November 2006 Archives
Last night, I was watching Veronica Mars, which was preempted this week from Tuesday to Saturday nite. (Thank gord for DirecTivo!)
There was a character called Selma Hearst, who is missing through most of the episode, but then shows up at the end, and is played by Patty Hearst. Get it? Patty and Selma?
I love the TV shout-outs, especially when the shout out is to a show I love. Some recent ones:
On the first two episodes of this season's Veronica Mars, the word "Frak" was used.
I think I also heard "Frak" on Gilmore Girls early in the current season, along with mention of someone not being a Cylon.
During last season's Veronica Mars, there was a great scene where she sticks her cookie-fortune on her mirror. The camera zooms in and there are the Lost numbers. That was pretty cool, since the shows were in the same time slot.
On The Office, Dwight has had a few Lost shout-outs, including this year when he tied up Temp, and asked him "What is the Dharma Initiative??"
On Heros this week, one of the nerdlingers that voted for Claire to be homecoming queen was wearing a BSG t-shirt.
In the miniseries that started off the new Battlestar Galactica, Firefly's Serenity
I was talking to an old friend on Friday about how amazing it is to be in a t-shirt in November. We both had lived elsewhere, somewhere that gets cold, before settling in CA. There are definitely trade-offs.
The traffic is insane. If there ever is a bit of weather, the drivers act like it's the end of the world and they don't know what to do. There's a torrential downpour and people still drive like the freeway is wide open and they have room to go 80 mph. They act like the roads are cleaned by rain all the time and aren't covered with the slick of a years worth of motor oil. The addition of the water does what water and oil always do... the oil floats and causes massive pileups on the sides of every freeway.
I can live with the traffic because I can flex time or telecommute and just avoid it all, because even the carpool lane doesn't help on those kinds of days. Luckily, they don't come that often, although I suspect the El Nino will be causing a few this winter.
We don't have to shovel snow out of our driveways, or try to find our car in a completely blanketed parking lot after work. No ice scrapers, but I do keep a squeegee in the car for clearing off the side windows on moist mornings.
Some of the things that used to be local to SoCal are no longer exclusive, such as being able to get fresh fruits and veg year round. More often than not, the produce at supermarkets isn't even from California, just like the rest of the country. But at Farmer's Markets, which run all year round, you can get wonderful seasonal produce. And since our seasons are longer, that's more stuff that isn't in season elsewhere.
The first time I visited San Diego was during the first winter break of college. I remember going to La Jolla and having a picnic on Christmas day. It was beautiful. Back east, there was an ice storm and I heard all about it when I returned, and knew where I would end up when school was done. Four years later, I packed all my belongings in a U-Haul and headed west.
I don't think you can go back though. Your blood thins, you get used to the warm, you get used to the morphing seasons. It's wierd when suddenly it's Christmas and it feels like it was just Independence Day a few weeks ago. But you get used to it.
It was 90F here today, and it's November 19th. And I love that. Yesterday, we went for a walk on the beach. Surprisingly, there weren't many other people on the paths, like there are in the summer. But the worst trade-off is living in a place where you can see the air.
I have asthma, and though it's under control since I gave up drinking milk, it still bothers me that the air is visible. I think there are some fires going east of here, so some of that is smoke, but still. That's just gross. See the Hollywood sign there? It's that little white line at the middle left. Not quite what you see in the movies, eh?
I'm staying anyway.
So I worked on the bolero while I was away last week. I wanted to travel light, so I copied my chart into my smaller notebook, but in words instead of images.
Last night I thought I was ready to piece the whole thing together, or at least block it so I can start on the final trim pieces, and decide if I'll do lace or just garter stitch.
Do you see what I see? Are you thinking what I'm thinking? How can the back be so much shorter than the fronts??
And this sleeve? It's way too small for the arm hole! What did I do wrong?
The gauge is fine here, looks spot on.
That's not right.
Sleeve fits the armhole on the back. What happened?
I dug out the charts that I made from the original pattern and discovered several problems. In addition to my gauge being too loose on the fronts, the chart is a little off. There are too many rows before the armhole decreases, and too many rows after also. I must have been distracted while I was working on the chart. In fact, I am sure I was, because it was the night before my vacation and that's what was on my mind, not my chart.
Then when I transcribed the chart into words before my business trip, I again messed up. I miscounted some of the decrease rows, adding even more rows. What the heck?
Anyway, I've ripped back to the beginning of the fronts and have them both on the needle again, ready to follow my corrected directions. You would think that after knitting this four times, I would have figured it out, but luckilly the pieces are small and portable.
Which brings up another topic... When you attend a proffesional conference, is it acceptable to knit while attending lectures? What about the keynote speeches, lunches, breaks, etc? Personally, I think anything to get me through the keynote speech is a plus, they usually go just about 30 min too long and the whole audience is squirming to get off the uncomfortable chairs by the last 20 minutes. In the dark, I knit during the keynote. At least I wasn't as rude as some people who walked out on one guy. They kept bailing, man after woman while the guy was talking. Hey, I was bored too, but that's just rude. During lectures, I didn't knit, but I did while waiting for the guys to set up projectors and the like. What else is there to do? Anyone have a different opinion?
Today, I came home to a package from my Secret Pal!
Way cool Kerrrrrropi paper. Did I mention that I love Kerropi on my blog? I can't recall, but I do. I bought my hubby a plastic kiddie Kerropi wallet when we were dating. He thought I was wierd, but still, he came back for more. Who knew?
Pretty purple package.
And inside? Knitpicks needles in the sizes I don't have! Awesome! Have you used these needles? They rock, from the cables down to their pointy tips. (But watch out for poking holes in your fingers, I did that last week :/)
More Kerropi:
Inside was a most beautiful Morehouse Merino laceweight yarn! Gorgeous colorway. I love greens and blues together.
Here's the other side, where you can see more of the colors. I've heard of this yarn before, but haven't seen any around here. I love it! It's 660 yd/ 3 oz.
I just bought Victorian Lace Today yesterday, so what perfect timing?
I can't wait to find something that might fit.
Our Long Beach Stitch n' Beach is featured in this article:
Knit-orious - Orange County - SqueezeOC.com
A guy came and took tons of photos during our leader's (Jen) baby shower/snb but none of them ended up in the article.
