gehrig 75 & happy 4th

MLB put this together; it's really cool:




Cheers! *passes tissues*

still kickin'

Yep. Still out here.  Not much going on besides a couple of conventions (loved New Orleans!!) and some other things.  Job hunting.

I realized that I've added a few states to my 'places' map - I couldn't find the original one, so here a new one.  Added Mississippi and Louisiana!

Again, not much going on.  Working on a couple of afghans, finished a present for Mom but need to block it, and am growing some container tomatoes.  Note to self:  Don't buy any more veggie plants if you need to go back to hardware store.  Every time I go, I come back with another plant!!

I'm going to see Ruth, Lindsey, and Denise (oh, and Dean and Steve!) in Metropolis in a couple of weeks for the annual Superman Celebration.  Should be fun!  This is Dean's first time at this event, so he's probably going to be very very busy. I'm hoping we have dry weather - last year Sunday was basically washed out due to all the severe weather they had.  Hear me, Mother Nature?  No t-storms, please.

Well, I just wanted to check in.  Yankees are playing the Cards right now - go Cards!  I can't stand the Yankees.

Cheers!

man of steel worldwire release in 2 days and counting

Well, it's almost here.

We've been peppered with TV spots and trailers (11 at last count!) as well as Henry Cavill and Russell Crowe doing a little bit of the talk show circuit.

Can I have a Cavill? A Henry clone? He's got 4 brothers... Yummmm.

I was looking up something for someone about the LA premiere (couldn't find anything!) and the Red Carpet Premiere was in NYC yesterday.  I guess they're not doing a red carpet in California? Huh.

The HUB is having a Superman: TAS marathon on Friday to mark the opening of the movie, and they did something kinda cool.  I can't embed the video, but here's the link:

Animated 'Superman' promo shot-for-shot nod to 'Man of Steel' trailer: EXCLUSIVE VIDEO

Apparently HUB did the same thing last year when The Dark Knight Rises premiered last summer.

They (DC et al)'re already estimating that MoS will have a $100 mil+ opening weekend, AND they're already talking SEQUEL. As well as a Justice League movie. I can hear my Cali teacher buddy squeezing from here!

I'm not going to the midnight showing. I'm going to the 11PM showing on Friday night! woot!  I also picked up the soundtrack today - Hans Zimmer's work, and apparently they had 12 drummers with full sets on the tracks.  Haven't listened yet (baseball comes first, just like the Cards, who are IN first!) but it's almost 2 hours of music.  Wow!!!

Okay, off to read.  Cheers!!

rest in peace, stan

Today, St. Louis said goodbye to Stan Musial. I don't even have words to describe what he meant to the Cardinals, to the people he played with and mentored, or even to the everyday fan. 

I had to do my errands, and one of them was getting the oil changed.  How much does it say about someone that the customers waiting for their cars to be serviced sat and sniffled at the TV for almost 3 hours through the mass, the eulogies, and the procession?

Bob Costas was one of the four people who spoke at the funeral.  I'm hoping that you enjoy it as much as I did.  You'll need tissues.

@realdeancain on ktla - it's everywhere

You get a +1 if you get the "KTLA...it's everywhere!" reference  ;)

Anyway, Dean "I'm on the SES Promo Tour" Cain was on KTLA this morning:

EDIT:  Click here for the video. I hate content that autoplays!

Dude doesn't age. *drools*

My Cards beat the evil Reds tonight. YAY! We're rolling!

Cheers!

waino es bueno (and is back!)

(Edit: MSN apparently took down the great vid and replaced it with something with a weird person on it.)

Complete game. Was very emotional during post-game interview.
Yes, he made me cry.  Welcome back, Adam!!

Cheers!

knitting of a different sort and catching up

Hi all.  Yeah!  Still breathing!  Just not doing much besides work, sleep, repeat.

I did finish a project that I'd started a long time ago - it needed about 2-3 more inches of rings and the clasp.

This is a Byzantine design chain, with 4.5mm sterling silver and red-clad copper rings. Yes, that is a quarter. Finished length without the clasp was 22 inches long.  I had a wild idea that I'd like to learn how to make the European 4-in-1 sheet, and realized I'd not finished this one.  I think there's a pair of earrings in the box that needs to be put together too, and then I can play around with the 4-in-1!  Trying to stop the start-it-now-itus before it, well, starts.

I knit my fingers off for Christmas, and have been carrying a 2 color brioche stitch scarf to and from work for over a month.  How many rows have I knit? About 20. Just not motivated.  Lisa showed me a poncho that someone was wearing that she liked, so I've been looking for a pattern for a turtleneck poncho/cape.  I may have a pattern in mind, but I'll have to see how the ribbing works out.

I got a Kindle Fire for Christmas, and it has been the reason for my lack of good sleep for the last 2 months.  I have only read a few things, but I have been collecting a lot of cookbooks and trashy romance novels/novelettes from Amazon's freebies.  The problem is that I'll get involved with a game or scrolling through a bunch of recipes and *poof*  it's 4 AM.

I finally learned how to make pot roast.  yes, I'm going to be 44, but hey, I don't cook for anyone but me, and pot roast is usually a family dinner.  I've made two so far, both in the slow-cooker, and have been tweaking the recipe as I go along.  Most of the recipes for slow-cooker pot roast call for cream of mushroom soup, but I'm not using it.  I've also decided I need to make my own onion soup mix, cuz the first one was waaaay too onion-y.  Wish me luck!

I did find a cardi I'd like to make for myself:

It's from the Bond-America people, and why yes, I do have a knitting machine (of course!)...what do you think of the cardi?

Breaking news: SPRING TRAINING HAS BEGUN! FULL SQUAD! AAAIIIIEEE!!!!

Ahem.

Time for sleep - the dog is snoring away and the infomercials have started on the TV.

Cheers!

baseball, life, and @meteoritemen

Well, it’s the baseball off season. What to do? The Rams have one win on the season so far (yes, we are on what, Week 8?) and the Blues are off to a rocky start. Albert Pujols goes on the full free agent market at 11:01 PM tonight, we’ve lost our 16-season manager to retirement, Yadier Molina won the Gold Glove for the fourth year in a row, and David Freese seems to be following Justin Bieber from one talk show to another. And oh, by the way, the guys won the World Series. Yeah, just a little thing.



Isn't that video great?? It aired on Channel 5 on Sunday night and the guy who produced it (Larry) posted it on Twitter last night, He's @ksdk_sports on Twitter.

Monday night was Halloween, and was mostly a recovery night from the weekend. Last night, however, some more of my Twitter timeline was available (outside my #stlcards tweeps, that is) and I saw that Geoff Notkin was posting about the upcoming Meteorite Men Season 3 premiere following a Season 2 marathon of the show on Science.

Their seasons are 8 episodes, but they are enjoyable. The premise of the show is the space-rock pursuing adventures of Geoff and his fellow hunter Steve Arnold, who uncovered the world’s largest oriented pallisite. I love the description of that find – equipment was listed as ‘sophisticated modern metal detecting equipment (…) and a backhoe.’ I’m so used to people digging things out of the ground with hand tools and brushes that the backhoe reminded me of the line from Indiana Jones: “You would use a bulldozer to find a....china cup...” Geoff is very particular (my impression) and Steve is very much a ‘jump up and let’s go get-em!’ guy. The thinker and the do-er, paired up to hunt for bits of space stuff. They are a LOT of fun to watch. It's like David Bowie vs Led Zepplin. heee

Geoff posted several messages on Twitter last night, and one of them was that he was also a blogger on a website in Tucson, where he lives. All of my exposure to Geoff has been via the TV, and so I was curious about the blog. What else to do in the off-season?!?

I’m glad I clicked.

Geoff had a good friend who passed away a few days ago, and so he put up a couple of blog posts about this friend. I read the second one first, as it was the most recent entry, and was really struck with not only the tone of the post but the insight into Geoff.

First, I have to agree that there comes a point when a person with a terminal illness just has to say ‘stop, enough is enough.’ Most of you who read this blog know that my stepfather passed away earlier this year after fighting his stage 4 cancer for over 3 years. He decided in November that he’d had enough of the treatments and that he was done. Some of you may know that I lost another friend in December of 1995 due to aggressive bone cancer. In his case, the cause of his illness was not found until it was far too late to fix the problem, and anything that could be done would have just been for quality of life. One of my last memories of Tom was watching a Rams football game with him on a Thursday night. Isn’t it odd what we remember?

Second, anyone who thinks that choosing to stop treatment is tantamount to committing suicide needs to have their own head examined. There is a point when the non-terminal person or people involved need to think of the terminal individual and not themselves. Yes, I know that is the most difficult thing to say and do, and no-one wants to just give up, but I would hope that if I was incapacitated, and someone else had to make that decision, they would think of me and how I would live from that point on and not of themselves. It irked me that Geoff had to address the individuals who considered the act of choosing to stop treatment as a sin – deal with it in your own life and then get back to me about it being a ‘sin’. Grrr.

I haven’t been to the intentional suicide point, thankfully, but I’m saddened and somewhat amazed by those who take that route. I’ve been dogged by depression several times, but not to that level.

I have to say, however, that I am envious of those who have the courage to drop everything and take a leap of faith that Geoff did. I am very glad that he had a friend who had the ability to help him detour from the path that would have lead to nowhere. If she hadn’t been there for him, how would all of us (who are still going about our mundane existences) have been entertained by two guys looking for rocks from space? Thank you, Anne Husick; you don’t know me from Eve, but thanks. I wish I had the courage to be that bold.

Gee, I think I’ve written more in this ramble than I have about anything else for a while.

I would recommend Geoff’s blog on the Tucson Citizen site. It’s an interesting read, and has things that sometimes will make you go Hmmm. I really liked the post from Sept 13  and the one from Sept 11 made me cry. Again.

By the way, the season premiere for Meteorite Men is on November 28.

Go think happy thoughts. Baseball pitchers and catchers report in 108 days!

Cheers!

happily ever after

Cards win!! Cards win!!! Cards win!!!!  Eleven in '11!!!  Woot!!

By the way, if you weren't aware, my baseball team won the World Series last night. Still on a bit of a high!

I ran across this blog posting via my Twitter feed, and loved it!!  Please read.  It's the epic story of a remarkable journey:

Once upon a time, there was a baseball team.

Cheers!!! *bounces around the room*

on to game seven

Still in shock here.  This is why:

David Freese HR Mike Shannon KMOX by ariashe

And here's the link to the video, with Joe Buck echoing his father Jack from 20 years ago:
MLB Video
Love these guys!!!

Cheers, and GO CARDS!!

rally squirrel goes national

MLB has added a fifth 'legend' for the postseason: the St. Louis RALLY SQUIRREL!



The Cards just won Game #3 of the NLCS.  Two more to go to get to the World Series!

Oh, and Chris Carpenter rocks.

MLB won't let me embed the video, but here's Carp's "Legend" vid:
Link to MLB Video

Cheers! (I need to goto bed!)

tornado hits lambert airport (video)

Did I mention I live 4.5 miles north of Lambert?  Tornado passed 2 miles south of me.  Very scary.

(you might want to turn this down a little, and Yes, the videographer misspelled the name of the airport)



Baseball was played downtown, after a 2.5 hour delay.

And I'm going to bed now.  Work in a few hours!!

Cheers!

a little catchup

Hi all!

Yeah, I know, long time to write.  I figured I was just doing my regular boring stuff, but there are little spots here and there I'll pass on.

The biggest one was that D and NE!Sue came to visit last weekend, and we shopped and ate and walked and drank ;)  We went to IHOP (of course) Thursday night. Then Loopy Ewe, Hodak's (I love their fried chicken), Knitorious, 2 malls in search of a handbag, and Mike Duffy's in Kirkwood.  And that was just Friday!

Saturday was Oktoberfest in Hermann. We went to the Brush and Palette Club show - it's very sad, but it seems to be getting smaller every year.  I'm guessing it's a recession thing, but there were a lot fewer vendors than I ever remember seeing.  We drove up to Stone Hill, and had the Plate - bratwurst (hold the sauerkraut on mine), German potato salad, and chunky applesauce - and bought some wine.

I got the latest line of Stone Hill's semi-sweet called "Jacquesse" - yes, it's pronounced "jackass" and has a donkey on the bottle! LOL!!  The white is on the sweet side of semi, the red is a nicely bodied fruity semi, and the 'berry' (rosé) tastes like weird combination of kiwi-strawberry and raspberry.  It's the sweetest of the three, I think.  I'll let you know after I drink more of it *g*

We wrapped up Hermann at the FestHalle which is part of the Dierbergs family-owned Hermannhof Winery.  We started going to the Festhalle a few years ago, and it's great for music, beer, wine, and music! Did I mention the music? There was a 40th birthday party going on right in the middle of the Halle - everyone was having a great time, and I think it's really nice to be able to bring in your own food (and in this case, decorations) to celebrate with a group.  We had wonderful weather all weekend, and great company.  :)  It's almost an annual event for us to get together!

More mundane stuff - my father's been helping me fix things around the condo and we're working thru the list.  This is what happens when you live in a 45 year old place - things break!  I now have 2 working sinks again!  w00t!  Next up: the dripdripdripdripping kitchen faucet. Then the outside light, the baseboard heaters, the bathtub faucet....and the deforestation of my courtyard. heh heh heh

I've been working on a vocal project to record my voice for use as a synthesized voice.  The project is called ModelTalker and it is a speech synthesis system for 'banking' your voice.  It was primarily developed for people who are losing the ability to speak due to ALS or other illnesses, but I'm on the other end of the spectrum - I'm a "beta" for the program, and am offering my voice to be synthesized for others to use.  Kind of like donating my voice so that someone who has already lost theirs can speak.  My benefit is that I will receive a SAPI5 version of me for my own use.  It's been interesting, and frustrating at times, as it's still in beta, but I'm about 2/3 of the way through the 1600 phrases needed for recording.  My problems have been more allergy and sinus related than anything - I have to record in almost complete silence, and have a clear nose!!  I despise allergy season.

If you know someone who has a great voice and is willing to spend some time to help others, direct them to that linked site, please.  The software is available up to and including Windows 7 64-bit.

33 days to Deathly Hallows #1.  I.  Can't. Wait.  *bounce bounce*  Warner Bros. announced last weekend that the movie will NOT be ready for a 3D IMAX release which, in my opinion, is just fine.  I can't see in 3D anyway, and from what I've heard, the conversion method makes things shaky and blurry.  I'd rather have it in HD, please!  Besides, Dan Radcliffe doesn't like 3D either, so there! The trailer in the post below has been changed very slightly to reflect the 2D only release.  I would LOVE the one-sheets. I may have to go hunt for I just found two at AllPosters - Trio in Trees and Hogwarts in Flames - and Leaky has the close-ups of the trio (plus Dobby) and the villains.  I want the Harry one, and the Greyback one freaks me the hell out.

I have a metric ton of yarn to review. I've gotten to the point that I don't know where to start, but man, I need to organize.  The latest is (another) BSJ, and I found a very pretty short scarf that I want to make for a few people - it's called "Rodekool" and is available as a Knitty pattern. Now I'm interested in the Brioche stitch! help....me.....

Anyway, not much else going on. The Lily-pup is as crazy as ever, and now weighs in at 15.2 pounds.  YAY! The Cards didn't make the playoffs, and the $%*&^$ Reds did, but were swept by Philly.  I'd've liked to have seen the Rays go to the WS, but they're out too.  I'm not going to say who I'm rooting for else I jinx them, but let's just say they don't rhyme with Spanky's or My Aunts. Ahem.

More later.  Gotta organize the Yarn!Stash!Monster first.

Cheers!!

basebrawl

Okay, it's official. Don't like the Reds. Specifially, don't like Phillips or Cueto.

http://pujolsmolinafan.tumblr.com/post/934150034/im-just-sayin

Neither does Yadi. Nuff said.

Cheers!

baseball time is here again - finally

Opening Day is today. Well, *later* today. As in 10 hours and some change.

To celebrate, I give you the Cardinals 2010 Season Trailer. I can't embed it - you have to visit the MLB site - but it is going to be an AWESOME season.

Go Cards!!

Cheers!

pooches, ravelympics and basically touching base

Hi! Thought I abandoned you? Naw. Just my usual boring life going on, so I haven't posted.

I posted a while ago that I had some bad news to pass on. On September 10, 2009, my dear pooch Pluto had a heart attack and died in my arms. I'm afraid I was depressed for a few months, and that's mainly why I've failed to post. I didn't knit, blog, or chat much online. It didn't help that it was really quiet here at home, with no furry friend to motivate me to get moving.

On January 15th, that changed.

I'd been casually looking at PetFinders, and wondering if I'd want another dog. And what kind. Well, I came across this one sad looking dog that looked like she needed a home, and went to see her. Three days later, I adopted Lily. She is a very small 5 year old beagle, or possibly a beagle/dachshund mix. She's a tri-color, no 'flag' on her tail, and bays loudly! She's only 9 inches tall at the shoulder, and was an emaciated 8.5 lbs when I got her. She had a LOT of things wrong - whipworms, coccydia, dehydration, and (as I later found out) a double ear infection. Since then, we have managed to kick all of that to the curb, and today she was a whopping 12.7 lbs! Yay! Now we're working on housebreaking - almost there - and how she seems to have to sleep in the MIDDLE of the bed.

Here's a pic from January 31 - she travels VERY well, sleeps 5 minutes after getting on the road - and we were at Fort Kaskaskia Park in southern Illinois:

She's a little dog with a big mouth - will bay at me if I don't make her dinner fast enough, and has a bit of separation anxiety, but she's a good dog otherwise. If she's awake, the tail is wagging! We also need to work on the hogging of the warm air from the space heater - she's a great draft blocker, so I end up staying cold while she gets a nice warm back or tummy! I'm working on more pictures, so stay tuned.

I have picked my knitting up again, and participated in the 2010 Ravelympics! I medaled in several categories:

If you click on the picks (except for the Single Skein), you'll be redirected to pictures of the completed projects. I started but didn't complete a Kureopatora's Snake as well, finished that one a few days ago, and started another one for me. The temps right now don't warrant scarves, though. Oddly, I think this happened last year about this time too - right after I finished Lisa's basketweave scarf. Hmmm.

I'm recovering from a series of illnesses that landed on me all at once the first week of February, and am TIRED of taking pills. Bleh. I'm nearing the end of my third (!!) course of antibiotics, and finally (mostly) have my voice back. Had to have a root canal due to the infection moving into a tooth, as well. I'm feeling much better now.

I love Meteorite Men. Want more Eps!!!

Lastly, BASEBALL HAS RETURNED! *happydances* Spring Training games started last week (and Yes, I'm glad they don't count. Ouch!) and Opening Day is 4 weeks away. Four weeks!

Okay, I think I'm wound out. Yarn reviews should return soon (I just bought some! w00t!) after I take pictures and type out the list.

Cheers!

play like a cardinal

I'm going to bed. Really. I just had to share this:



By the way....postseason? Watch out. St. Louis Cardinals, 2009 National League Central Division winners are coming your way!

Cheers!!

SNP '09, #stlcards style

Where I was tonight:

(Edit: They removed the video.  Meh. I was at the Stitch 'N Pitch at Busch Stadium, and there was a news video from Channel 5 in this space.)

KSDK ftw!

The Cards won, 11-6.

Sorry, I haven't posted lately. I have some very sad news, and I'm trying to really sit down and write about it, but I'm having a hard time. Bear with me.

Hi all! No, I haven't fallen off the face of the planet. Really. I do have a ton of yarn to review and post and some adventures to share, but I just wanted to let you know I'm still kicking.

Had some computer issues (and phone issues) - Alice, the Mamabear lappy, managed to corrupt itself last night, and I had to do a lot of contortions to get Vista re-loaded to the computer. Damn hidden recovery partitions!! Now I have to re-install all my programs. *wails* Open Office, here I come. The G1 ALSO had to be hard reset last night due to an issue with the accellerometer - and wouldn't you know, I forgot my GMail password for the darn phone? I had to create a new stinking e-mail and everything before I could get into the phone itself. Not a happy camper was I for 7 hours last night.

This'll cheer you up:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/8216899.stm


It's Tom and Dan at one of the cricket matches during the Ashes series between the UK and Oz:

Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Tom Felton join Jonathan Agnew for A View From The Boundary, encountering an angry Geoffrey Boycott as they enter the commentary box.

It's funny. :)

Cards are in first *dances* by 10.5 games, I think. I don't remember if the Cubbies are playing this afternoon or not, but we're getting ready to beat up on....*goes to look*.... Pittsburgh. I don't think we should have any problems with them, as they're 24.5 back *cough* but you never know. I'm going to the Stitch 'N Pitch on Sept 14th at Busch - we're playing the Marlins, who are 70-64 right now. Gonna beat up some Pirates this weekend!!

I have yarn from DBNY, CTH, Dyeabolical, My Sister's Yarn, and HL, I think, to review. My house is a disaster area, I'm planning on having guests in October (yes, the cleaning starts this weekend, as it's driving me to drink), and I am looking at new living room furniture. I'm sure NE!Sue will be happy with that.

More on yarn, Chicago (MSI FTW), rude teenagers, dogs, and college football later.

Go Mizzou! Beat the Illini!!

Cheers!

idle chatter

Miss me? Awww!

I know this was from a few days (weeks?) ago, during the media blitz before HBP came out, but it's funny! It's in 2 parts, and Yes, it's Dan. ;P Ah, July 9th. Just over three weeks ago.





Sorry, I think the sound is all left channel, but I can't help that.

Still haven't taken pics of the yarn yet - and I'm buying a kettle-dyed lot from Rachel @ Dyeabolical today. She went and dyed it, and then had a severe allergic reaction to it! She posted about it late last night, and I'm relieving her of half of what she dyed this evening. I'll take a pic of that as well. *hugs to Rachel*

I'm almost to the center point of the Ravenclaw shrug, and need to get one more ball of the grey yarn. Meh. I hope they have the same dye lot. In the meantime, I've started yet another sock: it's called Outside In and it's available on Knitty.com in the Summer 2009 set. I'm using the Premier Yarns "Serenity Sock Weight" in Aquamarine for the socks - I've already ripped back and restarted with a larger needle (a US2 instead of a US1) and I think they'll fit better. Me and my big feet!

I'm going to see HBP in IMAX tomorrow - the first 15 minutes are in 3D, so the joke has been that I have a date with Harry in 3D. LOL!

I'm still planning on reading the fic that Ryan wants to podcast, but the Peons have run into a little trouble - it appears that we're going to have to re-record several eps, as one of the guest hosts had a HDD crash and lost all her files. Before she uploaded them. Grrrrrr. We're going to have a meeting tonight to discuss it.

The Cards are in first place (w00t!!) and the new acquisitions (Holliday and Lugo) have been productive! According to...I don't remember, one of the sportswriters off my Twitter list, I think....if the Cards are in first on the morning of 8/1, they have won the division. If they are not in first, they have not won the division. That goes back to the beginning of the franchise, I believe. We're in first today. The trend will continue!!

That's all from me right now. Cheers!