Movies watched in 2008

(Dec 26) Wanted
(Dec 24) Fur
(Dec 24) Hancock
(Dec 13) The Librarian
(Dec 7) Infamous
(Dec 7) Talk Radio
(Nov 30) The Tailor of Panama
(Nov 30) Mighty Joe Young
(Nov 29) Live From Baghdad
(Nov 29) The Exorcist
(Nov 28) The War, disc VI
(Nov 27) The War, disc V
(Nov 26) The War, disc IV
(Nov 23) The War, disc III
(Nov 22) The War, disc II
(Nov 22) The War, disc I
(Nov 17) Jesus Christ, Superstar
(Nov 14) The Pianist
(Nov 13) As Good as it Gets
(Nov 12) Sum of all Fears
(Nov 8) Prizzy's Honor
(Nov 7) The Nativity Story
(Nov 7) Happiness
(Oct 25) Appaloosa
(Oct 24) Night Moves
(Oct 24) Brewster's Millions
(Oct 7) Burn After Reading
(Oct 3) CJ7
(Oct 3) Passion Fish
(Oct 1) Don Juan DeMarco
(Oct 1) Persepolis
(August 31) Evening
(July 4) The Madeline Hotchkiss Ballroom Dance and Charm School
(July 3) Juno
(June 8) Day Night Day Night
(May 31) The Orphanage
(May 30) Atonement
(May 10) Charlie Wilson's War
(May 9) American Gangster
(May 8) The Savages
(May 8) Lions for Lambs
(Mar 31) Mississippi Burning
(Mar 21) Pirates of the Carribean
(Mar 16) Crazy in Alabama
(Mar 15) Reign Over Me
(Mar 15) Mr. Woodcock
(Mar 10) Death Sentence
(Mar 7) Rendition
(Mar 1) Across the Universe
(Feb 19) Michael Clayton
(Feb 16) Rattatouille
(Feb 8) Constantine
(Feb 3) Testament
(Feb 2) Pan's Labyrinth
(Jan 27) The New World
(Jan 26) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
(Jan 19) La Vie en Rose
(Jan 19) Two Weeks
(Jan 18) Mission to Mars
(Jan 12) On Native Soil
(Jan 11) Incident at Loch Ness
(Jan 9) Out of Sight
(Jan 8) True Romance
(Jan 8) The Good German
(Jan 5) Under Suspicion
(Jan 4) Breakfast on Pluto
(Jan 4) The Squid and the Whale
(Jan 3) Wobblies

too hot to knit

It's been a no-knit week. Saturday night during the movie (which was a dud; don't waste your time) I actually pulled out a felted bag I'm working on, but never knit the first stitch. Think I was waiting for the movie to begin. It never did.

I have, however, made progress on the little "Family" cross stitch, and this week I brought along (to my work-week apartment) the material for what will hopefully be my first real quilt. I bought the material sometime last year. The pattern is called Nine Patch Nirvana and it's on a block-of-the-month site. I'll have to look it up at the library, so I can begin cutting my material to size.

Currently on the needles are...
* both socks of the 2nd round of the pentathlon, both of which are now in the heel flap
* the Henley T-shirt, knit top-down and though still up around the armpits somewhere definitely recognizable for what it is
* a bag in Paton's Merino, striped and destined to be felted. Hopefully destined also to be either a shopping or a knitting bag
* the My So-Called Scarf, found in a jacket pocket while cleaning out the closet
* three-tone toe-up sox
* basket-weave dishcloth
* log cabin afghan in wool-ease
* mosaic blanket I was making for Dad (th'Mr'Sr), who now no longer needs one :(

Thoughts of next projects include...
* kitty dreams, felted
* light-weight black sox for th'Mr
* thick-toed sox for myself, to guard against steel-toe-boot bruising
* reading glasses cases

Right now I'm more interested in knocking out all the cross stitch kits I've collected than knitting, since it's so-o-o-o hot-t-t-t. Too hot for a lapful of wool (or cotton, or silk, or bamboo).

There are (probably minor) family problems too, more on that later. The good thing is I won't be spending my days off taking trips to Indiana until these problems resolve themselves.

movies

# Jan 11) Incident at Loch Ness
At first I thought this was not for me at all, but in a little while got into it and laughed a lot. Cared enough to develop an intense dislike for one of the cast members (Zac Penn, playing himself).

# (Jan 9) Out of Sight
Good movie based on an Elmore Leonard book

# (Jan 8) True Romance
A cute Quentin Tarantino movie. Hard to think "cute" and "Tarantino movie" at the same time, isn't it?

# (Jan 8) The Good German
Depressing movie. I don't recommend it.

# (Jan 5) Under Suspicion
Page turner. I liked it a lot.

# (Jan 4) Breakfast on Pluto
Weird, sad, sweet bio of a transgendered person. Sort of comedy, but not really.

# (Jan 4) The Squid and the Whale
Great flick about divorce. Open-ended. I'd like to see chapter two.

# (Jan 3) Wobblies
I recommend every person who works or votes watch this. It's primarily interviews, and quite riveting.

2007 movies

83 movies in 2007. Thank you Netflix!

* 31 December) Fido
* 29 December) Tomorrow
* 28 December) Next
* 24 December) The Gods Must Be Crazy
* 23 December) The Dark Side
* 22 December) Elf
* 21 December) 49th Parallel
* 21 December) Blame it on Fidel
* 16 December) No Country for Old Men (cinema)
* 2 December) Coal Miner's Daughter
* 1 December) The Edge of the World
* 10 November) The Invisible
* 21 October) I am David
* 19 October) The Illusionist
* 12 October) Click
* 7 October) Shanghai Noon
* 15 September) Children of Men
* 14 September) Something New
* 7 September) The Blues Brothers
* 6 September) The Usual Suspects
* 31 August) Reefer Madness: the Musical
* 30 August) Hot Fuzz
* 17 August) Amistad
* 4 August) Nanny McPhee
* 3 August) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
* 28 July) The Caveman's Valentine
* 27 July) Harry and Tonto
* 26 July) Miss Potter
* 21 July) An Unfinished Life
* 20 July) Evita
* 7 July) The Cider House Rules
* 7 July) The Badge
* 6 July) Lord of War
* 6 July) The Aristocrats
* 1 July) Chocolat
* 30 June) Black Snake Moan
* 26 June) The Butcher's Wife
* 16 June) Cats
* 9 June) Bobby
* 8 June) North Country
* 4 June) The Green Pastures
* 2 June) Earth Girls are Easy
* 1 June) All the President's Men
* 1 June) Guilty by Suspicion
* 27 May) Anna and the King
* 23 May) Erin Brockovitch
* 21 May) Mississippi Masala
* 18 May) The Tuskegee Airmen: They Fought Two Wars
* 16 May) Volver
* 12 May) Robin Williams Live on Broadway
* 11 May) Babel
* 10 May) The Good Shepherd
* 9 May) Finding Nemo
* 8 May) Keep the River on your Right
* 2 May) Fancy Dancing
* 1 May) Marjoe
* 24 April) ET
* 21 April) Sling Blade
* 20 April) Airplane
* 19 April) The Sum of all Fears
* 13 April) Borat
* 12 April) Dan Akroyd on UFOs
* 11 April) Short Bus
* Clan of the Cave Bear
* 68
* Flags of our Fathers
* Monty Python's Life of Brian
* Man of the Year
* Shut Up and Sing
* Lady in the Water
* Snow on Cedars
* Pulp Fiction
* Interstate 60
* Iris
* The Stand
* The Tuskeegee Airmen
* Amelie
* All That Jazz
* Chrystal
* Bad Santa
* Reds
* Bullworth
* Greater Tuna
* An Inconvenient Truth

DSL

Still need a router and ethernet card(s?) to get my box into the high-speed loop, but for now it's wonderful to be online the same time th'Mr is; not to have to take turns using the one phone line. He, wanting to demonstrate how fast pages load :) asked me to give him a url to a page I thought he hadn't ever been to... so I sent him here.

Continuing the new high-tech lifestyle, I now have a cellphone. Last time I had a cellphone they didn't make the "folding" models yet. How luddite-like is that?

About knitting, Friday night I'd made it all the way to the shoulder join on Q's modular Zimmerman only to --Saturday morning in the tub-- doublecheck the book and realize I'd done the split wrong - 1/8-1/8-1/2-1/8-1/8 instead of 1/8-1/4-1/4-1/4-1/8, and after only a little thought (and after getting out of the tub) ripped it back to the row where I cast off for the sleeve holes. Saturday afternoon I worked it back to where I'd been before frogging! Gratifying. But then, instead of continuing on into the hood during last nights' movie I chickened out and instead cast on a pair of socks in the Bernat pattern (I think that's where I'm going with them) in cranberry wool-ease. Aranmor waits patiently, within two rows of changing to larger needles.

I worked Friday, making a fifty-hour week, and th'Mr made the 200-mile round trip to pick me up at work, making my weekend a little longer. Tomorrow morning (Monday) he'll take me back to work.

Some time today I hope to finish the modular and get back into Aranmore. In the meanwhile th'Mr has requested another pair of "house socks," and hinted he'd wear a hand-knit cardi, as long as it isn't too colorful or textured. I welcome pattern suggestions.

update on the profile photo - last night during movie

Left to right Booger (the huge black cat with a white spot on his chest, sitting on the other chair), Raleigh (grey cat on my right leg), Sapphire (black fuzzy cat on the arm of my chair to my right), Nameless (black cat in my lap), Winston (black cat on my left leg), and Klutz (grey fuzzy cat on the left arm of my chair). Not shown are Roadie, the grey sometime-feral cat and Shorty, the tabby-point Siamese who wouldn't tolerate being that close to other cats.

Funny, we have a cat who hates other cats and a dog who hates other dogs, but they like each other just fine.

June travel, prospects, & projects so far

Got back yesterday from house-/ dog-/ cat-sitting at C & S's place in Ohio. We drove up Thursday afternoon, got home yesterday afternoon after detouring through Charleston & Huntington WV, where I needed to sign the union books. Huntington says Kyger Creek is calling a few at a time and should go "time" two months (or so) from now, and "the Oilcan" in Ashland is due to begin a sixty-day outage Sept. 15th. There are about 110 ahead of me on the books. In Charleston, when I asked, "where's all the work?" they said, "right here, and Clarksburg." Sounds like I may get a call out in the nick of time. Wish me luck.

There's a woman in Kenova who is freecycling "a bag of misc sewing items" in which I'd expressed interest. Somehow we miscommunicated (both of us) and I didn't get the bag on either the trip to Ohio or the return trip, and now she's on a trip herself. I don't know what's in the bag and her sig file indicates our philosophies differ, but I'm having fun participating in our miscommunication, and am looking forward to (maybe, eventually) meeting her and picking up the bag.

While at C & S's, though we have internet access it's just not the same as being home on our own boxes, we spend less time on the computer and more wondering "what to do next." They have some sort of satellite TV and high-definition, and TIVO and a bunch of other stuff I don't know how to use, so we did manage to watch a few decent movies and even an episode of Dead Like Me that hadn't arrived in our netflix queue yet.



I finished the soldiersocks and printed out the band I'm supposed to wrap them in. I'm glad that's done; it took much much longer than I had planned, or expected, and I was heartily sick of the project several times before the end, but the socks are beautiful and I'm proud of them. And it was good practice knitting; I now have a standard sock pattern (my adaptation of the official SFS pattern) to use with fingering weight yarn, and a new favorite "cheap" sock yarn: knitpicks essential solids.

Got quite a bit done on the Oh's and X's cross stitch, and unless the backstitching really transforms what I see so far, I won't be buying any more of their patterns. th'Mr made a valid point:
he: "how much did that cost you?"
me: "not much, I got it out of the clearance bin at Michaels, I think."
he: "then why, if you don't enjoy it, are you finishing it?"
me: "uh..."



I'm finishing it because I'm curious just how much the backstitching will improve it. I'm finishing it because it'll fit with the "decor" or "theme" of what will eventually be my sewing room. I'm finishing it because I'm OCD and have a really hard time not finishing what I start... eventually. But most of all I was working on it over the weekend because after finishing the soldier socks I had no other project with me to work on, and there's nothing like a craft store to be found anywhere near Athens, Ohio.



Wednesday, I think it was, th'Mr & I were out riding around town after RJ's film screening, and finally found the quilting supply store that I'd seen "Grand Opening June 1" fliers for. It wasn't open yet, but the proprietor (proprietess?) invited me in anyway, and I came out the proud owner of a Fiskar's brand 3-piece quilting set - rotary cutter, mat, and transparent ruler.

On the way home from Ohio we stopped in Barboursville to get th'Mr's dad (hereafter to be known as th'Mr.Sr) a birthday present, a digital picture frame. I think it's a great idea and something he (1) doesn't already have (2) may have actually never heard of (3) will enjoy. This is a guy who's pretty hard to buy for.

Speaking of guys hard to buy for, Fathers' Day is coming up, what, this weekend? I'm going to get busy knitting ties of sock yarn. Wish me speed.



And with that, I'll close this blog entry (almost neglecting to mention that we finally had rain, both while we were away and last night, and my nasturtiums are blooming!) and go cast on a tie.

Oh, my. I was all prepared to <shriek> here, when I did my usual <arrow up, enter> in order to access wvdial to go online and post this, and instead of wvdial my previous command had apparently been HALT... so after rebooting I expected this whole post to be gone but NO, Firefox is absofuckinlutely amazing. Yes, it's still here. Now to add some pix...

sunny weekend

We ran out of movies, so I didn't get any knitting done yesterday.

No, that's not true. I turned both heels on the soldiersox, sitting on the front porch surrounded by hummingbirds, in between bouts of attacking the weeds along the fence and hauling horse-pasture-dirt to the resulting clear spaces.





I phoned the drrr this morning and learned Cuz has improved some, has eaten a little, and they're running some more bloodwork on her; I can find out more this afternoon.

entertainment

I'm reading a truly awful book, Joan Mendicott's The Three Mrs. Parker, which by now I'd have tossed in the corner except I'm mildly interested in how it's going to turn out. The story is okay, but the writing itself is just awful. For instance, there's a dead guy on the living room floor, and as the ever-widening pool of blood spreads around him, one of the main characters wonders if that stain is ever going to come out of the Oriental carpet. For another instance, she describes jimsonweed flowers as being blue and bell-shaped, and I know they are neither. That sort of casual disregard for facts really pisses me off. But the story's okay, and I'm not too far from the end of the book, so I'll probably finish it and then read something good.

This week we've watched a couple of movies I don't feel like looking up the names of. The first was a 1972 documentary about the fundamentalist church, done by someone who had been a child prodigy preacher, ordained at age four. Marjoe, that's the name of it. He made the movie intending to "expose" the fakery of the church. Now, I have no love of church and especially not the fundies, but I think that's just sad and mean. And the movie itself had lots and lots of "Hallelujah! Praise Jesus!" innit, which makes me plain uneasy.

The second was Fancy Dancing, by the producers of Smoke Signals. Lots of the same actors as in Smoke Signals, and as in Northern Exposure. The story is about a gay indian poet who goes home to the res for a funeral. It is quite good, if also quite low-budget. Memorable, though not exactly riveting. I learned that "innit" is a res expression, instead of brit as I'd thought previously. I like "innit," and have been using it since I ran across it on misc.writing several years ago.

As I quit watching TV several years ago (1989), there are a lot of actually good series that I've missed. Gobbless Netflix. Now we're renting those same TV shows and watching four at a time on disc. A much more efficient way than sitting down at seven o'clock every Thursday, if you ask me. He's just now added Northern Exposure and Soap to our queue.

earworm

An earworm is a tune that gets inside your head and won't go away.

Ever since watching Borat my earworm has been Borat's national anthem: "Kazhistan, number one, of the other countries, all the other countries are run by little girls..." Sheesh.

For a little while early this week, "So long, it's been good to know you," took over, but as soon as I thought in relief that was better than Borat, Borat came back. Then I heard a truly awful rendition of "Free Man in Paris" and now the original is stuck in my head.




I'm making progress on the smokehouse roof; this morning th'Mr took a load of roof, broken glass and other crap to the landfill. There's at least one more load to go. I planted phlox and thrift on the sunny southwest side. It sure looks different.





Haven't knit a thing since Tuesday, but tonight's knitnight so I'll take my soldiersox and hopefully make progress on them.

sox update

Got both heels turned this afternoon, between bouts of attacking the english ivy completely covering (not anymore) the smokehouse, which needs a roof. Getting the ivy off it while trying not to rip up two clematis plants is the first step toward that roof. Then I left both heeled socks laying on the back porch glider while I made dinner, baked egg rolls & hamburger macaroni & cheese (hey, as long as the cholesterol & fat & salt are low, we can eat what we want), and each time I looked out the kitchen window my sox were still there, with Winston standing (laying) guard. Good cat.

After dinner I came to the computer desk intending to pick up the gusset stitches, but had to brush Shorty, Klutz, and Nameless first. You gotta have priorities, I tell ya.

Now that the gussets are picked up I have to go watch a movie.

I'm continuing the pattern on the instep, just because I want to, and because the foot is always the boring part, especially in stockinette. But I need to find something to do during the movie. Gusset decreases don't seem a reasonable movie project. Maybe swatch for my sweater?

Movie Meme

Since when I found this here it contained so many I hadn't heard of, let alone seen, I took the liberty of dumping some & adding others!

Check off the the ones you've seen, bold the ones you recommend, and italicise the ones you would like to see!

(X) Airplane
(X) Airplane II
(X) Airplane III
(X) Amelie
( ) American Pie
( ) American Pie 2
(X) AnchorMan
(X) Angels in America
( ) Anger Management
( ) Animatrix
( ) As Good As It Gets
(X) Bad Santa
(X) Batman
(X) A Beautiful Mind
( ) Bedazzled
(X) Blazing Saddles
( ) Borat
( ) Bourne Identity
(X) Bourne Supremecy
(X) The Bridges of Madison County
( ) Brokeback Mountain
(X) Bullworth
( ) Butterfly Effect
(X) Cabaret
(X) Cast Away
(X) Cave Man
(X) Chasing Amy
(X) Children of the Corn
(X) Christine
( ) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) Clan of the Cave Bear
(X) Clerks
(X) A Clockwork Orange
( ) Club Dread
(X) Cocoon
(X) Corrina, Corrina
(X) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
(X) Cujo
( ) Curious George
(X) Daddy & Them
( ) Dawn of the Dead
(X) The Day After Tomorrow
(X) Desperately Seeking Susan
(X) Dirty Pretty Things
(X) Dogma
(X) Driving Miss Daisy
( ) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) E.T.
(X) The Exorcist
( ) 50 First Dates
( ) Fight Club
( ) Finding Nemo
(X) Finding Neverland
( ) Flubber
( ) The Fog
(X) Forrest Gump
( ) Freaky Friday
(X) Fried Green Tomatoes
(X) Ghost
(X) Ghost Ship
(X) Grand Canyon
(X) The Grapes of Wrath
(X) Grease
(X) The Green Mile
(X) Halloween
( ) Hannibal
(X) Harlan County, USA
(X) Harry Potter 1
( ) Harry Potter 2
( ) Harry Potter 3
( ) Harry Potter 4
(X) Home Alone
(X) Home Alone II
( ) Hook
(X) A Home at the End of the World
(X) How the Grinch Stole Christmas
(X) I Am Sam
( ) I, Robot
(X) An Inconvenient Truth
(X) Independence Day
(X) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(X) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(X) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
(X) Iris
(X) It Could Happen to You
(X) Jaws
(X) Jaws II
(X) Jurassic Park
(X) Kill Bill Vol. 1
(X) Kill Bill Vol. 2
(X) King Kong
( ) K-Pax
(X) The Ladykillers (2004)
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Lilo & Stitch
( ) The Little Mermaid
( ) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
( ) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
( ) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
(X) Mallrats
(X) Man of the Year
(X) Mask
(X) Matewan
(X) The Matrix
(X) The Matrix: Reloaded
( ) The Matrix: Revolutions
(X) Meet the Fockers
(X) Meet The Parents
(X) Men In Black
(X) Men In Black 2
(X) Miracle on 34th street
(X) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(X) Monty Python's Life of Brian
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Mothman Prophecies
( ) Mrs. Doubtfire
(X) Network
(X) Neverending Story
(X) Night of the Living Dead
(X) Nightmare on Elm Street
(X) Omega Man
( ) Passion of the Christ
( ) Pirates of the Caribbean
( ) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
( ) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
(X) Pulp Fiction
(X) Quest for Fire
(X) Rancho Deluxe
( ) Red Dragon
(X) Reds
(X) Rent
(X) Reservoir Dogs
(X) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(X) Rosemary's Baby
(X) Saving Grace
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
(X) Schindler's List
( ) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
(X) Shakespeare in Love
(X) The Shipping News
( ) Shrek
( ) Shrek 2
(X) Signs
(X) Silence of the Lambs
(X) Sixteen Candles
(X) The Sixth Sense
(X) Sling Blade
(X) Smoke Signals
(X) Soylent Green
(X) Star Wars
(X) Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back
(X) Star Wars - Return of the Jedi
( ) Steel Magnolias
(X) Swing Kids
(X) Ten
(X) The Terminator
(X) The Terminator 2
(X) The Terminator 3
(X) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
(X) Thelma and Louise
( ) 13 Going on 30
( ) Titanic
(X) Traffic
(X) The Village
(X) War of the Worlds
( ) Waterworld
(X) White Oleander
(X) Winter People
(X) Wizard of Oz
( ) X-Men

early ayem babbling

foggy this morning.

foggy yesterday morning.

warm enough yesterday I was able to take my bra-less sock-less sweatshirted self across the parking lot into the grocery store, wishing (especially inside the store, why do they keep it so cold in there?) I had on more clothes, but I survived the ordeal, anyway.

woke up at 6:30 today, 5:30 yesterday, and 4AM the day before that. Lately, once I'm awake I can't get back to sleep. Didn't use to be this way.

This morning th'Mr's coughing woke me, yesterday Roadie beating on the bedroom window to get in did it --cats are so smart, they know that's where we'll be that time of day-- and the day before yesterday Sapphire doing the hairball cough in the living room got me out of bed.

It's not all bad, gives me some uninterrupted internet time --we're still on dialup till I get his web site moved from the earthlink server onto the GoDaddy space I paid for lo these many months ago-- yet it would be even better if I could squeeze in a little more sleep now and then.

Got to sleep no earlier than 1 this morning, after watching a pretty cool movie: Interstate 60, which had all sorts of big-name actors but apparently never made it to the box office. I [HEART] netflix!

Monday an iron skillet slid off the stove door and onto my toes. Lucky for me it was my smallest iron skillet; the largest would probably have removed my foot. As it was, I yelled and sat on the kitchen floor and rocked back & forth holding my foot, but in a few minutes it had eased enough I forgot about it. I'm pretty forgetful these days, have I mentioned that?

Yesterday evening it started hurting again, and the left side of my left foot is a little bit bigger and a lot shinier than the rest of that foot, or the other. Still hurts. I don't think anything's broken --but how would I know? I've never broken a bone. Am I sure about that? Hmmm-- but it still bothers me.

I injected those few paragraphs because my toes still hurt. Now, where was I?

I was waking up, that's it.