Happy Birthday to Best Friend

.Now that she's received it, I can post the sweater I made for Best Friend.

It's Emerald, from Knitty, same as I made for Sister. Again, I used Lamb's Pride Bulky, this time in the Cranberry color way. It took only 8 skeins, but I bought 10.

I forgot to take another picture after I put on the one big wooden button and before mailing it off. But imagine a big wooden button.

Her birthday's not until next week, but I sent it early, since she lives in Denver and I figured I was done (had been done for some time) so why wait? And who doesn't like early birthday presents?

Testing Temptation -- the LYS version

My favorite yarn shop, Knitch, has moved and today's the reopening. I have tomorrow off, since I'm working on Saturday. I'll be selling Chinese batiks and my handmade pottery at the Harvest Market in the City of Riverdale. The proceeds will benefit the organization I work for.

So... Friday, I will come to the office and pick up tables and chairs for the event, and probably do some work. Then I'll go to the pottery studio for open studio time to throw some more pots and carve up the ones that have reached bone dry stage.

After that I may go to Knitch to check out their new digs. Depends on traffic. I also have a frequent customer discount to use by Nov 11 :)

Texture

Last night I brought home a bowl that I threw last week. I'm uncovering it and letting it sit in the sun and wind for a bit, to dry and harden up. When it's leather hard, I can carve designs into it without it squashing all out of shape.

Wine bottle included for scale. Behind them is the 191 building with the 2 turrets. The glass cylinder is the Westin Hotel. The black rectangles are plywood to cover up the missing windows. The windows were smashed when the tornado blew through in March 2008. We weren't living here at the time, but I bet it was pretty cool to see.

When I was at the library this week, this book caught my eye.
Then, as I was flipping through, this close up sparked an idea:
I'm going to carve that bowl to look like this. I can't wait.

Must...Finish....ZZZZZZ

I have 6 more rows to go to finish the left front of the Sunrise Circle Jacket. However, it's midnight and I really should go to bed.

But only 6 more rows! I could knit while watching an episode of FlashForward and finish it.

If I could keep my eyes open.

I want to make a new shawl

As I mentioned, I went to a semi-formal event on Saturday, and it was chilly out. I don't have a dressy coat, and I thought "Dang. I wish I had a nice shawl."

I'm thinking of making the Earth Stripe Wrap from the Rowan Kidsilk Haze and Kidsilk Aura yarn shown above.

As far as I can tell from comments on Ravelry, the ESW is made by holding 2 yarns together for a heathered effect using similar and discordant colors, and following a particular sequence of stripes that repeated several times.

Well, I don't have the same colors nor exactly the same amount of yarns, so I'm going to do a top down, center out triangular shawl, making up my own sequence of stripes. Then knit until all the yarn's done.

Sister, Sister's Fiance and Brother Two are coming to visit for Thanksgiving, so that could be a nice mindless, sedentary time to work on the shawl. Depending on the size of the needle (I'm thinking size 8 or 9), it could be done in time for Husband and my 10th anniversary trip in late December.

Um, please disregard the randomly striping pink, black and grey rectangular mohair shawl that I've worked off and on, for years. Currently it is off and hiding under the couch.

I've made quite a bit of progress on the Furisode Log Cabin afghan, thanks to the hours and hours of TV watching and reading I've been doing. Plus, Furisode is bulky weight.

Tonight, during Heroes and Castle, I picked up the Sunrise Circle Jacket. Still slogging along. I'm motivated, though. I've been wearing Hermia cardigan almost everyday and I'd like something new and complete for the December trip. If I work on just the SCJ, I probably could make it.

Okay. That's the plan, then. I'll start the Kid Silk Haze/Aura shawl tomorrow and put the Furisode afghan on hold.

What kind of self-control do you think I have?

ETA: Just looked at my notes on the SCJ on Ravelry. Cast on on Sept 21 and today (Oct 27) I turned the hem for the left sleeve front. Just about 20 more rows, including WS purl rows, and I'm done with the left front. So it is a pretty fast knit, despite the fluctuating stitch counts on the front. And despite the fact that I put the left front in time out for about 10 days.

If the SCJ is my main TV knitting, I may be able to get this done in a few weeks. Plus, the sleeve part is perfect portable knitting.

See, I can start the Kid Silk Haze/Aura shawl guilt free, because I'll soon have a project off the needles.

Ah, rationalization. It's true, decision making is more about emotion than logic.

Sierra "Belonging"

Just watched this episode of "Dollhouse." Wow.

What I liked:

1. The explicitness with which they talked about power, control, and exploitation. and money.

2. Adelle and Topher's crises of conscience. Especially Topher. In other episodes, we saw how Adelle wrestled with it. And in the end, in "Belonging" Adelle gives into the order from up high that would enslave Sierra forever. On the other hand, Topher rises to the occasion do the right thing and really help Priya this time.

3. Priya getting her revenge on Nolan.

4. Topher and Boyd coming to help her cover it up.

5. Boyd's grey morality. Why is he part of the Dollhouse? Adelle mentioned that everyone who works at the Dollhouse has compromised morality. So what's Boyd's story? He's Dollhouse's Shepard Book. I hope we get to learn more about Boyd than we did about Book.

6. The enduring power of love. Even though Priya couldn't remember Victor's name, she could feel and remember that she loved him greatly. And it helped her agree to be wiped again.

7. Increased craftiness on Echo's part and a bit more about Victor's background. I hope we get to see that too.

This is an episode that I'll watch again. There are layers that I know I've missed. At least I'll have to look at it through a gender lens.

Fall in Atlanta

Above is a picture of Centennial Olympic Park, as seen from my balcony. Most trees still very green.

Below is the park that's on the roof of our building's parking ramp

Busy weekend and still got TV in

Where to start?

On Friday, Husband and I went to see AC/DC in concert. Had some friends over for dinner beforehand. We got take out from Maggiano's and it's a testament to their food that I've been eating leftover spagetti all weekend... and still like it.

On Saturday, I watched a lot of Angel. I'm on season 2, borrowed from the library, but I finally bought a used set of all 5 seasons. Then in the evening, went to a charity casino event. I had the little black dress and all, but no shawl. Even though I have 4 projects on the needles, perhaps I can knock out a shawl. Not that I know when would be the next charity event I'd be going to.

And today I watched the pilot for White Collar. It's been on practically endless reruns since Friday. Cute show. As I told a friend, this could be my next show, now that Leverage and Burn Notice are on hiatus. Plus Matt Bomer and his hair are such eye candy.

Still haven't seen "Belonging" the Dollhouse episode that explains Sierra's backstory and shows just how evil the Dollhouse is. I know it's dark and will push all my women's rights buttons, so I'm waiting for the right mood for it. Possibly later this afternoon But I will watch it.

As for Flashforward, I haven't watched the 2 most recent episodes, but will eventually Hulu it, probably later tonight, while Husband's watching football.

Tenth Anniversary

Today, Husband and I celebrate 10 years of wedded bliss. The happiest day of my life was the day he proposed, in August 1998. It was a sign that he really wanted to be together forever. That meant more to me than anything else.

We met in May 1991, our junior year in college. He was 21, I had not yet turned 21. We were at a party and he caught my eye. Ever since that summer of 1991, we've been together.

I am so fortunate to have found someone who is funny, sweet, smart, good looking, ambitious, and successful, so early in life. He makes me so happy and I'm the luckiest woman in the world.

Today's sky

Above, a close up of the view of Stone Mountain from my apt. Below, the rest of the view.

New shoes, via iPhone

These are the new shoes I got over the weekend, by Moda Spana. I love them. So cute and flat. Usually I wear heels about 1.5 inches tall, so flats that are not flip flops are kind of a novelty for me.

Plus I'm posting a pic from my iPhone for the first time, so I thought I'd try it out with my shoes. Now if I could only figure out how to blog from the iPhone, I'd be set.

Why I Make Things, Part Two

The New York Times today has an article called Beauty and the Bento Box. I haven't read it all yet, but this and the cake I made this weekend, helped crystalize something for me.

Some time ago, I wrote a post called Why I make Things, Part One. I think it boils down to my belief that craft = utility + beauty. It needs to feed/serve body and soul. This is what I think the Japanese bento box symbolizes, just as the simple elegance of Shaker furniture, the beauty and utility of quilts, and the furniture, etc. of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Nowadays, it's so easy to buy something instead of making something. But before you make something, you have to think about it.

Think about the function, then the form, then the materials. As you gather the materials, that's when you think about how it will look. Do you want the dark clay, or the light clay, all other considerations being equal? What if you combined them in a swirl pattern as you wedge the clay together? You have to wedge the clay anyway.

Patchwork quilts are the epitomy of craft. It's about making something useful and essential -- blankets in times when there was no central heating. And handsewing something takes so much time and effort, you might as well make it beautiful, because you'll have to look at it for a very long time.

The fact that every single culture engages in decoration of things and self (body art, tattoos, make-up, fashion), indicates that the need for beauty is an integral part of all humans.

So that's why I make things.

Not the Usual

Husband went out of town this weekend for the Wisconsin-Iowa game. So this is how I whooped it up while he was gone.

I made a cake, from scratch, seen above. Chocolate cake with coconut frosting. Ugliest cake, but tasty. As someone who prides herself on making things that are both functional and beautiful, this was not my best. However, it does taste good. And considering this is my first effort in making a cake from scratch and not a boxed mix, I'm pretty happy. Plus this is my first time making frosting ever.

But still, in that picture, I did include things I have made that are functional and beautiful, like the green flowerpot, and my Malabrigo afghan.

This week I also started my pottery class. In the cake picture are three bowls I brought home to dry. The biggest one on the right is 11 inches in diameter and 4.5 inches tall.

I did not work on the Sunrise Circle Jacket, because the fluxuating stitch count was driving me up the wall. I worked on my Noro Furisode Log Cabin blanket instead. I wound up all but one of the skeins into cakes:

On Saturday I worked, speaking on a panel about the challenges of reaching out to refugees for the US Census. I barely had a voice, despite all the honey and tea I've been drinking. Basically, I said that one fear that refugees in particular have about the census, is that in their countries of origin, the census was used by the government to identify and target people of different groups for ethnic cleansing. No wonder then that refugees are reluctant to answer the census.

On the flip side, in some countries, specific ethnic groups were barred from being counted in the census, so now they're really eager to be counted.

After the census thing, I went shopping, something I don't really do anymore because very few things fit right and many stores are eliminating their petite sections. However, I did buy a dark teal blue jacket, black ankle boots, and red suede flats. Even though the jacket is a petite, I still have to have the sleeves shortened.

In another break from the usual, I didn't watch anything by Joss Whedon! Instead, it's been a Neil Gaiman and NCIS weekend. The next Angel DVDs haven't come from the library yet (actually, they have, but I probably won't go get them until tomorrow.) And, okay, I watched the most recent episode of Castle, where they wore the blue gloves. That's the closest I got to Whedonverse this weekend.

Rather, I've been watching the NCIS marathons on USA cable network. It's like Law and Order. Each episode stands alone and they're pretty straight forward who-done-its. I like the characters, especially Abby Scuito the goth forensics tech who also knows sign language. It comes up every once in a while, like when she and boss Gibbs will sign to each other when they don't want others to understand what they're saying, or when lipreading surveillance videos. Plus she has the best wardrobe.

I'm listening to "Stardust" by Gaiman on CD, read by Gaiman himself. He's pretty good as a reader, doing voices too and not sounding cheesy. I'm also reading "Fragile Things" a collection of his short stories, and the movie "Coraline" just came in from Netflix. As a crafter and especially as a knitter and someone who's done clay work, I'm really looking forward to seeing the "making of" feature. I hope there's a making-of feature!

ETA: alas, there is no making-of feature for Coraline. Plus, Brother One gave me two Buffy comics: Predator and Prey, a compilation of issues 20 to 25 of Buffy Season Eight, and Buffy Omnibus One. It was at the office when I came in this morning. On Saturday, I stopped by the office and saw that there was a package in the common area, but I was in a hurry and didn't look closely. If I had, I could have had some new Buffy for the weekend, but I'm happy with the way the weekend turned out, as it is.

Gunn and Tam, Lindsey and Eliot, Wolfram & Hart and Rossum Corp.

I've been watching Angel and Leverage. Kind of fun seeing Christian Kane as the morally ambiguous bad guy lawyer Lindsey McDonald on Angel and then as the morally ambiguous good guy Eliot Spencer on Leverage.

Just finished watching the episodes War Zone which introduces Charles and Alonna Gunn, and Blind Date which showed Lindsey's crisis of conscience.

As watched Charles and Alonna, I thought about Simon and River Tam from Firefly. The Gunns are orphans, Charles always watching out for Alonna. When Alonna is turned into a vampire, she's happy to have strength and clarity of purpose without the guilt. She offers to turn Charles too, saying that he's always taken care of her, now she can take care of him. Alas, he ends up killing her.

In Firefly, Simon's sole purpose on the show is to take care of River, after she's been messed up by the Allliance. In Serenity the movie, in the climatic battle against the Reavers, River says to Simon, "You've been taking care of me my whole life. Now it's my turn." Then she kills the Reavers and saves the crew.

I'm beginning to like Angel the series more. If I find a good deal, I may buy the series, but as it is, I think I'll keep borrowing from the library. So far, I'm still really liking Cordelia and Wesley's really growing as a character and not a buffoon anymore.

I like the whole Wolfram & Hart angle, which uses legal and magical power. Lindsey had a crisis of conscience regarding the assassination of the three blind seer children, and tries to get out of W&H. But at the end of that episode, goes back and is made a junior partner. Are we to think that he may try to change W&H from the inside? Makes me think of this fanfic Sleeper that I thought was pretty good.

Is Wolfram & Hart the precursor to the Dollhouse/Rossum corp?

And Faith is back! She's now in jail, on her own road to redemption.

Lastly, I like Whedon's play on the theme of heart. In War Zone, when the vamps say they're going to take out the heart of Gunn's crew, I thought they meant Charles, who's in charge (sorry for the bad pun!), but they meant to take Alonna, who is Charles' heart.

And to begin and end with Leverage, my favorite character is Hardison. Not a big surprise since he's the sweet, smart, funny, sassy one who doesn't lead with his fist but rather his brains/skills. Rather like Wash :)

Zoe and Zoe

Just watched 137 Sekunden the most recent episode of Flashforward. We finally see Zoe, Demetri's fiance played by Gabrielle Union and we also see Zoe from Firefly, okay, Gina Torres who played the FBI boss's wife, Felicia Wedeck.

I like that Demetri decides to go forward with his life, even though he got the call that he's going to be killed. In Zoey's flashforward, she says she sees their wedding and sees him. But on TV when they show her vision, it's not clear that Demetri's there. And Demetri lies and says he saw the same thing.

The show's getting more interesting. One vision seems to be disproved- Mark's AA sponsor's daughters remains are in the grave, proving she's not alive, as in the vision. And another seems proved, the one shared by the Nazi and the airport agent. So who's to say whether Demetri's or Zoe's visions, which seem diametrically opposed, will be true? Is the person telling Demetri about his death telling the truth? Is Zoe telling the truth, or is she lying, just like Demetri is?

Free will, self-fullfilling prophecy, predestination, all still up the air. And it was reported today that ABC will air the whole season, so we should get some answers.

can't count

I'm making the Sunrise Circle Jacket but starting about row 25 on the front, my stitch count starts fluctuating. Some rows my stitch count is spot on and then the next rows my count is off by one stitch.

But I can't find any errata online. As long as it's only off by one, I'm not going to worry too much about it.

Watched Heroes tonight. The whole Claire in College thing is very reminiscent of Buffy in College. And the end where Sylar gets shot but heals immediately, and then joins the carnival makes me think of Torchwood. In Season 2, there's the episode From Out of the Rain, where Jack had joined the carnival back in the 1920s and his act was to kill himself and then come back to life. The Peter and Emma synthesia piano duet was cute.

Serenity Found

For my birthday, Sister gave me books. Always a good choice. They are: "Finding Serenity" and "Serenity Found" 2 books of essays about Firefly/Serenity, edited by Jane Espenson. It's part of the Smart Pop series of books. The other one is "Big Machine" by Victor LaVelle.

I already have "Finding Serenity" and started reading "Serenity Found." Both are chock full of insighty goodness about the shows. And because they're essays, I'm not reading them in order. The ones I liked best are:

1. Girls, Guns, Gags: Why the Future Belongs to the Funny by Natalie Haynes. It's about how the women on the show also get to be funny and how that's a mark of gender equality.

2. River Tam and the Weaponized Women of the Whedonverse by Michael Marano. Starts from Alien: Resurrection, which I did not know that Whedon worked on, to Buffy/Angel and Firefly. Dollhouse not included since DH hadn't come out yet, but clearly the dolls continue the theme of women being made into weapons by a patriarchal power.

3. A Tale of Two Heroes by Shanna Swendon. Talks about the parallels between Mal and Simon as both being heroes with their own missions.

4. I, Malcolm by Nathan Fillion, which is about his experience playing Mal. There's a link to read the essay for free, over at www.whedonesque.com.

5. Firefly and Story Structure, Advanced, by Geoff Klock. It dissects the episode Out of Gas into the different scenes of the three timelines told in the episode and how they link, overlap, and reinforce each other. There's also a schematic of the ship which helps map out the story. Out of Gas is one of my favorite episodes so that was really nice.

6. The Bonnie Brown Flag by Evelyn Vaughn. I read this first because it really addresses the issue of the American Civil War angle of the show. The heroes of Firefly are people on the losing side of a civil war. Most people hear that and think Confederates and thus slavery and why would the protagonists be pro-slavery?

The essayist unpacks the Southern reasons for resisting the North, and many of them were not about slavery, and yes, we all know that slavery is bad. And in the Firefly 'verse, the Alliance (North) won and slavery still exists. So that issue is taken off the table.

I think looking at it from solely the view of the American Civil War is very narrow. There's always a losing side to every war, and every war is about one side trying to impose their way of life upon the other side.

And slavery still exists in our own world, right now. It's called human trafficking and globally it's the third most lucrative criminal activity behind arms and drug trafficking. And it's still going on in the US. My friends at www.tapestri.org could tell you all about it and it happens domestically across state lines as well as internationally.

Interestingly, human trafficking will be part of the theme of the next episode of Dollhouse, where we see how Sierra ended up being a doll, against her will.

Doyle's death on Angel the Series

As I work though Joss Whedon's body of work, I seemed to have overlooked Doyle's death.

Doyle was a major character, the one who came to Angel with visions of people in trouble. Doyle set him on the path of the show and was the vehicle that gave him purpose. And halfway through the first season, dies in a blaze of glory. Literally.

I can't think of another Whedon show where a major character was killed off so soon. I think I'm still expecting Doyle to come back. I mean, Angel got resurrected, Darla apparently is coming back, and Buffy got killed off twice. Even Warren and Jonathan's come back, kind of.

And if Doyle doesn't come back, then that's a pretty big change in Whedon's MO. Thought it was worth a mention.

ETA: looked him up on Wikipedia which said "At the TCA Writer's Guild of America West party in 2000, supervising producer David Fury stated, "Joss has bandied about, 'I love the idea of putting a character in the main credits as one of the stars of the show and then kill him right off the bat.' "

Random things from a random mind

1. still sick. bleh.

2. it's my birthday today. :) going to dinner later tonight at Serenbe, a really interesting conservation exurban planned community that emphasizes sustainable living. Article here.

3. going to work at some point today for a few hours.

4. Husband's friend mentioned that it's ironic that the day Pres Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that the US bombed the moon.

5. I voted for Obama, but think it's way, way too early to award him the Nobel Peace Prize!

6. I really would just rather spend today on my couch knitting and watching TV.

7. Dollhouse is getting better again.

8. Watched Sanctuary on Syfy. It's Canadian, and I see references to Torchwood, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, X-men, and Buffy. One character even says "Five by Five." I have to look up what that means.

Ridiculous Dollhouse: Instinct

Just watched this episode on Hulu and it's just wrong in so many ways.

The entire premise is wrong: Nate's wife died giving birth to Jack. Now Nate can't love Jack, so Nate hires Echo to be Emily, the mother. Sierra's also engaged to be Kelly, apparently Emily's only friend and acquaintance. Jack's an infant still. I don't know how old and not a judge of baby ages, but didn't anyone notice that Nate's first wife died, Jack is born, and now Echo's around acting like she's the one who was pregnant? What the hell?

Emily finds pictures of Nate and first wife and asks who she is. Nate spills the beans about hiring Echo to be Emily the replacement mother. Nate calls the Dollhouse to have Echo taken back and will put up Jack for adoption. Emily overhears and tries to run away, with Kelly's help, but the Dollhouse intervenes and takes Sierra back. Emily freaks out, runs to the police.

One thing I did like was that police did take Emily's concerns seriously and the policewoman was counseling her about domestic violence. But then Paul and Nate show up, the Dollhouse pulls rank, and physically take Jack from Emily and take Emily back to the Dollhouse, Emily protesting and screaming all the way.

Did Ballard totally forget the words "Do you want a treatment?" Those are the magic words to calm even the psycho Alpha and Paul forgets to use that on Emily/Echo? I know he's new but did none of the goons with him remind him of the magic words?

I like the B story with Madeline (Mellie/November). She's dressed so well, sexy and confident. It's great to see a full figured woman looking good. And her outcome shows why people would want to become Dolls. Madeline lost a baby, went into the Dollhouse, came out feeling better. Not happy, but "not sad." And richer.

Madeline sees Emily, still screaming and struggling, being brought into the Dollhouse. And then sedated. Madeline comments to Paul that she met him before, on her last day there, and wondered if her engagements as an Active were that intense. Madeline seems really calm. I wonder if the "diagnostic" Topher gave her was some kind of sedative. If I saw a woman screaming and kicking about losing her baby, and I had lost a child too, I'd be much more freaked out than Madeline was.

And now I come to my biggest complaint about this episode. Nate hired the Dollhouse to provide a mother who would love Jack like her own and make sure that Jack would grow up healthy. This implies that only the biological mother would be fit to raise a child. This flies in the face of the human history of adoption and heck, even the use of nannies and extended family and friends to raise children. What kind of stupid premise is that?

And Topher's tickering with the mind affects the body at a glandular level so Echo can breast feed. Okay I don't know the medicine and science about all that, but was that necessary? Again, human history shows that there are acceptable substitutes for breast milk that still result in healthy children.

I suppose that shows the danger and reach of the Dollhouse technology, thouggh Topher spins it as possibly making the brain cure cancer. So why not try that first instead of this ridiculous maternal instinct imprint?

Echo, even wiped, still retains that maternal instinct imprint and goes back to get Jack. Nate apparently has snapped out of it and is now more affectionate towards Jack. He explains the whole engagement to Echo and asks that she do the right thing and let him raise his son. Apparently that's enough and Echo gives Jack back to Nate. Paul shows up with goons, and none of them say "Do you want a treatment."

Instead the episode ends with Echo talking about retaining all the feelings but not memories of her engagements. Paul asks for her help to bring down the Dollhouse. Last shot, the 2 of them on a bench at night.

What the hell was all that? My knitting (a multidirectional scarf, in garter stitch -- possibly the most mindless knitting of all) held more interest. Well it is Noro and the color changes are pretty cool.

Oh, I forgot that there was like a 5 minute segment with Sen. Perrin and his wife digging for dirt about the Dollhouse. Perrin is played by Alexis Denisof who played Wesley the fired Watcher from Buffy and Angel. Wesley was a buffoon, at least in the first season of Angel. To see him as a more serious character was interesting. And lends gravitas to an episode with more logic problems than the GRE.

The Dollhouse is supposed to raise questions like nature vs nurture but this episode didn't seem to think things through. Like the whole continuity issue with Emily showing up all of a sudden. Didn't anyone ever notice? I know the Dollhouse fills the clients' requests, regardless of the lack of logic in the clients' requests, but come on, this stretches belief to the breaking point.

I'm going to keep watching, but mostly on Hulu. I want to see where Perrin's digging gets them. I want to see Sierra's backstory, which will be coming soon. And Victor's, Topher's, Boyd's, and Adelle's. And what happened to Whiskey/Dr. Saunders? An Active runs off and there's no mention in this episode about what they're doing to track her down?

I had high hopes for Dollhouse, but if it doesn't improve soon, I'm just gonna let it go, and watch "FlashForward" instead.

Feminism and domestic violence in Angel

Just watched the Angel episode "She" which made me think about Tara's demon family theme in Buffy.

On Buffy, Tara's family believed that women in their family became demons when they turned 20 or so, and thus should be kept at home. In "She" there's a dimension where the women have ridges on their back that glows red when they're aroused. So to control the women, the men yank out the ridges in the women's back and then the women are passive slaves.

Now I'm watching the episode after that which is "I've got you under my skin" where a family of 4 seems really afraid of the father. The story goes that someone in the family is possessed by a demon and that's why they're afraid of him. Wesley says that a father doesn't need to be possessed by a demon for people to be afraid of him. This episode gives some back story about Wesley and more for Wesley to do. I'm liking him more.

Interestingly, it's the son that's possessed and the father is now much friendlier. Turns out the boy is a bad seed and the demon was trapped inside the boy. Nice twist.

sick leave

taking a sick day. I think it's just a cold, not the H1N1 flu or anything. Th. e worst thing is the sore throat.

Watching discs 3 and 4 of Angel season three. Buffy's stopped by, Doyle's died and Wesley's showed up. But no Faith yet.

Still not a huge fan of Angel the character but I'm liking the series better the more I see of it. I'm really liking Cordelia. She's just getting better and better. Not sure about Wesley. I guess he's the comic relief, but I like Xander better.

What I haven't been watching

In TV watching news, it turns out that I didn't watch Dollhouse, FlashForward, nor Stargate Universe. Friday we went out for dinner. Saturday I worked and then went to the first Thrashers hockey game of the season. Sunday I finished watching my Leverage disc from Netflix and Angel from the library. Then we went to the Metallic concert.

Gotta say, not all that impressed by Dollhouse. don't have any burning desire to Hulu it. Angel is still meh. I'm waiting for Wesley and Fred to show. And Jayne and Zoe, I mean Adam Baldwin and Gina Torres show up at some point. And because I'm liking Leverage, I'm waiting for Lindsey McDonald to show again.

As I think Saranga mentioned, she's a Whedon completist and I am too, sort of, so I'm gonna persevere with both Dollhouse and Angel. Good thing I have the knitting to keep me going too.
I've caught bits and pieces of SG:U since Syfy keeps rerunning it. I'm sure if I Hulu it, it'll make a lot more sense to me than it does now.

Tomorrow Husband's doing a day trip to Statesboro, GA for work, and won't be home until late. I have a happy hour with the people I did the European Fellowship with, but should be able to squeeze in Flashforward at least. I'm looking forward to that, since John Cho's character's fiance shows up and she's played by Gabriella Union. An interracial couple that does not include a white person!

No offense to my white husband, friends and relatives, but it's pretty darn refreshing to see a relationship that doesn't revolve people's whiteness.

I'm liking Racialicious's discussion of Flashforward and Heroes, which I will most likely watch tonight if Husband's not watching football. If not, it'll be on my Hulu list.

Tonight's game is the Packers vs Vikings, with Brett Favre. The Packers and the Vikings are great rivals. Brett was the Packers' golden boy, then switched to the Vikings. Not sure if he's still retired or not (the guy can't make up his mind.) I can't believe I'm writing about football.

Feeling Blue

Here's a review of my knitting, and it looks like I'm in a blue phase.

Below is a scarf, one skein of Pagewood Farm Chugiak Hand Dyed Sock Yarn, 450 yards, in the colorway "Crayon." size 9 needles made for relatively easy work. And best of all, no yarn left over.

For my new take along project, I'm doing a Multidirectional scarf in Noro Kureyon sock yarn on size 6 needles:



And today I cast on another Noro project: a log cabin afghan in garter stitch on size 10 needles. Not a portable project. It's a watching TV or reading project.
I also finished the back of the Sunrise Circle jacket, which is red. It's a pretty fast knit, but that's because it's bottom up and the top half is raglan, each row getting shorter and shorter. The sleeve/fronts will take longer since I will knit up the sleeve and then the fronts grow out of the sleeves. That means each row gets longer and longer.

FlashForward prediction, as distraction from stress

Work angst continues. People don't want to do what they have to, funding situation still up in the air. Yesterday I told Husband that if the 3 grants I feel pretty confident about don't come through, I may have to go part time. That set off some financial angst on his part that just made me feel crappy and unable to sleep.

On top of that, our renter lost his job and his aunt's house got flooded out by the torrential rains we got in Atlanta. So she and her kids and dog moved in but we still haven't gotten a rent check for October. I've been trying to straighten that out, but until the aunt calls me back, not much I can do.

On the other hand, the biggest of the three grants came through today (Hooray!) and I'm making progress with the aunt/potential renter.

To the rescue comes TV. Ah, escapism at its best. Caught the last bit of FlashForward lastnight (will watch on Hulu later).

Spoiler alert if you haven't watched it yet:

Here's my prediction:
First episode: Janis's flashforward is that she's pregnant. Demetri saw nothing.
Second episode: in Utah, D meets another person who didn't see anything in the flashforward and then she dies. Back in DC or wherever they are based, D gets called into the office at 3am and talks with Janis. She convinces him to post this flashforward on the Mosaic website. Then as he leaves the office, D gets a call that he'll be murdered in March 2010.

So my prediction is that due to working long nights together, D and J get together and D is the father of J's baby.

What I'm enjoying about the show:

Clever use of our wired, social networking world. People can post their flashforwards on the Mosaic website and try to contact the other people in their flashforwards. Clever.

The question of pre-determination and free will. Just because it's in your flashforward, does that mean it will definitely happen? Or can you still change it? For example with Janis's pregnancy. She said she doesn't feel the biological clock ticking, yet now that she has this flashforward that she's X months pregnant in April, will she get mating at the appropriate time to make sure that flashforward happens? It may be subconscious but it's there.

What about Mark's drinking and his wall of pictures? Because those photos are in his flashforward a certain way, he's primed to look for those specific things and pictures. The flashforward becauses a self-fulfilling prophesy. What about the drinking? That he had under control before, can he still?

And Demetri's death? The caller specifically says murdered. Does he take steps to avoid it? But how if he doesn't know how he's killed? And is the caller telling the truth? It's one thing to believe in your own flashforward. It's another to believe in what someone tells you about it.

Tricky, tricky. I missed the "Lost" bandwagon, but I think I'll get on with FlashForward. And when will we see D's fiance Zoe? Is that a shout out to Firefly? Or just wishful thinking on my part?

Also, it's a toss-up on what I'll watch tonight at 9pm: Dollhouse or the series premiere of Stargate Universe. Or we may be watching some sports event or not watch anything at all. Ah, the beauty of Hulu. And I'm sure Syfy will re-run SU a zillion times before the next episode.