Yes, I really am.  I'm going to blog about stuff.

....Hmmmm, what should I say?

Well this weekend was one huge long social function.  Friday is somewhat of a blur.  I think there was tv watching and writing and hanging out with Alicia.  I think.  Like I said, Friday is somewhat fuzzy.

Saturday was one huge circus.  I was up early and drove to Cleburne to drop off a check and then to my parents house.  My sister and her boyfriend were there - which was a surprise.  We spent the day doing stuff around the house and talking.  My sister also thought it was okay to punch me.  She didn't like it when I punched back.  She didn't like it when I restrained her from escalating the situation further.  After a long, exhausting day at my family's place, I couldn't decide what to do when I left.

I knew there was a Supernatural marathon going on at my place.  I also knew I wasn't in the best mood to be social and watch a show I don't particularly like or dislike.  I made a weak effort to go do something else but wound up at my place piddling around on my laptop and listening to Supernatural and needling some of the girls  :P

Eventually I went to bed.  Only to wake up and .... they're still there! And Supernatural is still on!  LOL

Sunday is Crafty Day so that means it was just more people in and out of the apartment.  It's funny how Crafty Day has sort of.... become movie day.  We watched both Boondock Saints movies and started season 1 of Dexter.  It was a grand finish to a long weekend.

I now need to ensure that I bury myself in The Cave for several solo hours at some point or else I might turn into Evilness.  This is the problem with being both extroverted and introverted.

((For some reason this blog is not showing up right for me. Hopefully it's just a problem on my end....))
Well this weekend was a bunch of well-I-didn't-expect-that's.  But ya know what?  It was still fun.

Friday I obviously stayed home and gardened, which I will digress immediatly into more gardening ramble....now.  OMG I had no idea things would sprout so quick! I thought it would take another day or two before I saw anything that really looked like it would make a plant.  It's been a while since I grew anything from seeds.  Anyways, several of my sugar snap peas are throwing out roots and that first little tale-tell leafy thing. I have a Sunflower that's really adamant about I-want-to-grow-NOW. I think the other ones are Johnny Jump Ups that look promising as well as several of the herbs that look like they're doing really well, but it's harder to tell with them because their seeds are so tiny so the resulting plant bits are equally as tiny.  Anyways, here are some really crappy pictures!!

Saturday was supposed to be my research day.  I posted about my like of research and how the research actually went via my other blog.  It didn't go as planned, I can say that much.  I stopped by Half Priced Books on my way home (bad idea, I know!) and sort of hit a gold mine.  I found several volumes I had been thinking about buying after at the library and two others that just looked promising.  I also bought two knitting books.  Yes!  Me - bought knitting books!  One focuses on using colors and patterns which I would like to learn.  I had sort of decided to spend the rest of a failing Saturday knitting, but a friend of mine wanted to go see Alice in Wonderland.  Long story made short, I drove all the way to Arlington - like south-west corner, lol - only to find out that the movie was sold out. Awwee!  So we saw Book of Eli instead!

Book of Eli...  Okay, so you know going into this movie that it's probably some sort of post-apocalyptic, religious  movie.  After seeing Legion I was skeptical about this one, but I had heard a few good things so I still wanted to see it - and Denzel Washington does a lot of good movies so I decided to be hopeful.  The setting was sort of Resident Evil meets I Am Legend.  It was sort of believable from what you are led to understand.  The characters were ... interesting.  You really only get inside four characters through the movie, Eli, the girl I sort of intentionally ignored, the bad guy, and the girls mom.  Can you tell I don't pay attention to names well?  Anyways, they were all pretty much okay.  The plot is that Eli is taking what is the only copy of the Bible left on earth,  west, where God told him it will be safe.  Okay, I can believe that; a hard sell to non-Christian or religious audiences but I can get that.  The really hard bit for me to accept came at the end where they do the big reveal.  I've decided to not say what it is...  I don't really think the big reveal is all that believable because he was too aware of things through the movie for that thing to be true -- though if you ignored the plausibility of it, it was a dang good kick to the evil guy.  I liked the movie.  I really did, and that surprised me.  I was pleasantly surprised.

Sunday I had decided to go to church, take the chins out to the patio and scrub their drop try.  I apparently did not set my alarm, and it was raining.  Neither of those things happened.  I did, however, get some knitting done. Here are the pictures of my headband!  Which I finished while watching Ponyo, but I'll talk about that in a moment.
So the yarn is really great and soft.  I need to get a button to sew on to really finish it, but you get the idea.  It's a headband, super fun and comfy.  Of course it's done now, when it's too warm to really wear it anymore!  Oh well, next winter, right?  I'm really proud of this!!



Right, anyways, Ponyo!  I'd posted via twitter that I had it coming in on my Netflix and a friend of mine responded that she wanted to watch it so we deiced to get together and watch it.  Now if you know anything about Miyazaki's films, they're generally a bit abstract or weird, but usually really cool!  I have heard some not-so-great opinions about it so I was ready.  However, I don't know that I was really ready for this.  Ponyo is sort of a take on The Little Mermaid, where Ponyo is the daughter of... well... I'm not quite sure what he was, but he had magic and lived under the ocean and yeah...  So Ponyo has a brush with a human and decides that she wants to be human too!  And she sort of becomes this human-chicken thing.  It was strange.  And then she becomes a human and she gets utterly obnoxious.  I think we commented more on how crazy everything was and how irresponsible the parents were and just how nutty it was and how all the characters just accepted that crazy, silly stuff was going on all around them.  I can say that Ponyo is not my favorite Miyazaki film.


We proceeded to watch bad TV that I think was Legend of the Seeker -- based off of books I hated.  Eventually - thankfully - the Oscars came on.  We were both struggling to write and outline and be productive during all of this.  The best part of the Oscar's might have been Neil Patrick Harris doing the opener.  After that I officially didn't care as much about the awards.  Now, Ben Stiller coming out as a Na'vi was awesome and I still want to know if the fishing pole bit was planned...  I will have to say, after watching the Oscars I now need to see: The Hurt Locker, The Blind Side, and The Secret of Kells.  The fun part about watching award shows, all the movies you decide that you might as well watch.


Okay, so that was my long-winded weekend that was apparently all about movies....and gardening......and knitting......and not as much about writing and books as I intended.

Really. It's far too cold; it's in the low 20's. This morning when I got in my car, I backed out and slid.  Apparently the water main broke or something, coating the whole drive in ice and I slipped all the way out to the drive way.  I very nearly called into work for the morning because that was crazy.  I also need to go get my tired rotated and aired up and stuff.  All this cold air is giving me low pressure notifications.

And I'm spending so much time away from home.  I haven't been able to get the Wii hooked up; I need to unbolt my TV in order to hook it up, but that requires another set of hands... My friend said he would come over tomorrow and help me put it together AND a new episode of The Office is on.  I'm looking forward to that.

I'm far too busy; looking forward to a weekend - At Home.  I didn't go to church tonight because I don't feel just amazing. It's so cold!  Tomorrow night should be a home night, but I don't know how many people, if any are coming over.  Friday night I plan on having it be a movie night and lots of sleeeeeeeeeeep.  Yes, I want to be uninteresting!

I feel like I should make a great, profound statement or something but I just sit here and think: Wow, I've rambled on for 50 some odd posts? Yikes.

Today I find myself looking around with a lot of things to do.  A project I'd completed got shot back to me with a note, 'Oopse! We didn't explain this well enough - you'll have to redo it.'  This is frustrating. I dislike redoing stuff, I want to do it right the first time but so often I cannot ask the questions I need to ask because I'm states away and the people that I need to talk to are very busy. So I find myself sort of shooting into the dark at times and just hoping I can do it right and feeling like a failure because I did not understand that within the context of a single sentence ten bullets of change were automatically understood because in order to get the desired End Result, well of course A, B, C, D, E, F and G all have to be changed!  A, C, D and E were completely new to me....  I'm frustrated but I cannot get too upset; I probably did not try hard enough to understand.  However, I am currently working on a large, tedious project that is just as time sensitive as the other one.  I refuse to get bent out of shape over this; I'm going to bust my arse to work on them today but I'm only capable of so much so go me for resolving my little temper tantrum on my own - without having the tantrum.  I really do like where I work and the people, sometimes just being so far flung makes communication difficult.  It also means that it's drought or drown as far as work goes; I am now drowning in comparison to what it's been like recently.

This means my only writing will be before work, at lunch and after work.  Yesterday I got in a rock'en 1.3K during my half hour lunch break.  My novel's really starting to rock along.  Dan Wells from Writing Excuses published this really cool blog about a book idea he's working on and in his blog he talked about a matrix style way of outlining action or points of conflict using an excel sheet.  I'd never thought of this before!!  I think that in my editing process for working out the kinks in the first bit of the book I need to do something like that.  There's far too little anything in the first bit of the book and just uninteresting daily events and me being far too verbose.  I really should sit down and do this for the current part of my novel and if I have some free time after meeting my daily goal I will to double check everything.  I have a lot of conflict going on at the moment which is really cool; at one point while we were all sitting around at La Madeleine the five of us realized we were all writing conflict.

I have also set myself a carrot on a stick.  I don't think that finishing my novel will be an issue; it's the editing I'm worried about.  So I don't get my carrot if I finish my book - I get my carrot after I've edited the dang thing and feel comfortable letting my friends read it.  Of course this is also holding out that my parents don't buy me the carrot since I did put it on my List for the season of Birthday & Christmas.  What is it? Should I tell you? Okay - I'm terrible at keeping my own secrets! I want a Wii Fit; I gave up my gym membership to move into a place where I felt safer, but there was the added bonus of a gym and racquetball room!  I don't know what's happened but the gym is occupied like 24/7 and it's a tiny gym so four people in there and you're a) claustrophobic b) dying from humidity.  And I have yet to find racquetball partners.  I've played with a few friend's Wii and I like it, it's fun, and it's something I could see myself doing as a game, thus fooling myself into physical activity.  I think it's a great thing, actually so should all go well, I'll be buying one in like - January.

So I think it's become clear I'm addicted to reading blogs.  I pick up reading anyone I find interesting and I've subscribed to a lot of literary agents and editors blogs; lots of things that involve the book industry.  I don't remember when but I ran across Nathan Bransford's blog via the Inky Girl blog.  Well Nathan posted this hilarious blog entitled What I Learned About Writing While Watching Reality Television. I'm surprised that I got a bunch of the references!  I personally only really tune into the Tool Academy though I am very tempted to pay to download the Project Runway episodes, and I sort of want to watch America's Next Top Model again.  Hm, what could I say I learned from Tool Academy about writing?  Tool Academy proves that your tool character really is possible; there are really men out there who are that bad.  On the flip side, the idiot girl character really can be that dumb to believe whatever he says and stick with him.  Not very good lessons, I'm not as witty as Nathan but I really liked his blog.

And also in blogs, yesterday or day before yesterday was author Robin McKinley's birthday - happy birthday!  Her blogs are normally filled with hilarious commentary but I feel that her birthday blog while hilarious, is also perhaps a reason friends shouldn't let friends blog drunk.  Okay, she wasn't that bad - but the blog was funny. 

I've also learned that while I'm terrific about reading blogs and commenting when I feel I have anything even remotely worth saying - hey, I really like seeing I get comments so I figure others do too, even if it's just a few words - I'm horrible about double checking to see what other comments were left after mine.  Just an observation  :)

So where do I find myself today?  Well in a few short minutes I need to tackle work things now that I've poked at my email, the day will officially start in a little while.  I'll work diligently today, really, I'm going for consistency!  I hope to finish the project I started yesterday, get some class paperwork done, some post class bits I've been confused about and by then it'll probably be lunch.  I'm sort of scraping my larder here; I realize suddenly that I don't like salami sandwiches anymore....this is disturbing. I've always liked them.  I do, however, really like this sundried basil cheese I found.  So since I have nothing but cheese and bread I'm eating a bag of snap peas for lunch and string cheese; yum.  Finger foods to accommodate me while I write!  I was ideally saving the peas for something else but I really didn't want to have to run out and buy lunch yet again; ug!  This afternoon hopefully dabble in the project that was kicked back to me and pray I really get it this time.  I need to stop by Kroger on the way home because I ran out of toilet paper like Saturday and have been using Kleenex since (TMI yes, I know).  I also need a handful of other items so it's a well timed trip and I can snag some peanut butter and fall back on that option.  I think Alicia is coming over for a bit before heading over to the write-in at Borders...I think.  Regardless I need to unpack the dishwasher and do something about my kitchen, pick up some general stuff and put the clothes that have been air drying away.

The Chins probably also need some attention but I don't know if they really want it, lol.  They're so funny.  I tried feeding them dried blueberries last night; they seemed to like them!  I was eating the blueberries and decided to share; I think they appreciated the gesture.  I should get them some more toys and one of those calcium, hanging things they go through in three freaking days!  I <3 my Chin-Children.

Okay, over and out - it's work time people!

[edit] Ug, I think I need a new blog layout....and a banner.  I'm so silly.

[edit] RAWR - changed blog layout and lost everything as far as the sidebar stuff goes. so frustrated. rebuilding but lacking time to do it in.

It's getting close to 2am and I still cannot sleep.  It hasn't been anywhere near as crazy a weekend as I anticipated it would be, but it was still kinda crazy.  Friday was the Halloween party and it was really awesome.  I had fun hanging out with people and rocking my awesome Bearded Lady costume.  Yes, I was the Bearded Lady!  It went over surprisingly well, I was pleased.  Many people were jealous of my amazing carpet.  I sort of felt achy and soar throatish, but considering the best place to be was out on the patio because the house was so packed, I chalked it up to being outside and having to yell over music and people to have a conversation. 

Woke up Saturday and well - I was really sick.  I felt awful, took medicine and sort of meandered around the place, putting stuff away and making a pitiful attempt at cleaning up my place.  Canceled working at the church and hanging out with people to just curl up on my couch and try to feel better.  I didn't get any sewing done at all, which was a huge bummer, I didn't feel up to messing with it at all.  I did get dishes washed and some other stuff done.

Today was the NaNo party.  I got up in time to get ready to go and make it there on time.  I must have taken my cold medicine too soon because I was a bit over-medicated and super loopy for most of the party - which was a bummer.  The party was fun, we ate stuff and talked, met people, and played a fun genre game.  Getting really excited for NaNo!  I downloaded this program called yWriter, which is supposedly a word processor for writing books.  I don't think I will be writing my actual novel in it, but the organizational parts of it are great and really help me.  It's free so I've downloaded it and I'm outlining more of my story, thinking some of it through and what not, setting up a more detailed out line.  I also setup a Dropbox, which will be useful for synchronizing my laptop to any other computer that has a Dropbox.

After the party I went over to my friend Kara's place and we hung out.  Got to watch the latest Tool Academy - the Tool I wanted to see gone finally got the boot.  I know who I want to see win.  We'll see how it all shakes loose.

I'm going to try sleeping soon, but I'm not sleepy and feel crappy.

Okay, this isn't my best morning, especially to undertake something like write a blog which involves me thinking back through the last few muddled hours to whatever I did whenever - but I'm gonna do it!

Treated myself to a small shopping trip to Target and got more than I intended, but I'm super happy with everything I bought - so that's a good thing, right?  I hope so - I've already worn most of the stuff I bought! LoL.  Got to see Couple's Retreat Friday with Amanda and Sarah - unfortunatly it was a bit of a disappointment; I'd expected funnier by far.  There were some very funny parts and plenty of chuckles to go around, but not the deep insanity I felt the movie had been capable of.  Oh well, there are several other movies that are out or coming out I want to see so there's something else to look forward to!

Saturday I thought would be more productive.  I got up at a reasonable hour and did some cleaning up of the apartment.  Not enough, honestly, but it was Saturday morning! I do recall finishing my brothers scarf, which is quite longer than I thought I'd make it, but oh well!  I watched Dragonball Evolution; I really don't recall putting it on my Netflix or even why I would want to watch it.  The first few minutes were rather painful to watch, but a friend I was IMing who had seen it suggested I watch it like I'd watch any 80's cheesy movie; that helped and I actually enjoyed it.  It's jam packed with cheese, but it was still a nice, short movie that fit into my Saturday really nicely.  I think that's about all I did that was really useful.  I got ready, actually curled my hair! That doesn't happen very often.

I got these two fun little headbands with embellishments on them; one has a flower that when worn actually is almost flush with your skull.  I don't like big, poofy stuff.  Another one is a crust of seed beads and some garnet stones, very a-la-Roaring 20's I think.  With my hair curled and down it looked super nifty. 

I volunteered at church this weekend and boy was that interesting.  I worked with the media department.  Call time Saturday was 3:30 - service was at 6 and we seriously practiced the service from before I got there until about 5:45.  Really!  I was supposed to do A4V training but they were short grips so I was a grip; this means I helped move a pedal board on stage and off stage twice, spent the rest of the time in a side-room watching the service.  It was alright, nothing amazingly difficult, but necessary to how Fellowship does stuff.

Sunday I was at the church a little after 8am and actually did A4V training.  I really wish I could have been in there on Saturday to test drive the equipment during rehersals since my training was watching the other guy run the Nuendo programt he first service and than handing it over to me for the second.  I jacked up a second of the recording and I hate that it happened.  All the shortcuts for ProTools that I know don't translate to Nuendo.

Now unless you have some audio program knowledge you're probably going "Huh?".  Let me explain!  The audio set-up at Fellowship is pretty cool.  There are three audio boards going at the same time.  One board is backstage and caters to the monitors and the hearback systems so the band and speakers can hear themselves.  I, personally, really like monitors and secretly hope they need someone back there to help out with stuff because I'd like to do that.  Then there is the ever obvious Front-of-House board that controls what the audience hears.  I think that's rather self-explanitory.  They  mix for the life audience.  What isn't really normal for even most big churches is the A4V board.  They have a digital board where they record the audio for reproduction.  Now in order to reproduce something, the have to record it somewhere.  I am acustomed to using an audio software called ProTools which is Mac based. I really like it, it's what I learned on, it's what I'm really comfortable using.  However, there are other programs out there.  Fellowship uses Nuendo, which I've only ever opened, looked at, said "That's cool," and closed it.  So I'm not really comfortable using it since my fingers want to do things frum muscle memory since the work space looks very similar to ProTools.  That's bad because what the I key does in ProTools isn't the same thing in Nuendo!  It was still really cool to sort of learn it on the fly like that but I think I'll google the Nuendo manuel and read up on it and the shortcuts before I go back so I don't make the same dumb mistakes.

So there were two services Sunday and afterwards I just wasn't feeling well. A headach had set in sometime around the end of the first service and had just gotten more and more terrible through the second service.  I left church, swung by Target to buy a sweater I'd said no to on Friday that I just really, really, really wanted and standing in line to pay I felt very, seriously physically ill my head hurt so bad.  Got the sweater, went home and curled up on my couch for a few minutes. I felt so bad I was nautious but I hadn't eaten anything since about 8am.  Forced myself to eat a peanutbutter & bannanna sammitch and curled up in bed for half an hour.  Got up, felt even worse, finally tood some Excedrine and drank two bottles of water just in case I was dehydrated or something.  Even though I felt terrible I still went to Group Sync; I was the first person there besides the group leaders so I sort of felt bad for getting there so early but they're nice people and we chitchatted about how poorly I was feeling! Such a thrilling topic, I know!  I really regretted coming after the group started, you never realize how loud some people are until your head hurts.  Towards the end of the time I felt better and joined the group going out to eat Chinese food.  Poor Sam - he had to listen to us talk about girl stuff and I'm sure it was more than just a little weird for him at times.

Theeeeeeen I went back to my other friend's house and we watched the last two Tool Academy episodes, which was really exciting.  One of the guys I really wanted to see succeed got kicked off and the results really were not pretty.  However, the couple I want to win the whole thing are still in and looking really good.  Tool Academy 3 is being casted right now, which makes me super excited to know that there will be another season to fanfare about and make an event out of.  :)

Last night the migraine came back and I emailed into work, only to recall that I'm supposed to be the only person here - so I really have to come in, even though I would much prefer to curl up in a box, under my desk and wrap my sweater around my head.  I can make it 8 hours - really I can....

I realize as I'm starting to schedual when I'm volunteering at church that - I need a new planner or system of keeping track of dates.  I have a kitchen white-board where I keep track of stuff that's super handy with it's cork-board and little area to scribble notes - but I can't carry it around with me!  I used to carry around a large, blue leather one when I was juggling school, derby, work and everything else.  When I dropped down to just derby and work I got a smaller one that's now been all used up and I've sort of just been coasting by and 'remembering' what is happening when.  I think that's about to get really out of hand.  I don't have the internet on my phone anymore so using something like Airset is out and the calendar on my phone is just sort of a hastle because it doesn't synch with my Vista laptop.  I'm slowly starting to want an iPhone which I really don't want - except everything in the world is made for an iPhone now.  Of course I wonder if I can afford one, what with them costing aroud $200 and then the monthly charges for things like unlimited texts which I would need.  See, I also want a GPS for Christmas - but with an iPhone you get it all.  It's so frusterating.  I don't really want an iPhone - except I'm just being obstinate by not getting one.

I'm also getting more and more frusterated with knitting.  I really like knitting, and I would love to understand the whole knittese language - but everyone charges a hefty sum for simple knitting lessons.  I'd love to take a real class on knitting but I really can't afford what people are asking right now.  I'm going to have to really push myself to muddling through self-help videos online which are good, but sometimes I just can't get it exactly right.  I think I'm pretty close - but it's sort of clear that by the knot of yarn that gets pushed around that what I'm knitting looks nothing like what the person in the video is working on.  I think I'll have to worry about knitting in December as November will be plenty busy enough.

NaNo - I just want to keep upbeat and remind myself it's right around the corner.  Thursday InkyGirl shared this link with really good information on how to create better characters via her Twitter.  A lot of it to me is sort of obvious stuff, but sometimes reading it again helps reinforce something or gives you a new idea.  I really need to sit down and define my characters; the world has progressed a good deal, but the characters are far behind that.  I need to fix it.  Maybe tomorrow, though it might be next week before I really get there.  I'm getting some good ideas for how to develop Rocco, but Nattie needs some help - and she's the MC!!!

I had the grand idea to go home yesterday, grab my camera and take a nice walk around the park, snapping pictures for practice and getting a good, long walk in.  However, as I passed the park on my way home, it was all taped off and there was a full fledged production crew there and they were pointing mommy's with buggies away from the park and on down the road.  I figured going there would be a bad idea, especially if I had a camera in hand - so instead I did things like: wash dishes, clean the kitchen, pick up salvedge material, get all my pattern pieces in one spot, take out the trash, lots of small things that went a long way in making my place look much, much neater.

However, everyone who was supposed to come over sort of forgot to tell me they weren't coming until - I had steaks in the oven already.  I wasn't exactly thrilled because I don't know if I can really eat all that meat before it goes bad now without eating more than I should to just prevent it going bad.  Blah.  The Office was grand though. 

This weekend will be busy, busy, busy.  I have the shopping itch so I'm thinking of going to Target and poking around a bit before heading home.  If I have time I want to go for that walk with my camera before I meet up with people to go see a movie or go hang out or something.  There are very loose plans.  Saturday I'm hoping to get over to the yarn shop in Dallas to look around a bit and then back home to get ready for church.  I'm doing AV training and the new series is about being the biggest fans.  I think I'm going to wear my derby shirt and take my skates incase I want to stay for the tailgate party later.  I think that could be fun since I don't really know anyone; just skate around the parkinglot and stop and talk to people.  I have outdoor wheels and I can change them myself so it shouldn't be a problem.  Plus it would probably be good for me to get out and skate a bit.  Sunday is similar in that I'm volunteering at church and then have small group tomorrow night.  I'll probably go straight home and collapse on my couch and go to sleep early.  So busy times ahead of me!

All I knew Tuesday was that my camera had been shipped, I didn't have a shipping number or anything.  I wish I did because then I wouldn't be calculating the probability of when it would get here.  Well, if I did have a tracking number I'd probably be like this.  Yeah, I'm easily amused.  I got it yesterday but only had time go to buy film before I had to head out, already late to where I was going.  Crazy days!
My dad had surgery Tuesday and all accounts say he's doing fine.  My mom was there with him. Apparently after he came out of the surgery he was very surprised that he was in such a state that he would not be able to care for himself; this was very surprising - at least to him.  We knew he would be out of commission for at least a day, my mother and I politely snickered out of sight.  I love my dad.

My sister is in a custody hearing today as well as yesterday over her daughter.  That's all I'm going to say on that sensitive subject other than prayers would be appreciated.

So I ran to Kroger for something Monday I believe and now I really feel like the holidays have arrived; Promised Land milk co has released their Cinnomon Vanilla milk - which is a seasonal item only.  I love their dark chocolate milk - who else has DARK chocolate milk? No one I know of! It's amazing!  Anyways, their CV milk is great too and I couldn't help myself.  They come in small 2 serving containers only and I'm okay with that.  I can't drink a whole lot of milk - even of the flavored variety, but occasionally it's a great treat!

I keep trying to remind myself to blog about these funny things that keep happening to me, but when I sit down to actually do just that I just sort of forget everything.  It's frusterating.

So I'm fairly obsessed with all things NaNo right now.  I've just about slacked off all my other writing responsibilities, which I warned people about nearly a month ago.  Instead now I'm piddling out one of my ideas I had for NaNo but thought it would loose juice after 15,000 words - I think I might have been wrong, but it's not really something I would have like to have dedicated a whole month to developing.  I'm slightly concerned I might have a too serious idea and I might dig myself a hole with it, but I do believe in this 'world' I've created for the story to take place in and that it's a good idea.  I've started following my fellow DFW NaNo Rhinos (apparently the Rhino is our mascot) on Twitter.  I've sold out fairly quickly - thank you very much.  I've streamlined so my Twitter updates my Facebook and Myspace status; granted I don't check Myspace but like once a month, at least it's getting some action now. 

I recognize that I'm very addicted to Inkygirl.  I keep getting dragged into her links to blogs and articles about writing and all sorts of crazy things.  It sparked a conversation with a friend and the idea was produced that I might be a good book editor - but I'm not sure that I would like to loose my desire to read because that's what I do for a living.  I duno - it's an interesting idea and I won't lie - it's tempting - but it's something that needs to marinate.

Volunteered at church last night! At the youth group.  Got there late apparently - wasn't sure when I needed to be there so I just showed up.  Wound up helping a guy named David and he showed me how to run the check-in kiosk.  It was cool.  Met a few people, probably won't recall any names next week - but I have established that I'll be there.  For now I'm a Greeter - hurray! Basically I walk around and talk to people and whatnot and I can stay for the service or leave.  I've also talked about helping out in the coffee shop.  I'm supposed to talk to the media coordinator for when I'll work with them too.  Looks like I'm going to be getting busy!

Oh gosh - how is it Thursday already?  I'm starting a body-detox thing; one of those Acai berry thinggies.  NOT DIET PILLS - a body detox.  Dear lord, I said I was doing that last night and got the full brunt of someones wrath about how I was screwing up my body.  By trying to get toxins OUT of it?  Okay.  Yes, you do loose weight when you loose the toxins, but I'm doing this because even exercising and cutting back on portion sizes isn't doing anything.  The idea is that I'll get rid of the toxins so my system can only be handling my intake.  It makes sense in my head.  I'm sort of anticipating it'll make me a little cranky - but it's only two weeks.  Hopefully now that the weather has cleared I can go for another power-walk in the park.  Hoping to take the new camera along today and snap some test pictures.  It's a cute little park, so it will probably be a lot of nature shots and pictures of the ducks, but I need practice on this type of camera again.  The focus is very different.

The Office is tonight, my place is still a mess - and all because I've sort of been ignoring The Dress.  I need to put the straps on, hem the top of the dress, put the zipper in and zigzag the edges on the skirt seams and then hem it and I believe at that point I'm done.  I think it's going to go for a professional dry clean after that and then sit in a protective baggie until the wedding.  However, it needs to be finished and I need to start working on that. Blah.  I'll work on it tonight, and probably knit some. 

Haven't really made any plans for the weekend other than church activities.  Toying with the idea of driving up to the yarn shop in Dallas and poking around there.  A certain someone requested a scarf so since my brother's is almost finished I figured I have time on my hands to do something per request. I have the idea of doing some scarves as Christmas presents too, so I guess I need to start working on that project... Oh - and I should be getting Twilight in on Netflix sometime before the weekend; I can finally figure out what some of the craze is about it.  I very much doubt I will read the books - I've heard too much how flat the characters are and how little real development goes on.  I feel like if I really had to read it I would roll my eyes and suffer through it - so I'll just watch the movie.  ^__^

I am looking forward to The Vampire's Assistant and I'm really looking forward to Monty Phython's Terry Gillman's film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which is also Heath Ledger's last movie.  Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell all supposedly stepped in to help finish the film after Ledger's untimely death.  We still have yet to see Couple's Retreat so I'm going to give a little push to the girls about going and seeing it this weekend or else giving up on it in favor of the one's I'm more interested in seeing.

Anyways - off to work I go!  Full day ahead of me since today is Webinar day.

Okay, so I saw this and it made me giggle.  I'm not a Grammar Nerd, but I find it funny.  Also, my friend sent me this.  I request it for my birthday.

Well my dad is in surgery today, so just a bit nervous for him, even though it's not a big deal - someone's still cutting my daddy to bits and that makes me nervous.  He's having like three sleep apnea corrective procedures done all at once and will be a bit cranky for like the next month probably - even though the doctor says he should be fine in a few days.  If it's an excuse to be cranky - he'll take it! I love my dad.  :)

Mondays are always weird.  Yesterday I woke up just fine, got to work and got a bunch of stuff done all at once and then it took me the entire afternoon to do like, one thing.  I guess I burned myself out doing everything else too quickly.  I'm also far too critical of my own work - I think it's sloppy and I should do a much better job.  Mistakes annoy me and I get really upset with myself.  That should be a goal - establishing a steady work pace and go with it.

One exciting note about yesterday, I'm jonesing so much for NaNo I went on and started this ridiculous shortish story.  In my head it's a spin off of Beauty and the Beast, though I think it's been warped enough now that it's not really that similar to it.  The first two sections are on my Booksie page - and it's called Beauty and the Beast - Or Not for now - I think it needs a more fitting title.  It's very silly and nothing in it is supposed to make perfect sense; it's really just supposed to be funny.  I really should have revised it before putting it up because I think the intro is a bit rushed but I really don't want to take forever getting the story set up when the actual story shouldn't be that long.  I'm toying with the idea of doing a lot of short stories that continue after this and all sort of tie together.  ((as a side note, and so very selfish - if you do click through on the Booksie page, click the Like blue box at the bottom of each chapter.  it gets me better ratings and more searchability.))

Anyways!  My Olympus camera shipped, so I'm a bit excited about that.  It should probably be here by the end of the week.  I feel like there's a lot I should be saying but I'm drawing a blank.  I just really want to spend the day writing, so maybe that's where all my words have gone.

So I did my little two mile walk/jog thing on Saturday, and I think I might have strained something.  Which is weird and I suddenly feel extremely fat and horrible for that.  My hip joints actually hurt which I don't know - maybe it's from derby falls?  My shins also hurt, and it's been long enough I shouldn't still have stress fractures or anything.  It puzzles me.  If the weather stays clear I want to go out and just do a long, easy walk to just get out and do something now that I've given myself a little bit of time.  Using the gym at the apartment complex now that the weather's changed is just about impossible; there's always people in there and I just got tired of going back and back and back to see the same person using the equipment.  I'll have to figure out something else.

I got a new background for my laptop.  It's a looking towards NaNo one.  It's fun.  ^__^  I'm also quite entertained by a user named Inkygirl - she does comics.  (Countdown Continues, NaNoWriMo Prep, Countdown to NaNoWriMo Begins)  I think she's fantastic, and makes me giggle.

I believe tonight I will be seeing the latest episode of Tool Academy.  I'm very excited.  I love my trash TV.  I also have the latest episode of W downloaded but again, have yet to watch it.  Typical of me, I know.  I think my Netflix are coming in today too!  Geezes.  Tomorrow night I will be volunteering at church, so that should be interesting.  They're doing a Trunk or Treat on Halloween and I'm toying with the idea of participating and setting up my Jeep as a car to get candy out of.  I have speakers I could use to play music and stuff and I'm sure I would dress the Jeepie up and do something fun and silly for kids.  Maybe I could talk Kara into it and we could team up and use both our Jeeps for like one big, fun activity Trunk or Treat station.  I don't know - I'll talk to her tonight about it. 

I'm rambling and I need to get to work.  Ciao!

Okay - so I'm very excited to say that today was very productive as far as my strange, planning thoughts for NaNoWriMo.  I realize I'm a planner; I like lists, details, plotting things into the history and seeing opportunities for the future.  Today I had a huge, enormous light-bulb moment on the aspects of magic and religion in the novel.  There are going to be a lot of things implied and delt with about our current culture in the context of the novel.  There is symbolism for Christianity, Islam, technology, philosophy, feminism, a lot of things that I've just sort of pieced together and stuck in there.  Now do I expect for people to pick these out should they decide to read them? Nope.  Not at all.  :)  I'm very excited because I've really plotted out the big picture as far as World History goes, and I've figured out why the country the story takes place in is even there.  I've figured out how the steampunk elements I want to incorporate in it will work and why some won't.  I think I have an idea for how magic and religion will play out but I'm still a little lost on how the main character will deal with it all.  I need to finish the character profile so her and I can get better acquainted; we're going to be spending a lot of time together!

I even got a little binder today; one of those five star, plastic ring things that are super flexible.  Really I just sort of got suckered into it because it's a great color of blue and has some fun kind of neon paisley stuff on the front.  I did, however, print out a label that says NaNoWriMo 2009 - The Barking Dog on it as yet more motivation.  I tend to write stuff down or have these random thought-bursts and I need a place to keep these things I write down on the back of receipts or on an index card and this binder will be it.  It'll also be where I keep all of my world-building notes because I tend to like to put my hands on papers and look at them.

I also drew maps yesterday but for some strange reason never mentioned them.  Okay, so they sort of look silly but I never said I had artistic ability.  I just needed to draw it all out so that I could figure it out on paper as far as where these places all are.  There are several types of maps too, all on my Flickr account, which show the neighboring countries, the geography, the cities, major roads and towns.  I think I've hit the big points I need to for now and later on I'll probably make more to show the movement of characters and where they all are.

All in all I'm very excited with the way this is going.  I talked briefly to a friend of mine who is in art school about thinking about designing some art for it - but of course that's nothing that needs to be thought about until like, January.  I'll have to finish the novel of course and then decide what I want to do with it, but I imagine I would like a copy nicely printed and bound for myself.  I also know people who are taking bets about how long it will be based on how much I write already; if you've never read anything I've written creatively I would say good for you.  It tends to be long.

It's homecoming season here in the south and I had a lot of fun reminiscing about mums.  If you don't know what a mum is - you're missing out!  I think it's a southern thing really.  I made one like once with my friends just for the heck of it.  I always thought they were a little silly, but they were also fun. I think I was in junior high when I made mine at my friend Carla's house... I think her name was Carla, she was a red head who transferred to our school.  Anyways, we all went to her house and made mums one year and they were huge and we were super cool because of them and it was ridiculous.  I love the memory of it.  I might have pictures around here somewhere - that I'm not willing to share.  I'm pretty sure I sharpied people out I didn't like at one point or another for some stupid reason.  Hilarious memories.

I didn't do anything on the dress tonight - and I didn't even have anyone over.  I should have done something - but I didn't.  Instead I was on my couch and knitted, watching The Office, Kamen Rider, and stuff.  I just did measly house-stuff really.  The place is still a mess but at least I have clean dishes, the trash has been taken out and the Chinchillas are clean, happy, and fed.  The Office Wedding was great.  The intro had me heaving and laughing at the same time.  The wedding was really awesome.  I won't ruin it - I'll just say it was awesome.  I'm really happy with the new W series of Kamen Rider.  I don't know if I've mentioned it or not but it makes me think of the old Dick Tracey stuff. 

Worked on my teal scarf - have maybe a foot more done.  I'm using rather large needles so the knit's rather loose - which is what I'm going for.  I want a useful scarf I can wear in the Texas winter, so I don't want it to be super thick, just something nice.  If that makes any sense at all...

I had the strangest urge to go for a run today.  It's not the first time I've had this; I've considered like jogging around the residential areas behind my apartment complex or perhaps jogging around where I work but I haven't.  Plus, jogging in converse or the other shoes I have isn't exactly pleasant - I tried that.  I'm considering going out and getting a pair of running shoes and trying out the jogging; I might just like it.  Maybe I'll look into the shoes over the weekend.

lright, so my hand doesn't hurt! I'm rather excited about that.  I figured it was just over-stress from knitting and I needed to leave it alone for a few days.  Hopefully it won't happen too much anymore.  I can hope, right?  I still want to try to finish this teal scarf in the next couple of days because I need to make my brother's scarf.  He'll be here in like two weeks and I had the grand idea I needed to make him one.  Brillient - huh?  I know I can do it, but I have to really push myself to knit in all my spare time - and I'm already pushing myself to get the bridesmaid dress done... Conflicting interests I believe...

So I was turned onto this Daily Drop Cap project this girl Jessica Hische is doing; it's pretty neat.  She has these large drop caps you can use in blogs on her site.  Katie from Oh My Stars blogged it and now I'm continuing the blogging.  It's pretty cool - I'll probably use a few though it won't look as nifty when my blog syncs to Facebook.  Sorry Facebookies!

Last night I went over to my new friend's place and we watched TV.  The headliner of the night was of course the Tool Academy; I love that I have friends now who are as into it as I am!  I know it's trash TV, but I don't really care.  I was sort of bummed about who got kicked off; I really thought the other person up for elimination deserved it more because those two aren't even sure they want to be together - the guy who got eliminated is very much talkig about marrying his girl.  Ug!  Oh well, the couple I'm really pulling for is still there.

We also watched the Nightline Debate that was held at our church.  I was totally out of the state when this happened apparently!  Basically Nightline contacted our church and wanted to have a live debate about the fidelity of people in general.  The major question was whether or not people are genetically engineered to cheat on their spouces.  They had a woman on the panel who is married to her husband and has a ten year old daughter and a girlfriend that I assume plays a very public and open role in their family.  She claims the ten year old doesn't understand - I don't buy that.  They also had a gentleman that runs a website designed to help married people find someone to have an affair with.  He himself is married and has children and while he condones affairs, he also says that it's a booming business and he's following the money.  His morals I think are very skewed; on one hand he provides this business but says that he would be upset if his own wife used it.  Both of these people claimed that having an affair could and would strengthen your marriage and make you happier.  Now on the other side you had a gentleman recovering from a sexual addiction who has lived the dangerous road and is now coming back and attempting to reconcile himself to his wife and everyone else.  Then there is our pastor - Ed Young - and I really have to say I respected him for his answers and his preparedness.  He wasn't affraid to say the hard things, point-blank, and while he was able to word some responces delicately, he was always very firm.  Granted for the audience and subject I'm sure he looks like a very narrow minded Christian, but he was true to the core beliefs of Christianity unlike others I've seen who won't give a firm answer on things.  It was refreshing.

So that was really a good time.

I finally decided on a name for my NaNo novel: The Barking Dog.  It's not very interesting, but I'm going to now attempt to weave some stuff around the words, incorporate local myths and a legend or two so it's nice and complicated for the characters.  Also doing a pre-planning session this coming weekend with some other people in Denton.  Hopefully I can finish this dress between tonight, Friday and Saturday.  It shouldn't take too much time now that I sort of have it all figured out. Right? I hope so...  Going to put some work into it tonight; hoping to get all the little edges zigzaged once over and hopefully the bodice put together and adjusted just a bit.  It shouldn't take a lot of time and effort, but I'm going to be excessively careful on all of it.  I'm even breaking out the ironing board to iron all the pieces perfect before sewing them all. 

Well lunch is almost over.  I'm super sleepy - yet again - so this afternoon is going to be misery.

Oh my gosh.  I want to crawl into a hole and sleep for days.  Yesterday started off not so bad.  Slept in - apparently never set my alarm.  Figured out the sizing and darts on the bodice finally!  I fiddled with the skirt some and added three gores to give the skirt some more flowyness; I liked the affect in the mock-up so we'll see if it translates well into the actual dress.  I would imagine that it would, and the weight of the fabric will hopefully make it all hang nicely.  I'll probably sew some of it tonight; mainly the sheer fabric to the backing and zigzag the edges since I don't own a serger.

I got to go to my small group Sunday for the first time.  It was nice, sort of small and a bit awkward at times, but I met some nice people.  One of whom is an avid fan of the Tool Academy!  We're getting together tonight to watch the latest episode. 

Also went and caught the Whip It! movie with two of my friends; one of whom is a derby ref still.  It was a cute movie - not really accurate on the rules, definatly more theatrics.  Not a whole lot of hitting or speed for the actual bouts they showed but it was fun and I think it'll be good for the sport.  Afterwards they both came back to my place and I proceeded to introduce both of them to the Tool Academy.  They didn't leave until well after 1am.  Tons of fun - but man o man am I tired!

I'm making plans to maybe meet up with some other NaNo peoples before November for some pre-November prep.  We'll see if it really happens!

Lunch is over - need to do some more work.  Hoping for a nap after work, a bit of sewing and then Tool Academy!

Okay, so I have to say that yesterday when I went to do my daily poke at the NaNo site, when it came up with the Site is Down page - I think I squealed for joy.  Yes, I squealed.  There wasn't a whole lot to be happy about yesterday, so if that simple thing made me happy - don't judge me!  You see, every year they pull the site down, do general maintenance, clean out the forums and get ready for NaNo whatever the next year is.  I'm really excited because this is the first year I'll get to do it; I've had my eye on it for a while but it just never happened - but this will be the year!

On a positive note - some of the deluge of unfortunate events of Wednesday, most of them have turned around to something either positive, or a bit more manageable.  My car is fixed! New battery solved it and I just had to go back for them to reset the Jeepies computer and all was well.  My dad's surgery is still going to happen, but now I at least understand what it's for.  He went for a sleep apnea test earlier this year and this is one of those preventative measures they're taking for him; they're basically going into his throat and mouth with a blowtorch and will remove stuff.  Fun, huh?  He's going to be out of commission for like a week.  My sister, as it turns out, doesn't really need us there though I would like to support her in court.  I just simply can't afford to go down there.  I hate that, but that's how it is.  My mom's talked about driving down just to be there for it and coming straight back. 

And my AC is fixed.  That's actually a funny story.  I worked from home yesterday and had all the window open and my "ghetto" box fans on so it was cool enough - thank goodness for this "cold-front"!  I finally started going over to the office to check in with the people there and at like 5pm she looks at me and says, 'But he was just inside your apartment - he said he fixed it!'  As it turns out the poor guy went to the wrong apartment and had already left for the day.  He actually turned around, came back and fixed my AC - and I proceeded to play freeze-out with myself and watch the latest episode of The Office and knitting more.  I bought this pretty teal yarn - yes, I have an obsession with teal - and if I like how the scarf turns out I think I'll go back and buy a bunch of it so I can use it later to make a blanket or something.  You see, my bedroom is teal and I don't exactly have faith in the Urban Outfitters comforter/quilt I bought two years ago holding up for many more.  I'm thinking I can keep the teal thing going on a bit longer if I can solve that problem myself.

I also learned that I have no idea what to do with circular knitting needles.  I sort of gave up until later when I can hopefully either find a better on line tutorial or else find someone who won't charge me an arm and a leg to teach me knitting.

Tonight Courtney, Amanda and I are going to go see Couple's Retreat; it's a hard pick to choose what to go see! Whip It comes out tonight as well as the movie about lying that I think I'll love and Zombieland!  Doubt I'll get to see them all in theaters but it's still exciting!  Since we're going to a late showing I'll have time to swing by Joann's and look at the fabrics and patterns I need to for the bridesmaid dress.  I have a goal of actually working out tonight and getting up at a semi-early hour tomorrow to start the construction process - well, at least cut the freaking pattern pieces out.  That always takes far longer than it should it seems.

I finally got a callback from the volunteer department at the church; I am set up to go do my volunteer observations/orientations for the Youth Ministry department and the Media department Saturday night and Wednesday night respectively.  All in all this is shaping up to be a slightly busy weekend!  I normally go to Saturday night church anyways, so sitting in the control room is no biggie; I'll probably get bored, honestly.  I've seen cameras and operating rooms before so 'eh. Sunday morning is the single's service I'm looking forward to and Sunday afternoon is out bi-monthly church small group that I'll be going to for the first time.  I'm excited about all of it!  Of course I'll need to get sewing done in between all of this and whatnot.  I'm sure I'll post pictures of stuff from my phone and whatnot.

I made a pot-holder!  Well, really what happened was that while taking stock of what I have as far as yarn and what I have to try making a beanie out of - I ran across this.  I think I started it as a scarf but um, completely forgot about it, who it was for and everything.  So I ripped out a few rows, finished it and here we are! A very tightly woven pot-holder.

I'm starting to think I may be making my stitches too tight a lot of the time; I hold onto the needles really hard and am always tightening stitches and realized at work that my knuckles sort of hurt.  I don't think they're supposed to.

I intended to start the beanie cap, but realized I needed the circular needle thinggies... I'll have to pick some up and just work on my 'blanket' for now. It's well over a foot in vertical length and I tried counting stitches; it's more like 150+ stitches - eventually I just lost count.  Basically it's a lot of yarn.  I should have knitted different squares really and just pieced them all together.  Oh well - I'll know better for the future now.

And I watched the latest episode of the Tool Academy; oh my goodness!  It's trash TV, I know, but it's great just for the drama, crazy stuff that happens.  The latest episode was all about the guys learning to appreciate their girlfriends and oh my goodness!  The guys go into an outrage and trying to fight some of the crew, destroy stuff - it's just so nuts!  The guys get the taste of their own medicine having to watch their girlfriends taken out on a date by a 'true gentleman'.  They don't see that it's fair turn around, they just growl and throw a fit about how it's so unfair to them.  Such an interesting show...

So while taking my morning off work, I happened to watch the Rachael Ray show - I don't think I've ever done that.  I was intrigued by her cooking and that this chicka's going to do a year of Rachael Ray recipes because she's inspired by the movie Julie/Julia that I have yet to see.  Anyways, I poked around her recipe archive and was thrilled to see she has a picky eaters section!  She's speaking to my heart...  Anyways, I think that I want to pick out some of her recipes and try them.  I should try cooking new things - my cooking's getting a little predictable.  I'm probably going to be cooking up some Tilapia tomorrow night for our weekly gathering to watch The Office so I might see if there's something new and exciting I can do to it.

Now for a bit of my nerdy side.  A friend of mine watches this show called Kamen Rider - and to be quite frank I used to mock him to his face and secretly about it.  I mean come on - live action battling 'monsters'? Super dumb.  However, one night I was bored and watched an episode of the Den-O season and I've been hooked ever since.  The new season, called Kamen Rider W (here on referred to as W for short) just started at the beginning of the month; we're three episodes in as it has to be translated before links go up.  The new season fills me with a huge sense of nostalgia as it reminds me so much of when I used to play Dick Tracy with my friends growing up.  The two male leads - I love.  The female lead - I hate; she's so freaking obnoxious and like nails on a chalkboard!  I'm enjoying this season though; last season with Decade was a bit of a let down - even though I left off like half way through and have yet to finish it I've been told I'm not missing much.

Either tonight or Saturday I will make the trip to look for fabric for the bridesmaid dress.  I have an idea of what I think I want to do in my head but it could require a lot of work and I may just end up taking the border to one of those stitching shops and get them to do the embroidery and not do it myself - but that's if I go with that plan.  I need to see fabric first!  I plugged in the reference swatch she sent me for reference.  As far as I can tell it's either straight up acrylic or some sort of blend, a bit course.  If I can find this particular fabric I'd completely line the dress with something more comfy - it's also going to be December in Oklahoma so I'm considering lining whatever I make so I don't freeze; if the wedding's in the church I remember - I have distinct memories of freezing through a service already.... I don't wanna be a brides-maid-ice-sculpture or anything. Hmm, I hadn't even asked about shoes - what kind of shoes we're supposed to wear makes a lot of difference too.... *goes to text the bride!*

So I made the decision that to conserve money I was going to really stick around my place this weekend with the two exceptions of going to church Saturday and Sunday.  It's been interesting, I sure come up with ways to entertain myself.

Friday I had this idea; I was thinking about ways to make money and that I should try to use the best tools I have.  So why not make money from something I like to do? Writing.  Now my idea is a bit scary but it's worth entertaining.  My idea was to do a devotional book; yeah - crazy huh?  I don't normally like devotionals most of the time because they aren't really applicable.  Everything seemed to be aimed at ages younger or older than I.  It's an idea I want to let stew; I won't have the time to seriously study and devote for this until next year.  I called Dani and talked to her about it and how I could incorporate other people I know, their experiences, and tap into their viewpoints to give it a very wide and interesting flavor.  Ultimately it would be aimed at people around my ago.

Other than that I've been writing a bit and watching TV and making total use of my Netflix and knitting.  I did have a run in with another one of those freaking huge roaches; currently it's trapped under a candle car in the middle of my livingroom because it's still alive.  Yes, I'm wimpy when it comes to these roaches; they're huge! If it doesn't die soon, I'm calling Billy and I'll let him deal with it.  :P  He did offer!

I did learn that the Tool Academy is back for a second season!  It's another one of my terrible, horrible tv show that I get pulled into liking.  I don't kow, maybe it's just how watching it makes me realize there are people like that out there.  I just watch it for the train wreck it becomes at times; towards the end last season the last few episodes I watched got less drama filled, but it's still very entertaining.

Apparently I'm knitting a throw, or maybe it's a full sized blanket.  Either way, I'm not quite sure.  I have this huge thing of run of the mill acrylic yarn and some time ago I started knitting it; only I knitted like 100 stitches on a line! Yeah.  That's quite a bit - equates to about a 66 inch long strand.  Yup - a little over five feet.  It's going to take me ages to get it done, and even then it's not exactly soft and cuddly, which is why I'm thinking that if I keep it, it should be a throw blanket or something.  Perhaps I should give it away.  I wanna find some chocolate colored yarn to do a border and perhaps tie in some of it here and there; light blue and chocolate - good combo, right?  Doubt I'll be done with it anytime soon but it'll be a fun winter project to haul around with me.  Eventually it'll be nice and warm to work on in the winter.  For now it just makes my left hand hurt holding all that to knit it.

Watching the second season of Dexter now - have I ever mentioned how messed up this show is?  Yet I still like it.  Go figure!