sneaks in

Lisa's gonna kill me, I told her I was going to bed...um...a long time ago? and I'm still up. Shhh. Just a few little quickies.

First off, thanks to Teh Sue, I got Wollmeise!!!! *does the happydance* It should be here tomorrow! squee!! I'll post about it in a day or so.

Secondly, Dan was cute if not a little fuzzy on Conan on Monday (yes, it was Monday, not Tuesday, oh DR.com. Whoops.). He talked about how New Yorkers know their theatre - he apparently got lost one morning going out for a run, and had to stop and ask for directions back home, and the guy he asked knew he was going to be in Equus. I wonder how many people went out early the next morning to see if they could spot Harry Potter out for a jog. More on the interview when I'm more awake.

(aside: my TV is on Good Eats and it's frozen. The picture ON the TV, not the TV. I'm looking at a still shot of Alton talking into the refrigerator cam with his mouth open. It's making me laugh!)

Thirdly (and finally), I've been reading LiveJournal (insert gasps here) and I'm .... well, yes, enthralled by a WIP on a new LJ community, hg_silverlining. The story I'm reading is called Yellow Submarine, and is an AU H/G story. There are only three parts posted so far (a prologue and two chapters), but it's really got me sucked in. I'll probably be posting more about it as it is updated.

Not much more going on - someone had the bright idea of getting me my own laser printer at work to print letters, and we futzed around with it today to get it to print duplex. It was a bear, because not all the letters are the same length due to the information on the third page. Some of them are front-and-back on pages three and four, but most are not. Ugh. Now the real fun starts...print/fold/stuff! Whee! Maybe now we can actually process more complaints per day than we get per day. What a concept. Trust me, I am not belittling anyone, but we've received so many more complaints than we did last year, it's not even funny. I'm talking double. So far this year, we've received more complaints as of July 15th than we did all of last year. At this rate, we'll have had an increase of about 275%. And we're handling it with less staff. I think my new nickname is going to be "TreeKiller" for all the paper (yes, it's recycled) I'm using.

I started yet another BSJ - this time in the Sweet Baby Delight Giggles Ombre. It's crayon bright but very cute. I think this one is for Jen! She's having a boy! Yay!!!

*jumps* The TV just unfroze and startled me. It's been frozen for almost a half an hour!

Crawling off to bed now. Cheers!

forgive the ramble

I think this is going to be a short post. Or a rambling post. Depends on NBC, actually. I'm watching the late night version of the Olympics, and Men's Volleyball is live, but we're watching the REPLAY of the Men's Mountain Biking. Why? Why can't see watch this AFTER the basketball game?? Sometimes I'm just not sure of the logic. I'm watching the real-time results on the website, and we just tied the Brazilians at one set apiece. Go USA!!

It's been a long week - we have some temps in the office with us working on tickets, and I've started ordering envelopes in groups of 10M instead of 5M. We've been killing trees quite rapidly, trying to work through all the complaints. They're not gonna go away!

I bought the Wonderful Wallaby pattern for Tere - she had been looking for it online, so I went up to Weaving Dept and grabbed a copy. My own copy has scribbles and notes in the margins and all over the pages, so I wasn't going to send that! Bought some yarn too:

• 1 50g ball of Regia "4 fädig" (Mini Ringel Color) (75% superwash wool/25% polyamide) in colorway Blue Sea (indigo to light sky blue, black). This was an orphan ball and I'll make some footies with it.
• 1 100g ball Opal "Rainforest 3" (75% superwash wool/25% polyamide) in colorway Kasimir der Draufganger (Kasimir the Daredevil) (all fair-isle effect in red/white, yellow/white, blue/white, pink, yellow, blue)
• 1 100g ball Universal Yarns "Classic Worsted Tapestry" (80% acrylic, 20% wool) in colorway Rose Garden (dusky rose, pink, fuchsia, orangey-pink, dusky rose/white fair-isle effect). This is for a large BSJ.

Speaking of the BSJ - I finished the BSJ for the Ravelympics! Yay! There are unstitched pics in my Flickr, but here's one:

Awww, isn't it cute?

We went from the mountain bikes to javelin, and now we're watching TABLE TENNIS. *sigh* On the site, it shows that the US is up 2 sets to 1 in Volleyball. I'd MUCH rather be seeing that game. Bet they show it after basketball, at like 4 AM. Meh.

We bought airplane tickets for NYC yesterday. w00t!!! We'll be in NY from evening Thursday (10/9) to early afternoon Monday (10/13). Non-stop, and at a great price. Now I just have to figure out how to pack the carry-on, since neither of us will be checking bags. I'm also going to call the ticket office on Monday, as I haven't seen the tickets yet in the mail, and I'm worried.

*insert 45 minutes of elevator muzak*

We won the gold in men's volleyball! YAY! NBC isn't showing it until 6 PM Sunday night my time! Boo! Everyone's got the Gold Medal Round Men's Basketball game on live right now, including the west coast, and we're leading. Don't think I'm going to last to the end of the game, thought - it's really really late. Or early. Whatever.

Dan Radcliffe will be on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on Monday night, talking about the movie and the play. Rehearsals have started, so he's pretty much based in NY for the next 5 or 6 months. Bet he misses his dogs... Sigh I don't like Conan, but I guess I'll have to suffer. Edit: This might be on Tuesday instead of Monday, Will have to watch to see.

Julia proofed the re-charted blessing for the Challot cover, and I e-mailed Knitters to see if they wanted the corrected version. There was more wrong than an extra aleph! Thank you, Julia!!

Okay, I've just been told to go to bed. So I'm going.

Cheers!!

not a happy camper am i

Well, Warner Brothers decided to totally diss a fairly substantial part of their audience base today.

First reported on Market Watch:

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Moves to Summer 2009

This has been confirmed by WB to Leaky (which apparently has crashed again - can't access the site at all) and was announced this afternoon. SciFiWire and other media sources are now reporting this as well.

Hope you didn't have any plans for November, or were planning on HBP merchandise for Christmas. I'm sure that the Royal Film Performance selection committee isn't too happy, either. WB released the teaser trailer 2 weeks ago with the November release date, fps. *pokes them really hard* I can't tell you how irritated and very disappointed I am.

Let's talk about something else.

I bought some yarn from Kirkwood Knittery on Monday - they are having "Olympic Sales". Check out their website (linked on the sidebar) for sale dates and times. Monday's was Sock Yarn! w00t!

• 1 130g ball of Universal Yarns "fibranatura Yummy" (100% superwash wool) in colorway #41359 Seattle Skies (sky blue, ash grey, deep purple). It's not for me, it's for Ms. Violet. I already have some.
• 1 skein of Wisdom Yarns (by Universal Yarns) "Marathon Socks - Chicago" (75% wool, 25% polyamide) in colorway #231 (white, royal purple-blue, olive green, burgundy, rust-orange). Self-striping yarn without the 'fairisle' effect.
• 1 skein of Fortissima Colori "Socka Color" (75% superwash, 25% polyamide) in colorway #13 (distressed blue, blue/white check, grey, beige, light terra cotta/tan)

Like I said, one of those is for Ms V of Lime&Violet. She of the Seattle Fixation. I figured I'd be an enabler. ;)

Some HP fics I've been watching: Robin's Promises series on SugarQuill and FernWithy's "Shift-verse" which includes the completed Teddy Lupin and the Forest Guard that I've been watching on SugarQuill as well. It's been done for a while! Geh.

I've joined the Team Slackers for the Ravelympics - I'm on the neck decreases for the BSJ. The striping pattern is pretty! I'll take pics when it's cast off.

Happy 84th birthday, Grandpa!!

I can't think of anything else to blab about - Cards won today against the Marlins, and the Olympics are on. (go Phelps!)

Cheers!

ramblings, bsj, gold, and fangrrling

Just some rambling.

I'm doing another BSJ for an unofficial entry into the Ravelympics! I did finish the knitting on the first one - it's a little bigger than I thought it was going to be, so the Ravelympic one is on smaller needles. Some pics, hosted on Flickr:

(the amoeba)

(front)

(back)

Teh Drunken Sue likes the colorway - I forgot to get buttons yesterday, so that's on the list for tomorrow's errands.

I've been reading a few works-in-progress that are noteworthy - one is twisting my brain into ribbons, and the other is a fairly realistic post-war fanfic:

• Phantom Limb by rbackwards2 is at 13 chapters and just over 71K words. It's a very interesting story, but you really have to read it - and I mean every word - without distraction. You will not stay in the story if you are interrupted. Trust me.
• The second one is Shut and Be A Bud Again by MinistryMalcontent and is at only 6 chapters, but nearly 90K words. The author's synopsis is "Voldemort is gone, but the aftereffects of the War linger. Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione all must deal with the toll, and confront the consequences of their actions. Only one thing is certain: things will never be the way they were before." It's really good.

Alli and I are sort of watching the Olympics together - it is really hard to talk to someone about what I'm seeing when she sees it 3 hours later. Gaaah! The best thing IMHO so far? This. The US Mens Swimming Team won GOLD in the 4x100 free relay on Monday - new world record (broke the old one by 4 seconds!!) and beat France for the medal by .08 seconds. It was amazing. The French team was trash-talking - and they got pwned. Wow. (Edit: Here's the link for the NBC site - they have the relay video up!

The only big thing I did this week was that I went on my tech ridealong - Tim was great, it was 98F, we only went on three calls. First one was a failed telephone install (fixed, talked to the subscriber about home networking, got all their computers online), second one was a flapping modem (residential and business installers apparently messed each other up a bit), and the third was a bad underground drop. It was a very interesting day, I talked to the subscribers about their services and how to keep themselves online. I was wiped by the time we got back, but it was a lot of fun.

Scott, Dan and I are still working on the audio of Battle of Wills. The guys have been busy, so I have had several parts in a row. Lots to go! We're finished with 7 of the 51 parts. 3:46:34 done so far, and that's only 7 parts. Woof. No progress on AtE - I've been slacking off a bit. Time to get back into it!

PK and Ash are back from WI - Ash starts high school tomorrow (ack!). I hadn't seen PK for about 2 weeks so me and the pooch went over and visited. She and I caught up - she still hasn't seen the trailer yet - and while we were talking about the upcoming trip to NY (mainly when she was teasing me about fangrrling), I realized something.

I like Dan Radcliffe, but I don't fangrrl him. I fangrrl Harry.

PK said the same thing about Sarah Michelle Geller and Buffy. I think that's why I am uncomfortable visiting Dan's site, but don't have any qualms at all reading the fanfic sites and the HP sites that WB and Scholastic have up. That actually makes me feel better - I don't feel so much like a perv. LOL!

Well, I think that's all for me. It's really the middle of the night now, and I need sleep!

Cheers!

the h/g top ten updated

StMargarets updated the Top Ten list that I found on her LJ to reflect DH, and for silly's sake here it is:

Ten Reasons Why I *Still* Ship H/G (by StMarg)

1. Because it’s still canon! (And it's still satisfying to say that!)
2. Because Ginny knows the best birthday presents to give Harry.
3. Because Ginny doesn't have to marry the nameless, faceless guy.(Cho does, poor dear)
4. Because Ginny steals swords and does what she can for Harry even when apart.
5. Because Harry's only fun on the camping trip was looking at her dot on a map.
6. Because twenty-something years later there are three Potter dots on the map.
7. Because now his best friends are his brother and sister-in-law.
8. Because Ginny was his last thought when Voldemort was going to kill him.
9. Because neither one of them is a vampire. (HP - you're my One True fandom)
10. Because Ginny was at Kings Cross in book one and she's there in the epilogue.
*11. Bonus movie shipping reason. Just look at [this] icon. How cute are they?



Sorry, I just couldn't help myself. *g*

Teh Kez on PFW was squeeing this afternoon on Skype - apparently there's been some paranoia about if we will REALLY see a H/G kiss in HBP. According to this article, that's been confirmed by one of the kiss-ees (Dan). Thanks for the hook-up, Kez! I have to say, I've been trying to stay away from the actors' websites - I'm so trying not to fangrrl, but it's not working. Oh well. I do think it's amusing how Dan talks about Harry in the third person, and then says "I survive and I defeat the bad guy...". *chuckles*

I capitulated and started a BSJ yesterday. I'm almost to the end of the decreases, and its not looking like anything yet. From what I understand, it won't look like anything till I bind off and sew the shoulders! Hmm. I'll take the Comfort socks along with me on Tuesday in case we get stuck somewhere. Hopefully somewhere cool.

Nothing else going on - just trying to stay cool.

Cheers!

a h/g top ten, reccs, and links

Because I found this last night and had to post it. This was posted to StMargaret's LJ right after HBP hit the shelves (3 years ago!?! Wow.) and is still applicable:

Top Ten Reasons for the H/G Ship

1. Because it's canon. (Do you know how *satisfying* it is to say that?)
2. Because Ginny has loved Harry fiercely in season and out of season.
3. Because Harry deserves to be loved fiercely.
4. Because Ginny is the type of girl who deserves a second look - even at age ten.
5. Because Harry realized that Ginny deserved a second look at age eleven.
6. Because Red hair and black hair look good together on a pillow.
7. Because Ginny loves her family and so does Harry.
8. Because Harry is the *only* man good enough for the Weasley brothers's sister.
9. Because their kisses last for several sunlit days.
10. Because Ginny lets Harry be Harry - even when he's sooo wrong to break up.


If you like H/G or R/Hr, you'll like this author. She has a list of stories at Sink Into Your Eyes (aka SIYE) that I highly recommend - in fact, one of the longer fics is listed in the Books Read 2008 list (Magic Within, Magic Without). Check out the "Wallpaper" stories - I originally found those (and devoured them) at the SugarQuill, and still go back and re-read them. They're cute!

Leaky linked a "Photo Call" from Playbill.com - I think these are some of the shots that will be used for advertising Equus in New York. I also think that I'm a perv for drooling over someone who is half my age. How can I be a prude and a dirty 'old' lady at the same time? I'm so confused. I do have a thing for arms...and shoulders...and he's filled out quite nicely. Guh. Yum.

Ahem.

It's not going to be oven-hot tomorrow after all - I think the front that was supposed to possibly cool us off did arrive, and now the rest of the weekend looks nice. Tuesday, on the other hand, doesn't, and that's not good because I, the office person, will be riding along with a field tech all day. In the 97F heat. Goodie.

Air fare to New York is horrible. I'm just sayin'.

Hey, look! It's not 1 AM! *cough*

Back to work...cheers!!

teaser thoughts and other mutterings

No yarn! Gee, I must be slipping.

Yet another short, yet steamy fic: Still Life of Summer from the catchmysnitch comm on LJ. Yum.

The post-trailer bliss is still very much in evident - you can load the main page at Leaky now, but many of the teaser-related pages and Melissa's blog are still not loading, or take a very long time. I have yet to read the first half of her report about the TLC set visit in January.

Some of my thoughts on the teaser:

• Not a lot of Harry. We see gazing-at-memory-vials!Harry, bobbing-for-memories!Harry, running!Harry, and saving-Ron!Harry. That's it.
• As PS on PFW put it, "Tom: The Movie"! Hero's going to be a wonderful young Tom Riddle. OMG, is he creepy.
• I want to know why Harry isn't lurking in the background of the memory shots like he did in Goblet.
• The walls in the orphanage reminded me of the Department of Mysteries. Black black brick.
• The field scene. Harry running, Ginny apparently standing in shallow water and being disarmed - while wearing a dressing gown (?!) - and the GROWL! OMG. Fenrir Greyback. Has to be the attack on the Burrow. Why was she out there?? As someone on LJ said: if that was Harry running to her rescue, my lil shippy heart's gonna just 'splode.
• It's Gandalf!Dumbledore whipping up a firestorm! I'm surprised we see Dumbly putting the ring on, though. That was in DH, not HBP.
• "I can speak to snakes, too...they find me...whisper things..." *shivers*
• Loved the two lines of dialogue at the end: (Harry) "Did you know, sir...then?" (Dumbledore) "Did I know that I had just met the most dangerous dark wizard of all time? [beat] No."

Sigh.

One of my motorcycle people (Mike! :( ) was in an accident a few days ago - apparently he called PK when he got out of the hospital (!!) to tell her. Some jerk cut him off and then slammed on the brakes. Thankfully, he's not too badly injured and there were eyewitnesses, so his insurance should cover it. He was fairly drugged up when he talked to PK, since he broke the orbital bone around his left eye - he was wearing a halfie - and either his left wrist or forearm or both - she wasn't quite sure. Don't know how badly damaged his ride is, but that bike is a cruiser - not one of those you see flying down the highway at 100 mph - so I hope it's not too bad. He told her that he looks like an alien, since his face is all swollen. *hugs him*

I'm still working on the Challot cover - I'm knitting the middle part as a solid blank and will use Swiss darning on the blessing after I re-graph it.

I'll be staying home this weekend...it's gonna be 98F on Sunday (ugh) and PK's still in Wisconsin, soooo I think there will be more recording on Battle of Wills. The author joined the forum! Yay!! Or I may go see The Mummy in the afternoon to stay cool. Besides, I want to see the teaser on the BIG screen! W00t!

Alli's going to read this um...later today, but I want to say 'Good Luck!' again. Heee.

I just saw an ad for Feasting on Waves on the Food Network - that was what Alton had just wrapped up before he went on the Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run book tour in April, and right before I got to see him. He was all tanned! Something to look forward to watching in September.

Why do I seem to always be posting at 1AM? *scratches head*

Cheers!