a mini-catchup

Okay, so this really isn't a blog post...I'm a bit behind on posting, and have been (seemingly) all over the place in the last month. Sorry about that.

Hallows & Horcruxes II/Gathering of Awesome was ...well, awesome! Bought CDs, jumped around like I was 10, sang at the top of my lungs with a roomful of people doing the same thing, hung out with PFW peoples, awesome. Really, I have pictures, and links, and all sorts of other stuff to share about the trip. I've also managed to get at least one Ministry of Magic song totally trapped in my head. Sigh.

I also have a bunch of yarn to photograph, add to stash on Rav, and review here from a bunch of places including Yarn Barn of Lawrence.

A few more promos have been released for HBP, and I managed to see the trailer (#3, I think) for the new Star Trek. Oh Em Gee.

Speaking of rendering me speechless (*g*), I have just in the past hour or so finished Backward With Purpose by the evil Ella, aka deadwoodpecker. Oh my freaking Merlin. If you have a spare...oh, I don't know, few days, go read the fic. It's linked in the Books Read 2009 sidebar. PFW reviewed this fic, and it's sequel The Book of Albus, on upcoming episodes. I haven't started BoA yet, but plan to do so ASAP. This is the same author who wrote Yellow Submarine (which I have apparently forgotten to add to the Books Read list *fixes that*) and has at least three or four other irons in the fire. She's on LJ and on ff.net. Go read her stuff. I'm not kidding.

I got to record a PFW! Go me! I'm a guest host on the second Season 3 PFW ep. We reviewed the last half of Harry Potter and the Power of Truth by CreativeQuill. Yes, it's linked on the sidebar. ;) No word yet as to when the release date is....probably May or so. You can hear me on Peoncast starting with the season opener, too! We've been having a great time with the one-shots and short chaptered fics.

Oh! and you can also hear me narrating a story for Spellcast. I think the podcast with the reading will be released in the next week or so.

I'll be driving (on Saturday) into the winter storm that is apparently going to be zooming through Kansas City this weekend...D and NE!Sue are having a mini-meetup, so I'm going for an overnight. It looks like I'm not going to get snowed on until at least Boonesville, and it shouldn't be too bad. I hope.

Last but certainly not least, please keep my OR!Sue (aka Sueatducksfoot) from PFW in your thoughts...her grandfather passed away on Friday, and she's in California this weekend for the funeral. It's been a difficult week for them.

Phew. This wasn't going to be this long.

Cheers!

PS: BASEBALL IN 12 DAYS!!!!!!!! w00t!!!!!!!!!!!!!

calendar of wrock, a star wars funny, and a recipe

First, I give you an announcement from Julia of PFW/Pwncast:

Several months ago I had an idea. I was tired of not being able to find good wall calendars, so I decided I wanted to make my own, and that I wanted it to be a Wizard Rock one. So I got Cody on board and she did a ton of work, and now we have an AWESOME Wizard Rock calendar for 2009. It features eleven WRock bands: Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls, The Whomping Willows, The Moaning Myrtles, Catchlove, Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills, The Parselmouths, Tonks and the Aurors, The Remus Lupins, Draco and the Malfoys, The Butterbeer Experience and Harry and the Potters.

Cody, Dan and I decided pretty early on that it would be mean of us to keep all this awesome for ourselves, so we're selling it to you! We also decided that if we were going to sell these, then we should share the awesome and give all the proceeds to the Harry Potter Alliance.

This project has been a lot of hard work for all three of us, but in the end it's really been worth it. The final product is AMAZING, and we're very excited to share it with all of you. Each one costs $15, including shipping. We'll have them shipped out as soon as we have them printed, which will be as soon as we have enough money to cover the costs, so buy them now!

Click here to order via PayPal: http://calendarofwrock.thehogshead.net/
For more info, you can visit their MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/pfwradio
or e-mail Julia here.

Julia also has a LJ account at http://pinstripers16.livejournal.com/

If any of you readers could post about this, or link to it, they'd appreciate it!! I've already ordered mine. :)

Next, a Star Wars funny snatched from Tom Smith's LJ:

The original [done in 1999, apparently] was from Moosebutter. This guy, Corey Vidal, created the video using their audio.

Lastly, I made an experiment for dinner tonight, and it turned out very well! I made a Salsa Sausage Quiche, following the recipe here. I'm not a big fan of salsa, but it was very good! I'll have to remember to pick up some sour cream next time I make it.

Cheers!!

yarn ahoy

Danger, Will Robinson!

Got Happy Feet. Yeah yeah, okay, so I got enough for 2 pairs. They were only $6 a hank!

The enhancements for the week:

• 2 50g hanks of Plymouth Yarn Co. "Happy Feet" (90% superwash merino/10% nylon) in colorway #8 (violet, blue, olive to dark forest green, burgundy to bright red)
• 2 50g hanks of Plymouth Yarn Co. "Happy Feet" (same as above) in colorway #9 (pink, orange, red, purple, magenta, fuschia, gold) This yarn is waaay soft, and there are a couple of the other colorways I really like.
• 1 100g ball of Plymouth Yarn Co. "Sockotta" (cotton/SW wool/nylon) in colorway #04 (grey, tan, green, blue, black) Yeah, I know - but I like Sockotta! I think the Horcrux socks I did a few months ago were in Sockotta #20, and the more I look at that, the more I think that was a very Harry color. lol

I bought a replacement mp3 player for my dearly departed Creative Zen Xtra, and it needs a battery. The broken player's battery is just fine, except for the fact that it's at HOME and I'm not. Alas. The new one does power up when plugged into the electrical, but then it stops on the library rebuild. I'm hoping (crosses fingers) that's because there's no battery in it. I'll be rather upset if it turns out to be DOA!

I recorded the Filkcast - Potterstyle ep on Monday - oi. I hope Delana or Michael edit me a lot...I tend to babble when I'm nervous, and I was NERVOUS. Blah blah blah. And more blah blah. *covers face* It's not up yet on iTunes, and I can't access their MySpace from here. Firewall, of course.

I went and bought all three of Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls CDs. I've been listening to a new podcast linked to PotterFicWeekly called the Pwncast of Wrock (!!), which is Julia and Dan having a lot of fun and playing wizard rock music. Dan says he doesn't fangrrl OBatR, but I'll freely admit that I do. LOL! You don't necessarily have to like HP to like Christian, but it doesn't hurt. Good music, folks. Go listen to the samples.

I've turned the heel on the Blues Jaywalkers, and I've cast on a Twinkle for me. I'm in the Sock Knitters Anonymous January Sockdown! on Ravelry, and am making these Twinkles out of the Scarlet Fleece's "Tubular X2!" yarn I bought before Thanksgiving from Loopy Ewe - the Easter Basket colorway.

Speaking of Loopy Ewe - they're mentioned in VOGUEKnitting! Squee!! They're listed as the North American source for Wollmeise sock yarn, which sells out so fast that the last time Sheri put it on the site, everyone crashed the server! It's a little blurb, but it made me happpyyyy.

Ace of Cakes was on on Thursday, and it amused me that when Duff was talking about how the actors reacted to the cake (omg, the cake. Amazing. Ah. Maze. Ing.), he called Rupert "Ron", but Dan was "Dan". Heheh. I think someone has a 'separation of actor and character' issue! No shots of Emma - I don't remember if she was at the LA premiere or not, but the show was very cool. Duff drove thru St. Louis to get to LA - they showed the Arch from the Poplar Street Bridge as he was crossing into Missouri. Hee! I would have been at work that day - he went right by. *fangrrls*

Okay, enough silliness. Cheers!

welcome to 2008

Happy New Year!

Now that everyone on the globe is on the same year, I thought I'd post a short entry.

I don't have any yarn to review, but I have some coming from a few places. DBNY has a sale going on at the moment for Cherry Tree Hill yarns, and apparently had a mad rush at midnight EST NYD that made the site inaccessible for several hours. I didn't log on at 11 PM my time because I was somewhere that couldn't get online (grr) and by the time I got home at 1:40, the site was completely frozen. It took about 35-40 minutes to get the page to open! I think I was finally able to place my order about 2:30 or so. Yikes. That was 3 hours after the sale started! I'll review that yarn when it arrives.

I also finally caved and bought a few skeins from dkKnits that were calling to me. J from chat agrees with me - they look Potterish. ;-) You knew that was coming.

Alli (who says she doesn't read my blog :-P ) started a booklist a few years ago, which follows her book-reading over the calendar year. I've decided to be a lemming and follow the leader, so I'll have the 2008 list on the sidebar. We decided that audiobooks do count as books, but that most fanfic doesn't. I'm altering the rules a tad to allow for fanfic, but the piece must be finished - NOT a WIP - and must be at least 50,000 words long. The fic that I'm narrating would count - as a paperback book, it would be over 2400 pages long and has over 590,000 words (!!). 50K would be about 200 pages at paperback size, and would be at the low end of novel sized. I'll be bouncing that stipulation off her tonight, and we'll see what she thinks.

I'm now surrounded by Potter at work - L of the OMG scarf sent me a HP page-a-day calendar (even tho she rolls her eyes at my OCD), and D gave me a HP wall calendar. I suppose I should round out the theme by putting the HP7 poster back up! Heh.

I just listened to the Filky Awards podcast from Filkcast Potterstyle and recommend it to those who like HP filk. Great job to everyone who won!

Missouri won the Cotton Bowl yesterday - they creamed Arkansas 38-7 in Dallas. What was so funny (or not, grrr) were all the commentators covering the OTHER Bowl games (specifically the Rose and the Sugar) who, every time they would do recaps/highlights for the completed games, would comment that Missouri should have been in a BCS Bowl game. The Tigers should have played USC at the Rose Bowl. I mean, honestly. The Illini were annihilated by the Trojans 49-10.

Congrats to Mizzou for taking that trophy home, tho. Sweet after more than 30 years, ain't it?

I think I'm tapped out for the day, so I'm off to listen to PotterCast #132, which I apparently cannot link as the site has not been updated yet! The main site is here.

Hope you're all recovering from the holidays - cheers!

Edit@5:30: The PotterCast podcast is a clip show for the stuff over the last year - was a lot of fun to listen to. They are so silly! Even if they can't count down from 10. LOL!!!!

holiday wrapup

Greetings! Hope everyone had a nice holiday!

Everyone liked the socks - Ash wore hers around the house from the time she opened them until she went to bed 8 hours later! This is a good sign, considering she is always barefoot at home. I finished D's Twinkle Toes on Saturday but forgot to take a pic of the completed pair. Oh well.

I gave my grandparents the crocheted 'sampler' afghan (yes, I do hook!) in the neutrals that was my spring project this past year, and the red/white/blue ripple went to my uncle. He's got long legs and was very happy with the extra long lap robe! Now I have requests for three more...eep! Lancer wants a baby blanket, so I started a pastel Rambling Rows on Christmas Day while watching the Bourne series - all three movies - at my brother's house. I have some time *cough*, as the baby's due in June. Sis-in-law wants one for the upstairs living room, which I have a feeling will be in cream or a very light sage, and I haven't nailed the pattern yet. L&R's will be another Rambling Rows, but in the medium size and in brown shades. She told me her accent was ORANGE! No no no. I refuse to make an orange afghan. Way too 70's for me.

Still working on the yellow and blue Jaywalkers for me. I have been instructed to wear them to the hockey game in Feb - my nephews (and their mom and dad) gave me a Blues 'Away' jersey (!!!!) and two tickets to the game on Feb 17. Jamboy is playing on the Scottrade Center ice before the Blues game, so I'll get to see the Mites as well as the Big Guys. LOL! Roo said the colors in the Jaywalkers were in 'Blues Colors' and that I must wear them to the games. So I must!

Yarn! I did get a ball before Christmas from Weaving Dept and yesterday's present from Dharmafey was in the mail :)

• A 150g (420m) ball of Opal 6-fach "Blues" superwash wool/nylon in color 2020 (blue, yellow, pink, aqua, black, white). It's supposed to be a sportweight, but it seems thin for that. It's a self-striping as pictured.
• A 100g ball of superwash merino/nylon sock yarn in the colorway Goblet of Fire (orange sherbet, light brown, tan, cream, lime green).

The little 'extra' that Carrie added in the Potter Covers shipment was a puzzle at first - but I guessed what they were. They are two tilted 'spikes' threaded onto a black elastic cord. The spikes are about three inches long. At first, I thought they were supposed to be dragon teeth, but they're HORNS! LOL!! They're tilted so that they lean forward on your head. Very funny!!! They'll help keep my halo in place. ;) I'm not certain about the pattern - I think I'll need to knit up a repeat or two to see if the 'scales' are supposed to be pointing up or pointing down. I'm liking the toe-up method at the moment.

The second half of the Jo Rowling interview is up on PotterCast - very interesting stuff!

I WANT HAVE TO GO TO THE THEME PARK.

Nuff said. Also, lots of new songs and stuff on the SwishandFilk site, and you should check out the Christmas Music Extravaganza on Lime & Violet's blog/site/podcast. The Fanboy Christmas II is an absolute laugh riot.

Not much else going on here - we're supposed to go see National Treasure 2 on Sunday, and then do something on NYE. PK says she's off work on NYD, but I may be heading out to see Roo or Jamboy play hockey in Chesterfield. No funky-tasting champagne this year!

Off to do paperwork - we've been having some trouble with one of the programs here, and we're stuck till it's fixed, so we've been doing catch-up on everything else. Yay!

Cheers!

new yarn review & a link

Sorry, was going to post last night and got wrapped up in a project. Anyway, here's the info on the Potter Covers yarn:

• 100 g hank of superwash merino/nylon/bamboo (60/10/30) sock yarn in the colorway Prisoner of Azkaban (lime green/light purple-blue, grey, peach, yellow cream)

It's very sooooooffftttt. The pattern is "Sirius Black", and it has two main features: his Azkaban ID (that's what was tattooed on his chest, btw) on the leg and the foot...is a paw! With pads on the bottom! Very cute. I may have to do this pattern again with a light solid, or maybe a contrast for the details. *ponders*

I can't wait to get my hands on the last three. I think I've said that before - but I loved the covers for OotP, HBP, and DH.

The podcast I mentioned yesterday - well, it slipped my mind to look up the URL, so I googled it. It's a Podshow 'cast, and the temporary site is here. There are some 'keepers' in the first group - I'm marathoning these, and I'm only up to Episode 12b, I think. The second half of the "Musicals" postings. I did skip the slash ep - just sooo not in the mood for Snape/Harry or Draco/Harry. Ick.

I finished PK's second sock, and now am pondering wristlets with the remaining yarn. I also need to send Wooly Treasures a shot of Ash's socks, as that was the yarn I used. If you buy yarn over Etsy or online, do you send pics of the finished product back to the dyer? I'm curious if other people do that....

Got to run errands during lunchtime, so have a nice Thanksgiving!

news and news

It's been a couple of days, and I have news from here and there. Good and bad, but that's the way of news.

First the bad news.

My mom has been living with J since I was 21, and I'm near 40 now. Well, about 2 weeks ago, Mom called and told me that J has been diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer. Yes, this is and isn't a shock - he's been a smoker for about 60 years, and he's been having trouble with his voice for several months, but yeah, it's a shock.

Needless to say, the holidays this year are going to be nuts. And, to add to the mayhem, Mom and J are getting married on the 30th. As in 10 days. Mom has asked me to sing at the ceremony, and I have no clue what to sing. Help! It might also help if I could sleep for more than two hours at a time. Humph.

Okay, that's enough bad news.

The good news!

I have cable television again. Yay! I had to go get the DVR because they didn't have them until last Friday, so I went to Commons and picked it up. I love it! I can watch Knitty Gritty and Good Eats now that I can record them while I'm at work! squee! I am such a geek.

I finished listening to my marathon of Filkcast - Potterstyle on Saturday, and no-one had guessed the "Name That Filk!" for September (I did) so it rolled over to October. I figured that SOMEone would have guessed it by the time I'd listened to the October 'cast, but I e-mailed the answer in anyway. No, I'm not going to tell you what the answer is - you'll have to listen to find out.

Imagine my surprise when I got an e-mail back that said "Congrats! You won!"!!

*is still in shock, and waits until the laughter and pointing dies down*

I told you I was a geek. It's just been uber-confirmed. ;-) The prize is a guest host spot on the next podcast. Wow. So. I think we're going to try to record on the 27th, as that's the day after I get back from Teh Sue's. Like I told Delana in my voicemail to her, I've been a filker since...um...what, 1991ish? I was a performer of Star Trek filk and other various genres, playing and singing at conventions until dawn. This is going to be very cool!!

I have finished Ash's Zephyr socks, and am on the last half of the foot of the second sock of PK's ankle socks. Unfortunately, I realised that I hadn't crossed the cables correctly on the second half of the lace pattern (the pattern is Breeze from Knitty, btw) and so all the cables cross the same way. Meh. I don't want to go back and re-work the first sock, so she'll have to live with right-twisted cables. Who's gonna know besides me and thee? I rest my case. I'll try to take pics (yeah, you've heard that before) and post them for your entertainment.

The weather looks like it's going to co-operate on Saturday's drive up to Omaha - the thing is going to be TRAFFIC. OMG. The number three team in the country (that would be the MISSOURI TIGERS! WOOT!!!!! GO TIGERS!!!) and the number two team in the country (that would be the Kansas Jayhawks...boooooooo!!!!) are going to be playing at a neutral site (that would be Arrowhead Stadium, in Kansas City) at 7 PM Central time (that would be about the time that I'll be DRIVING past said stadium on the way to Omaha). It's going to be mass mayhem. I HAVE to find my tiger tail for my car. It's very exciting! I think the last time that the Tigers were ranked in the top 5 in the US was like, 1969. I know they haven't been in the top 10 since 1981. *bounce*

I'm listening to Lime & Violet (actually Carin & Violet, happy drunken birthday, Lime!) and they're talking about knitting audiobooks, which are cool. I think I might need to see if I can find them. They're called "Knitting Out Loud". I think they're Stitch 'N Bitch Handbook, America Knits, and Knitting Memories. Violet was gushing about it on podcast #48, and I agree with Carin - Jim Dale does a very good job of reading audiobooks. :) Speaking of enablers, Sue has informed me that she will NOT be forbidding me from buying yarn. L thinks I'm crazy. *g* Guess what? I AM crazy.

I was also very good this past weekend - I didn't buy ANY yarn. I did, however, get my newest Potter Covers yarn in the mail! Unfortunately, it's at home, and has not been properly petted and drooled over, as I was in the middle of washing windows (hey, it was 75F, and my windows were filthy). I'll review it when I get home from work. The pattern is interesting-looking - very Sirius Black.

Oh, one more HP quickie - I was wandering around iTunes and ran across a 'cast that plays HP vids and mostly pimps other HP podcasts. I'll link it on the 'yarn review' post, as it's at home, too.

Okay, that's enough news for now.

sock pattern ponderings

Hi all :)

Just a short post (yeah, I've said that before, and it turned into War and Peace, so shoot me) due to some musings about sock patterns for the latest yarns....

I've decided that the Fireplace Embers yarn reminds me of the Gryffindor common room. I really have no idea why, it just does. Yes, L will be thwaking me again, but oh well! I've been thinking about a good lace or cable pattern to use for for this yarn, and I'm leaning toward a chevron lace out of the Vogue Dictionary of Knitting Stitches. A book that I've checked out of the library often enough to tell me that I need to BUY it. Um, yeah. Anyway, I'll need to decide if I want to make it an allover lace or a panel. *stretches the brain*

No idea what pattern for the Harry yarn yet. I'd posted earlier that I was considering the "Lombard Street" pattern for the Ron Weasley colorway, but that might be better for the Woodland/Harry instead. I'll have to go thru my sock pattern stack again, methinks.

The unnamed Somoko yarn needs a good fir-cone pattern to carry on the old-forest theme, I believe. Maybe I'll take it with me next weekend on my trip to the far frozen north. I mean, um, Nebraska. teehee. Let's hope for driving weather! Perhaps they'll have some idears.

Speaking of L, since she will be away from home as of next Tuesday (Wednesday?), I'll be hand-delivering the omg-I-need-a-scarf! scarf when I visit Teh Sue and L Thanksgiving weekend. I will promise not to buy yarn in Omaha. Unless someone twists my arm. Which I know she won't ;-)

I've been listening to back podcasts of Filkcast - Potterstyle which have been pretty good - most of the filks I've heard so far have been different than the ones that were on the SwishandFilk site. I can't get to the Filkcast homepage (it's on MySpace, and that's a no-no here) but you should be able to - here's an alternate site if you need it. The podcast is not as polished as it could be, but it's okay.

I'm stalling - the prize for the department winning the Halloween contest is a buffet, and they're running late. It was supposed to start at about 2:30, which is way past lunchtime for most of the department, so everyone is starving.



Cheers!

end of month update

Hi all - miss me?

According to a friend of mine (and to paraphrase), 10 days is too long to go between posts. Heh. I've been playing catch-up a bit, and unfortunately, the 'yarn' section of the post will be another time, as the yarn I need to list is at home!

I finally finished The Pirate Costume. *ducks flying paper wads* Yes, I know it's October 30th. The sweater was finished on Saturday and the leggings were seamed during lunch today. I took the sweater over to S&J's last night, and it fits A *perfectly*. Plus, it appears that the leggings won't be too long - he's got a long torso and getting-longer legs, so that'll fit too. Phew. The only issue I see is that the crotch depth on the leggings is a bit long - I'm going to weave a tie thru the top ribbing to snug around his little waist. I thought for a while I was going to have to knit some suspenders, because it looked like the leggings were going to reach his armpits!!

I'll get S to send me some pics of A in the outfit so I can post them for you - it's cute!

I didn't post last week due to the fact that I feel like I lost a few days to a migraine. I did go into work on Thursday (when it was at its worst) and just felt like someone had hit me with a bludger over and around my right eye. It wasn't nearly as bad on Friday, but by then, I just couldn't bear to look at a computer screen for 9 hours, so I stayed home. I've never had a migraine before - I've had tension and sinus headaches, but never one that lasted for 3 days and wasn't affected by drugs, sleep or caffeine. Thankfully, I wasn't nauseated - to the contrary, I was hungry - but was very motion and light sensitive. For those of you who suffer from migraines, I'm sure mine was a 'mild' case, but I feel for you.

Still no word on yarn for the HP sweater - I'll be buttonholing Nancy (maybe tonight!) to see where the order is. Now that Teh Pirate is finished, I'd like to work on Big (Purple) Blue some. Yes, I have tons of socks to make, but I'm getting twitchy.

I've recorded a few more chapters of the HP fanfic audiobook, but now that I've taken a few days off, I'm concerned about what the earlier parts sound like compared to the recent ones! I've been trying to modulate between voices - the fic is set with the Trio at 18 just after the end of seventh year, and Ron in particular has a deeper voice. Harry's is a little lighter (but not much) and Ginny and Hermione's voices are different as well. I have to say, trying to express a Howler at 1 AM in one of the female voices is interesting (and No, I'm not telling you which female voice it is...you'll have to read it to find out). At least it's now a little too cool to have the windows open at night, so the neighbors don't think I'm having a row with my computer! lol

I think I'm starting to characterize the 'lesser' voices as well, and I'm having quality issues with the desktop. I'm going to have an objective person listen to the different tracks and let me know which machine to use for the recording (laptop vs. desktop). I really don't want to re-record 15+ hours, but if it comes to that....well, this is the first time I've done this. We'll see.

D-in-STL has now taken an interest in reading for audiobooks, and I thought I'd post some info here for it as well - there's a project underway to transform public domain works into audio format via the internet. The main site - which has free audiobooks, tips, volunteer forums, the works - is Librivox.org. Basically what you need to participate is a moderately good microphone, a goodly amount of space on a hard drive, some free time, and recording software. I use Audacity which has a mixer and an absolute ton of things I've never used. I did an experiment with the Noise Reducer yesterday, and got rid of a strong hum on an entire chapter section that hadn't been edited yet - it was really easy. The learning curve can be steep (as it usually is with open-source programs) but it's a very very nice little FREE program. From what I understand, quite a few podcasters also use Audacity to record their shows. Check it out. It's a good cause and it's fun.

The SRT department (that's us) here at Charter decorated for Halloween - we did a 'virus/id theft/spam' theme, complete with a 'quarantine' section and cubicles with different 'evil internet' themes. I'm the 'web pirate', so I have old VHS tapes and CD/DVDs scattered all over my cube. My two primary projects are DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) violations and password protection for users/subscribers, so me having a cubicle full of 'pirated' stuff was perfect. We'll find out tomorrow if we won the departmental competition - and then I can have my desk space back!

Well, baseball is finished for the year - and right now I think one of two things we here in St. Louis have to look forward to is maybe a good year for the Blues. They've done surprisingly well so far, but there's a loooong way to go. The Rockies got swept by the BoSox (boy does THAT sound familiar! 2004, anyone?) and so Boston is going apeshite at the moment - and Sel on her world tour is in Boston right now. What a zoo. Pro football here stinks as well - we're 0-8 (yes I said oh and eight) and the only reason we won't be losing a game this weekend is that we're on a BYE. Oi. The other bright spot is that the Missouri Tigers are ranked #9 in the country right now (woot!) and stand behind Kansas at the top of the Big 12. Yay! Go Tigers! And that is all for the sports segment of the news.

I think I'm all typed out - I'll post pics of Teh Pirate and the list of sock yarn that I managed to accrue in the past 2 weeks.

Cheers!

Edit: Sheesh, I just posted and forgot a squee - I got a comment a few days ago from one of the filkers on the SwishandFilk site (waves at ann!!!) - again, if you're interested in Potterfilk (and even if you aren't!) you should go visit this site. There are about 15 songs from there that I have a playlist on my mp3 player, and they are really good. Go!

knitting madly here

Well, it's been a week, and some, and just a short update today.

Not much on the knitting front - received a few hanks of sock yarn:

1. A hank of 100% superwash merino from Yarn Chef in colorway It's Not Easy Being Green (green shades) for Quiche's socks (she's frog-crazy), probably in the Jaywalker pattern
2. A hank of merino/nylon also from Yarn Chef in colorway Rusty Bucket (red/orange shades). I like the yarn but it's not as bright as I thought it was going to be - I'll be trying this with the "Fawkes" pattern
3. My October Potter Covers shipment - very nice colors based on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (rose/tan/blue/cream) and the accompanying pattern called "Heir of Slytherin"

Teh Pirate Sweater is near completion - I'll have the sweater seams done by the end of the work day today, but the leggings are not finished. ACK. A is taller than I thought, so the leggings (when they are finished) will be long enough.

One of Ash's Zephyr socks is finished and needs to be blocked. I like the pattern!! I may consider it for the Sirius colorway yarn I got from GeminiKnits a few months ago. Like I said earlier, I'm forcing SSS to finish the pirate costume.

I'm still obsessing. I'm starting to think I need a 12-step program for my Potter addiction. I haven't knit a lot in the evenings for the past 2 weeks because of a project that I'm working on. Yes, I am insane.

The husband of one of the gals I work with is a truck driver. I have been wandering around one particular HP fic site (there was something that was revealed last night about a character - more in a bit) and came across one amazing fic that was written and posted prior to the release of OotP. Anyway. I formatted the story to 8.5" x 11" paper, printed the 750 page monster out (yes, I said I was insane) and had the gal here read it. Now her husband wants to read it - but he doesn't read. He listens to audiobooks while he drives.

You know where this is going?

I did some research for text-to-speech software, and couldn't find one that wasn't $100+ that could pronounce the words correctly.

I know you know where this is going, now.

Yes, I am reading the fic. Out loud. Onto my computer. The story has an prologue, 43 chapters, and an epilogue, and I read and edited Chapter Eleven last night. By my calculations, I'm about one-sixth of the way through or so, and it's already 10.5 hours and 575 MB. At the rate I'm going, it'll be about 58-62 hours long, and 3GB or so at the bitrate I'm recording.

*takes a deep breath* I told you I was insane.

I think I'll be offering the document and the audio files to the authors once it's finished. Which should be about, oh, Thanksgiving.

Actually, I should have a bit more time this weekend to record - last weekend PK and Ash and I went to Hermann to go to the craft fair and to eat brats! One problem - we went on Sunday and it was DEAD. I've always gone to Hermann on Saturdays, and it's a madhouse, but this year we went on Sunday and it was a ghost town. Next year - Saturday! With Teh Sue! Whee!

Speaking of Potter, I discovered a website with FILK. Some of the songs are really good - I recommend "Seven Books" and "I'm Going On". In fact, there are a couple of filk sites linked over on the sidebar - you should really check out Tom Smith's site and blog. I love his stuff, and he's really quirky. Go! Listen!

JK Rowling was in New York last night, doing a reading for Scholastic, I think, and was asked a question about Dumbledore's past - and she OUTTED him. That's right - Albus was gay. *hears people falling over in either shock or laughter* Why she waited until NOW to tell everyone is a mystery, but, oh, to pull a quote from the Chicago Tribune online article:

"Oh, my god," Rowling concluded with a laugh, "the fan fiction."

*is going to stay away from the slash sites*

Quickie sports: GO ROCKIES! Going to the World Series!!! SQUEEEE!!!!!!!!

Gee, I chattered longer than I thought I would.

Lunchtime! Cheers!!