We now resume our regularly scheduled programming

Now that Angelas vacation is over we can get back to our regular posting pattern.

Yesterday was her birthday. I got her a few cds. Far by Regina Spektor who is just Regina in our house and Laughin' and Cryin' with the Reverend Horton Heat by The Reverend Horton Heat. I chose Far because Angela loves Regina and Laughin' and Cryin' because she's been really interested in rockabilly music recently.

We listened to Laughin' and Cryin' in the car last night and it's pretty awesome. The musicianship is excellent. The music is fun and interesting and the lyrics are often very funny.

I'm hoping to listen to Far either tonight or tomorrow.

I got the first two collections of The Walking Dead this past weekend and it's awesome. I'm not usually into zombie stuff but this is more of an apocalypse story that happens to have zombies. Apparently there's going to be a TV show based on it as well. Weird.

At the end of her vacation, Angela bought herself a copy of Borderlands and we've been playing it together. It's a fun game to play alone but it's fantastic to play with a friend. I'm looking forward to a few months of good times playing it with her.

In other news, I'm still writing, looking for a job and playing the bass. Now I'm starting to try to learn to play the guitar as well.

Dino-Vamp - now in color

Fun weekend. We went to this month's Cartoonists Northwest meeting. They are very nice. The lead lady even recognized us from last month. This month, we listened to Michael Foster, who does a comic called "Larry's Cafe." It is fun and inspiring to hear about other people who are doing art.

I have been watching Arrested Development on the weekends, since I finished Law and Order: Criminal Intent. That show is really funny. I have been having a hard time drawing the last week, but I did draw The Creeper this weekend, which was last week's challenge on Ten Ton Studios. I think he turned out OK. Could be better, but that will just happen with practice. What I have been trying to get the energy to do for the last week is start the thumbnails of the Gardner story. We have most of a script. And I basically know how the ending goes. There are a few frames I know almost exactly what I hope they will look like. I need to do character sketches (a lot) of the two main characters.

Finally, here is a color version of the Dino-Vamp cartoon. This is my first real color job in Photoshop, so please forgive.

So this weekend, I also watched Superman Doomsday. I thought it was weird how much he tore up the city when it was completely unnecessary and in a real situation, some of his fighting tactics, like throwing a bad guy through a building so the whole thing collapses (at the end of a work day) would have killed a heck of a lot of people. At one point, he even has the option to move the fight to outside the city and brings it right back to the center. One thing though, I loved was how they animated Superman taking off for flight. I think that is exactly what it would look like and it was so graceful. Make me want to be able to fly. :)

I also watched The Devil's Own. That was pretty good. Not much to say about it though. The description on Netflix is terrible. Has hardly anything to do with the actual story.

And I watched The Sasquatch Gang, which was pretty funny. It has a very similar feel to Napoleon Dynamite, which makes sense, since it is the same director.

And finally, (this is actually in reverse order) I watched School Ties with a young Brendan Frasier and Matt Damon. Matt Damon was not famous at the time and had a main role, but not the biggest role. I liked it, actually. I really like Brendan Frasier. He is usually really funny. This was not funny, but I think he did the part really well. I think he probably could have been a more serious actor if he wanted to, but he really seems to like making dumb comedies, which is not a bad thing in my opinion.

Here are some comics I found recently:

• The Intrepid GirlBot - So far, I like it a lot. It is very cute. Along the lines of Abominable Charles Christopher, it seems to me. Just in orange instead of blue and a girl bot instead of an abominable snowman.
• Gunnerkrigg Court - I love this one. I think it is in print too, but I have to save my money, so I can only read it online for now. Though perhaps I will buy a commission or something. I might start doing that. I was thinking of starting a collection of different characters knitting. :)
• Love me nice - Hilarious. What a funny idea for a comic.
• Heropotamus - I haven't read too far in this, just the new posts for a week or two, but it seems pretty funny. Light hearted. So far.

Don't these look like fun?! Too pricey for me right now, but maybe some time in the future.

Posty post post

We've been watching Lost on the netflix streaming thing. I'm enjoying it quite a bit more than I anticipated I would. The direction is damn fine, the music is good, the writing is excellent and the acting is pretty damn good too. We're only up to about episode 12 in the first season right now. We've been watching it more sparingly than I would like because it freaks Angela out so we have to stop a few hours before we go to sleep. She's such a baby :-P

I reminded myself why I hate linux this weekend, at least for desktop use. I won't go into the gory details. Good thing windows 7 is basically pretty darn good. And almost every piece of open source software that I would use in linux is available in windows and works as well or better anyway. So.

I'm almost done reading Wolves of the Calla which is book five of the Dark Tower series. I'm really looking forward to getting to the end of this story since I've been reading it most of my life at this point. I've been sitting on the bed and reading for a few hours most nights. The dogs come in and hang out with me. They love it but Angela feels left out because she has to sit on the couch alone while she knits.

The job search is still basically fruitless. There are *tons* of jobs in the medical field. Not a one of which am I qualified for. I'd go to one of the community colleges and get a quick certificate in phlebotomy if I could afford to, but in order to be eligible, I need to pay for one quarter of full time classes which is a bit of a catch-22.

I'm so deeply thankful for Angela. Without her I'd have long ago found myself living in a cardboard box somewhere.

One of our neighbors got a job at the new Little Caesars pizza that opened in the mini-mall next to our apartment. Funny how all the people that got hired there for jobs that interact with the public are college and high school girls. They did hire one older guy, he's probably in his 50s, to stand on the sidewalk and wave a "5 dollar pepperoni pizza" sign. Of course that's a grand opening promotion and will end soon. I feel for that guy. I wonder what he will do when the promotion is over and they don't need him to hold that sign anymore. I would have gladly taken that job.

--Abe

edit:

I thought that this post on Mish's blog was hysterically funny because I have sent my resume off to at least three local vets/kennels for exactly the job that he is talking about.

Movies, my friends

Nisa seems to be feeling better, though she has gone a bit crazy and keeps starting crazy fights with Ernie, who does not seem to want to participate, really.

All that's left of Abe's closet cleaning is to take the remaining stuff to goodwill, but first he has to go to Central Market and get me a chicken, which he will cook for dinner for me tomorrow while he eats spaghetti for dinner. Woo for me. He also has to get me a bunch of brussel sprouts. So I am having chicken and brussel sprouts for the rest of the week, though spaghetti tonight.

I went to the dentist today, which always rattles my brain a bit. Possible explanation if I sound a little weird today. I was going to fix up another image today but maybe I will fix it up for Friday instead.

Did I mention I finished Abe's first sock? That was fun...not. Took forever. And I still have another to do. It's OK, I guess. I really do like knitting with that dang self-patterning yarn. It is a bit short, but not horribly so.

This weekend, with poor little Nisa asleep at my side, I watched a lot of TV.

On Friday, I watched Sherlock Holmes: The Last Vampyre. That was OK. I was pretty tired and almost fell asleep at the end, but it was fun enough. The guy who plays Sherlock is a little less skinny than I always picture the drug-addled Holmes. And Watson looked a little more dim-witted than I usually think. But it was OK.

On Saturday, I went crazy. I started with Dinosaurus! The exclamation point is part of the name. It was a terrible 60s scifi. I could not stop laughing at the dinosaurs. Pretty funny. Maybe a bit sexist, but no more than anything else at the time. The Neanderthal was funny. The actor played that pretty funny. Then I watched Alien Trespass, which I highly do not recommend. I am a little surprised I finished watching it, but I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. There was some sort of fake news at the beginning and then the movie played and then... that was it. It was supposed to be a spoof of classic 50s sci-fi, so maybe I didn't get the joke. Eric McCormack was in it. Weird. It also had the dad from that horrible 80s show with the kid whose adult voice narrated the whole ting? That was boring, so I watched Mike Birbiglia, a stand up comic. He is pretty funny. I have heard him on the 7:20 Funny that now plays on 96.5 on Jack as the 7:19 funny. It plays right before I get to work. Then I watched an animated Hellboy: Blood and Iron. It was surprisingly good. It even had the actors from the movies doing the voice overs. I would definitely watch more of those. I like that in the animation, they can give Hellboy his appropriate hoofed feet instead of the boots in the movie. Then I started to watch Urchin, but was way not into that. It was just weird and poorly acted. One character just looked like some guy reciting lines and trying to respond to them. :( So I switched to Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I have no idea why it did so poorly. The first one was a pleasure to watch and so was the second one. Pure eye candy. Absolutely beautiful. The cure for a sweet tooth without the candy. I wish I had seen it on the big screen. It was a bit too long, but it was so pretty, I didn't really mind. I would have minded less in the theater because I could have seen it better. This was the end of the night so I was tired and having a hard time focusing my eyes.

Then on Sunday, I watched the first and started watching the second seasons of Grey's Anatomy so I can watch the new season 5 DVDs (as instant play on netflix). I freakin' love this show. I have no idea why I love it so much or why it affects me so much, but it might just be one of my favorite shows ever. I have seen the first season 6 times now and I love it as much now as the first time.

Friday, we are going up to Bellingham for a friend's birthday. Then next weekend we will go to Bellingham again so I can possibly plan a trip with my mom. But I might want to postpone that a year, depending on my tax return because the dentist (and my doctor, actually) says I really need a mouth guard for when I sleep. The reasons are two fold. One, I need to stop my teeth from moving. Since I got my wisdom teeth out, they have moved so that there are 5 places between my molars where I can easily floss with my hair. From my head. Gross, I know, but handy because it hurts when a big chunk of steak gets stuck in there. Why not carry around floss you ask? I am lazy and a scumbag. Come one now. Two, I clench my jaw a lot when I sleep and that is very bad. I keep having a crazy nerve thing in my neck and the doctor said the way to fix it is to get a mouth guard. It is the scary kind of electric hurt, so I do want to stop that from happening. So I got my W2 the other day and will file my taxes and make the plans I need to make. Woo. Taxes. At least I should get my first Rockin' Sock Club kit in the next few weeks. When that comes, all other projects, yes even Abe's first pair of socks, go straight in the hibernating pile until that pair is done. I am a little sad because I think they showed us the yarn on the blog and it looks all pinky. But if it is a dark pink, I guess it will be okay.

Monday

Happy Monday.

We spent most of the weekend watching Season three of Buffy. Faith makes her appearance in this season. I really really dislike, not the character, but the actress that plays her. Angela actively hates her. She actually called out cat calls and mocking comments at the TV nearly every time Faith appeared on screen.

I tried to get us set up to play the Unlimited Free Trial of Warhammer online but our breaker tripped again while we were at the character creation screen. So we went and watched more tv.

--Abe

Monday update

Angela stayed home friday because she wasn't feeling well. So we watched Buffy and Battlestar Galactica. We watched almost the entire second season of Buffy and most of season 2.5 of BSG.

On the economic front, I wanted to show you this chart which shows the percentage of the US population that is in the workforce. This includes the people that are reported in the unemployment rate. We're basically back to the percentage we had in the mid-late 70s and mid 80s.

--Abe

Sherlock

On Saturday, we saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie. It was...good. :) I really enjoy the Sherlock stories (one of my grandma's got me the complete Sherlock Holmes for Xmas one year). This was not those. This was a more action-oriented Sherlock. As long as I reminded myself it was not meant to be a depiction of the books, it was good. He seemed to be on a bit more cocaine or whatever it was and was much more childish in the movie. Makes me want to watch the old British Sherlock movies, which just happen to be available for instant play on Netflix... Watson was even more different between the two than Sherlock. I think. He is cockier and more confident. I haven't read the stories in a long time, so that is just what I remember of Watson in my head. I did really enjoy it though, and I am glad we saw it on the big screen. It is a very pretty movie. And did I mention the sort of steam punk aesthetic? The actors all played their rolls well. I think Robert Downey Jr. could have (at least visually) played Holmes as a more serious, less wild-hair-up-his-butt character, too. He has the appropriate haggard look.

I think this movie was the start of a heap of Rock n' Roll Remakes. Not a new style, there just happens to be a whole bunch coming out at once. Clash of the Titans is another. And the original Clash of the Titans is also available for instant play on Netflix, so there is another one for me to watch. There is another Iron Man, Iron Man II, which is definitely one. The preview intrigued me. He makes Tony Stark look like such a cocky douche, which I find hilarious. I have never read the Iron Man comics so I don't know how appropriate that is. Maybe The Wolfman, but I don't think that one is so rock n' roll.

Wool washing is slow going. I might be a quarter done? Maybe a third? But it is a nice creamy color when it is all washed and carded. I have a grocery bag full of it carded. This batch is Suffolk. Can't remember if I said that in my last post. Mom though it was Shetland, but maybe the other bag of white is Shetland. I am really excited for the dark wool. It is really pretty. During carding I even get most of the vegetable matter (VM) out. There is almost always just a little left in, but nothing gross or huge. I think I am really getting a pattern down for the two stages, washing and carding. Drying sucks. Did I say I burned some of it? I tried drying 4 pans at once in the oven which meant putting some of it on the bottom rack and I totally burnt the bottom rack. But I can pick it off and it should be fine. I will probably bag those two together and use them separately from everything else because the staple length (is that the right term) will be a little off what with the burning. I don't know if I am carding it right, but it is still looking nice.

Anyone a fan of Big Bang Theory? Check out SheldonShirts.com. It has a list of where you can get the shirts and stuff that Sheldon and the other characters on Big Bang Theory wear. Totally awesome. Sheldon has a lot of great shirts. Though you can see from the Leonard lists that even though he wears great shirts they are covered with his coat.

I wonder where our camera is. I have stuff to take pictures of. Lots of stuff: Noro shawl, thick shawl, orange cowl, short green silk scarf thing, Sheldon's sick hat, Tidings of Joy ornaments (candy cane, hat, plum, cherry, and I started the lights, though they are all packed so that might be for next year!), lorna socks, the one finished striped glove, felted tea cozy, Brennan hat (mine and Abe's), and Penny's Xmas hat. And that is just the knitting stuff. I should also get a pic of the crazy mint. And I have a few drawings to scan, though Abe should be able to do that now. I should also get a pic of my ruined Queen of Blues sock (those are not mine, I just don't know where my pic is...)and then FIX it. I have to cut off the whole ankle part, but at least it will be easy to knit. Attaching it will be the tricky part since I am pretty sure it is an ankle-down sock, which means Kitchener stitching it back on or something.

Abe made delicious oatmeal maple bread. We used it for PBJ today. Yum. That bread is just ridiculous. So good. And he cleaned the apartment and wow. It looks great. So nice. I forgot what it was like to live in a clean apartment with vacuumed floors.

And in completely other news, I think I am going to knit hats to sell on etsy. I didn't see anything too similar on etsy. I think they will be about $25 each. And I am trying to come up with a single skeins worth matching fingerless mittens.

Happy New Year -let's see pics

Well Happy New Year. Abe and I got to ring it in sick. He played EQ2 most of the night. I watched Jim Gaffigan: Beyond the Pale, and Step Brothers. Because we have Netflix and you can watch some movies instantly over your PS3! I love it. So very much. Both had me laughing out loud.

We also finished watching season 1 of Sanctuary, a Syfy series (what a dumb name...). It started out with a ton of blue screen action, but as the series went on, perhaps their budget got bigger or their ideas got smaller because there were less and less blue screens. The characters are fun. And the writing gets better as you go through the season.

I wish that instant play was available for Highlander. I really want to watch it but I don't want to have to wait for the DVDs in the mail. Oh well. Maybe someday.

So here are some pictures. I had intended to post this poem before Xmas, but our decorations are still up so I guess it still counts, right? I wrote this poem in 8th or 9th grade. I think 8th. My English class was making a book of xmas poems for the parents. I turned this in. My teacher said it was good but that the other parents probably wouldn't like this in their book of xmas poetry, so two more poems later I came up with something acceptable that I don't remember. I always liked this poem though.

Then we have a picture I drew of Abe's oldest character in EQ2, Denaso. It was fun to draw, though I don't know how accurate it is. I think she is one of Abe's first characters. I should really write more here to get Blogger to show the image lined up well with the text, but I don't really have much to say. It is Crayola colored pencils and technical pens. Fun, but it is hard to put together on the computer.

Next we have an ink of a chicken in electronic pants that are kind of out of control. I thought of this picture as I was going to sleep one night. I really do enjoy the hatch marks. They are fun. I have a book by Edward Gorey on hold at the library (Google images). My mom recommend I look at his work as a good example of hatch marks. I look forward to perusing his art. Mostly children's books, but I like that kind of art, I guess. Anyways, this was also done with a technical pen. My smallest for the whole thing. I probably should have outlined the pants in a thicker pen so they would stand out more.

Here is an ink of Nisa. I drew the pencil version a few years ago and then traced it a few weeks ago with a nib pen. That was an absolute blast. I really like working with the nib pen that you dip in ink. I plan to use that more often. It takes a little more practice because the ink doesn't dry as fast and can drip, which is why there is a big solid black spot on her left ear. I found my old pen and nibs from high school. I didn't know what to do with them then, but I am so glad I kept them. This is why I have a tendency to not throw anything away. I want to try it again many years later and will probably like it better.

Last we have a squirrel ink also using the nib. I realized I needed to practice with this pen and style, so I looked through my old drawing pads for pictures I liked so I could trace them with the ink nib pen. I think I drew this squirrel in pencil in high school.

All of these (except the xmas poem) are already up on deviantart. Someone already favorited Chick in Electronic Pants and someone else commented that the squirrel is cute.

Anyways, we had a good Xmas, even though it didn't snow this year. I was very lucky this year. Top of my list of wants, though I didn't tell anyone, was Umbrella Academy: Volume 2. And Abe got it for me. Totally awesome. He also got me Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, et al. That night we made lamb chops, onion potatoes, and brussel sprouts, so I made the Brussel Sprouts Braised in Butter. They were a little over cooked, but they were still really good. I can't wait to make it again. Very simple. Once you make it, you don't really need a recipe, so I was telling everyone about them. Haha.

Also, my mom and Jim got me 30 lbs of unprocessed wool!! And hand carders. I am in the process of washing about 10 lbs of the wool. It is going OK. I burned some when I was drying it in the oven (it is just too cold to try to dry it in the air). I started by throwing it all in the tub with hot water and a lot of soap, using a method I found on the Joy of Hand Spinning. That was a good start, but some if it is pretty dang dirty, so I have moved on to a smaller, slower, more precise method as described by the Yarn Harlot. I think this method of mass wash and then small wash is working well, but I have been sick so it is slower going than anticipated. Next time I will probably just do the small batches since I don't really have the time or space to wash and dry 10 lbs of wool at once. Anyways, I have 20 lbs of white wool to wash and 10 lbs of dark (black and brown). I very much intend to make a cardigan out of stripes of the natural white and dark. I think it will be very cool. I am not sure if I will use a cool pattern or if I will just do a basic cardigan from the Knitters Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. then all I have to do is decide on the number of rows per stripe, the shoulder style, and the neck style. This is very exciting.

I almost forgot to say that Abe also got me a cd by Imelda May and it is great. Rockabilly. The songs get stuck in my head and I don't mind. Abe heard an interview with her on NPR and then a song of hers and said she totally sounded like someone I would like. Very nice. Great CD. She's Irish. I don't know if she does concerts here, but I would love to go see her live.

Happy Holidays

This is the image I (and Abe, I guess) sent out as a Xmas card. (Abe still will need to send it to his own friends since I only sent it to people I have email addresses for.) I drew it with a technical pen or two and colored it with watercolor pencils. I don't want to waste those, so I recently went and bought a set of Crayola colored pencils and they are really fun to work with. Plus there are about twice as many colors, including silver and gold, which can be useful.

So Happy Holidays one and all! It is the second day of winter and it is getting colder. It got warmer first, though.

Today is my last day of work for the year. I was going to work tomorrow, but my coworker Lucas and Abe convinced me to take my last day of PTO instead of the payout. So here I am working my last day of the year from home. It was a successful day too because I finally figured out the example of Oregon state tax withholding. Buh. Doesn't my job sound exciting?

Well, I hope it gets colder over the next two days because I want snow on Xmas day again.

Last Saturday, Abe's last day off before Xmas day, we went to my cousin's for a Xmas movie party. We were the first to show up and I think we were early. Good times though. They bought a house this year and it is nice and big. We got to see Tony's dad, who I haven't seen in a while. (Tony, or Anton as he likes to be called now, is my cousin). He brought Frango's over, which is a real treat since I used to get to eat them every year for Xmas, but now we rarely see him, so we don't get them. Yummy. He even brought lasagna, but I didn't get any of that. We watch A Muppet's Christmas Carol, which was awesome. On Monday, I still had the Ghost of Christmas Present's song stuck in my head. Which isn't so bad.

Also, I am knitting (poorly) the hat penny wore on the last Big Bang Theory of the year. I needed to use size 9s. I might make another one tomorrow... I used 7s, so I would use 9s tomorrow. I am pretty excited. Maybe I will post my final pattern here. I am just using some leftover Red Heart acrylic yarn from the first blanket I ever knit (which was for Xmas and looks terrible - dropped stitches, poor finishing, I never even weaved in the ends). Hopefully I can finish it to wear to Abe's mom, who he still hasn't called to make plans for Xmas Eve. Jerkface.

You know who is not a jerkface? My coworker Lucas, who kindly recycled my can of Diet Coke and washed my cups since I thought I was coming in on Wednesday, but since I am not, they would have sat there dirty for almost 2 weeks. I think the dirtiness grosses him out enough that he would have washed it even if he didn't like me. Haha.

Anyways, in other art news, I also recently went through my box of "art" stuff. I found an embroidery project I want to finish but may not be able to. I will give it a shot, I guess. I also found my ink and nibs. So last night I started practicing drawing with that. Well, I did one a few days ago too. So have more pictures to scan and post. It is just so annoying to try scanning. It only works half the time. We have a new set up that we have not tried yet, though, so it might work better now. The other problem is that I draw on paper that is larger than the scanner, so I have to scan each picture in two parts and then put them together in Photoshop. Anyways, I will stop complaining and just try to do it. I have at least 5 pictures to scan and post. I am not behind in any way. What are you talking about?

My electronic entertainment enjoyment

Things I have enjoyed through electronic entertainment the past week or so:

1. Professor Layton and the Curious Village - Abe got this for me for my DS and I LOVE it. Bunch of brain teasers and puzzles. I have been able to figure out almost all of them (except 2 I think). I have solved over 30 puzzles in the game. It is a little weird because the characters facial expressions never change regardless of the information they are relaying - I found a cat! That man was murdered! Yeah. But still fun. I got it and played it for 2.5 hours straight. Very fun.
2. Monk! I love Monk. Friday was the second to last episode of the series and next Friday is the series finale. Sad. But Sunday I watched a Monk marathon almost all day! Great show. I am bummed it is over, but I am sure they will continue showing all the old episodes. (I don't know if this is sad or not, but when you Google "Monk," the tv show comes up before things on monks.)
   
3. Boondock Saints II - I didn't even hear this was coming out until I think it was already out. Or a week or so before. So I went on Monday night to see it by myself since Abe hates the first movie. Freak. I loved it. I laughed out loud. It was gratuitously violent, wonderfully chummy, and used amazingly colorful language. I wish I could swear like that. I will be buying this on DVD or whatever for sure. I also finished watched the first one right before I left to catch the bus to see the second one. Awesome. The volume was up to loud, but it had basically everything I was hoping for. I laughed. I was sad. I jumped in my seat even when I knew it was coming. :)
   
4. Xmas music Time! I have checked all the xmas music in my iTunes so it plays in rotation with everything else now. Awesome.

Well, that is all. I finished up a five-day weekend of knitting and watching TV. Good times. Lost my keys, too, so I couldn't leave the house, but it turns out they were in a side pocket of my bag. Dork.

Tonight, Abe and I are going to see New Moon. I am really excited, but I am totally expecting to come out completely underwhelmed. I hope it is good though. I like the movie better than the first book because I didn't have to listen to as much of Bella's inane whining. And I hope that is more so the case in the second movie because I almost couldn't finish the second book because of it. I mean, I was physically unable to stop reading that book, which must be made of literary crack; otherwise I might have stopped reading it.

Also, we are almost done with Xmas shopping. A few things left to get for each other and a couple gifts for a couple other people and we are basically done. I am about halfway done with Abe's gifts.

For Thanksgiving, we had a wonderful chicken thigh dinner (which was supposed to be chicken breasts) with my mom the Sunday before because she was coming down to see Where the Wild Things are anyways and we had a yummy dinner. Then on The Day, we went to Abe's aunt and uncle's and that was fun. Played Trivial Pursuit on the Wii. Weird. And then I cooked a nice dinner with a yummy cornish game hen and yummy gravy on Friday while Abe was at work and we had that when he got home. Yummy. For thanks, we are both thankful Nisa is doing so well after being diagnosed with Addison's a year or so ago. (She also got a new harness from Annie's Sweatshop. I ripped it already, but I think I can fix it. It is sure darn cute.) We are also thankful that Ernie has lost so much weight and is a lot healthier now.

-Angela

Cable TV. It's back.

So today, we got cable TV again. It was getting really frustrating to have the TV cut out at the punchline of every joke. Abe even got us Showtime for $1 a month for the first 6 months. I kind of hope I don't like it so I won't be tempted to spend $18 a month on it after that. We also spent the $7 to get HD TV just because it looks so amazing as I have been seeing on the air. And I think we got a DVR so I can watch shows later and pause them when Abe comes out of the computer room and won't stop talking to me.

I am pretty excited. I have to have something to do while I knit and I have a lot of knitting to do. I went a little nuts the last while on yarn. I have to finish my cardigan, though I just have to finish the second half of the second sleeve, the right front, and then the front and neck hem part. I also have to finish the Ganomy hat for Abe, which I think is turning out pretty awesome. The pattern is pretty simple, though I think I might fuss with it a couple of stitches here and there when I make my own hat. Then I have a Xmas present to knit for someone. It looks like a really fun pattern and the yarn is really nice, so that should be a good one. I will start that when I am done with the cardigan.

This weekend, I bought some yarn at Village Yarn and Tea. I bought the book Knitting and Tea, which I actually like a lot, and some yarn to make the striped gloves. I also got another Dong Boa ball of 1500 yards of Cashmere lace weight for $10. That makes three balls all in different colors. Not sure what I plan to do with them. The newest is brown and I think I will make the featherweight cardigan with it.

I also got some fleece tweed to make a cowl. I am not sure which pattern to use though. I really want to make the Ice Queen pattern and the Pretty Things pattern (the pattern is finally for sale on Ravelry). I think I will make the stockinette version of the Ice Queen with the orange Fleeced Tweed and the Pretty Things with the gray cashmere.

Anyways, now I will actually have things to watch while I knit. I think that is only 30% of the reason I am excited to have cable again. Another 30% is to have it not cut out on every punch line. Or big break through in the case. And another 30% is Marathons! Like Monk marathon weekends or Law and Order: Criminal Intent marathons. I freakin' love watching the same TV show all day. I am not sure why, but it just feels like the ultimate in luxury. I forgot what the other 10% was, but I guess that is why it was only 10%.

In other news, I have been working on drawing up a story. It is only 9 pages, but I like it so far. Written, it is barely a page and a half. As much as I like anything I draw. Perhaps I should stop reading all these wonderfully drawn comics like The Abominable Charles Christopher and The Port because they give me a complex about my own drawing skills. But I think these are professionals who are actually making a living drawing comics as it is. And I only have time to draw about an hour a day (since I can't stop knitting). Anyways, since it is only 9 pages, I don't know what to do with it. I don't know if I should even bother sending it out to publishers since it is so short. Perhaps some compilation like Flight. Anyways, if I can't find anyone who wants it, I might just put it up here. It is from a story I wrote in 9th grade for a vocabulary extra credit assignment in October. I guess it is pretty appropriate that I am drawing it in October many years after originally writing it. Perhaps I can even get the whole thing finished by the end of October. We'll see. There is only about 5 words of dialog in the whole thing.

Return of the wednesday comic!

Today is my day off and it's a good thing too cause I've been miserable with a cold for the last 4 or 5 days. I went home early on monday and missed work on tuesday. I'm feeling like I'll be good to go back tomorrow though.

I should start having at least one day off in the middle of the week from now on. So you should expect to see the comics in a more regular way in the near future.

I sketched out this one on my break one day last week. I envision Georgie as been nearly as sarcastic as Angela.

Yesterday I sat on the couch and watched Weeds. I love that show. Angela hates it so much that she won't even sit in the livingroom when I watch it. The first episode really freaked her out.

Well, I'm beat now.

--Abe

Vacation Rules!

Whoops. Been a while. We've even done a lot of things. But Abe started work this week and I am on vacation. So lazy lazy...

So last weekend, we saw District 9. That was a really good movie. It was a different plot than I anticipated based on the previews, but the movie was very good. Abe said it was the best sci-fi movie in a long time. The CGI was great. The aliens were great.
I really don't want to give anything away, so I will just say when the movie was over we sat there for a while letting it all sink in before we got up. Actually, we went to the new movie theater at Northgate...well, south of Northgate in "Thorton Place" where most of the other locations are empty with signs that say "X coming Summer 2009." Looks like they will miss that mark. And a freakin' matinee is $8.50!! Still $2 cheaper than regular, but what a rip off. The theater in Burlington/Mt. Vernon is $6 for a matinee. Speaking of, in 2 weeks, we are going to see "9" at the Mt. Vernon one. I am so excited for that movie.

We also got a china cabinet from my aunt Carol and it is replacing a nasty old bookshelf we had that the back was coming off of and was missing a shelf. We might sand and paint it. I was thinking yellow with blue highlights and a bit of red. Then Tony, my cousin who brought it over, asked if I was painting it black, and that got me thinking. I eventually want a kitchen those colors, but since I don't have them now, I can really paint this any colors I want. And a black china cabinet could be awesome. (I totally just spelled 'could' as 'cood.' Vacation is over soon, but until then, I am not required to use my brain.)

I also knit Abe a hat. I missed his first day of work, but it was ready for the second. He can't wear it anyways because it is too hot. It is the Trilobite Hat from Knitty. I used Malabrigo in Burgundy. Looks great. Looked better, but I had to cut off the ribbing and rework the rib for 25 rows instead of 10. Turns out that is why I can't make a hat that fits Abe. His head is normal size around but an inch taller than most people. Where I think my head may be bigger around than most. Or I just have WAY too much hair.

I also started and have almost finished a painting of ogre Lolita. It is turning out really well. Water color. It is really fun to paint. I think I am learning a lot. This is a more complicated picture than the Blue Lady.

And I started (and have almost finished) Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs, who the TV show Bones is based on. It is actually pretty good. I like her writing style and the story is pretty engaging. They funny part is how much the writing, in particular the opening, sounds like the character Brennan in Bones. The writing style could not be more opposite from Twilight. The grammar and vocabulary assume a much more educated audience. It is a nice change...I guess I have been reading a lot of young adult books, but that is no excuse!

I have also been doing a lot of cross words, but mostly on my vacation, I have read and painted. And a little knitting, but mostly at night. I am working on a pair of fairly plain knee-high socks right now. I am trying to decide if I need to rip back to the increases to make it fit better, but we'll see if I am too lazy.

And also this weekend I scored some good pieces when shopping. I got two shirts for $10 each at torrid: a nice yellow one with a scoop neck and a bright green wrap style. That last one needs a tank top underneath, but it looks great. I love the color. I also got a pair of shoes for $17 at Fred Meyer's. Cute shoes. I can wear them with socks so when it is colder, I can wear some of my hand knit socks. Yeah!

kind of dirty movies (but not really)

I am nearly half way done spinning the Monkey Farts wool from where ever I said it was from in a previous post. It is a thin yarn, probably fingering weight? I really like it. Soft and the colors are great. I think I might spin weird, but whatever. The yarn looks nice in the end. I should really get some pics of my yarn up, but that would involve taking pictures and getting them on the computer and getting them on the blog and that is a surprisingly long process. Everything just seems to take longer than it should.

So Abe and I have been watching Bones on dvd. Awesome show. A bit gruesome, but Abe says that everything they say is pretty accurate. The characters are hilarious. I am really surprised. I guess I shouldn't be because the odd episodes I have seen seemed good, but now that I am seeing them all in order, I really get to see why I like it. The characters really draw me in.

Also this weekend, I went on a bit of a movie bing with the $1 rentals at the QFC across the street. First, and my favorite, was Wild Hogs. I heard it was awful, but I laughed my ass off. I love a bad comedy. I certainly was laughing out loud. Lots of dumb physical humor and making fun of each other. Wonderful. Plus a weird cast, really pulls it all together, haha.

Then I watched the new version of Hairspray. I think Ricki Lake, who was the main girl in the original, was an agent in one scene. No lines or anything, but back there. This movie had a little more going on than I expected, with the story line about integrating TV. Interesting. What a strange world that would be to grow up in. I can't even really imagine what that would be like. Anyways, it took me a little while to get into the strange acting that makes up a musical, but once I get into it, I like musicals. So Christopher Walken played the father and John Travolta (no I did not get the name wrong) played the mother. Man, that was weird. There is one big sort of love scene (where they are spouting their love for each other, not getting jiggy with it) and sometimes I can't tell if Walken is laughing as part of the scene or because it is so weird to see John Travolta in a fat suit prancing around like a lady. I don't know if he knew! Well, that was two movies in a row with John Travolta, oddly enough.

Next, Abe finished playing for the night and came out to watch Superbad, which was quite funny. A big dirty, but pretty dang funny. I wish I could rip on people like they ripped on each other. So funny. I guess I was pretty tired because I don't remember it very well, but it was very funny. If you don't mind naughty bits (and lots of them) go ahead and watch it. If I remember right, most of the naughty bits are drawn, though. It is kind of raunchy humor, but we laughed our heads off.

Then it was too late, so we went to sleep and Sunday night we watched Knocked Up. Very funny. By the same people who did Superbad, but like the girl version. You could tell it was the same people because a lot of the same people were in it. And the tall guy from How I Met Your Mother was in there and hilarious. I guess we accidentally watched the unedited version. I guess you can tell, but she has the baby and man alive I wish we had gotten the edited one. I am haunted by the one scene I saw and then covered my eyes for a good 5 minutes until it was over. That was completely horrifying. Perhaps good for teens to keep them from wanting to have a baby? Ick. But the rest of the movie was totally hilarious. Seth Rogan and Paul Rudd are great. And I love that lady from Grey's Anatomy. By the end of the movie, though, I thought this was the edited version because it seemed like some scenes had been cut. And it was a 3 hour movie or so. We were so tired by the time we went to bed. I think Seth Rogan must have one of the most addictive laughs ever.

I think we are getting a china cabinet from my aunt. It will replace a bookshelf that is holding all our kitchen books and all my tea stuff and will be awesome. I am really excited. It comes apart, hutch and cabinet. I think we will take it down stairs in halves on nice Saturdays and paint it. I can't decide on yellow or blue. Perhaps a yellow base with a robin's egg blue highlight and and tiny bits of red (which are the colors I want our kitchen to be).

Well, Hell's Kitchen is one. Off to watch that!

Comic Wednesday

Episode two in the ongoing saga of Arthur being unemployed. Now with 100% more violence!

We've been watching Chuck lately. What a silly, funny show. We sit and laugh our butts off during almost every episode. I whole heartedly recommend it.

--Abe

Nudie parade

Two weekends ago we went to the Fremont Solstice Parade. It was really fun. We left a little early and then realized I hadn't looked at the weekend schedule. But the bus seemed to be late anyways. There were a good ten people waiting at the bus stop with us.The bus was so full when we got on, there was only standing room only. We almost left the bus stop because we were there almost 45 minutes before the bus came, but I am glad we stuck it out.

At the parade, we were right at the start of it. There were three guys next to us who were really funny. The start of the parade was nudists on bikes. Very strange. Most of them were painted up or in some sort of costume. There was someone dressed as Batman, but I only saw him from the back, so I am not so traumatized. Someone was on a skateboard and painted all silver - silver surfer. Some larger dude was dressed as Pan - it was awesome. The nude bicyclists went on for probably 10 minutes. Shocking!

Then came the rest of the parade. My favorite was the dark stilt group. They had wings like birds and intricate wicked looking masks and huge stilts. There was a small marching band that had 10 people or so. There was even a drummer being pushed on a cart. Awesome. There was another good rock band dressed in gold spandex. Creepy, but definitely the best sounding band on amps. There was a break dance group I felt bad for because before they could really get going, they got overrun by the group behind them.

When the parade was over, Abe and I walked a good half way back to the house. Well, we walked maybe a quarter of the way, caught a bus for the middle half and got off and went to Fred Meyer's where I got some new walking shoes. My old ones are full of grass seed. They are itchy and poke me. And the new ones look nicer. They are a little too long, but good in length, which is typical for my wide feet. They are Adidas in grey with mint green stripes. My old ones are just ugly white ones. New Balance, which is a great brand, but I don't like white sneakers. That was so much fun.

Also at Fred Meyer's, we bought Sims3. When I got home I played for 10 hours and then another 5 or 6 on Sunday. I love it. The Sims look better. It is more customizable. The sims act better (still weird, but better). However you can't do the same thing where you play multiple families in a town. You have to make new save games. You can change your active household but you lose control over the household you gave up. You can switch back to them, but who knows what they would have done. Blegh. So far, I made the Harry Potter crew, Enterprise D crew, the Disney princesses, and some other random ones, including a family that look like mice. I played another 10 hours this Saturday and some more on Sunday.

Last week, Abe and I started watching Chuck, season 1. It is awesome. We are having a blast watching it. I don't have much to say about it, but it kicks butt. I love Adam Baldwin from Firefly. His character is very similar, but not. Such a funny show.

You know what other show is funny. Rules of Engagement. Patrick Warburton is frickin' hilarious. I LOVED him in the Tick. That is really what sealed the deal for me. Haha. I am not sure if it is him or his writers that make things sound so absurd and funny.

On a craftier note, I haven't knit on the Fraggle Squiggle Socks in a while. I am all the way on the foot of the second sock. But Nisa go caught in the ball a while ago and ruined it. I just had to wind it again, but it took an hour to get it wound back up. And I am about a third done with a quarter of the front half of the quilt. This is going to be one crazy ass blanket.

I also bought some new pens at Fred Meyer's this weekend. There are three sizes of nibs and a brush pen. I am really excited for the people drawing class. Next weekend I have lunch at mom's on Friday, a day of walking around with the dogs on Saturday, and a baby shower for my cousin on Sunday. And maybe Abe and I will finally watch Sweeney Todd Saturday night. We have been meaning to for over a month. But man alive, are we forgetful.

Edited: Added paragraph breaks (the HTML was missing before) and fixed some misspellings. The funniest was in the last sentence. Alice instead of alive. I wrote half of this post while laying on my stomach on the couch watching TV.

The Crows! The Crows!

So a while ago we switched the room that was our bedroom from the north side to the south side. Now there are frickin' crows. There is some idiot crow that sits outside our apartment and won't shut up for hours! He is actually out there right now as I am writing this. It is annoying at anytime, but at 6 in the morning on the weekends. Even 5:30 on the weekday mornings. Closing the window and covering my head with a pillow only dulls the screeching noise.

So today is Abe's half birthday. Happy half birthday. We went to the restaurant next door, Luisa's. I, of course, had chicken sopes. He has a chorizo burrito. My favorite thing about him is that I have turned him into a star trek fan. (just kidding, though it is awesome). Yesterday or the day before we watched an episode where the question of Data's humanity was explored and when it finished Abe told me he finally realized why Data was such a favorite character of mine. He had only seen a few of the later episodes where he was such an established character that he wasn't explained and didn't see the appeal. Abe says he is an intriguing (ha!) character and ... Well, maybe he will explain it later.

So this weekend we dyed my hair black. I love it. It looks awesome. My hair is a little dry though. As soon as I can afford it, I will go to a salon to get it done for real. But this is the black so black it shines blue. Which is perfect. Abe says it makes my eyes stand out. It worked really well on the ends but the top that hasn't already been dyed and processed didn't take it so well. So we will try again this weekend. The top on the right is still brown! It felt thoroughly saturated, but whatever.

So I have watched a few movies. There was Popeye and M.A.S.H., which I didn't enjoy. Both were by Robert Altman it appears. Blegh. Mash was weird. It was like it wanted to be a dark comedy but didn't have the courage. And Popeye was crazy. Shelley Duvall was Olive Oyle. She was pretty good. She sang that song "He needs me" so awesome. She did the neck perfectly. And that is all the good stuff about the movie. It was too true to the cartoon. People wore the shoes with the bubble on the toe. And Olive Oyle did that weird twirly, I am falling down thing. Looks dumb in live action. And Robin Williams with the stupid rubber forearms looked like an idiot. The songs were weird. Everyone talked weird and acted weird. Wore weird clothes. Actually, the guy who played Garak's father in DS9 (Paul Dooley) played the guy who says "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" (Wimpy). That was funny.

I also watched The Postman on Instant movies from Netflix. That was fun. LONG but fun. I like those post-apocalyptic movies.

So Abe has a graphic novel from the War Hammer series. I tried reading it, but I just can't get into it. The story is flat and the characters boring. On the other hand, I read Elephantmen, and it was awesome. Abe got it at ComiCon. I liked it a lot more than him. I have also just finished the first in the Fables series. I am so excited to read the next one. It is a fun series. I am really enjoying it.

So I have started working on a story for a graphic novel that is based on super heroes. The story has two layers, one story told within another. Really it is one story just folded up on itself. I think it will be a good one. I like it a lot. I hope I can do it. I am really unsure how far to produce it. Should I just pencil out the whole thing or should I do the inking, color, and speech?
I also drew a picture of a mermaid. I am thinking I will make a coloring book of some ink drawings, but first I have to make some drawings. It won't be one of those cutesy ones with no detail. I will include detail and maybe some shading. Maybe not. Then I can compile 15-30 pictures to make a coloring book. I have a few themes in mind. Good and Evil Mythical Creatures, Robots, Aliens, Weird Creatures (just a bunch of creatures that I make up, like the dude).

So right now, I am working on finishing the Fraggle Squiggle sock from the last Socks that Rock club. This is not my favorite. I enjoyed the first sock, but this second one is dragging. I have already turned the heel, but it seems like the foot is never getting longer no matter how much I knit. I mean Each sock is about 30 repeats of the same 4 rows. Boring.

I have also made some adorable Tawashi. Well, one adorable Tawashi and a normal one. The first one was how I learned the magic crochet cast on. Awesome. I mentioned I was going to the Hilltop yarn store in Queen Anne to learn about Tawashi, the little Japanese scrubbers. They are super fun to crochet. As a reward for dying my hair on Friday, I crocheted him a little elephant scrubber. It is pretty dang cute. I gotta get a picture of it. Totally awesome. So much fun. The instructions are a challenge to read because I just have to make out the chart because the words are all in Japanese. But I really enjoy the challenge. Though it is so cute that if this is a good representation of Japan, I really want to learn Japanese. :)

voice acting in mmos and stuff

So last night me and Angela were talking about something or other and got on the topic of The Old Republic which is a star wars mmo being made by Bioware. Angela had seen a promo movie for it and I mentioned that at E3 they had announced that every npc in the game is voice acted. People are all excited about this. But, EQ2 had *tons* of voice acting when it launched and added even more as time progressed and, while some of it is quite good, a lot of it is so bad that it isn't even comical.

Text dialog allows the player to read at their own pace and to skip things that they've already read. Text also puts some of the "story" creation into the imagination of the player which can really make a game come alive. In contrast, voice acting has to be absolutely *top notch* or it undermines the players immersion rather than strengthening it. Historically, mediocre voice acting is pretty much the best you can hope for in video games and absolutely abysmal voice acting is so common as to be unremarkable.

Bioware is talking a pretty good game for the old republic. They're hitting the points that people want to hear; focus on story, voice acting, meaningful decisions. But the problem is that in Bioware land, stark kill everyone or save everyone dichotomies are what pass for "moral choices" and the stories in their games could easily have been written by any 14 year old who's read a couple of fantasy novels and has a competent editor.

So, don't believe the hype. I mean that's always true. It's especially true in the video game industry though. We are talking about an industry that relies on selling as many copies of its newest shit as fast as they can, before the bad word of mouth spreads. Support for most games lasts almost as long as a snowball in hell in well. Video game publishers strategy is essentially a slash and burn approach and they can get away with it because there's an endless supply of new kids and teenagers who've never seen the machine in action before.

Modern game publishers are essentially snake oil salesmen.

Yeah, I'm totally not jaded or anything.

So, on other topics, Angela bought the entirety of Star Trek: The Next Generation about a month ago. We're about 3 discs in to season 2.

I've never really been a star trek fan even though I've spent many hours happily watching the various series. I watched the original series with my uncle when I was a kid. I watched occasional episodes of TNG with nate. I watched a fair chunk of both DS9 and Voyager with my roommates when they were on the air. My basic attitude towards star trek was, if I was flipping through the channels and it was on I'd watch it but I never went out of my way to see it.

Angela has turned me in to a star trek fan though.

It started when we watched DS9. I really enjoyed it but I had no idea how much until the episode where Jadzia Dax was killed. I was so pissed that I refused to watch the rest of the series for about six months. Then I realized that I was pissed because I enjoyed the characters so much that I had taken it personally.

TNG, I've basically only seen about 10 episodes of and they were all fo the last few seasons it seems. We've watched probably 20 or more episodes and the *only* one I've seen before was the one where Tasha Yar dies. I was shocked that it was so early in the series.

Star Trek is basically shitty as sci-fi. The science is *terrible* but, it is generally self consistent. And, as story telling that's focused on long term character development it's quite good. Its ham-fisted sometimes and preachy at others but there's a sense of seriousness of purpose about the shows that I really enjoy. And the fact that they even dare to take on the subjects that they do is pretty impressive for a popular tv series.

Ultimately its about the characters though. All of the series have characters that are strong, idiosyncratic, interesting and have verisimilitude as individuals.

Abe

guilty pleasure

Last night was a night of guilty pleasure for me. Yeah, you heard me. The guilty pleasure of...reality TV. Normally I can't stand it, but I have two shows that I can't help but love. So You Think You Can Dance (horrible name, horrible opening music, but awesome dancing - and no I don't vote) and America's Next Top Model.

For SYTYCD, it can be pretty funny to watch the really bad people, but what I really like is for the most part, the judges curb any rude remarks they may want to make. Sometimes they even suggest a specific dance that the person should try. And the real dancers (and some of the bad ones) you can just tell love every second they spend dancing. Some of them are really amazing. I loved the guy who danced to Ride of the Valkyries at the end of the summer season premiere.
ANTM is more of a guilty pleasure because it is so bad. I mean, everyone who works on it looks like they love what they are doing, but some of those people are just SO into themselves. I mean, that is partly because for their job they have to be. And Tyra truly seems to love what she does and really wants to spread the joy. That is what I like about it. What I love about it is the pictures. I love seeing the awesome pictures these people come up with. This last season (12?) my favorite was Celia and then Allison. I think Allison should have won, not Teyahna, whose name I couldn't remember until I saw it spelled. And I probably misspelled it here too.
That is about it though. Most other reality shows are too depressing. John and Kate plus 8. Was funny, but now it is just sad because of all the rift rumors. I watched a bit of the premiere of Hitched or Ditched last night, and it was awful. A friend signed the couple up and it turned out that the whole family and friends on both sides thought they should split up. Well, at least when I watched it they did. It could have been a test and at the end everyone said, "Just kidding!" Which would be just as lame. They had only been dating for 4 years (Abe and I have been together 5.5 years) and they had already been engaged and broken it. I think...well, I have a lot of thoughts about marriage right now, especially with everything going on with the law makers. I really don't understand what the problem is without everyone being really hypocritical. Which I guess could be the case.

Anyways... This Sunday the Queen Anne Hilltop Yarn is having an event for Tawashi which are "adorable little knit or crochet scrubbers for your household, shaped for cleaning anything from pots, to bikes, to Venetian blinds." They are Japanese and the shop has a ton of books on these little scrubbers. They also have Hamanaka's Bonny yarn which is an antibacterial acrylic fiber that absorbs oil so you need little to no soap for cleaning. At the shop on Sunday they are going to teach, for free, how to read the charts for crochet in the Japanese books. That is why Japanese knitting books are so cool because you don't have to know Japanese to use the pattern, you just have to be able to follow the chart. So Abe is going to take me on Sunday so I can get yarn and books. I already have the crochet hook. I see Xmas gifts...

Also, I might take this figure drawing class from Nils Osmar. That is who Abe and I took the cartooning class from and that was fun. I need to practice drawing people and this class is only $100 for 4 nearly 2 hour meetings. The structure I think will force me to practice. I always come home from moms with every intention of continuing to paint and then I never do.

Busy Times = should blog more

Man I need to post some pics. I have finished the Rogue Roses socks (rav link) from the second Rockin' Sock club kit. I then made a kerchief out of the remaining yarn that matches the socks (though I will most likely not wear them together).

And this last weekend, I sewed a skirt. It is AWESOME. But I have no pics, so I will talk about it later.

I also started the Spring Purse pattern (rav link) that I got during the Local Yarn Shop Tour last year. I think it is going to be nice. I will needle felt some mushrooms onto it. I have a big poster of mushrooms, so I will use that as a model, I guess. I have a fascination with fungi.

I also spent some time working on cutting more fabric for a quilt. I currently have 143 completely random 4" squares (plus 1/4" spare a side for whatever...) For a quilt that is half the size of our king size bed, I need 195. For one the entire size, I need 360 squares. Minus whatever type of border I decide to use, if I decide to use one. Plus I need something to go on the back.

So this weekend I watched The Witches of Eastwick, which was a seriously strange movie. I waited a while to figure out what I thought about it, but I am not sure still. They were all really fun to watch. Jack Nicholson was so Jack Nicholson. So very. And the women in it are cartoonly skinny. I am not sure if they were really so thin or if it was my screen, but Jack Nicholson looked fine... Michelle Pfeiffer just made me want to watch Batman though. (There is one shot that she really has a Catwoman look.) Which reminds me, I need to get those on DVD. I only have them on VHS and neither of our VHS players are hooked up.

I also watched the second to last dvd of season 2 of Boston Legal. William Shatner and James Spader are two of the most awesome actors ever. Which reminds me of Tina Faye from 30 Rock who is my favorite actress ever. (I frick frackin' love that show.) She is amazingly funny and so good at everything she does. She knows other people's strengths and lets them play to it. She has quite the talent.

And finally, I bit the bullet and bought the entire series of Star Trek Next Generation. I finally got the Brent Spiner CD back and remembered how much I absolutely love that show, so I got it instead of doing the entire LYS Tour this year. I haven't even finished all the projects from last year, so it was probably a good way to go. I also found Star Trek Scrabble and bought that. I will be bringing it to my mom's when I go up for my birthday. Got them hooked on Boggle. Maybe I can get them hooked on Scrabble too. What a dorky family we are. All our favorite games are word games: Boggle, Scattegories, Baldderdash.

I worked on a drawing tonight based on the Ingrid Michaelson song Lobesterman's Wife. But it turns out I don't really know the details of what a lobster looks like, so I will have to finish it tomorrow. When I am done, I will put it up on deviant art.

Oh yeah. I signed up for deviant art. Here is "my" site. I only have two things up so far, but I will add more as I do them.