it that she looked very happy.)

We walked around the mall for a bit, but left around noon and headed home. We had no sooner crossed back into New Jersey and it started to rain. No worries, though. Rain happens.

I needed something for lunch, though, and when we got home, I decided to throw together a batch of scones, because scones and tea always make a good meal, right? And while they were in the oven, I put together some meatballs, too.

The meatballs were for soup. My friend Cindy was coming for supper and had requested Weisskohl Eintopf, a German cabbage soup (which is really tasty, by the way, even though the words “cabbage soup” usually makes people cringe). I didn’t plan on making the soup until closer to supper time, but, hey, why waste the oven heat, right?

My parents went out tonight to Dad’s high school reunion–a dinner generously paid for by one of his fellow alumni. As in, this anonymous classmate paid for everything, for everyone, just like two years ago, when they had a dinner cruise around Manhattan. Isn’t that a fantastic, generous thing to do? It’s a two-parter, too, because tonight’s dinner is being followed up by a river cruise tomorrow. (Here’s hoping for decent weather.)

Anyway, so after they left, around 5:00, I went downstairs to start the soup. Cindy was due around 6:30, and while I didn’t need that much time, I’d have it out of the way. Once everything was simmering, I came back upstairs to get some posts converted, and while I was there, I saw a tweet from Susan to turn on the Lambcam

Which I did, and I got to see Erin play midwife to Sicily, as new baby lamb Colorado was born. And Erin didn’t just preside over the birth. No, she reached in and pulled the baby out. Wow! Hurray for the Lambcam that let me see it.

It was particularly handy, in fact, because it distracted me from the fact that it was past 6:30 and Cindy hadn’t arrived yet. Hmm. I was surprised  because she’s rarely ever more than ten minutes late. Chappy and I were getting hungry, too, since I was waiting for her, and he always eats after I do.

At 7:30, the phone rang. It was Cindy, mortified. She had completely forgotten! Oops!

She offered to hop in the car and come over then, but we figured it was probably better to leave well enough alone at that part. So, we hung up the phone, I put her bowl back in the cabinet and dished out some soup for me (and a meatball for Chappy).

Poor little guy, he’s been very confused tonight. And he’s still watching for his grandparents. They called at 11:00 to say they were on their way home, and he’s sitting by the door right now, watching.

Yep. It’s been an interesting day!

Tags: Family, Friends, General by --Deb
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I realize now why I was so drawn to this color… It reminded me of Chappy!

Brought to you by:

Tags: Eye-Candy Friday by --Deb
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So, there we were, looking through the morning paper … and Mom suddenly realized there were a couple familiar faces looking back at her.

Yep. Me and Chappy.

You remember when we had the photographer stop by, right?

In other, sadder news, we heard today that one of my old co-workers died a couple months ago. I worked with her for 10 years, until she was let go (because of office finances, not because of the work she did) 8 years ago. And in the last 8 years, she really didn’t talk to any of us, but I thought about her often. She was one of the nicest ladies, one of the few I ever went out to lunch with, or invited to our house. I missed her, anyway, but knowing that she’s truly gone, I miss her all the more.

We heard about this at the office today. One of my co-workers heard it and told Betty, who told Kathy, who told me, and then I got on google and found her obituary–on her son’s blog. (I didn’t even know he had a blog.) Turns out, she had been a grandmother for all of five weeks before she died. Such sad timing! Sigh.

Tags: General by --Deb
5 Comments »

It’s just the way it is. Taking photos of lace-in-progress is almost always disappointing.

Even with this pattern, which starts at the lower hem, so that by rights I should be able to get a good look at the emerging lace pattern, which is completely free of the needle … it still looks like a delicate blob of knitting.

The color is off, too. Too much yellow–the green should be deeper, and the red a little more blue. But, still, you get the idea.

Mom was cleaning out closets today and I came home to find three pillows scattered around the house. Old, defunct bed pillows that we’d stashed away at some point but no longer need. But instead of bringing them straight to the garage, Mom gave them to Chappy to play with.

Apparently, old pillows are even more fun to play with than empty milk cartons. Who knew?

Oh, and I’m up to the middle of April, 2007–and, ironically, just came across the post where I talked about Dad’s high school reunion–the one where a generous classmate paid for everybody‘s ticket and dinner–the entire class. Which is ironic because that anonymous donor had such a great time and enjoyed it so much, they’re doing it again–this weekend. Dinner on Saturday night, and a river cruise on Sunday. How cool is that? And the only thing my parents have to pay for is the gas to get there!

Tags: Knitting/Spinning by --Deb
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I felt like a terrible mother this morning. We had a string of nasty thunderstorms roll through last night, which was bad enough, but just before I was about to leave for work, the sky got darker and the boomers started again. I finished getting ready for work and headed downstairs a few minutes early to find Chappy huddled under the kitchen table, where his grandparents were finishing breakfast.

And Chappy only goes under the kitchen table when (1) there’s food, or (2) there are extreme storms.

So, as a good mother, I sat down on the floor and he came and sat in my lap (also something he usually only does when frightened), and I petted him for 5-10 minutes and then … “I’m sorry, honey, but I have to go to work.” I nudged him off my lap, stood up, picked up my purse …

Glancing back was a mistake.

He followed me all the way to the door, with this disbelieving look on his face. “You’re leaving me? NOW?”

I felt just terrible. And, when I took one last look before closing the door? He was back under the table.

Poor puppy!

(And, for the record, when I went home at lunch? He kind of ignored me, but his aunt and cousin were visiting so I prefer to believe that was because he was so happy to see them, rather than upset with me.)

So, remember when I switched over from Typepad to WordPress? In many ways, the transfer was wonderful–all the posts, all the comments, moved seamlessly from one platform to the other. There were just two, big problems. All the internal links that pointed to other, previous posts still pointed to Typepad (annoying), and all the PHOTOS linked to Typepad.

That left me with two choices–I could keep the Typepad blog alive until I got all my pictures loaded up on Flickr and relinked in every single one of the posts from three years worth of knit-blogging. Or, I could just cancel the Typepad blog and sacrifice all the pictures.

Yeah, I thought option #2 was pretty dire, too, especially for a blog that’s so much about the pictures. For a while, I diligently plowed through the archives, uploading old pictures to Flickr and relinking them. I started back at the very beginning, January 2005, and worked my way forward, but just before the two year mark, I faltered. And I didn’t move past December 2006 for, well, about a year. And I’ve been paying Typepad $5 a month ever since.

Ironically, that’s more than I was paying when I was USING their service, because then I paid annually and got a lower rate. I never thought it would take me longer than six months to get all my photos and hyperlinks transferred to WordPress. I just didn’t factor in the drudge factor. But, now, I really can’t afford to be wasting $60 a year for nothing, and so I’ve been working hard to make these transfers. I’m up to April 2007 now, so that’s 8 more months of posts, and I’m done. (And, well, you’ll all just have to deal with the fact that those pictures don’t “embiggen” any more. They simply are what they are–but at least they’re still there.)

It’s just unfortunate that it’s so darn time-consuming. There are so many other things I could be doing with my time! But, still … since I started concentrating on this, I’ve gotten through four months of posts in just over a week. If I’m lucky, I should be done by Independence Day, which seems kind of fitting.

The good part of all this is looking back at my archives. Remembering knit projects that are long past, seeing how small kids and puppies I know were then. Remembering when I met various friends for the first time. Very handy, really.

But in the meantime, if you don’t hear from me as frequently as usual, that’ll be why!

(Oh, and the picture at the top of the post? From April 2007, but oddly appropriate for today’s post!)

Tags: Chappy, Weather by --Deb
3 Comments »