Now with Sci Fi!

My friends on Facebook have been breathlessly following my ordeal waiting for the cable installer. Okay, so it wasn't an ordeal at all, since it meant staying at home Friday afternoon and watching the rest of Torchwood: Children of Earth, and more episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Anyway, the point is I now have HD satellite, including Sci Fi (yes, I know it's now called Sy Fy. Whatev.) and BBC America and Lifetime, in time for the start of the next season of Project Runway, and Drop Dead Diva with Margaret Cho.

Work continues, I still have a job, but we are doing the annual audit now, and I am freaking concerned about whether the grant proposals I have written will come through, allowing us to stay in business without laying people off. However, I think layoffs will be in the future.

So, I will escape in my offwork hours, into the worlds presented on TV and DVD.

Torchwood: Children of Earth

I took today off from work, as part of recuperating from the vacation. I probably could have gone to work, but I have so much vacation time accrued, I felt fine taking another day off.

So I spent it watching Days 1, 2, and 3 of Torchwood: C of E. That's all that was on the Netflix DVD. Great, great storytelling. At the end of the each episode, I couldn't wait to see the next one. It was a great idea to focus on just one story and stretch it over 5 days. Now I have to wait a few days for the next dvd to get here. What will I do in the mean time?

Oh, yes. I have Buffy, of which I also watched today. I only have the 2 episode season 2 closer. I'll save that for tomorrow. Because I think I watched enough TV today.

I'm thinking of doing National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo) this year, in November. Every once in a while I'll start a novel and then abandon it. Given that, and the fact that I've been getting into the stories of the Whedonverse and Gaimanverse, I figured I should stop with the procrastinating and just do it.

Now, if only I had a plot and not just characters and fragments of ideas....

Husband's family reunion

I'm now back from the annual family reunion with Husband's father's side. It was the usual: 4 days of drinking, eating, drinking, sleeping.

Husband's family's got a cottage on the shores of Lake Ontario, outside Buffalo. It used to be a temperance camp in a heavily wooded area, with about a dozen cottages, some nicer than others. This is the closest I get to camping. The cottage has indoor plumbing, but the walls aren't insulated and while I haven't seen any mice, I wouldn't be surprised if they were there.

So this year it was Uncle, Cousin One, Cousin Two, Husband, and Brother-in-law, all guys. Plus Cousin Two's girlfriend and me. Oh, and Girl Next Door and Cousin One's Friend, AKA Lounge Lizard. So that's 6 men, 3 women, all sharing one bathroom.

Husband, his cousins and his brother are about the same age, ranging from 41 to 37 years old. Girl Next Door is in her early 30s. She's a friend whose family owns the cottage next door and in the 30 or so summers when Husband's family has been going to the cottage, they've become good friends and she's like their little sister. We went to her wedding and I think she came to ours. I can't remember who all came to my wedding.

I shouldn't complain about the state of the cottage. That's the standard of living for many people all year round. I deal with it only 4 days a year.

It was really nice. There's a big porch that faces the lake and that's where people usually hang out. People have to walk past our cottage to get to the lake so we get to see everyone. A couple of other cottages are owned by Husband's extended family and they always stop by and chat.

We got in on Wednesday and had dinner in Buffalo at the Left Bank. Great food. then drove to the cottage.
Thursday we got up late, scrounged leftovers for brunch, then discussed what to do for dinner. Go down to the lake. Shop for dinner. Drink and talk. Play euchre (card game). Grill out dinner. Eat and Drink and talk. Go to neighbors' place for bonfire. Drink and talk. Go to bed late.
Friday: repeat of Thursday, except we went into Lockport for dinner at One Eye Jacks, then to a free summer concert: Queenscryche. Heavy metal. Husband's idea since he's a fan.
Saturday: repeat of Thursday without the bonfire, plus my famous sangria.
Sunday: get up, pack, everyone goes home. Brother-in-law to Wisconsin, Husband and I to Atlanta, everyone else to Buffalo.

Again, a great family reunion and I think I'll be okay not having any whiskey, scotch, or bourbon for a few weeks.

My sangria recipe:
1 can crushed pineapple in its own juice
2 bottles red wine
1 liter diet ginger ale
1 liter or half gallon bottle orange/pineapple/mango/peach juice
1 orange, sliced

Combine all in one pitcher, mix, serve over ice.

Buffy-thon

Finally got my Buffy DVDs but it's only seasons 1 to 5. Still, I managed to watch 5 eps last night, and then pack for my vacation. I am ti-red, but in a good way.

Hulu and the parallels between The Whedonverse and the Rowlingverse

My Buffy DVDs still aren't here so I'm watching it on Hulu.com. For a few days there, I forgot about Hulu. Then I decided that since I bought the DVDs, I'd rather wait and watch on my big TV instead of the little netbook. Plus, Hulu freezes on me sometimes and that's kind of annoying.
However, tonight I gave in and watched the What's My Line Pt 1 and 2 where Willow and Oz finally meet, Xander and Cordelia hook up, Kendra the Vampire Slayer shows up, and Drucilla becomes strong again. In these two episodes in Season Two the show deepened and broadened.

A few thoughts, fresh from watching:
1. Drucilla and Spike make me think of River and Simon from Firefly. Dru/River is the weak/crazy one who needs looking after but then becomes the really strong ones who protect Spike/Simon. The difference though is Drucilla and Spike's devotion is based on lust and River and Simon's on sibling love.
2. Introducing Kendra from a different country is like the Quidditch World Cup in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The larger world of the supernatural/wizards is brought to the main characters' world. The mythology of the story is cracked open and set in a global context, which I just love.

Goblet of Fire is my favorite HP book because of that. JKRowling called it her pivotal book where the series grows up, opens up, and introduces more explicitly more serious issues like rights for all sentients beings, and the reality of Voldemort and evil comes out.

And the romantic relationships among the main characters in both series become more serious too. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the rest of Buffy develops. Not sure what I think of Xander and Cordelia but it could give hints of how Zoe and Wash got together. Because not everyone gets them at first.

Sigh. I love Zoe and Wash.

ETA on July 28: just got a call that I have a package waiting for me. Is it finally my Buffy DVDs? Now I'm extra motivated to finish this freaking grant proposal and go home to find out.

Up Early

Both Husband and I are up early. In my case, hours earlier than usual. Part of it is the stress of what I have to get done before going out of town. Part of it is just hunger, since I didn't have very much dinner last night.

My goal today is to finish a draft of the grant proposal and then I can reward myself by stopping at Knitch to get some yarn for a new project. We will ignore for the moment that I have 4 works in progress.

I really liked the blanket I gave my friend Darija and want to make one for myself. I have 2 balls of Berroco Foliage in the Carnations colorway. It's got light turquoise, lime green, lemon yellow, and hot pink, colors that are a bit outside my usual palette, like the colors in Darija's blanket.

I have some turquoise and pink yarns in my stash already so I want to go to Knitch and pick up some lime green and lemon yellow. Maybe some kind of purple too. I'm also going to add some orange from the stash.

The yarn is wool, but so is the yarn for my modified Hermia cardigan and that hasn't stopped me. It helps to have airconditioning. And the Foliage yarn is just so pretty! I figure the yarn will cost me about $25.

This will be my reward for getting through this week (already did some stress-induced crying). Plus a celebration of the fact that I got the house in Austell rented out! The new tenant is the son of the neighbor across the street, the tenant's new bride and possibly his grandfather.

I checked the weather for Buffalo, where we're going for Husband's family reunion later this week. The weather ranges from the 60s to the high 70s F. Wool knitting won't be a problem. Plus I have a cotton baby blanket that I can work on when the weather's hot.

This will probably be the last time I use Bernat's Cotton Tots yarn. It's really soft but lightly spun so it sheds like crazy. The yarn is white and I usually wear black and other dark colors, so I have white lint all over me everytime I work on it.

Working on Sunday

I have 2 grant proposals due before going out of town on Wed for Husband's family reunion in New York state.

So I'm at work trying to get it done. However, instead I am watching the Dollhouse panel videos on YouTube. But now that I've finished watching, maybe I'll actually get something done.

In other news, I went to 2 yarn shops this week, filled up my arms with yarn, and then put them all back. I should really knit down my current stash. And I have yarns grouped together for projects. But it's fun to see what's out there.

Okay, back to work. I need to get a draft of one of these proposals completed before I leave for the day.