in praise (?) of modern dentistry

I am a good dental patient. I don't freak out. I instinctively keep my tongue out of the dentist's way.  I am quite aware that if I didn't earn a professional salary while living in a first world country, I'd probably be missing many of my teeth. 

And I know that HUGE strides have been made to make dentistry as comfortable and as comfortable as possible. 

BUT! All the fancy pain numbing drugs given DURING a procedure wear off. My freaking jaw still hurts and my gums are a rather frightening black color. 

AND! Dental dams? If you still have to stick that suction-thingy in my mouth, then skip the stupid dam already. 

Sunday Sunday

Oscar woke me up this morning and said that it had snowed and there was at least an inch on the ground. I didn't believe him but it was true. I snapped some photographic evidence through the windows and then went back to bed. :P

The front yard.

The back yard. 

The snow turned to rain later on in the morning and all the snow has melted away by now.

And here's a picture of Seamus looking really goofy:

25 Things About Me--The Musical Edition

1. I have almost no musical skill despite having years of formal musical instruction in clarinet, guitar, saxophone, trombone, and flute. I can read music but I can’t keep time.

2. I also learned to play the Scottish bagpipes. These are a much easier instrument than the others as there are only nine notes. But I still can’t keep time.

3. I can’t sing either.

4. With very few exceptions, my knowledge of popular music does not include any bands or songs released after 1996.

5. I can’t stand Boston (the band, not the city). My dislike is visceral. Their music literally makes my stomach hurt.

6. ELO is a guilty pleasure. I love it when one of their songs comes on the radio, and I will turn it up and hum or sing along.

7. I would say that Franz Ferdinand is my “favorite” band at the moment.

8. Past favorite bands have been U2, Simple Minds, REM, and Radiohead.

9. The Beatles? I loved their music then, I love it now, and I will love it in the future.

10. AC/DC is another guilty pleasure.

11. Three bands that I loved in high school but was too “cool” to admit it are Duran Duran (didn’t want to be associated with the girls who wanted to marry Simon Le Bon), Def Leppard (didn’t want to be associated with the boys I thought were jerks), and Huey Lewis and the News (because I thought I couldn’t be cool and like this band).

12. The bedroom in our Seattle apartment was right next door to an English pub which piped music from the jukebox to the outdoor patio. Even with the windows closed, we could clearly hear the jukebox selections. From the time the Verve released their song “Bittersweet Symphony’ in 1997 to October 2006 when we moved, we heard that damn song no fewer than three times Every. Single. Night. Amazingly, I still like the song but Oscar would be very happy if he never had to hear it again.

13. However, I would be very happy if I never had to hear “Hotel California” again. I have hit my lifetime limit on that song.

14. I’ve also hit my lifetime limit for “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Bauhaus. This is a very painful thing for this former Goth to admit to herself.

15. Most people can list their favorite songs, and even rank them all but I used to work with a guy who had a list of his five least favorite songs, in order. I can’t remember his entire list but number one (least liked) was “Scarborough Fair” by Queensryche.

16. I really loved Blondie when I was a kid, and when I got older I really liked the Pretenders. I thought Debbie Harry was cool but I wanted to BE Chrissie Hynde.

17. My favorite Beatles song has always been “I am the Walrus”. It’s so weird!

18. I have been trying for the past 10 years to develop an appreciation for opera and I am making progress.

19. Not knowing how to play guitar is an advantage when playing Guitar Hero.

20. A few years ago, I got Franz Ferdinand’s first CD and the Hobbit video game at about the same time. I listened to this CD endlessly while playing that game and to this day, whenever I hear any song off that CD, I get a mental image of maneuvering Bilbo Baggins through that game. Every. Single.Time.

21. I don’t think I’m passionate about music but some songs have made me literally stop everything I’m doing in order to listen to the song: “The Quiet Man” by Jonny Hardie and Gavin Marwick (Scottish folk song medley), “Vocalise” composed by Wojceich Kilar and sung by Sumi Jo, and “Hallelujah” covered by Jeff Buckley.

22. I have never been able to listen to “Neroli” by Brian Eno. I swear there is something subliminal in that composition that makes me grind my teeth and finally stop the CD because I literally can’t stand it anymore. But the music is not overtly annoying and I can’t tell you what bothers me so much.

23. I’ve never been able to develop an appreciation for King Crimson, although I feel like I ought to.

24. My favorite movie soundtrack is “The Ninth Gate” composed by Wojceich Kilar. The movie isn’t very good but the music is incredible. I bought this CD just for the theme song (see #21) but every track is great.

25. I think “The Ideal Copy” from Wire and “Sons and Fascination” by Simple Minds have stood the test of time.

Gui Ling Gao

I found this product in the canned vegetable section of Uwajimaya (a local Asian supermarket specializing in Asian foods). Among all the cans of very usual and not so "usual" canned vegetables (did you know that there's such a thing as canned sushi filling?), was a display of ceramics bowl with matching lids, containing "Gui Ling Gao". It piqued my interest: I liked the bowl, I'm a bit more adventurous eater than many people I know, and I'm not afraid of foods I can't pronounce.  And it wasn't expensive, so I thought I'd give it a try. 

Plus, it was in the canned vegetable section, so whatever this product is was most likely made from plants. (Hey, I'm adventurous, not fearless.) The ingredient list wasn't too helpful because besides sugar, all the ingredients were listed by their latin botanical names.

Gui Ling Gao turned out to be a jelly, and it is also used as an herbal medicine, although I guess it can also be eaten as a snack.

Finding out it was described as "Chinese herbal medicine" should have forewarned me because in my experience "Chinese herbal medicine"  is synonymous with "it's very good for you because otherwise you would never consume something that tastes so foul." 

Sadly, I will never experience the health effects of Gui Ling Gao because I took one spoonful, let the jelly linger on my tongue and thought that at first it kind of tasted like blackstrap molasses but the taste quickly changed into the most intensely bitter flavor  as the jelly dissolved, and I couldn't spit it out fast enough. Ugh. It was terribly foul and the bitterness just lingered. (Why was it so bitter? The second ingredient was sugar!)

But I have a neat little bowl and lid now. 

 

Attack of the Crip Keeper

Here's the one side of the garage. There's about two feet (60 cm) of space between this wall and the fence so it's really quite isolated (as well as being a horribly planned waste of space and impossible to mow) 

Here's the side of the garage facing the alley way and is the only non-Crip text. I have no idea what it actually says. I later realized that the tagger started in the yard and must have done this bit last and probably ran out of paint.

The fence.

The side of the garage facing the house. 

The house. This bit pissed me off the most.

And blue bikes are just so last year. 

@!#$%&*

some *ssh*le or *ssh*les came into our yard today and spray painted graffiti in three places on our garage, fence, and house.  

Don't know if "crip" is still a gang or if it is some slang I don't know but that's what's written.

At least no one broke into the house. Perhaps the dogs frightened 'em off?

Old Man Winter ain't dead yet

Last Friday, Oscar and I had to scrape ice off the INSIDE of the car windows. 

And today, it's been snowing off an on.

This (last gasp?) of winter isn't really a problem except that Mr Seamus has been violently sick with explosive diarrhea these past few days and we've had to leave the house windows open to try to get rid of the smell. 

Yeah, it's been bad. Real bad. 

How bad? 

"Decide to get rid of the carpet" bad. (There are wood floors underneath and wood is a heck of a lot easier to clean up than carpet.)

"Cut off the bottom of the curtains" bad. (The cat had already shredded them so they need to be replaced anyway.)

I don't know what caused Seamus's distress, but thankfully it doesn't seem contagious as neither of the other dogs has been ill. Also, Seamus seems to be recovering. No more accidents in the house and his toxic farts have almost stopped. He's on a diet of boiled rice and hamburger for awhile.)

But between the car, the furnace acting up, Seamus's illness, and finding out that we owe almost $1000 in income tax...it's been a rough week. 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that ...

while trying to organize/declutter, you will make an incredible mess. 

I have been going through my yarn stash, ripping out all projects I started that that are either more than a year old or don't hold interest any longer. I know have lots more available needles to use for new projects. (haha)

Many knitters have lots of yarn.  

Some knitters have lots of sock yarn.

But I think I may be the only knitter who has a dresser drawer full of orange sock yarn. 

Irrefutable proof that I am an idiot

We are a weird American family in that we have only a single car. (Oh, the horrors! Yes, we alone are responsible for the collapse of the American car industry because we own only one car, paid it off, and continue to drive it instead of leasing or constantly upgrading.)

 I took the car in to the mechanic this morning for an oil change and tune-up, and, by the way, the car is making a rattling sound, can you investigate that? Well, that rattle is luckily not the car's death rattle, just a very expensive rattle, and so I decided to walk home because there really isn't any interesting way to pass four hours in the local of the mechanic shop.

I walk home from the mechanic (about 30 minute walk), approach our house, and my first thought is "hey, the car isn't here. I wonder where Oscar went?"

I thought memes were passe but not on Facebook...

'cept on Facebook, they're called "notes" and it seems they are the second most popular thing for people to do, only slightly less popular than sending coffee/drink/plants/superpokes to people. 

Anyway, here's the latest:

This is the Layer Cake, covering different parts of your life.


11 Layers of Me

--Layer One: On the Outside

Name:: Lee (my last name)
Birthday:: January 18
School:: University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA (undergrad); University of Washington, Seattle, WA (grad)
Major:: Geology (undergrad)/Scandinavian Studies (grad--unfinished)
Minor:: none
Current Location: Tacoma, WA
Eye Color:: Blue-grey
Hair Color:: brown
Righty or Lefty:: Lefty, baby!
Zodiac Sign:: Capricorn

--Layer Two: On the Inside

Your Heritage:: Northern European mix--German, Norwegian, Scottish
Your Fears:: Rats
Weakness:: sweets, video games, yarn
Goal:: day to day goal--to make it to work on time, long term goal--to finish graduate school
Regrets:: dropping out of grad school, taking financial advice from someone dearly unqualified
Change one thing about your life:: learn to wake up early on a regular basis
Relieve Stress:: I'd really like some tips on this, 'cuz right now even alcohol isn't working
Hardest thing ever dealt with: realizing it really was me, not you
What upsets you:: duplicity
Vent about something:: I really wish my neighbor's would stop parking their two ton truck on my lawn AND pick up their dog's shit from my lawn

--Layer Three: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Your thoughts first waking up:: How many hours before I can go back to bed?
Your bedtime:: 11ish
Your most missed memory:: staying up late with Katze, talking to the wee hours.

--Layer Four: You’re picking

Pepsi or Coke:: Jarritos Tamarindo 
McDonald's or Burger King:: I have a weakness for McDonald's Happy Meals.
Single or Group dates:: Group
Adidas or Nike:: Keens
Lipton Tea or Nestea:: freshly steeped Sencha from Peet's
Chocolate or Vanilla: strawberry
Cappuccino or Coffee:: coffee, black


--Layer Five: Do You?

Do Drugs:: besides Tylenol?
Have a crush:: only on various actors, although I had a lovely dream about the lead singer from Franz Ferdinand the other night.
Think you've been in love:: I know I have
Want to get married:: already am.
Believe in yourself:: More than I used to, not as much as I wish
Think you're a health freak:: I have a healthy diet. 

--Layer Six: In the Past Month

Drank alcohol: Yes
Gone to the mall:: dear god, no.
Eaten Sushi:: Yes
Gone skating:: does slipping on ice count?
Dyed your hair:: Yes
Done something exciting:: I met with a college friend who was on town for business. A lovely evening!

--Layer Seven: Have You Ever?

Played a stripping game:: nope
Gotten beaten up:: Yes, more than once.
Changed who you were to fit in:: Sadly, yes. I don't think it worked, though.
Hid something from someone:: Yes, and I'm not telling you.

--Layer Eight: Getting Old

Age your hoping to be married:: I got married at age 24.
Age to start having children:: not likely 
Want to travel to:: pick a place, and I will likely want to visit there.

--Layer Nine: Perfect Mate

Best Eye Color:: brown
Best Hair Color:: no real preference
Short or Long Hair:: as long as it's well groomed, the length makes no difference. Even bald is fine (but comb-overs are not.)

--Layer Ten: What were you doing...

1 MINUTE AGO:: letting the dogs in 
1 HOUR AGO::enjoying a beer at Harmon's
1 DAY AGO:: lounging around in my PJs, staving off a cold
1 YEAR AGO:: nothing stands out

--Layer Eleven: Finish the Sentence

I LOVE:: my  husband, my friends, and my pets
I FEEL:: stressed out
I HATE:: being stressed out
I HIDE:: my anger
I MISS:: my friends
I NEED:: to start going for walks again

Yay!

My colleague finally had her baby. He was due Feb 4th (I think) but didn't arrive until Feb. 12. Check out the link for baby and new parent cuteness.

Gotta finish up that Baby Surprise Jacket now...

Weird

Rowan's Scottish Tweed DK yarn smells like Crayola crayons. 

Decluttering little by little

I put my Xbox and Xbox games up on craigslist. $50 for the full system, three controllers, and nine games. The Xbox 360 plays some original Xbox games but not all. I was surprised that it read "Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy" because it wasn't very popular (although quite fun) but really surprised that it didn't read "Deus Ex: Invisible War" because that was a high-profile game that got great reviews (and is one of my favorite games of all time. It's got an intelligent story AND it gives you the option of playing through without having to actually to kill any enemies. This is actually the much harder option, by the way. You can try to sneak by them and hope they don't come after you or knock out them out with a tranquilizer gun (after you find it) and hope you can run fast or hide until the tranq. takes effect. It makes for very tense encounters.)

I'm getting rid of the system because I never play it anymore (and am seriously thinking of getting rid of the Playstation2 for the same reason) but I have the same feeling now as I did when I got rid of the VHS. I kept the VHS for much longer than I probably needed to because I had a lot of things on VHS that I'd never be able to see again, like the great travelogue of La Paz Oscar made for me when he visited his family right after we started dating. And the Tick cartoon episodes that Oscar taped (My favorite quote from the series is when the Tick says to the supervillian du jour: "You can't blow up the Earth! That's where I keep my stuff!").

It's almost worth keeping the system just to be able to play "Deus Ex: Invisible War" or "Otogi: Myth of Demons" sometime in the future. I love both these games.

I also realized I have far more beer bottles than I need at this point so I put a notice on Freecycle. Not that I'm too worried about those. If no one wants them, they go into the recycling bin on Thursday. Anyone need four dozen 12oz. amber beer bottles, suitable for bottle conditioning?

 

Fiber-iffic!

Imagine my surprise upon discovering that the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival--which is one of the best in the United States--is held right here in Tacoma. 

Yes, Tacoma. Vendors, teachers, and visitors come from ALL OVER THE WORLD for this festival and it's held in the lovely Hotel Murano, a mere 2.5 miles from my house. (And local people...if you haven't visited this hotel, go and check out the lobby. The hotel was renamed and redesigned to celebrate Tacoma's role in glass art, and the lobby is just beautiful, and full of individual glass art pieces.)

I didn't take any classes--most fill up the same day registration opens--but it's fun to go to the Marketplace as well as to hang out in the lobby with other people who are knitting, spinning, plying, felting, whatever. The vendors are a nice mix; there are some brick and mortar local yarn shops who set up booths with a miniature version of their shops*, as well as plenty of indy vendors who sell primarily online or at fairs. There were several familiar vendors like Philosopher's Wool, Blue Moon Fiber Arts, and Toots LeBlanc as well, as well as some new faces like Rainy Days and Wooly Dogs (who had some wonderful self-patterning sock colors but who sadly** was sold out).

I met up with Kat and her husband Crash. They'd come the previous day and Kat made a list of things she wanted at the marketplace. She mulled over it that night and pared down what she really wanted--a shawl kit from Philosopher's Wool and some yarn from Rainy Days and Wooly Dogs. Her first stop was RDWD, and said there was a gorgeous red yarn and was bummed when she couldn't find it. She turned to ask the seller while I rummaged through the display and found an intense blue-based red called "Bloodletting" buried under a few other skeins of a different color. Happily, it was, and I understand why Kat liked that yarn so much. Kat has a good sense of color and knows what looks good on her and I hope she makes a hat or a scarf from that yarn because that color would look stunning around her face. (I'm pretty sure she already had matching lipstick.)

I also had a mission, but it was not for me. Some of my friends had gone on Thursday (the first day) and Rachel had fallen in love with some dark grey alpaca/silk roving but decided against it. And she regretted it. At Knit Night on Friday, she couldn't stop talking about that fiber and how it felt "better than sex" and how the color would pair beautifully with some rose pink yarn she had and and was pondering the logistics of going back to buy it. So I offered to get it for her. I made that booth my first stop, but apparently wasn't fast enough. It was all gone except for a small amount of light brown (which would not go well with rose pink). The vendor was completely out. Apparently there had been a great demand for that fiber blend but he couldn't create more while he was at the festival. "Wednesday! I'll have more by Wednesday. Your friend can order from me online!"

As for me, the only thing I wanted to buy was some Noro Kuyeron yarn. I'd made a scarf for Gusano Medidor while she was here and I really liked it. I was secretly hoping that she didn't like it so I could keep it, but dammit, she liked it so now I need to make one for myself.  It's a very simple pattern and alternating colorways every two rows. The yarns is self-striping and the color changes are really beautiful. The great idea with this scarf is that since one of the colorways is neutral (either creams/light grey or tans/dark brown/dark grey), the stripes harmonize quite well. My LYS used to carry Noro but replaced it with another company that made a similar yarn but was cheaper. I did buy some of this yarn from her but the scarf just didn't look very good. The yarn quality was just fine, but the colors weren't as intense so the color effect was very subtle, and I wasn't getting the effect that I wanted. 

Since it is a fiber festival, everyone was showing off their projects. Quite a few women were wearing Bohus sweaters (they ARE beautiful), but since Tacoma really doesn't get all that cold, there weren't too many people wearing wool sweaters. Instead, there were lots of people wearing shawls or scarves (there were several of the Noro scarves I just described). Me? My only knitterly object was the hat*** I was wearing, which I only wore inside so that Kat could find me easily but forgot to take it off and ended up wearing it throughout the day. However, several people came up to me and complimented me on it. The woman at Philosopher's Wool said it reminded her of a sea urchin and later in the day called out to me "hello, sea urchin lady!". :)

I also ran into my friend KittenLion who was going to make a sweater for her friend from the Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn but wanted to make sure her friend loved it before KL bought it. The friend was made to fondle the yarn, and to make sure she loved how the yarn felt against her skin before KL would buy it. BFMA yarns are beautiful (even Crash, who really couldn't care less about yarn, admires Tina's (BMFA's master dyer) craftmanship and art sense) but they are not cheap and I think my eyebrows rose when KL said she was making a sweater for her friend from this yarn. KL just smiled and said, "this is why" and showed me a picture of a stunning quilt that this friend had made for her. Ah yes, now I understand.   

*The first year I went I thought this was a silly idea...why go through all the trouble to recreate to set up all the displays with so many generic needles and notions and books? I'm not talking about the special "art fair" needles hand-turned from rosewood ($30) or cast from glass ($50)or the hand made stitch markers made from silver, crystal, and gem chips ($25-$50 a set). I mean the mass-market Inox, Clover, Susan Bates, and Addi brands that you can find anywhere. But now I think these are savvy sellers because there is so many people are inspired to start a brand new project RIGHT NOW but dammit....I don't have the right size needles, or stitch markers or...hey, that booth has lots of needles....

**For me, not for her. All she had left of that yarn was her sample sock. 

***Link to the designer's site. That is not a photo of me. My hat is orange (naturally).

Oh so Lost.

Dear "Lost" writers:

I've been with you since Season 1. I've never found TV particularly fascinating but your show was very intriguing and entertaining. Not because there were a bunch of people suddenly stranded in a remote location, trying to figure out how to survive and get home. Any generic horror film does that. Ho-hum. What made "Lost" so worth watching were the people whose back stories and personalities were so carefully crafted. I watched "Lost" because these people were real to me, and I cared what happened to them. I stuck with you faithfully through season 2 even as your network nearly killed the show by repeating most of season 1 instead of showing new episodes. (Plot was secondary but still necessary.) I have never been as interested in finding out what the mysteries of the island were except as how the characters dealt with it. Does knowing that the "smoke monster" is a type of "security system" make it any less terrifying to the people on the island? It was more fascinating that these Western, intelligent, mostly well educated people would automatically refer to a frightening unknown as a "monster" than what the "unknown" turned out to be. (BTW, isn't Cerebus also a type of "security system"? Does that make it easier to understand?)

Admit it. You were making this st*t up as you went along, playfully experimenting with the 'fish out of water' theme...'hey, what if we put in a polar bear on a tropical island?  How about a shark with a Dharma logo?'  But the show was a huge hit and you felt compelled to force an story arc about the "mystery of the island" instead of "how are the desperate castaways dealing with such stuff that they could have never have imagined?"

So...here are some of my issues that are making it harder and harder for me to tune in every week:

1. Ben has never been a very believable bad guy. A manipulative and possibly evil man, yes. But he grew up in isolation in a small community. How could he know how to maneuver in the "real world", to "outcon" other con men far more experienced than he ever was?

2. The time travel thing? Not buying it. It has the unpleasant whiff of a Deus Ex Machina.

3. Overarching conspiracies are so 1990s. The X-Files already did that, and much better.

4. With the exception of the smoke monster, none of the mysteries of the first season are answered--the polar bear (an escapee from the Others' zoo?) Why was Rose cured of her cancer? Why the hell can John walk (not that you haven't injured his legs several times since). Why was it so important that Claire's baby be born on the island? The frakkin' numbers? 

5. If the island turns out to be Atlantis, I'm sending you hate mail. 

That will be all for now,

Luneray

P.S. Kate is not very believable in business suits and heels. Put her in jeans and shoes she can run in.

 

Brewfest 2009 results are IN!

I had a friend who was very weight conscious and would perform a cost/benefit analysis for every morsel passing her lips. In short, "is this worth the calories?"

I find myself thinking that as I sip my freshman brew. Yes, folks, January 2009 Porter has now finally aged enough for drinking and wonder if it really is worth drinking. It's not so bad that it made me grimace and spit it out, but neither is it a very pleasant experience either. 

It's perfectly drinkable in that "if this is the only liquid available for me to drink over the next few weeks" (and I mean that there is NOTHING else to drink...no water, tea, coffee, etc.) But drinking it as purely a pleasurable experience? No, not at all. 

Is it worth the calories? Not really. 

Is it worth drinking because of all the time that I put into it? An excellent question.

Should I drink it because otherwise I'd be wasting the $35 spent on the ingredients? I'd say that yes, I should, but I can't truthfully say that I've never tossed out food before--even expensive food.

I think I'll toss it. It really is not very good at all. 

Dig a garden for Victory!

Just don't depend on me, 'cuz then the terrorists have already won.

I'm giving this garden thing another try this year, with a little bit more planning and education this time. I learned several things from last year's fiasco, which I guess is a good thing. 

Here are the things that I will not do this year:

1. try to share garden space with Oscar. We will each have our own raised bed. Oscar is a tomato maniac and he needs an entire bed just for those. 

2. Use a product called "Gardening Soil--great for fruits and flowers!" to try to grow root crops, and then wonder why none of the radishes, carrots, or beets are growing. (Hint--the nutrients needed for fruits and flowers are different than those needed for root crops.) Longtime readers may remember the pornographic radish from last year; that was grown in what has since become Oscar's Tomato Madness raised bed. 

3. Use flattened cardboard boxes as the barrier between the grass and the garden. Supposedly, the cardboard works to smother the grass, but I didn't have much success with that. My friend Latin Man gave me some landscape fabric, so I will use that this year.

4. Build the raised bed out of cinder blocks instead of lumber. It really was a great idea but it didn't work out for these reasons: a) they were not mortared together, and the ground was a bit uneven so there was some shifting from the weight of the soil, b) concrete is really porous and the bed dried out really fast

Here's what I will do this year:

1. Construct a 4' x 8' bed from lumber generously given to me by my friend HippieChick. (I'd asked her if she had any scrap lumber for building a bed, and she didn't but she's a very encouraging soul for anything gardening related so she bought me some "scrap" lumber for my birthday. Think that's a weird birthday gift? I don't. She once got a truckload of horsesh*t as a birthday gift and she was thrilled!)

2. Make the garden soil mixture per SFG recommendations.

3. Plant some pots with flowers that attract beneficial bugs and bees, and set these around the garden.

Oh well, we shall see. Wish me luck.

one resolution is going well

The book reading bit is going well.  Three actual printed books read this month, plus one audiobook as well as an audio lecture series!

In fact, I was up all night reading The Missing (info and Powells.com link in the sidebar). I started it when I got into bed, and bloody hell if I didn't stay up until I'd completed it around 6am this morning. I can't even remember the last time I read a novel straight through. (Probably the final Harry Potter novel.) 

Sadly, I didn't like the book all that much. The book was well-written in that the prose was fluid, but the story actually suffered from being a bit too long. I read a review of it in the NYTimes in an article discussing a genre the author called "the dark fantastic". I (generally) like fantasy, so I put a couple of these titles on hold at the library and finally read one. The term "genre" is an odd beast, really. While the article described the story as "dark fantastic" (i.e. fantasy with darker themes, possibly a hybrid of fantasy and horror), the genre listed on the book's spine was "suspense", and this reader classified it as "horror". (Note: my familiarity of the "horror" genre is almost nil, based almost entirely on a flirtation with Stephen King novels during early adolescence. Writers imaginations' never stand still, so the "horror" genre has most likely evolved considerably over the past [cough] 25 years. I hope so anyway.) 

As a plot driven novel, it wasn't entirely interesting because it was almost identical to the film "I am Legend" (so there were very few surprises), except the story took place in a small town in Maine instead of NYC. (And I did have to wonder if the author was being somewhat tongue in cheek and giving an homage to Mr King, who has made small-town-Maine ground zero for Really Weird Sh*t to Happen.) So the story had elements of science fiction in which there was a rational, scientific reason for the weird sh*t (environmental catastrophe). The story had elements of fantasy in which the cause of the weird sh*t was a primordial, supernatural force, older than humanity. You could also argue that it was a vampire story in that the affliction spread through humans biting other humans. But I call it a "horror" story because the story centered on this horrible plague that is overwhelming the town and the story focuses on who escapes the plague and who doesn't. And that's the reason I didn't like the book. There were far too many characters and most were not developed well enough and so there was very little emotional resonance for me as a reader to even care. 

It started very promisingly, but finished weakly. Yet I still stayed up all night to finish it. 

This is what 40 looks like

Ok, in all honesty, this photo dates to last week when I was still 39 but my hair looks like crap today. But the blue eyes and rosy cheeks are accurate. :)

A decision made

Ok, I am most definitely NOT renewing my subscription to Vogue Knitting. I only subscribed because I thought the mag featured a lot of good technical articles; I never expected to actually like too many of the patterns featured (not being very fashion forward myself).

I had some misgivings with the last issue because I did see an item I liked but then saw a note that the pattern chart wasn't included in the magazine but on the website. Ok, at least you don't have to register to get the chart, or even worse, PAY for it! (Interweave Knits pulled this stunt last year--showing an item in their mag and telling readers it was on the website. It was free for awhile and then they started charging for the pattern. Subscribers were furious.)

That was annoying. But I got the recent issue yesterday, and I saw that the same thing happened again. Including a partial pattern in the magazine and then saying that the rest was available on the website. But guess what. It's not there (yet).

But the worst thing is that there aren't any technical articles at all. I figured that last issue didn't have any because it was the holiday issue, and these from any knitting mag tend to focus exclusively on gift-appropriate patterns or swag for knitters. But no technical articles this time either unless you count the article on making Elizabeth Zimmermann's snail hat, which is of moderate use since the damn information is already covered in EZ's own books.