What Had Happened Was....

Sarah Ann Wilcox Sampler WIP Week 5

2011-05-08T18:30:00.000-04:00

Another week means another progress picture! I have really enjoyed stitching this one. It has just the right combination of ease and challenge. I also like the use of the over-dyed cotton threads that I've been using as well. (See the first update for the list of threads.)

This is where I was at by the end of Week Five:

I'll be doing the one-over-one stitches very last, mostly because they are tedious.

Here is a close-up of the lowest band I've completed. It has a combination of stitches, including satin and eyelet. I love how the satin stitches show off the over-dyed characteristics of the threads! I've really enjoyed seeing how that came out!

William + Kate Royal Wedding FO

2011-05-08T18:21:00.000-04:00

I got this cute little pattern from Wee Little Stitches on Etsy. The shop has all kinds of cute little geeky cross-stitch patterns for the geeky stitcher and I LOVE them! (And I'm hoping for a Trek: TOS one day!) I've bought a few of her patterns, and they're quick little stitches that are a nice break from the more intricate ones I've been doing lately.

This is the Royal Wedding pattern. I stitched it on evenweave I dyed with RIT purple. I was looking for something that was a nice royal hue, and what is more royal than purple? I've dyed a few pieces to date, and I really like the variety I can give myself, because it's very hard to find different colors that aren't the usual ivory and white.

So, this is the finished product. I made a few changes, such as the hair (I miscounted stitches) and Wills has fewer buttons than the pattern. That's mainly due to the fact that I am incapable of making a demure French Knot.

Sarah Ann Wilcox Sampler WIP Week 4

2011-05-01T16:21:00.000-04:00

This is actually two weeks worth of progress because I skipped a Week 3 progress picture. I also ran out of thread, like the red, brown, and olive, so I had to wait until I was able to get to the needlework shop to pick up some more.

I was able to finish the house (except for that one window!), and the band of flowers. I actually made a mistake on that row, but it's not as visible as I thought it was. It can probably be picked up on a larger picture.

The band two below the flowers is going to be a mixture of eyelet and satin-stitch.

I'm not too worried about the mistakes since this is a reproduction sampler and some of it is a bit "off." It's not symmetrical, so as long as I can fix the mistake through other means, I don't see a point in pulling out my hard work! Besides, this mistake will make the sampler completely mine.

I also love how the over-dyed aspect of the thread comes out in the satin stitch. The directions call for the stitches to be one-thread thick, but because I'm using a larger size cloth (32 ct/inch v. 35 ct/inch) I feel that using two threads gives it a finer look.

The USS Yorktown and My Family Tree

2011-04-30T12:50:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I went on a field trip with my Advanced Placement US History class to the Patriot's Point Naval and Maritime Museum, which has a pretty awesome website. If I'm not mistaken, it's playing the theme to The Pacific, which makes sense considering the USS Yorktown was in the Pacific Front during WW2. I've been watching a lot of WW2 documentaries (to the chagrin of my friends, who worry about my mental health watching all this war stuff), and seeing the Yorktown in action is pretty awesome.

The field trip was cool, and the pictures in this post are from that trip. The students enjoyed themselves, which is what matters. But I'm going to move on from that trip (because I don't want to violate privacy of the youngsters, they do well enough on Facebook on their own) and talk about my family tree and my first trip to the Yorktown.

When I was fifteen or thereabouts, my parents took the family to Charleston. I think it was December, and it was very rainy. That is what I remember apart from the fact that my parents took us to Patriot's Point. The only thing I remember is going about the USS Clamagore, a WW2-era submarine, and being petrified of the enclosed space.

I didn't like it. I don't like sleeping bags because my legs get tangled up, and I can't get out. I don't like submarines. I don't know how anyone on a submarine manages it, and I totally understand why they have to go through psych tests to determine if they're fit enough. That would be one test I wouldn't mind failing.

Now, this was before the age of the internet, and my parents were intent on figuring out which submarine my great-uncle Ned Charles Cook was on when he went down in WW2. In the middle of the sub is a great room with plaques of the fallen submarines. My memory of the time thinks there was ten, but when I went a few weeks ago. I was wrong. There were at least thirty. This would explain why it took so long to find his name. I just wanted out. OUT! OUT! The sub was closing in, my brother was running around, my sister was probably trying to find a hiding place, and I couldn't breath. But no, I had to stay inside that tin can while my parents systematically looked for his name on thirty different plaques.

And they finally found it.

USS Barbel

Cook, Ned C.

I was so happy. We could leave now. I could breath sweet, fresh air, and harbor a grudge against my parents for the rest of the weekend and generally act like an ungrateful 15-year old.

Having been back on the sub, it is very much every nightmare I have in reliving my first experience. But, being an adult, I suck it up, quickly move through the ship, and ask everyone else for their photos.

As for the family tree, the internet has afforded a lot more information on Ned Charles Cook, MoMM, and the USS Barbel. I know that if my grandfather had the internet at his disposal while he was working on the family history, my grandmother would have been hard pressed to pull him away from the computer. It is a true labor of love.

Welsh Guard FO

2011-04-24T20:48:00.000-04:00

I've gotten a lot of small cross-stich projects out of the way this spring. Some were smaller than others, but I got tired of seeing kits lying around. I don't know why, because I always have a pile of them, but since they were so simple, it was an easy jump to working on them in order to segue from knitting (a winter project) into stitching (a summer project).

This is one of them. I love the Welsh guards--who doesn't see one and doesn't want to make them crack a smile? And the amazing thing is that they don't--even when they're throwing up they still keep marching.

That's dedication that I know I don't have. If I were on the job and needed to throw up, I'm gone. I'm going home and eating toast and drinking tea.

And for those who know me well, no, that is not Dr. Who's TARDIS in the background. It's the wrong color, and there's no door. It's just the little house that they keep their keys in. (I think that's why it's there, I honestly have no idea.)

As for the frame, that's from Hobby Lobby, procured during one of their frame sales, and the matt as well.

Sarah Ann WIlcox Sampler WIP Week 2

2011-04-22T20:02:00.000-04:00

This is my progress as of April 10, 2011. I have even more accomplished now, nearing the end of Week 3, so more pictures will be up soon. I really enjoy working on samplers--I get bored of colors really quickly, so the variegation in the hand-dyed threads as well as the variety of colors has helped with my staying on track.

The one-over-ones, though, are driving me crazy. I can tell my eyes are getting older. When a student hands me work to look at, I'm struggling a bit more than I did when I first started teaching. I used to not be picky about bad handwriting, but now I find myself asking them to rewrite things more and more. (That's for the ones that are just being sloppy, not the ones that have true handwriting issues because of an LD.) I much prefer the two-over-two because it's also quicker to stitch.

Name Changes

2011-04-22T14:24:00.000-04:00

I decided to change the name of my blog to "What Had Happened Was." This catchy little phrase is uttered by my students when they try to tell me a story. Usually this story is either a) an out-and-out "story" (their word for dirty lies) or b) a story with some basis in the truth and smothered in a healthy heap of exaggeration.

Usually it comes out sounding like this:
"Miiiiisssss, wha' ha' happ'n'd was...."

They tend to lengthen some words and shorten everything else. If I had made THAT the title of my blog, then all two readers of my blog would be wondering what language that was.

This title fits me a bit better. Any number of weird things happens to me and the story is best told with this beginning. It's a clue to the reader that you're going to get a big dose of exaggeration.

And I hope you like the new template. I wanted something different, and at the same time I wanted to pick a color that was easier to read (the purple was my favorite, but I found myself squinting a lot).

Sarah Ann Wilcox Sampler WIP

2011-04-10T17:16:00.003-04:00

My current cross-stitch project is the Sarah Ann Wilcox Sampler. The chart is available from the Charleston Museum, where the original sampler is part of a collection. I like samplers because of the variety of colors and stitches. When I get bored with one part, it is very easy to move on to another part (which you may notice!). This is not as easily done on some other projects that I've done.

This is how much I've completed in a week:

The patterns calls for the use of silks from Needlepoints silks, but it also has a DMC conversion. I had the DMC colors picked out, but I liked the idea of using something different. I chose to stick with cotton as opposed to silks because of the price point. I ended up going into my local stitch store and just browsed. I ended up using threads from three different lines because those colors matched up best with DMC.

From Crescent Colours I am using Finley Gold and Cupid. Both are hand-dyed and have variations in the colors that give a very vintage feel to the stitches. From The Gentle Arts Sampler Threads line I am using Nutmeg and Gold Leaf. The majority of my thread comes from Weeks Dye Works, and include Molasses, Caper, Charlotte's Pink, Mascara, Deep Sea, Parchment, and Juniper.

Of course, this means that my finished product will be different from the original, but I've seen pictures of the original. It's old. It's brown. It's faded. I'm not worried. :)

Faith, Love, and Gentle Words FO

2011-04-10T17:05:00.002-04:00

I recently completed the following sampler in a record two weeks! Usually it takes me longer than that to complete a project, but I really liked the colors and the quote on this particular project. The soft palette worked really well with a piece of linen I just happened to have!

This is the finished project:

I did make some changes to it. The entire pattern called for cross-stitch, which I found to be a boring prospect. I wanted to challenge myself with some embroidery stitches, so I added them in with my own flair. I kept the colors the same, though.

In this picture, I used Queen Stitch and Satin stitch for the flowers on the side.

On the interior borders, I used (from the top down) herringbone stitch, Scotch stitch, and Montenegrin stitch. These gave another textural quality to the pattern that I felt was lacking.

Things I Learned From the Movies: Pearl Harbor

2011-03-26T16:21:00.004-04:00

I remember when this movie first came out and I was SO EXCITED. I thought this was going to be the Pacific theater's version of Saving Private Ryan. Man, was I wrong. SPR was an Historical Epic; Pearl Harbor is a Historical Action movie.

Lesson #6: Southern Accents are not difficult to master.

From the kids at the beginning of the movie to the less-than-stellar acting of Hartnett and Affleck, the accents are horrible in this movie. Hollywood underestimates the difficulty of both the Southern American and English accents. Drew Barrymore in Everafter? Not an English accent. It was just an accent. Affleck manages to speak in the hickest, dumbest redneck accent of no particular area in the land. This goes for Scottish accents as well--as long as their unintelligible and unlike Mel Gibson's, then they must be fine. Right?

And where is Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s accent? His character was from Texas.

Lesson #7: Nothing emphasizes the tragedy of war like some slapstick comedy.

Affleck's character, Rafe, is a mess. He somehow manages to get Evelyn through a comedy of errors while getting inoculated. Their first date is also a mess, with his nose getting broken (again), and then nearly plunges the two of them into an icy ocean. This is highlighted by some of his pilot buddies using all kinds of means to get a girl, like stuttering and tears. And the sad thing? It works.

Lesson #8: Revolving doors are dangerous.

Did you see how fast that door was moving when Rafe was saying good-bye to Evelyn? I can't see how anyone could leave that building without losing a limb.

Lesson #9: Want to elevate your film to be art-house worthy? Put in subtitles!

Bonus points if it's in a non-European language. Double bonus points if it's a little known dialect. Points will be taken away if it's Affleck's southern accent.

Lesson # 10: When you are being chased by the enemy, have a video camera handy.

You'll get money for it later on--that is, if you survive.

Lesson # 11: When attempting to run from one air field to another, wait until the planes are not about to attack you.

Overall, apart from fifteen minutes at the middle which should be the heart of the movie, Pearl Harbor was a dud. Instead of focusing on the attack of Pearl Harbor, the movie veers into Titanic territory, with the tragedy sandwiched in between the love triangle of the main characters. The best part of the movie was the section of the attack. The movie would have been more powerful had they focused on the build-up to the attack from the point of view of the military alongside the Japanese preparations. Everything got lost on the focus of the love story.

It could have been so much better.

Things I Learned From the Movies: U-571

2011-03-21T20:41:00.003-04:00

As a history student and teacher, I find movies with a historical bend to them difficult to watch. I cringe at Braveheart and hate how a totally awesome story like the Duchess of Devonshire's was made boring in The Duchess. (The reality is always better.) But over the years I have started to make a distinction between two types of historical movies: The Epic Historical and The Action Historical. The former is more serious and based more closely to reality, whereas the former may have occurred in a historical time frame as long as it was in a Parallel Universe.

Braveheart and The Duchess are Epic Historicals.

U-571 is not.

Sometimes, but not always, the cast can be the clue as to which type of movie that I am watching, but this is highly flawed. For example, Mel Gibson was in Braveheart, but he was also in Patriot, which is an Action Historical.

In the case of U-571, Matthew McConnaughy and Jon Bon Jovi are the clues. These are not actors who show up in Epic Historicals. The movie is loosely based on the Allies attaining the Enigma code machine from the Germans during WW2. With the capture of one of these machines, the Allies could break the German code and save the world from annihilation. The vast majority of the work on the Enigma decoding was done by the British at Bletchley Park. Which leads to:

Lesson #1: No one is interested in watching the Brits save the day.

To be fair, the movie came out in 2000, which was before Clive Owen and Gerard Butler came into the action movie ranks. Orlando Bloom was still cavorting about in his elf gear. That's not to say that there were no good British actors working in the States at that time. I just can't think of any. Also, everyone knows that the Americans won the war and saved the world from Hitler. (Cue eye roll.) Unfortunately, because of this attitude in Hollywood, we don't seem to really get how good the Brits were doing at holding off. Yes, things were dark, but comparatively, we had it easy. Everyone was getting bombed. We weren't.

Lesson #2: Watch how you contain the prisoner.

Just because someone doesn't speak the same language as you doesn't make that person stupid. It just makes you unable to understand them. The German U-Boat commander was a smart guy--if he weren't, he wouldn't have been commander. He wouldn't have the suitable amount of stubble, and he wouldn't have that plaid shirt under an awesome cabled sweater. He was smart enough to act like he's an electrician, so let's go with that for a moment. If he were a sub's electrician, he probably knows the sub very well. So, when handcuffing him to a part of the sub, make sure he has more than one guard. And that said guard isn't a fresh-fashed sailor.

Lesson #3: It's okay to wildly shoot a gun in a submarine.

Jon Bon Jovi did it, and nothing happened. It didn't hit anything--those bullets just disappeared. Not one pierced the hull.

Lesson #4: When pretending to be Germans in order to infiltrate a German sub, make sure more than two people speak German.

So, our boy McConnaughy goes over to the sub with two boats full of sailors. Only two can speak German. This is not a good idea. They would be discovered fast. And they were. See Lesson #3.

And what if those two people were shot? Non-German Speaking Germans are suspicious to Germans. And we're supposed to believe America won the war? No wonder the rest of the world thinks we are stupid.

Lesson #5: Diversity on a submarine is a good idea. Especially if it's cliched and stereotypical.

You have to have the guy who doesn't want to be in charge but ends up being in charge.

An Italian with a chip on his shoulder.

A gunner named Trigger.

A mechanic named Tank.

The best friend who dies.

The chief engineer who is wise and gives advice to the first guy. And is played by Harvey Keitel. The token black guy who is the cook and miraculously knows how to pilot a sub.

And thus finishes the Inaugural Post of "Lessons Learned".

On Collecting

2010-12-11T19:43:00.003-05:00

Over Thanksgiving I went to visit the family and stayed with my parents. I ended up carting back two giant boxes of Barbies that I collected in high school and college. I was honestly hoping that they'd stay on the shelf at my parents until the end of time, but I was living a fantasy.

So, I hauled them back and kept them in the garage for two weeks until I had time to figure out where to put them. I'm at the point where I just want to take them out of the boxes and throw them in the Big Barbie Carry-all (okay, it's a Rubbermaid box) of the dolls I did play with. None of the dolls that I "collected" were high end ones with the exception of the King Arthur and Guinevere dolls (along withe Romeo and Juliet, part of the ironic "Together Forever series). Even those, comparatively, aren't high end.

When I first bought these dolls, most of them reproductions of the first Barbies, I took them out of the boxes. That's half the fun of these things, being able to take them out! But of course, the money is in keeping them in a box on a shelf somewhere. And in the interests of cleanliness (dusting is a pain), I packed them back in their boxes. Where they sat for ten years.

So, now I take a look at them. Tonight, in fact. And what do I find? Decayed elastic. Dust in the boxes, in a cosmic joke just to say, "See, you have to dust the doll anyway!" Box or not. And I go on E-bay. Guess what? Not shockingly, reproduction dolls aren't in big demand.

Of course, my joy in collecting them was not in the value they may or may not gain in time. Look at the Beanie Baby craze! All that money spent on beans and fabric that you can't give away at Goodwill.

Boxes tear over time; seams rip. Fabric fades and elastic decays. The usefulness of the item is now lost, and what joy did I get from the item? I can go back and point out other items I've "collected"--those My Little Ponies of about six years ago, got tons of those. All that Star Trek stuff, hundreds of dollars of ephemera that has long been sent off to a friend after an effort to clean out my house. That never-completed Enterprise model that I so desperately wanted. The Wesley Crusher action figure. That one hurts to admit. That Transformers toy. Had to have that one. Why? Oh, and I can't forget the Breyer Horse models from high school as well. (Those were replaced on the shelf by the Barbies.)

Am I enjoying them now? No. I can honestly say that the only things I still actively collect are my Donald Duck items (I can so identify with him and his irritated attitude!) and my American Girl dolls. That last collection has been the most enduring for me, having begun when I was 11 years old with the now-retired Samantha doll. I still buy things for them, and most importantly, I ENJOY them. They are not fads, like the others.

The Betrayal of the Blood Lily by Lauren Willig

2010-11-05T19:41:00.002-04:00

The Betrayal of the Blood Lily is the sixth (I think, I've lost count) in Lauren Willig's romance/chick-lit/mystery series that follows a series of spies named after flowers. The action has decamped from the British Isles and has arrived in India during the Napoleonic Era.

Lady Frederick Staines, born Penelope Deveraux, has found herself and her husband sent to India after their forced marriage. Neither is really fond of the other, but she must follow her husband, Lord Wellesley's special envoy to Hyderabad. They are escorted by Captain Alex Reid, who has spent his entire life in India. Suffice it to say, they run into danger, death threats, snakes, people who look like snakes, adultery, twisted family relationships, and more stupid flowery spies.

I'm going to be honest. I bought this book off the bargain pile. In fact, I have bought the entire series off the bargain table. I had bought this one full price, but God told me that I was being stupid because I got home and found out that the book's binding was severely damaged. So I took it back. And guess what I found on the bargain table? That's right. This book. This infuriating book.

I don't get the title, because there is no Blood Lily involved, just a French spy called The Marigold. Then there's an Indian spy called Frangipani. In fact, Blood Lilies are native to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, not India. I'm just tired of the spies. How long is this going to go on? It has ceased being creative and has now turned to a joke. "I wonder what flower is going to be used next? Ha ha."

Willig seems to have hit the "spy as romantic hero" trend on its way down. It's tired. It has been done. A lot. In fact, these books shouldn't even be hardback but straight to mass market due to the quality.

And I'm especially tiring of Eloise and Colin's love story that has been the thread among all these books.

Liveblogging New Moon

2010-09-26T13:59:00.010-04:00

Yesterday was my friend's kid's seventh birthday, and it was Twilight themed. Now, if you read my review of Twilight, I didn't care for it. It took me three months to read. But yesterday I watched the movie, quite willingly, for the second time. The hilarious part was when the kid kept taking her Twilight Barbie dolls and manipulating them along with the movie. She did slack off about half-way through, in which I was resorted to drastic measures by throwing things at the dolls to make them leave the scene.

2:00 Dream Sequence: Uh, Bella, that's not your gran. That's YOU. I got it way before you did. And I know what scares you.... not that you'll age and Edward won't, but that you'll look like that.

3:15 Romeo and Juliet: You're a senior in high school and you're just now reading this? What is Forks High School, severe remediation?

5:00 The color is WAY better in this movie. Bella must have been out in the sun because she's not as pale, and neither is Edward. What is that? Edward cracked a smile? Still needs a haircut, though. But, considering he's dead, his hair shouldn't grow, right? And I can see that the tangerine lip stain has been replaced by coral.

8:10 Jasper still has the broody "Humans are tasty" look.

8:40 Forget the vampires. Who cries when watching Romeo and Juliet? And that teacher who quotes along with the movie is Lame. I'm not saying that I don't quote along with movies, because I do. But I quote cool movies, like Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Oh, and The Scarlet Pimpernel. For example:

"I thought you were the Scarlet Pimpernel. "
"I could never presume to fill those shoes. I lack sufficient courage."
"I have yet to meet a more courageous, or a more handsome, cavalier."

I wonder how many times Edward has watched/read this story.

10:00 Tangerine lip stain is back. Thanks, Edward. And how cliched to quote the movie.

12:00 Edward, you have told the vampire secret and killed another vampire. I'm thinking the Voltari are going to come after you and rip your head off. Oh, if wishes were dollars....

Predictably, like a nut, Bella wants to be changed.

13:45 The vampires have discovered bronzer! They're not so pale! Emmett seems to be so human with the purchase of a good car radio. Oh, and nothing like a good vampire fight! No, it's a LOT of blood, Alice. Oh, and I know what's going to happen now. Edward will think it's his fault, go all passive aggressive and think that it's better off that he leaves, and Bella will be mooning about most of the rest of the movie.

And to think: I could be writing lesson plans!

18:00 Cue the regrets.

20:00 .... And he's not at school. Instead, he's at Bella's house, rooting around in her room for something. Oh, this can't be good. He wants them to take a walk! Oh, that's the death knell of the relationship right there. Walks never bring good news. Edward is obviously using the "Carlisle looks too young" excuse to break up with her. In the world of plastic surgery, Carlisle can botox those wrinkles away. I'd be more worried about Esme's looks staying the same.

23:30 And this is where Bella stars moping for the next hour. Edward, you can't break up with someone, ask them not to be reckless, and then say you'll never see her again, for her own sake. She's 18, Edward, she won't understand. This is the end of her world. She's going to listen to today's version of Alanis Morisette for hours in her room, stop washing her hair, and start to physically resemble the zombie she feels like inside. Better off faking your own death, dude. Or actually do it. you know you're bored with high school. You've graduated 20 times. At best, you're an illegal alien because you have no social security number, and you died in 1918 of the flu.

27:00 Shirtless Indian finds Bella. Brings her home. Jacob looks pissed off. Hey, but at least Edward's gone, mate. Now you have a chance. It's Halloween and Bella is dressed up as a zombie.... oh, wait. Nope. She's just depressed. And she's been sitting in her room, in the same spot for months. Time passes by, and it's December, and she's still sitting in the same chair. Now she's back at school. Now she's having nightmares. And receiving Undeliverable Mail notices from Alice's e-mail account.

30:45 Charlie wants her to go to Jacksonville to be with her mother because she's going through vampire withdrawal. So she's goes to a movie with a friend about zombies, and the friend wonders if it's a parallel for leprosy or consumerism or man's need to fit in or about the zombie apocalypse? Because we need to be worried about those zombies. And now Bella's going to do something reckless because Edward told her not to in her head, and she wants to see Edward, so she's going to do reckless things just to see his face. There's got to be a pill for that.

37:00 Yep. Stupid and reckless. And you're playing with Jacob, which upsets me. And his hair? Nicer than mine. I'm against that. Though I do love how Jacob turns everything into a Red/White issue. The repartee seems to be much more witty than in Twilight.

43:00 Bella finds something reckless to do--cliff-diving! Woot woot!

45:00 Here's where I'm having issues with Edward's "you'll never see me again"--it was a lie. Every time she's reckless, she sees him. What a crock! It's passive-aggressive behavior at its height! He's not helping her. As long as he keeps showing up when she's being reckless, she's going to continue being reckless. When you stop showing up, she's going to realize it's not going to help, being reckless to see you! Stop it!

50:00 Face Punch has to be the worst movie ever. After the one I'm watching , that is. (And don't hold Bella's hand.)

55:00 I bet Jacob's going through that change-of-werewolf time. It's a time that every young pup must go through on his way to becoming an adult werewolf-shapeshifter thing. When you have your "change", you cut your hair off, get an awesome tatt, and cut your jeans off so you have long shorts. Poor Bella, everyone is pushing her away! And stop e-mailing Alice!

1:01:00 That vampire dude is back. I don't know his name, the one with the dreds. He's right! He left you behind unprotected! At least it would be a better death than if Victoria killed her. Go ahead, let him kill you! Damn. The werewolves had to come out, ruin all my fun.

1:05:00 Werewolves are awesome.

1:10:00 who wants a vampire when werewolves are SO AWESOME? Vampires are all broody and depressed but werewolves get it done.

1:16:00 The truth is out about Victoria and that she's after Bella. Not missing Edward right about now. :) And stop e-mailing Alice! And just when I think Bella is getting over Edward, she cliff-dives.

1:26:00 I'm with Jacob. If James could totally trick Bella in Twilight, then Victoria could make her think the Cullens are back in town! Go with the hunky, brave, open werewolf, Bella! He's got a tan! Edward is too broody! And pale!

Alice finally got an e-mail. Maybe if she checked her email instead of relying on faulty psychic images, she'd know Bella didn't die.

1:32:00 Might I say that Jacob is brilliant? He's about to kiss Bella and guess who calls? Edward. Who is supposedly never going to go back to Bella but keeps warning her anyway, using his passive-aggressive personality to keep her tied to him. So, Jacob says that Charlie is too busy arranging a funeral and hangs up! Of course, Edward is going to think it's Bella's funeral. And it's not!

1:33:00 Edward wants to die now. Oh, I see. Romeo and Juliet. And Bella's not really dead. Wow. That's a subtle parallel.

1:37:30 The townspeople are chanting "Imhotep." I swear it! That's what all crowds chant! "Imhotep! Imhotep!"

Edward! Put that shirt on! Nasty! Where's Jacob when you need him?

1:44:00 The Volturi. Boring. Flashes of Cedric Diggory's death.

1:50:46 How stupid.

1:53:48 Sap sap sappy. Maple trees sappy. And WTH with the voting to become a vampire? I think they should go to couple's counseling. He's obviously against her decision, and to have this animosity around for the rest of forever isn't good for their relationship.

This ending sucked. A lot.

Creative Keepsakes Sampler

2010-07-28T09:29:00.002-04:00

This design is by Joy Hall and was called "Creative Keepsakes". I found it languishing in my mom's craft book collection.

This is the main sampler. There were two more designs of smaller, companion samplers that I do not have plans for at the moment.

Rose of Sharon Finished!

2010-07-07T09:50:00.000-04:00

I actually finished this project at the end of February, but better late then never! I really loved this project, but I am glad to have gotten it done!

The Hazards of Hunting a Duke by Julia London

2010-07-07T09:30:00.000-04:00

I remember first reading Julia London's "The Rogues of Regent Street" series in college, when they were first published in 2000. I really liked those books, so I moved on to the "Highland Lockhart Family" series, which I liked, but not as much. (I have issues with the heavy-handed use of the Scottish accent, as if I couldn't figure out they were Scottish without it.) Then London moved into contemporary fiction, and I moved on to other authors.

So, when I was at the bookstore looking for something to read--and having read through the new releases I had wanted--I turned to an old favorite to see if I would like her new series, "The Desperate Debutantes." The name of the series itself should have told me, "run away!" because who wants to be around someone desperate? And that there's more than one desperate debutante as well!

In fact, the book is filled with desperation. Ava Fairchild is desperate to find a husband after her mother's death leaves her and her sister destitute. The Marquis of Middleton is desperate for a wife that isn't the one his father chose for him. His father, the duke, is desperate for his son to man up and have an heir for the dukedom that will one day be his.

London attempts to bring humor into the book, but it falls a bit flat and slapstick. In a bid to get a suitable husband on a shoestring, Ava and her sister need to run a household with cheap servants. They go to the poor house to find servants whom they can't pay but are willing to house. Case in point, p. 67:

They had also managed to retain Mr. William Pell and his son, Mr. Samuel Pell, who had both been injured in a horrible carriage accident. Mr Pell the senior had lost a leg and therefore could no longer light lamps, as was his profession. HIs son, an apprentice, had a mangled arm that hung at a strange angle on his left side. But between the two of them, they managed to make one fairly decent footman.

Not only is the description lackluster, but the last line fell flat.

Both Ava and the Marquis enter their union knowing that the marriage was one of convenience. But, as this is a romance novel, feelings change and this is the plot that carries the book. The book is full of misunderstandings, not just between Ava and her new husband, but between her husband and his father.

Desperation, Misunderstandings, and Daddy Issues give this book a C.

Home in Carolina by Sherryl Woods

2010-06-30T12:43:00.003-04:00

I've been a bad, bad blogger with not posting all year! But now that the school year has ended and I'm on summer vacation, maybe I can eek out a few posts between now and August!

I recently read Sherryl Woods's Home in Carolina, part of her Sweet Magnolias series. The story is set in the fictional town of Serenity, South Carolina and the main characters are the children of some of her Sweet Magnolias characters. Ty and Annie had been best friends since childhood and destined to be together, until he cheats on her with a baseball groupie. Devastated, she cut Ty out of her life, until he comes back to Serenity to recover from a sports injury and to win her back.

Seems like a straight-forward romance novel plot. There's the deception, the trust issues, and the happy ending. But the book is filled with subplots and too many ancillary characters.

1. Ty and his injury

2. Ty and the custody issue over his son from his groupie relationship

3. Annie's friend Sarah and her divorce

4. Annie's friend Raylene and her abusive situation

5. Helen, the divorce attorney, and her mother's relationship

6. Is Annie's anorexia coming back

The story is told from too many points of view, though primarily Ty, Annie, and Helen. Everyone has their two cents to put in. Annie's parents, Ty's parents, the other Sweet Magnolias... there's an awful lot of talking in this book and very little action. Every one tells Ty to cut Annie slack, he betrayed her, she's delicate, she has a point... but the entire book comes off as an Annie pity party. Yes, Ty screwed up. But sheesh.

I really have no desire to read the other five books that are in the series, especially if the others are as convoluted and "talky" like this one. D.

Rose of Sharon Update!

2010-02-17T20:18:00.004-05:00

I am so close to done with Mirabilia's Rose of Sharon that I can taste it.

Maybe by the end of February?

'Tis the Season!

2009-12-19T13:30:00.002-05:00

It's Christmas time! I love Christmas, and lately I'm beginning to like it more than in the previous few years. Christmas used to be about how many presents I got, but lately I've begun to look past the Christmas sales towards what the season really means: being with family. I've rethought who I buy presents for, and most of my Christmas purchases are for my nephew. I know that, being ten-months old, he'll like the boxes and paper more than the actual presents themselves, but this Christmas is going to be good.

I usually make most of my presents every year. Last year I made scarves, and the year before that, checkbook covers. This year I haven't had as much time to make things because I purchased and moved into a new house, so the entire fall was busy with packing, visits to the bank, and looking at property. I ended up with a new house that I love, and the best part is that the mortgage is less than rent!

But I am still crafting. I have five different cross-stitch projects--obsessive, I know. I am still working on The Rose of Sharon, but I had to take a break from it after having to tear out 500 stitches (amazing what being 1 stitch off will do to it!). I'm also knitting scarves, crocheting a blanket, and sewing stuff for the house. I'm experiencing craft ADD right now, because I can't stick to one project!

Sex With Kings by Eleanor Herman

2009-11-21T20:50:00.004-05:00

One type of book that I'm always on the look-out for is a history book that is full of interesting stories that I can tell my students. History can be so boring in high school, with all its dates and boring political stuff (yawn), so if I can hook my students with a good story about scandal, gore, or sex, I consider that a plus.

I picked up Sex With Kings: Five Hundred Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry and Revenge by Eleanor Herman. I knew from picking it up that the book would be more anecdotal than of scholarly merit. As far as meeting the aims of interesting stories, the book met the goal. But, will I buy the companion novel, Sex With the Queen? I am unsure at this point. As useful it would be in the classroom, the price point and the knowledge that I can get the information from other sources deters me.

As a person trained not only in history but to teach it, the first thing I do when I start to read a work of historical non-fiction is to read through the bibliography. I'm looking for two different types of sources: secondary sources and primary sources. The more primary sources used, the more work the author put into not only the research and the writing, but the composition of the thesis of the book. Looking up information in the index of a book and replicating it is easy; reading stained and torn letters from a century ago is a different thing altogether. In Herman's case, the bibliography is a laundry list of secondary sources, biographies of kings, queens, and mistresses. Most of the publication dates ranged in the latter half of the 20th century, though the earliest came from the early 19th century.

My other issue was the flowery and informal language of the book. At times, Herman's narration resembles a tabloid magazine. In reference to the partitioning of Poland on p. 84,

Poland was no longer a sovereign nation, having lost its territory starting in 1786 to Russia, Prussia, and Austria, in a kind of international gang rape.

Just one example of exaggerated prose, and here is an example of unsubstantiated claims.

It was generally accepted that bastards were more intelligent and better looking than legitimate children.

Poor bastards. The legitimate children, I mean. Herman gives no evidence for this claim--who exactly during the time period (those 500 years) accepted this claim? Was it written in letters, diaries, newspapers? While her book is filled with footnotes, most of them are only for quotes that she borrowed from other books.

Her prose also glorifies the role of the mistress over that of the queen, making most of the royals out to be peevish, ugly malcontents who wished they could be as glamorous and loved as the mistress. Her bias regarding individuals is obvious--she nearly canonizes Madame de Pompadour while vilifying Wallis Simpson as "a woman whose face resembled the metal part of a garden shovel." Herman also prefers Camilla Parker-Bowles over that of Princess Diana, referring to her tantrums and "unruly behavior".

So, the book has served its purpose. I will definitely use some of the anecdotes in class to spark interest in history. C

Tempt Me At Twilight by Lisa Kleypas

2009-10-11T19:26:00.003-04:00

Okay, so this is the British cover, but I absolutely love it. Why do they get such classy covers while the States is stuck with pictures of half-naked women?

Tempt Me at Twilight is the third book of the Hathaways series. Both Amelia and Win ended up marrying their Romany lovers, so this story focuses on the story of Poppy.

Poppy is in her third season in London and is expecting a proposal from long-time suitor Michael Bayning. Gentle and conventional, Michael is everything Poppy wanted in a husband. What she didn't count on was that her unconventional family was a mark against her and the appeal she held for Harry Rutledge, the owner of the most successful hotel in London.

Rutledge, whose common past has pushed him to strive for excellence, would do anything to have Poppy, including ruining her chances with Bayning. But is marriage enough for Poppy?

As in all of Lisa Kleypas's books, I really enjoy her characterization. She rarely falls back on relying on the peerage to fill her books, instead mostly choosing more common characters. Her favorite time period is the Victorian period, where the middle class was rising due to the opportunities the Industrial Revolution afforded those willing to take advantage of it. I love her characters.

Where the book falls flat is with the plot. Kleypas's stories are very character-driven, but she also throws in a bit of mystery into each book. Sadly, this one fell flat. The villain was weak and not apparent until 3/4s of the way through the book. I didn't buy it at all.

B. Characters were great, but the plot holes were distracting.

What Happens in London by Julia Quinn

2009-10-11T19:00:00.004-04:00

"It was so irritating I couldn't stop."

So says our heroine, Lady Olivia Bevelstoke, about the gothic novel Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron.

I feel your pain, Lady Olivia, I really do. If Miss Butterworth's mother hadn't been pecked to death by pigeons, I'd wonder if her daughter was the heiress to a maple syrup fortune.

Lady Olivia is the beautiful and intelligent daughter of the Earl of Rudland, and the beginning of her story starts on a rather gothic note--rumors surround her new neighbor, Sir Harry Valentine. Did he kill his fiancee? In an effort to find out (for the good of all unmarried young ladies), she begins to spy on him as his office is visible from her bedroom window. Alas, she is far from stealthy as he is well aware of her spying and attempts to create mysteries for her to wonder about. Neither like each other from the beginning, but orders from the War Office throw him into her presence, and that of a Russian prince who wants Olivia for his own.

The usual Regency-era ingredients are there: intelligent young woman, man employed by the War Office, a mysterious foreigner, and plenty of balls and musicales. Oh, and quirky habits of the heroine. Olivia likes to make lists. Lots of them. Some of hers include Unmarried Lady Sorts of Things, Reasons Why I Might Be Crawling About on the Floor, and How I Would Like to Kill My Brother, Version 16. Like most of Quinn's books, her characters are more reminiscent of anachronistic reenactors who attempt to live like Jane Austen and fail miserably.

The use of a gothic novel within the book and the heroine's derision for the genre is ironic. "It was so irritating I could stop," reminded me so much of my own feelings for THIS book that I had to mark it. Then the use of Sir Harry saying "When a man writes a romance, the woman dies. When a woman writes one, it ends all tidy and sweet" had me thinking that I must have heard it before and reminded me of Quinn's use of the word truthiness in her previous book. I would love to be able to find that quote somewhere.

Lastly there was Harry calling Vladimir "Vlad the Impaler." This was too much for me. I saw none of the conventions that would have existed at that time, and I probably should just stick with Jane Austen.

C- for this fluffy, frothy confection. Too sweet, like Marzipan.

ETA 10/19/09: I found this on Julia Quinn's website.

Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron first appeared in It's in His Kiss as one of the books Hyacinth was reading to Lady Danbury. I had no plans ever to use it again, but when I needed Harry to give Olivia an unusual gift, it just popped into my mind. I LOVED writing the passages in this book. It is seriously fun to write bad literature.

Update: Rose of Sharon

2009-08-08T10:56:00.002-04:00

Just a quick update on the Rose of Sharon cross-stitch I've been working on. This is where I was before for a quick comparison.

My Retro Apron

2009-08-08T10:48:00.003-04:00

After I made my sister's really cool zebra apron, I decided to make myself one using another pattern in the same pack. The entire apron was made using scraps that I had at home.

The main part is a blue toile that is the theme of my dining room. My curtains are that main color. It goes really well with the blue transferware I have as my china pattern. I also have placemats from another pattern set that I will have to post.

The checked accent on the top, pocket, and ruffle match the accent on the placemats.

The ties are made from a navy blue broadcloth.

The lining is the only part that can't be seen. I used a blue and white pattern that matches in color. It was the only scrap that I had large enough for the back piece. I had no plans for it, so I'm glad I had a use for it!

And yes, I also had the pocket monogrammed!

The button accents are square, and I turned them on the corners in order to add more visual interest. The pattern of the toile is already horizontal, as is the gingham, so I felt that the slight angle to the buttons would give it a pop since I only used two colors.

Eric by Terry Pratchett

2009-08-05T18:32:00.003-04:00

When I was in college, I had to read Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. I eventually used the book to hold up the broken leg on my bed. It was just the right height. The book ended up having a rather large whole in it at the end of the semester, but it served its purpose. When I had to read it, I removed it from the top of the pile, and when I was done, I'd return it back to its place.

Apart from that, I had very little use for it. So, I was quite pleasantly surprised when I found out that Eric was a retelling of Faust, going so far in the book as to cross out the word Faust at the top of each page and writing Eric in its place.

The story is based on that of Dr. Faust (or Faustus), who makes a pact with the devil for three wishes. Only the Doctor in this story is none other than preteen Eric, complete with pimples, who calls for a demon only to be sorely disappointed in Rincewind the wizard. What are Eric's three wishes that he expects Rincewind to fulfill? Simple.

1. to be king of all the world

2. to have a smoking hot babe

3. to live forever

The problem? Rincewind. None of the wishes turn out the way Eric wishes them to due to their being followed by the King of Demons, who is upset that his filing and organizing was disrputed by a summoning gone bad. In another literary nod, this time to Dante's Inferno, the King of Demons has disrupted the various layers of hell by instituting new policies, replacing torture with boredom.

The historical allusions are also hilarious. The reader meets the Tezumen, who think Eric is their god come to life, Quetzovercoatl, the Feathered Boa, an homage to the Aztecan Quetzalcoatl the Winged Serpent. There is also the Tsortan War, in which Eleanor of Tsort was kidnapped.

Quite certainly the most enjoyable version of Faust I've come across. The joy of reading Pratchett is finding the allusions and parodies he places in his books. It's never a dull ride!

Lisa's Baby Blanket

2009-08-05T17:58:00.002-04:00

Finally, I finished Lisa's baby blanket! Good thing, too, because I was able to give it to her at the shower two weekends ago. I loved it. She loved it. I believe I can safely say that everyone loved it.

It even has a pocket!

It was a very straightforward blanket to make, with the border being done in seed stitch and the interior in knit-stitch. I used Knit Picks Shine Worsted in Cream, Bachelor Button, and Green Apple. The pattern is their own "Sheldon's Blanket", which I got off their website.

It's so incredibly soft and perfect for a little boy!

WIP: Rose of Sharon

2009-07-12T10:49:00.004-04:00

Lately I've been in a cross-stitching craze. The summer makes it too hot to work on my big knitting projects, and cross-stitching is perfect for when I'm watching television or movies. I'm working on a few projects at the moment, but the one I've been concentrating on is Mirabilia's "Rose of Sharon".

This is how much I've completed as of yesterday evening. The bottom picture was taken a few days before, and I included it because it contains a picture of the finished project. I am stitching it 2 over 2 on 32 ct. Cobblestone linen. I have made a change to the hair as well, since the original is a blonde. I felt that it blended in too well with the dress, so I changed the hair to brown. I love how it came out, and I am partial to brunettes. :) This is the second time I've changed the hair color on a project, and I'm very pleased with the results.

Little House on the Prairie

2009-07-12T10:42:00.003-04:00

One of the things I have been doing over my summer break (apart from obviously not blogging!) has been watching the show Little House on the Prairie, one of the strongest memories of my childhood. This was one television show that my parents had no problem letting me watch on my own, as it was filled with wholesome family lessons. I don't know which came first, though: watching the show, or reading the books. Both have been such an indelible part of my childhood that I cannot separate which came first. It's my version of the "chicken or the egg?" question that comes up in philosophy and religion classes. (BTW, I believe it's the chicken, according to Genesis.)

Of course, having been a fan of both book and show, I noticed some of the differences that existed between the books and the show at an early age. Where was this Walnut Grove that the television show was based in? How did it compare to the little town on the prairie, DeSmet? Did Laura have a baby brother who died? And who the heck is Albert Ingalls?

I also remembered some of the characters in the show. Among my favorites were Mr. Edwards, who popped up from time to time in the early books, but never in the later. I also liked the character of Nellie Oleson, because she served as such a foil to Laura. Laura was a tomboy, a true pioneer girl without airs. Nellie was the spoiled, snooty girl who had everything material Laura didn't have, but none of the grace and openness of Laura.

Having read the books and in the process of rediscovering the show, I felt it only proper to read Donald Zochert's biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Laura: The LIfe of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Author of The Little House on the Prairie. I've had the book for a few years, like many of my books, and managed to finish it just this morning. Reading it was a nostalgic trip for me, not because I've ever been to any of the places described, but because of what I read and saw on the show. In my next post, I will write my thoughts on this book and give a review.

Retro Apron

2009-05-24T09:50:00.002-04:00

My sister recently had a baby, got a new house, and has a host of other things going on making her life very busy. I wanted to make something for HER, not for the baby (though he's very cute), and I found these very cute patterns for retro-style aprons. I had a vision in my head of how I wanted it to look: hot pink and zebra stripes, because she loves both. I finally found the zebra stripes at my local Hancock Fabric and the hot pink came from my fabric stash.

Originally I was going to make fabric-covered buttons for the strap, but I found these really cute zebra-shaped buttons instead. How could I pass those up?

So, here's the final product. Hopefully I can get a picture of her wearing it eventually!

Very cute, and very easy to make. Love it!

What's Going On, Carolina?

2009-05-24T09:43:00.003-04:00

Finally, after a two year drought, my beloved Carolina Hurricanes made it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. In Round One, the Canes defeated the Devils in a 7 game series. Ditto in Round Two, in which they defeated the Eastern Conference Champs, the Boston Bruins. Both were very entertaining series.

So what happened? Right now the Canes are playing the Pittsburgh Penguins, and they've dropped the first three games by multiple goals. None of them were even close. We're down to one game left before being swept by the Pens. Can we not show a little pride and win at least one game so that we can prevent being swept before going to the golf course?

Granted, I'm impressed that the Canes made it this far. I'm less than impressed at the past three games. It's looking like Detroit and Pittsburgh will face off again in the Stanley Cup Finals. So, the big conundrum is this--who do I pull for? Detroit, a team made up of Scandinavian beasts who can put the hurt on someone by looking at them? A team that has an impressive showing of Playoff Beard? Or do I pull for Pittsburgh, the team that looks like it will beat mine, and filled with young superstars? A team which has Sidney Crosby, whose playoff beard looks like a chocolate milk mustache, and Evgeni Malkin, a resurrected Neanderthal with a really awesome first name?

This is going to be a big decision, with a lot of soul-searching in the coming days.

Star Trek: Canon Shmanon

2009-05-09T16:39:00.004-04:00

I've embraced my various layers of geek-dom: I'm a knitting geek, love Dark Shadows, and adore Transformers, but my geek-dom started in one place: Outer Space.

Star Trek. The Original Trek, with Mister Spock and Captain Kirk has always ALWAys been my favorite, above and beyond The Next Generation and the decline that started with Deep Space Nine. Sure, TOS is cheesy in a way that only the 1960s can be, but that was part of its charm. It was sexist (did you see those short skirts?) and bound by the social mores of the time (not to mention the special effects), but it had a message that wasn't overly preachy, something that later Treks could not maintain.

Let's not forget that it pushed boundaries. It did show the first interracial kiss on television, the one between Kirk and Uhura in "Plato's Stepchildren".

So, I was quite excited over the new Star Trek movie. The title harks back to the very beginning of Trek lore, with Captain Kirk and most of the entire crew of the starship Enterprise. (Dare I hope that Lt. Kevin Reilly shows up eventually?) Of course, with going back to the beginning, this is bound to get some Trekkers upset. (FYI: Trekkers are hard-core serious. I can't even attempt to make it that hard-core serious, so I have no problems in being called a Trekkie.) There's all this cry of canon, such as Chekov showing up in the movie even though he was obviously a second season addition.

But let's move past this. I believe that the Star Trek canon, if we include all the series, is bloated. In order to revive the franchise and bring new Trekkies and Trekkers in, changes need to be made. To merely go back and tell the same story again is akin to adding new special effects to Star Wars (lay it on me, fan-geeks, I can take the hate), or the revival of Dark Shadows. Granted, with the later, enough changes were made in the 1991 revival series to make it up-to-date and not a mere retelling. But it borrowed a lot from the series and House of Dark Shadows movie.

That's not to say this movie didn't borrow a lot from TOS. It did borrow a lot from canon. To be clear, Trek canon usually refers to what happened in the series and movies, and NOT in the many novels that were written as a result. But with ten previous movies and five live-action series (there was an animated series as well), the canon was very bloated. And in great Trek fashion, they did what Trek does best: transcend time.

Time-travel is not new to Trek. Kirk sling-shot around the sun numerous times, most notably in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which took Kirk and Co back to 1986 to save the future Earth from a mysterious probe that could speak only to humpback whales. (My family loves this movie probably best of all.) There were also various series episodes that borrowed a page from the movie, and some of my favorite episodes were time-travel ones. I love the entire concept, and was a fan of the first season of Sliders as well because of the alternate realities.

If I were a bigger sci-fi fan, which I'm not, I could probably say who was famous for the theory of alternate realities. I'm thinking either Carl Sagan or Isaac Asimov.

This movie is a true "alternate reality" of the Trek universe. Without giving plot away, a beloved character has to make some harsh decisions in the future. In the process of going through with it, he unwittingly creates a type of time warp that propels him back in time. As a result, the lives of the main characters have a slightly different trajectory than we're used to seeing without making them unrecognizable. They are all there, their personalities are still there, and there's enough action to keep even non-Trekkies happy for plonking down ten dollars for a ticket. Many of the lines are homages to TOS and the TOS movies. The movie moves as an action movie and is faster than previous movies in the series.

Devoted fans may see the Romulan Curse rearing its ugly head (as it's an odd-numbered movie), but I don't see it that way. I hesitate to call it number 11, instead calling it Version 2.1.

In fact, my geek-dom has crossed over to the point where I want to knit Scotty's hat.

The Problem With Our Health Care System

2009-05-08T17:15:00.002-04:00

This is going to be a rant, but it's not going to be a rant about the insurance companies or about socializing medicine. None of that political junk that gets everyone so heated up.

No, this is about decency.

Today I called the doctor's office to get an appointment to renew a prescription. It's one of those healthcare groups with five different doctors and two nurse practitioners. I've been going there for a few years when I had to go for urgent care. I've been seeing the same doctor there for the past year. Well, now she's gone, and I have to choose a new doctor. But there's nothing available until next week.

I ask for a female doctor, and the receptionist gives me an appointment for May 20th. "That's not next week," I said. She tried to tell me it was, but then I said, no, this week isn't over until tomorrow, try again. Nothing. I can call Monday to see if there was a cancellation, but I can't wait that long. I have to get a sub for work.

Eventually I end up going for a male doctor just so I can get my prescription next week. I admit--my fault for letting it go so long. The only thing available is morning--I prefer afternoon, because if I have to wait for THREE HOURS again, I won't worry about missing a class. So I go for a morning appointment and ask how long the wait is.

"I can't tell you."

WTH? She can't tell me because it's classified? What does the doctor do that early in the morning that I have to wait for over an hour?

This is ridiculous. There's no reason why people who make an appointment for 8 have to wait hours to see the doctor for fifteen minutes. In any other profession, if a person fails to make an appointment, it's over. But because we have to see doctors, we're at their mercy.

Don't tell me I have to be there at eight only to have to wait a few hours. Why not give me a 10 o'clock appointment when you'll see me?

No wonder we put off going to see the doctor. Oh, and a letter to all of my doctor's patients when she moved would have been nice. Jerks.

True Love and Other Disasters by Rachel Gibson

2009-04-28T19:46:00.004-04:00

Rachel Gibson has been an auto buy for me. I loved Simply Irresistible and adore See Jane Score. (That last one is one of my favorite books.) I couldn't wait for her next book about the Seattle Chinooks hockey team, and I went through four books and her entire backlist waiting for it.

And I got it. There are not a lot of women's fiction based around the sport of hockey, and Deirdre Martin is the only other author I've been able to find. I'm not as big a fan of Martin's work, because I have a huge issue with a fictional New York City team that claims to be part of the Original Six teams in the NHL. (Make it more believable, please.) So far, Rachel Gibson had managed to avoid a lot of the mistakes by not having the hockey rink the center of her plots.

She deviated from this with True Love and Other Disasters. Faith Duffy inherits the Seattle Chinooks from her late husband, Virgil Duffy. Their marriage reminds me of Anna Nicole Smith with her billionaire. Faith had once been a stripper and then a Playmate before a marriage of convenience with Virgil. Faith wanted security, and Virgil wanted a trophy wife. His son, Landon, hates that Faith received the hockey team and will do what it takes to get it from her.

In her dealings with the team she runs into Tyson Savage, the captain of the Chinooks, fondly known as "The Saint." His sole goal is to win the Stanley Cup and doesn't want uncertainty about the team's ownership to get in his way. He fights his attraction to Faith, but before he knows it he has to fight with her to acknowledge their relationship.

I was going great with this book until the last few chapters, which focus on the NHL playoffs. Knowing about hockey as I do, there are a few glaring errors that grated on my nerves. For example:

Game One of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Seattle Chinooks was played on Seattle's ice...

Game Two was played in Mellon Arena on Pittsburgh Ice.

Excuse me? This is such an easy thing to look up! In the best of 7 series, the first two games are played at the arena of the highest seeded team of the two, then the next two games are played at the other team's arena. Game Five and Seven are played at the first team's arena. I know better, Ms. Gibson!

The second thing I read was this:

All four players were given three-minute penalties and sat out the last few minutes of the second period in the sin bin.

I can't recall of a single instance of a three-minute penalty. There are two-minute minors and even a four-minute if blood is involved from the penalty, but not a three minute penalty. Then she mentions that the teams went 3 on 3, which I have not heard of ever. I have witnessed many 5 on 4s, 5 on 3s, and 4 on 4s, but I can't think of a single time when both teams were depleted to that extent.

I really wanted to give this book a higher score, but I can't go above a C. These are mistakes that are easy to look up. If Ms. Gibson is using an old edition of Hockey for Dummies, she needs to upgrade to a version written after the lockout.

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett

2009-04-19T10:05:00.003-04:00

As I mentioned previously, I discovered Terry Pratchett while in England, and have read a few of his books since. There's no need to read them in the order in which they are written or which they occur, so I used to just pick up a book I like and that was that. Now I have decided to read the story lines in the order in which I found them here. The L-Space Web is a great resource for Pratchett, with annotations and links to other great web places at which a great amount of time can be wasted.

The book directly follows the events of The Colo(u)r of Magic, in which the reader left the wizard Rincewind hanging off the edge of Discworld, which is carried on the back of four elephants, which in turn are carried on the back of the giant tortoise Great A'Tuin. Rincewind's great skill is not at wizardry but at staying alive. He meets back up with Twoflower the Tourist and The Luggage, which is still eating some people and staring down others.

This time, Rincewind's goal (instead of just merely staying alive) is to save the Discworld from the end of time. Unless all eight spells (one of which resides in Rincewind's head) are read from the great book the Octavo, the Discworld will be no more. The problem? The spell in Rincewind's head. The spell does not wish to be read, yet one wizard back at Unseen University wishes to get his hands on Rincewind.

Rincewind encounters even more interesting characters in this book, notably Cohen the Barbarian and Bethan, the virginal sacrifice. The reader also gets a glimpse into the Realm of Death, which is surprisingly full of flowers and a quaint cottage. There is also a bit of time spent in a magical store, which can never be found in the same storefront twice.

Another whimsical book that I couldn't put down. Pratchett's book is smart and humorous, and finding the rest of his books will be great fun!

New Dollar Bill Coins, Yo

2009-04-11T11:01:00.003-04:00

Okay, I've been receiving this e-mail from a bunch of upset people:

This new coin came out this month

The U.S. Mint hopes the redesigned $1 coin will win acceptance with consumers.

It does not have In God We Trust on it. Another way of leaving God out.

Send this on and let consumers decide if it will win acceptance or not.

This reminds me of the e-mail I received when I was working at the Disney Store. Apparently Walt Disney, Jr. and Microsoft were giving out free trips to Disney World. Free trips! Do you know how expensive a trip to the World is? It's crazy expensive, so who isn't going to send this on?

Me. Issue #1: There's no way to track who sent the e-mail on or who were the first 1,000 to do so. Issue #2: There's no Walt Disney, Jr.! Walt Disney had two daughters, but no sons.

See the little bits of wisdom I learned?

So, when I received the above e-mail about the new coins, I knew it had to be wrong. Mostly because I had the Martin Van Buren coin (yay! Van Buren, the successor to Andrew Jackson and that may be about it) and looked at the coin when my eyes lit on this:

Cool! It's on the side! And heck, yeah, I'm going to accept it, it's legal tender. It's backed by the government (and not much else). And they're really cool.

So, I did some research, trying to figure out the change. And I came up with this:

(10) In order to revitalize the design of United States coinage and return circulating coinage to its position as not only a necessary means of exchange in commerce, but also as an object of aesthetic beauty in its own right, it is appropriate to move many of the mottos and emblems, the inscription of the year, and the so-called "mint marks" that currently appear on the 2 faces of each circulating coin to the edge of the coin, which would allow larger and more dramatic artwork on the coins reminiscent of the so-called "Golden Age of Coinage" in the United States...

So there we go. Problem solved. Though I do carry around my John Quincy Adams (who shined better after his presidency, like the Jimmy Carter of the 19th century) coin to show my students. It's still there.

Yarn Geek Love

2009-04-04T10:28:00.004-04:00

I realized that I haven't updated my projects here recently, something that I'm going to have to fix! I have finished things, including two aprons, another beret, and the back of a crocheted baby sweater. I've also frogged a few knitting projects, like a scarf I was going to make out of fun fur. I've had the fur in my stash for years, and in my effort to get rid of some of this yarn before buying more, I was going to knit a scarf with it. I ended up tearing it apart because I did not like it or the fun fur!

I'm sure I can find someone who is willing to take it off my hands. :)

I've also been trying more non-acrylic yarns, like Knit Picks Shine Worsted to make Sheldon's Baby Blanket. (I'd link it, but it's not on Knit Picks free patterns for some reason.) I love this yarn! It's nice and smooth, soft, and knits up well. The price point isn't bad, either. I'd post pics, but it's a gift, so it'll wait until after it has been gifted.

I also bought some Alpaca that I found languishing on the bottom shelf of my local Tuesday Morning. Most of their yarn is sadly in a state of yarn barf, but I was able to find three hanks of a lovely hand-dyed alpaca. Don't know what I'll do with it (probably a hat and scarf combo), bu the right pattern will come to me in time!

I also invested recently in a ball winder because I'm tired of my skeins collapsing in on themselves. I love the ball winder from Knit Picks! Next is to find an affordable swift so I won't get twisted hanks..... :)

ETA: I'm also working on my t-shirt quilt and my taxes.

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

2009-03-27T21:32:00.003-04:00

I first found out about Pratchett and his Discworld novels during my exchange trip to England in college. I was out of reading material and a friend of mine gave me one of his books to read. Eight years later and I'm still reading his books!

The first book in the Discworld series, The Color of Magic introduces us to the very colorful creation of Pratchett's mind. Discworld is carried on the backs of four giant elephants, which in turn are carried by Great A'Tuin the turtle. The gender of Great A'Tuin is in question, and the main objective of Krull through the years was to discover if Great A'Tuin was male or female.

Then there is Ankh-Morpork, in which we find the wizard Rincewind, though to call him a wizard is a great exaggeration. He finds himself pressed into service by acting as a tour guide for Twoflower, the tourist. Through the book, the hapless wizard is led on more adventure than he had ever wished to encounter.

The book is great set-up for the series, as Twoflower and Rincewind find themselves traveling across the Discworld in search of adventure (or in Rincewind's case, avoiding it). The book is not a quick read, but needs to be savored, as Pratchett uses humor and satire to paint his world. He throws a lot of fairy tale and fantasy plot devices into the book, though by no means does he limit himself. The city of Ankh-Morpork, for example, is based off the city of Budapest in that it was once two cities separated by a river. The Patrician of the city is very Machiavellian in his methods. There is also Hrun the Barbarian, who is the epitome of every hero in any story--from his long, flowing locks to his single-mindedness in finding damsels and treasure.

The cover of the book is my biggest issue, as it is very boring. Pratchett's books are full, and the American covers fail to fulfill that. The British covers, on the other hand, are very busy.

With the British covers, I frequently find myself trying to figure out who are what characters and what is going on! They're not known for their attractive qualities, and they don't look contemporary, but rather something I would pick up at a yard sale or flea market. With the smell of decaying paper.

Regardless, there must still be some kind of happy medium between the two covers. The American cover fails to deliver for the goods inside, while the British cover delivers the goods too well.

Lastly, I found out today that there is a movie for The Color of Magic. Granted, it was a television movie and only seen in the United Kingdom, but I am still curious enough to wish to see it. At first I thought it might be an animated movie, but no, it is quite live action. It stars Sean Astin as Twoflower and Jeremy Irons as the Patrician. (That last bit is enough for me to want to see it.

Granted, they are going to take some liberties with the story. The movie includes the character "Cohen the Barbarian" (see his play on things?) while the book had "Hrun the Barbarian." It also includes characters that will show up in later books in the Discworld series. Some research shows that the movie is based on The Color of Magic as well as the next book, The Light Fantastic.

In a perfect world, the Discworld series would continue. Alas, Pratchett was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's, which means the end of Discworld will come sooner than we all could wish for.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

2009-03-13T22:29:00.001-04:00

It's not very often that I find myself crying because of a book. Usually if I do, it's because I either get a paper cut or the book is so horrible that it makes me miserable.

Not so with this book.

The story starts with a stampede and a murder at the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Jacob Jankowski, Cornell-educated veterinarian, is witness. In the book, he tells the story of how he ran away from his life and joined the circus. What starts as a cliche turns into a touching story of a man who comes of age during the Great Depression and navigates the treacherous waters of a traveling circus. Gruen's characters are vividly painted, from the blustery ring top leader (who is not a Benzini Brother), to the star of the equestrian act, and to the "great gray hope" of the show, elephant Rosie.

Gruen's inspiration to write about a Depression-era circus came from an article she read in the Chicago Tribune about circus photographer Edward Kelty. She writes about the circus in times before political correctness spelled the end of the "freak show" (the Lovely Lucinda was Uncle Al's underweight fat lady--she was no 850 lbs) and the pressures from PETA. Gruen also highlighted the behind-the-scenes back-stabbing as well as the competition among the various circus outfits. A bonus were the added circus photographs from the great depression, which added realism to a wonderful story.

I would definitely recommend this novel. It's a modern historical fiction with elements of mystery and a twist on a murder.

Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer

2009-03-13T20:53:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading Devil's Cub, the sequel of These Old Shades. It is the story of Justin and Leonie's son, Dominic, the Marquis Vidal. The story opens when Vidal shoots a highwayman on the way to a party. This sets the character of Vidal very well, as he is very debonair, sophisticated, and can do no wrong. Every man wishes to be him, and every woman wants him.

He, however, does not want any woman. His eyes are on the lovely Sophia Challoner, but not as his wife. Instead he wishes to whisk her off to France and give her carte-blanche. In an effort to stop her sister from ruining her reputation--for Sophia thinks the Marquis means marriage--Mary Challoner takes her place. Alas, by the time Dominic finds out the switch, he is so angered that he takes Mary in her sister's place.

On their journey through Paris, Dominic discovers that Mary is nothing at all like Sophia and he has made a huge mistake. He immediately offers marriage, but Mary declines, preferring the life of a governess to that as his wife. After a sojourn in Paris, an escape attempt, and the arrival of the Duke of Avon on the scene (which Vidal was hoping to avoid at all costs), the story is in full swing.

It's a great story and I would definitely recommend her books. Right now I am tired of more recently published romance novels, especially the ones that descend quickly into the sex scenes and the love between the characters is not quite believable. I enjoy picking up a Heyer because it's a deeper read and so enjoyable. She is one author that a glom will not ruin!

Lenten Eve

2009-02-24T18:38:00.003-05:00

Or, as others call it, Fat Tuesday. Mardi Gras. We always had pancakes at church, which was fine by me because pancakes are always good. One of the very few perks of going to CCD on Tuesday night was the Pancake dinner we always had on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. (It was always the worst homework night, though, because all of the Protestant kids went to church on Wednesday. My teachers didn't care.)

So, I had to think about what I was going to give up for Lent this year. One year I gave up chocolate, which was impossible. I cheated. Two years I gave up Cherry Coke, which is my favorite soft drink of all time. I forgot a bunch of years.

This year, I want to eat healthy. That means giving up things like McDonald's and other fast food items. Ice cream. I plan on keeping a food log of my healthy food. If I can do this for forty days, I think I can get back on the healthy train.

I see good times ahead!

Rest in Peace, Socks

2009-02-21T08:47:00.003-05:00

News today that the Clinton's pet cat from Bill Clinton's presidency has passed away at the advanced age of 18 due to cancer. Lest we think that the Obama search for a mythical hypo-allergenic dog (they don't really exist!) is the first instance of a presidential pet, Socks reminds us that the president has a family side as well. Pets show us a facet of the highest public official in the land that is not usually seen at press conferences or in controlled interviews.

And who couldn't love that sweet face? He reminds me of my own cat, Gemma.

This picture is absolutely adorable. A Presidential Cat--can't do worse than their human counterparts, I'm thinking. It's a tough job.

So, Rest In Peace, Socks.

Yarn Galore!

2009-02-14T10:22:00.002-05:00

Okay, I found out that Hobby Lobby was discontinuing more yarn. So I went and bought some.

Truth: I bought a lot.

The hardest part of the yarn I bought is that it is novelty yarn, which makes it more difficult to find projects to make out of it. It's a lot of that "tape" yarn which looks really good on the skein, but not so much in a finished project.

Sigh. But it's so pretty.

Dogs and Goddesses by Crusie, Stuart, and Rich

2009-02-10T20:15:00.003-05:00

I have very few authors that I auto-buy for anymore. When I first started reading romance, there would be almost two releases a month that I would have to buy. Not so much any more. Along with Susan Elizabeth Phillips I auto-buy Jennifer Crusie's books, even her collaborations with other authors. This one includes Anne Stuart and Lani Diane Rich.

The collaboration is a tricky thing. With three authors on the cover, the tendency to think the book is an analogy is pretty high. This book is a novel, with all three parts nearly seamlessly working together. The authors have been very open about the process on their blog, Dogs and Goddesses. The other type of collaboration, which this is not, is the one where a well-known author puts his/her name on a book with a less well-known author to help that author get a following. This is similar to the process used by the anthology, which one or two well-known authors are tied with one or two other authors that are less well-known.

If a collaboration must be done, I prefer the novel over the anthology. Anthologies usually have stories that would be more interesting if fleshed out into a full book, or the stories are so dull that they're not worth reading.

Dogs and Goddesses follows three women in a small Ohio town who are drawn to a dog training class. While there, they meet the enigmatic trainer, Kammani, who hands them a tonic to drink. In a short period of time, the three women not only meet the men of their dreams, but they hear voices and swear their dogs are talking to them. Before long, they're all trying to defeat an ancient Mesopotamian goddess that's trying to regain her rightful place in the world.

I'm no expert on anything Mesopotamian, so that helped me to suspend my disbelief well enough, and the authors' note at the beginning about how it is all made up made me feel even better. I did find the myth a little confusing and kept having to go back to parts that I re-read already in order to solidify it. Of course, after having read it, I found the entire myth on the webpage.

This is one of my pet-peeves: if there's a mythology created for the book, the reader shouldn't have to rely on outside sources to discover it. This isn't a series, and that's a completely different kettle of fish. I shouldn't have to do research to enjoy a novel. I didn't read the blog as it was being created, and I don't feel that should be necessary in order to join a book. It feels much too clique-ish.

Based on that, I give the book a solid B. I liked the story, and it's good for a collaboration.

What I Did for Love by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

2009-02-01T11:23:00.003-05:00

I rarely buy hardcovers. If they're on the bargain table and cheaper than the paperback, I buy it. If it's a book on history and I can't wait to get it, I buy it. If it's by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, I buy it. I tried to wait for Match Me If You Can a few years back and almost couldn't do it. So, I've bought the last two of her books in hardcover, and almost wish I had waited.

Former child star Georgie York has been dumped by her actor husband for a humanitarian actress. She and her detestable former co-star, Bram Shepard, end up running into each other in Vegas, and the inevitable happens--they run to an all-night chapel and end up married. Each of them have different reasons for wanting to stay in the marriage of appearances, but what will it turn into?

Like all of Phillips books, the two main characters go through a transformation. They are not the same people they were at the beginning of the story. Georgie is fragile after her break-up, and the constant attention by the paps doesn't help matters. She's trying to figure out the next stage in her career and up against her stage-father who insists on running her career. Bram probably goes through the least transformation, as he gives the appearance of being dissolute at the beginning of the book, though the reader is quick to realize that Bram has grown a lot since his partying days on the set of their sitcom.

There is also a secondary romance with Georgie's father, Paul. His story to me was more interesting, as he put his dreams on the back burner for the sake of his daughter. The relationship with his daughter also undergoes a radical transformation.

The weakest part of the story was the setting. I'm not a Hollywood person--I find the E! network horrible, and I feel icky every time I find myself watching it. The inspiration for the story was also very obvious--the parallels between the Jennifer Aniston and Jolie-Pitt affair slap the reader in the face. Are there differences? Sure, but Phillips makes the Jolie-Pitt characters in the book very flat. There's nothing at all to like about them, even though they're not really villains.

The traditional Phillips hallmarks are present, but it's not my favorite venture by her. I'll return to her backlist.

B-

All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris

2009-01-31T13:21:00.003-05:00

I've lost count as to how many Sookie Stackhouse books I've read. I'm thinking that this may be book number 7!

All Together Dead picks up in the aftermath of the trip Sookie took to New Orleans, where she met the vampire Queen of Louisiana and witnessed the death of the vampire King of Arkansas. She is now fully embroiled in the world of the supernatural: vampires, werewolves, fairies, and demons, to name a few. Now she has returned to Bon Temps. Hurricane Katrina has forced the vampires of New Orleans to relocate, including the Queen. Sookie is also still estranged from her ex-boyfriend Bill.

The main action of the novel takes place in the city of Rhodes, where Sookie is going to a vampire convention. While there she meets up with Barry Bellboy, another telepath that she met in Dallas. He works for the King of Texas in the same capacity Sookie works for the Queen of Louisiana: they ferret out information from the other humans who work for the other kings and queens. The main event of the convention is the trial of the Queen of Louisiana for the death of her husband. While the vampire convention seems to be going smooth at a vampire hotel, the Fellowship of the Sun has been protesting the entire event.

The usual cast of characters shows up in this book, including Eric and Quinn the were-tiger. Harris is really ratcheting up the tension in this book and hinting at future problems between vampires and humans. Harris created a believable world, using reality as her backdrop for the supernatural. Her voice is consistent throughout the series, yet she manages to show a growth in the character of Sookie, who has grown more world-weary and sarcastic. I'm not sure how much I like this new Sookie, but it's understandable.

B+

More Knitting!

2009-01-23T14:57:00.004-05:00

I know, it's been a while since I've posted! It's been a crazy January, but in a good way. First was getting back to work after the Winter Break, then I went to Savannah to go dress shopping with a friend getting married in May. Then this past week I was off on a "business" trip for the State Department.

I've finally learned how to knit with DPNs, which means I can avoid sewing a seam up the back of hats. Berets seem to be really popular this year, so I started with this orange and pink confection, with the pattern (Baroness Beret) off of Ravelry. I was going to give it as a gift, but I love the colors and I love the hat. So I kept it! Now I just have to make a scarf to match it!

Then I had to find a gift for a friend, because that beret was going to be it! So, I went with a vintage pattern in my grandmother's correction. Here I am modeling it! I used Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn! and Featherwhisp. It looks gorgeous!

This is the picture of the pattern from my grandmother's collection. Very straight-forward pattern from "Diamond Angora". I haven't been able to find a copyright date, though judging by this pattern and the other three in the pamphlet, I'm gauging it at the 1960s.

Now, the hat that I'm wearing doesn't wear the same way as the model, but I think I know why.

1. I don't really have thick enough hair to pull into the hat.

2. I didn't use Angora, but a thicker acrylic yarn and the Featherwhisp.

3. I modified the pattern to have a tubular cast-on instead of sewing a hem.

Regardless, I like the way it looks, and the recipient has gorgeous, thick hair!

Never Romance a Rake by Liz Carlyle

2009-01-03T21:55:00.003-05:00

Never Romance a Rake is the third book in a trilogy about the siblings of Neville shipping. The first book was about Miss Xanthia Neville, the second was about their family friend Gareth Lloyd, and this book is about Kieren, Baron Rothewell.

Rothewell is a dissolute drunkard whose past, like many romance heros, haunts him. He attempts to escape it by playing cards and drinking himself into an oblivion, but this plan backfires on him by ruining his health. One night he is playing cards when the pot is sweetened with Comte Valigny's daughter, Camille. He wishes to get his ungrateful daughter off his hands, and she wishes to be away from her father. Her pickings are slim, and in a rare burst of compassion, Kieren cheats because her other option that night is even worse than him.

Camille's background is equally sordid to that of Kieren. Her mother had been married to an English lord, but she ran off with the comte early into her marriage. The husband divorced her mother, which was scandalous, and Valigny never married her mother thanks to some Church rule about divorced people marrying. After her mother's death, Camille found that her maternal grandfather left her a large bequest, and she pushed Valigny to find her a husband.

Neither Kieren nor Camille want anything more than a business-like marriage. As time passes, though, this becomes impossible. This is one of Carlyle's books that doesn't have a mystery behind it--it is more character-driven than plot-driven. The questions brought up in this book are about Camille's parentage and Kieren's health.

Carlyle is very good at writing tortured, yet realistic, characters. They have good reasons for being the way they are from their pasts, and this goes beyond a mere "I was a spy for the English government during the Napoleonic Wars" spiel that so many books have. That or the "My mother died when I was young" or "My daddy didn't love me" chestnuts that are thrown about. No, Carlyle's characters have been through a lot. And I respect her in that not all of her nobles are earls or dukes. She uses those titles, but lesser noblemen are acceptable as well.

End of the Year Knitting Blitz

2008-12-31T20:31:00.007-05:00

Okay, they're all scarves! What I like about scarves is that they are quick to knit up, so there's instant gratification. And when I start to make one scarf for someone, I usually have to make at least two more!

This one is for my friend Lisa. She asked for it to wear while she is coaching softball. The scarf is 100% acrylic (and proud of it!) and is in the blue and gold colors of LCHS.

This scarf is for my friend Amishacoe, who loves the color purple! Everything I've ever made for her has been purple, so why ruin a good thing?

And this one was for Justin. Very simple pattern, same as Amishacoe's. It's knit one row, then k1, p1 for row 2. Then alternate until it's done!

Christmas Song Round-Up: Lou Monte

2008-12-26T12:11:00.003-05:00

This year I can't say that I've been in the Christmas spirit to the extent of those around me. I bought gifts for my loved ones and dearest friends, but I didn't put my tree up and I don't do Christmas cards. Why no tree? Well, I don't spend Christmas at my house, but at my parents, so I don't even enjoy my tree on Christmas day.

And then there are the Christmas songs on the radio. Why do they start the day after Thanksgiving? I think what tires me out and keeps me out of the Christmas spirit is the crass commercialism that every holiday has embraced. Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, even MLK Jr Day and President's Day is yet another excuse to have a long weekend. So, when I hear Christmas songs for four weeks, I am driven crazy. If they were good Christmas songs, then I wouldn't mind so much. But no, I am forced to endure things like "Don't they know it's Christmas time at all?" or "Dominic the Christmas Donkey."

Hee Haw. Hee Haw.

So, imagine my surprise and lack of delight that Lou Monte had more than one Italian animal hit! There was "Pepino the Italian Mouse", which, according to Wikipedia, "tells the humorous tale of a mischievous mouse who lives within the walls of a man's kitchen and who comes out at night to eat cheese, drink wine, frighten Lou's girlfriend when she comes over and befriends the cat, sent out to catch him." Then let's not fail to mention "Pasquale, the Italian Pussycat" and "Paulucci, the Italian Parrot."

But I'm going to move away from that to touch on another aspect of Monte's illustrious animal career and digress momentarily. Recently I heard Stephen Peters talk at my school about how essential it is to know the students we teach. One part of his presentation that hit me was how, in the past fifty years, the way students receive their information has changed radically. Instead of having the home, school, and church being the top three influences on children, this has changed to having Media/TV being the top spot, followed by peers! Wow, this has changed drastically, and not for the better.

I have witnessed this in my own job. Most of my students' history "knowledge" has come from movies, especially those starring Mel Gibson. For the love! I am so tired about hearing about Braveheart and Patriot, two very historically inaccurate movies. How many times have I heard from Honors students, "So, when Mel Gibson...." They can't differentiate between good entertainment--or even bad entertainment--and reality!

And so this brings me back to Lou Monte and his songs. Specifically "What Did Washington Say (When He Crossed the Delaware)?". Again, according to Wikipedia

At one point in the song, "Washington" complains that the pizzas his wife Martha baked were as "cold as ice". His solution? "Sell them to the Indians for only half the price." He then asks his boatsmen to row faster because "tonight I'm posing for my picture on the dollar bill."

What? Sheesh, at least back when Monte wrote the song kids knew better than to believe it, but now I have to climb uphill to convince students that Martha Washington did not cook pizzas. My saving grace? Luckily my students have not heard of Lou Monte.

High School T-Shirt Quilt

2008-12-21T16:46:00.004-05:00

This is my latest project, which I have to put back on hold. More on that in a second!

I had a box of stuff from high school and Girl Scouts, and most of that was taken up by t-shirts that were hole-y and stained. They were just sitting there, so I decided, why not do something with them?

So, I'm making a quilt out of them! Last year I fused interfacing onto the back so the stretchiness of the tees didn't drive me insane. They'd been sitting in my closet and sitting in my closet... so this weekend, I put the sashing on!

I had enough of the red fabric from a previous quilt to use, but I hit a snag: none of it was long enough for the border! So, when I have some extra cash, I'm going to buy black for the border and for the backing. That'll fit my school colors of red and black, and then I'll be able have use for something from high school!

'Bout time that high school was good for something besides a way to get to college. ;)

Life List

2008-12-17T16:46:00.004-05:00

I found this list on Apron Strings and thought I'd give it a try!

I’ve marked the ones I’ve done in purple.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland but i have been to disneyworld
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book - One Day!!!
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. successfully stopped smoking

The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig

2008-12-16T20:10:00.003-05:00

The Seduction of the Crimson Rose is the fourth book in Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation Series. A very popular genre within the last decade is the Napoleonic era (if you are in France) and the Regency era (if you are in England). Spying is the favored profession among England's noble elite, and if one is a nobleman, you are expected to serve your country.

Indeed.

So much so is this particular time period popular that a lot of books run together in plot. Willig's books differ in that they fit into historical fiction more than historical romance. They have a slight flavor of a regency romance over a true romance novel.

In The Crimson Rose, Mary Alsworthy is approached by Lord Vaughn to work for the Pink Carnation. In return for being bait to lure the Black Tulip (the Carnation's archnemesis) out into the open, all Mary wants is for Vaughn to fund the next Season for her. Why? Pride. Mary's younger (and homelier) sister recently wed Mary's former suitor, and the brother-in-law has offered to fund the next Season. Mary, however, doesn't wish to be seen as an object of pity, so she'd like her Season to be funded in another way.

Lord Vaughn has good reason for picking Mary: her black hair is one hallmark of agents that work for the Tulip. Mary is also a good screen for Vaughn, who has been suspected by many, including those in the Pink Carnation's circle, of being the Black Tulip.

Of all the couples in the books, I like Mary and Vaughn the best. They are not perfect. Mary can be cold and manipulative, well aware of the fact that as a woman, her status depends on making a good marriage. She wants to be comfortable, and she realizes that comfort and love are not the same thing. Vaughn is also sarcastic and has a dry wit; the two often trade barbs. Vaughn also has the requisite black past, complete with dead wife, dead mistresses, and membership in various and sundry hellish clubs. His reputation is hardly pristine, and he is well aware of it.

Many of my comments on this book are the same as the other books. The book is a light read and doesn't fit cleanly into one genre. It's a combination of chick lit and historical fiction, with a dash of mystery. It's very light on history, with not a lot of substance, mostly the outer trappings. It should not be read to get a deeper understanding of the time period.

I'm not sure where Willig is going with the series. We know who the Pink Carnation is. Her historian, Eloise, knows who the Pink Carnation is, and she's well on the way to a Happily Ever After herself. Willig introduced an element of the Jacobite Rebellion, when Bonnie Prince Charlie attempted to take his "rightful" place on the throne of England.

Since I liked the main characters, which is what really counts, I give the book an A.

A Shout-Out to SportSquee!

2008-12-09T20:22:00.002-05:00

I love Margee's website, because as a relative sport neophyte, she makes sports hilarious. And since I regularly make snarky comments about just about anything I can, I love it.

Today's installment is one of her regular That's Entertainment! With the Staal Brothers, this time reviewing the movie Twilight. I have been waiting for this with bated breath.

The next time I watch a Canes game, I'll be cracking up over that line about Rod Brind'amour reading the series aloud to Eric Staal. Oh, and Evgeni Malkin-Staal's constant Russian prattle.

Early Christmas for Me!

2008-12-04T18:29:00.002-05:00

A few months ago I found out that American Girl was shoving Samantha into the archives, which sent every Samantha fan on a mad chase to get whatever else they needed to complete their collections. I went and ordered some things, and one of them was Samantha's trunk.

It was backordered.

I was devastated. I have wanted this since I was eleven. I asked for it for Christmas quite a few years running. I never did get it, though. I went through the television, VCR, stereo, and fish aquarium (which magically kept fish alive FOREVER until I sold the whole kit at a yard sale). But no trunk. I thought I'd never get it. And as soon as I found out it was backordered, I thought I'd never get it.

But it came today! Granted, the UPS guy left it in my recycle bin, but I knew what it was! So, after I ate dinner, I put my Samantha stuff into it.

It's gorgeous! I love it! It's so roomy! And I didn't realize how many outfits I actually had until I had to shove them into the trunk.

And here is my doll with it, and she's wearing one of the spring dresses.

It Really Is a Small World....

2008-12-03T19:02:00.002-05:00

When I was three, my parents took my to Disney World. I may have been two, but how would I know? Any memories I have are either a)nebulous or b) entirely made up. There are pictures. Anyway, like any good tot, my favorite ride was It's a Small World. So much, in fact, that the guy running the ride told my parents not to get off the boat. That's not likely to happen today, given the long lines and crush of baby strollers.

But it really is a small world. I also learned that I CANNOT LEAVE TOWN WITHOUT THE INTERNET. Or at least find free internet. I went to a conference on Monday and in two days, a rug has been pulled out from under my feet. And had the hotel I was staying at had wi-fi access that was free like most hotels AND McDonald's, I wouldn't have been shocked in between checking out the Carolina Hurricane's schedule and researching Taba questioning for my high school classroom.

So, I am at the Carolina Hurricanes website and the first thing you see is this rotating headline complete with pictures. I see something that says Paul Maurice is the new head coach? What? No, that must be old news. Really. So, I advance through the headlines and....

Paul Maurice is the new head coach.

O. M. E. G. Oh my effing gosh. (My students could find this, and I have to put forth a good example. Ha ha. Be quiet.) Why such a big deal? Well, the coach he's replacing replaced him a few years ago. Hence the "It's a Small World" reference.

Am I upset? Eh. Not really. I want my team to win. I know that winning isn't everything, but sometimes it just is. I want my boys to go to the playoffs again. I want them to go far into the playoffs. We haven't done that for two years after winning the Cup, and November was a crappy month for us.

So, good luck Coach Maurice. At least Obama has a harder climb ahead of him than you do.

Constantine, Christianity, and "That Dude's Movie Code"

2008-11-30T22:25:00.004-05:00

I've been reading Mysteries of the Middle Ages And the Beginning of the Modern World by Thomas Cahill. I picked it up because I very much enjoyed his book How the Irish Saved Civilization. I picked this book up because I've frequently thought of the Middle Ages as a backward era lacking in education and intelligence. Despite the legends of knights and castles, it's not one of my favorite time periods to read about or to teach.

My students, however, disagree. They love it. This is the one time period where they are enraptured by everything. So, I try to oblige. Hopefully this book will help open my eyes to some of the more interesting topics that I've skipped in my dislike.

So far I've found the book interesting, though I still have not progressed past the Roman Empire. Official tolerance of Christianity was brought by the emperor Constantine. I did read an interesting footnote that I couldn't pass up without a mention:

The depiction of Christianity in the popular thriller The Da Vinci Code as a fraud perpetrated by Constantine not only is preposterous to any reader with a modicum of historical knowledge but rests on melodramatically anti-Christian assumptions. The book's further premise that the Catholic Church sends out Opus Dei hit men to murder anyone who has stumbled on the truth is a straight-forward anti-Catholic libel. And its notion that Jesus fathered progeny by Mary Magdalene is a fantasy lacking the least historical support.

Wow, Mr. Cahill! Showing our bias, are we? Not that I disagree with him, but I haven't come across such vehement rhetoric in a history book before. Someone didn't like Dan Brown's bestseller, which I find refreshing. I haven't read it myself, but I've had enough of people insisting that it's real, with one acquaintance swearing that it opened their eyes to the truth behind the Catholic Church.

Like I didn't have enough questions to answer about my faith in Baptist Land, Dan Brown had to go and open up the floodgates. That and the questions during my Renaissance unit if that's Mary Magdalene in the painting by "that dude with the movie code." This has made any urgency I felt to read the blasted thing go out the window.

I did, however, watch the National Geographic special. I am so glad that I kept my subscription.

Mr. Cavendish, I Presume by Julia Quinn

2008-11-25T19:15:00.004-05:00

Mr. Cavendish, I Presume is Quinn's second book in the Two Dukes of Wyndham series that began with The Lost Duke of Wyndham.

Thomas, the Duke of Wyndham, has always known what his lot in life was. Being duke came with a lot of responsibilities, and among them was marriage to Lady Amelia Willoughby. His intent had been to marry her when she turned twenty-one, but she had passed that mark without a date for the nuptials being set.

Into this ordered life comes Mr. Jack Audley. A former soldier and current highwayman, Thomas is shocked to find out that his grandmother believes that Jack is his long lost cousin and the rightful Duke of Wyndham.

This book follows the exact same events as the previous book. As a result, I felt that I had read this book before because I had. Apart from the change in point of view, the events are the same. The story is the same, only the focus is on Amelia and Thomas instead of Jack and Grace.

Because of the repetitive nature of the story, I skipped large parts of it. The dialogue in many instances was the same. The end of the book was the same (except with Amelia and Thomas instead of Grace and Jack). Quinn's wit was even the same in this book.

The entire attempt would have been better in one volume. If she tightened up the extraneous interior monologues and repetitive moaning of feelings, she could have made Thomas and Amelia's story a good secondary romance. On its own, however, there just wasn't enough.

C-

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

2008-11-24T13:07:00.004-05:00

OMG. Finally.

Yes, that's right. After three months, I have finally finished THE book that has everyone frothing at the mouth. Not to mention THE movie that managed to gross nearly $80 million its opening weekend.

But where do I stand with the book? Well, if you liked the book, :heart: Edward Cullen, or have seen the movie twenty times, read no further. Don't leave me nasty comments, don't call me a hater, I'm just telling it as I read it.

Bella Swan has moved to the small town of Forks, Washington to live with her no-longer-estranged father Charlie. While there, she falls in love with the mysterious Edward Cullen. Only he's a vampire, complete with all the baggage vampires have. Only he's enrolled in high school. And he comes out during the day. Why don't vampires go out at day? Because their skin sparkles, as if a glitter factory exploded all over them. Combine that with the pale skin, cold hands, and nonexistent appetite for human food, and all of a sudden I understand why more vampires don't go to high school. Teenagers pick on everything in high school, including themselves.

Hence the built-in audience. Bella, the main character, is full of angst and woe-is-me, feelings that most teenage girls have. In fact, Bella is in so much angst that the entire first 3/4s of the book is filled with her going on about how unpopular she is, how no one likes her, and on and on, when in reality she is quite popular at her new school. She has to beat the boys off with sticks, they all want to take her to dances, and she spends time trying to foist them off on her friends.

The story had potential. It really really did. The problem was with the execution and pacing. The first three quarters of the book as I previously mentioned is spent on Bella's adjusting to high school in Forks and trying to get Edward Cullen to notice her. The true villain of the book doesn't come onto the scene until the last quarter of the book. That was the quickest part of the book for me, waiting for the end to come. There is no antagonist for three quarters of the book! Sure, there's conflict between Bella and Edward, but it's so mundane and gets the plot nowhere. It took me three months to get through the first 3/4s of the book.

Meyer also spends much of the narrative telling instead of showing. Much of the information is dumped through dialogue. Perhaps this is due to the first person narrative, because the reader is only introduced through the eyes of Bella. Had the third person narrative been used, a better woven narrative than what already exists. The villain James is very lackluster, and I was disappointed that Bella was unconscious when he fell to the Cullen clan.

I'm going to let the teenage girls have this book and the sequels. I'm going to give them a miss.

D+.

Samantha's Birthday Pinafore Dress

2008-11-23T19:43:00.002-05:00

Lately I've been making a lot of doll outfits that fit the 18 inch doll. With the retirement of the Samantha doll (thanks a lot, American girl!) I've been trying to add to my collection via E-bay, especially since most of the items are sold out right now. I've been more successful on some than others.

This is my latest acquisition:

Mom made this dress in lilac gingham a long time ago, but I wanted the fancy taffeta dress. It came all the way from Hawaii, too! I love it. Hopefully I'll receive the trunk I have on backorder, because I'm running out of room in the one I have...

Un-Yarn Geek Love

2008-11-15T10:20:00.002-05:00

Today I went to Hobby Lobby to pick up some stuff for the Thanksgiving Break. I went to the clearance aisle and found yarn! It was pretty, Yarn Bee's Highland Thistle in Loch Ness. I started putting skeins into my basket. When I got to ten, I really took a feel of the yarn, and it felt like... plastic bags. The "thistle" part felt like plastic bags!

I could just imagine knitting with it, and the pain my hands would be in.

So I put it all back.

Every last skein.

The Evil in US Weekly

2008-11-14T22:27:00.003-05:00

I have a subscription to US Weekly. I don't know how it happened, but so far I've received three issues. I looked for a customer service number, but it doesn't exist. I sent an e-mail, no response. Today I finally was able to find the cancel process.

What a pain in the ass.

How did I get the subscription?? I wish I knew. I really do. I think it happened when I went to Books-A-Million last, which was back in September. Scratch that. The last time I bought anything from the store was back in September, the date that the subscription was entered. I've been in there since, but they never have the book I want. They had at the register the four free issues plug, to which I always say no. If I have the choices of US Weekly, Time, and Sports Illustrated, would I really pick US Weekly?

The answer is no. I'd pick Time, then Sports Illustrated. I'd never pick US Weekly, because it's the most evil form of journalism ever. I can't even watch E! except when The Soup is on. I don't care who looks better in what dress and why they got rid of some characters on Grey's Anatomy.

So, I'm going to dissect the November 24th issue of US Weekly. Enjoy.

I hate that the table of contents starts on page 18, and it tells the reader about information that I read BEFORE page 18. Shouldn't the contents be first? I can handle the ads before the table of contents, but the actual content? I have an idea, lets call that the index!
Stars Who Talk Trash About Their Exes! Kiss and dis! (Yeah, I totally needed this.)
With "Gretchen's Talented Tot", we find out that not only did she saddle the child with a name like Ptolemy (that went out of style with Alexander the Great), but we get to hear about how wonderfully average the child is!
Stars--They're Just Like US! They eat fondue! They hit the road with pals! They hang out with their bros! They try on high boots! What is this rubbish? Really? Some actress--I'm guessing, because I've never heard of Jessica Szohr before, so she could be a singer, model, escort--but I really don't care if she's buying high boots. Ooh.
Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon didn't have sex before they married. That makes one couple in Hollywood.
And of course there is the special Obamas--Just Like US! section that tells us that they "Kiss and Ride", "Work Out", "Love Date Night," and have "Election Night Jitters." I thought presidential candidates were robots.
And just when I think that I can throw the entire thing out, there's a Twilight section. I'll have to give that to Lisa, who's in love with the movie, and will probably drag me out to see it. Oh, and who's the hotter vampire? Edward nudges out James by 52% to 48%. And 75% of US readers say Madonna should get custody.... snore. Oh, sorry.
OMG! Taylor Swift and Joe Jonas are over! The world as we know it is over.

Thank Goodness that's over.

I Wanna Barf

2008-11-10T18:35:00.002-05:00

One thing I like about the Carolina Hurricanes--okay, I vow to keep it to one because I don't want to induce boredom, and I can't list them all--that isn't Time Gleason, their great team colors, and the fact that they are three hours away from me, is that they always put up really great wallpapers up for the computer after every home game.

Until yesterday, that is. The picture from the Atlanta game--which we lost horrendously--was of the Storm Squad. I don't watch the games because of the skinny chicks that do I-don't-know-what. No, I want a picture of the team. This picture drove me insane.

I'm not putting that up on my desktop! Boo!

Knit-stravaganza

2008-11-09T12:37:00.004-05:00

I like knitting. Sometimes, depending on the mood, I can get through a project really quickly--why I like scarves. Usually, though it takes me a while, especially when I get in a mood where all I want to do is sew (the final product comes more quickly). But lately I've been knitting a storm, especially for the Christmas season and my upcoming nephew, Riley.

This scarf I've started countless times, only to have frogged it just as many times. I tried crocheting--single and double--tried the "My So-Called Scarf" pattern I found on Ravelry. I tore them all out and ended up just using a regular old ribbed pattern. I call this my "Carolina Hurricanes Scarf.

And here is me wearing it, at a Carolina Hurricanes game! Had a wonderful time, even if my boys didn't win it. The scarf is very warm.

I started this scarf a while back and meant it for me, but one of my former students wanted me to make a scarf for her. I thought this would be a great pattern for her, and the colors are so pretty. (Yarn Bee's Mosaic Twist in Dahlia, which has been discontinued.) I added extra long fringe to the end of it. I finished it just in time, too, because she wants it before Thanksgiving!

Since I'm making a his and hers set, a scarf similar to this except in a different color (for her boyfriend) will be up here soon!

I wish I could add the baby blankets I'm making for my sister, but I want them to be a surprise. She pops in here from time to time, so we're going to have to wait until January!

Four Things About Me

2008-11-07T21:00:00.001-05:00

Things you may not have known about me.....

A) Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. 4K assistant at a day care
2. Cashier at K-Fart, I mean Mart.

3. "Castmember" at Disney store
4. I took notes and copied them for LD students while I was in college

Four movies you would watch over and over:

1. King Arthur
2. Gosford Park
3. Monty Python and the Holy Grail

4.

C) Four places you have lived:

1. Simpsonville, SC
2. Columbia, SC
3. Coventry, England, UK
3. Florence, SC

D) Four TV shows you love to watch:

1. Hockey games

2. Chuck

3. Those cheesy Celebreality shows on VH1

4. Project Runway

E ) Four places you have been on vacation:

1. Ireland

2. Scotland

3. Wales

4. The Jersey Shore

F) Web sites you visit daily:

1. Carolina Hurricanes
2. icanhascheezburger
3. sportsquee
4.

G ) Four of my favorite foods:

1. pierogies
2. Mom's lasagna
3. pizza
4. pasta pasta pasta

H) Four places I would rather be right now:

1. England

Josefina Dress in Yellow

2008-10-31T18:06:00.001-04:00

Another Josefina "Christmas" dress, this time in yellow. And I will be making more in pink, as well. :)

Another Christmas Party Dress for Samantha

2008-10-31T18:04:00.000-04:00

This time in blue, with white lace and ribbon. I like the wider satin on this one as opposed to the purple one I made earlier. The green one is still my favorite, though.

Kirsten's Apron Dress

2008-10-31T18:01:00.002-04:00

This outfit was made from Kirsten's Pretty Clothes patterns from Pleasant Company. The copyright date was 1990. Yeah, we've had these for a while!

The first picture was with the apron. I modified the pattern, leaving out the rick-rack, and using an eyelet scrap that I had. It was really easy, but I decided to use a snap as the back closure because there was too much fabric in the waistband to use the button-holer on my machine.

I like the dress just fine without the apron, too!

Josefina's "Christmas" Dress

2008-10-26T21:39:00.002-04:00

I know: it doesn't look like Josefina and it doesn't look very Christmas-y! The pattern is Josefina's, though, and I chose this material because I wanted the Lizzie Bennet look from Pride and Prejudice. I thought the lawn material might be too thin, but with the undergarments, it looks just right. And now that I've got my serger working, I can finish the seams much more quickly. It works well with the material that shreds easily. I like how it looks and I have cut out the pieces for a similar one in yellow!

Now, I just have to buy white satin ribbon to finish yet another one of Samantha's Holiday Dress. :)

Place Mats

2008-10-26T21:37:00.004-04:00

These have been a long time coming. I've had the pattern for years (sorry, I have forgotten it), I've had the material for years (pretty toile!) and they've been sitting there. So, I finally made the place-mats, and I think they look pretty durn good. I had a problem with the corners, getting them all straight, but for a first try, not too shabby!

Hot Property by Carly Phillips

2008-10-25T09:01:00.005-04:00

Hot Property is the fourth book in Phillip's Hot Zone series. The first three books followed the romances of three sisters who worked in the family PR business that catered to athletes. The fourth book follows the romance of John Roper, a friend of the family and center fielder for the fictional baseball team the New York Renegades.

John Roper has been having a rough off-season after a stinging loss in the World Series. His physical therapy is derailed more often than not by the demands of his family. In an attempt to bring his life back on track, PR agent Amy Stone squires him away to a resort. While there, the sparks fly.

Phillips' Hot Zone books are very character-oriented and filled with crazy secondary characters. Neither John nor Amy have what may be considered "normal" families. (Okay, who does?) Both have families that crave the spotlight, from Amy's hyper mom and aunt to John's actress mother who can't admit she's aging. Then there's Amy's boss, Yank, who is going blind but won't admit it, instead tripping over things and getting a dog that's hardly a seeing-eye dog. The anchors in the story are John and Amy, but the secondary characters threaten to overwhelm the main characters. They're just way too cheesy.

Amy's problem is that because her family is so "out-there" she doesn't like the spotlight, which makes her shy away from Roper every time a picture of them is taken. She's very good at telling him how to handle his family, but she does not have the same finesse in handling her own family. John goes all therapist towards the end of the book:

It didn't take a psychologist to figure out that Amy dove into handling his family so methodically not because she was used to handling her own, but because she couldn't control them. In managing Roper's family issues, she'd been able to take charge in a way she hadn't been able to with her own family. She saw herself in Roper, and when Roper fell back into old habits, she'd backed away.

I could also have done without the epilogue, which is written like a Page Six gossip column. Having taken a journalism class and understanding what is required of newspaper writing, Phillips writing here just doesn't cut it. It's confusing and is tacked on at the end where it's not really needed.

Grade: B-

Samantha's Christmas Dresses

2008-10-22T20:47:00.005-04:00

This week I made two versions of Samantha's Christmas Dress from the patterns made specifically for the Samantha Doll.

This is the second one:

I used a broader ribbon around the waist, which I really liked. I also got the serger working, so the seams were finished.

This one is the first one I made:

I would have liked a broader ribbon around the waist, but that was the widest white I had. I also would have liked broader lace around the shoulders, but I used what was available.

ETA: The purple dress was given to Hannah for Christmas '08.

Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris

2008-10-21T19:22:00.004-04:00

Definitely Dead is the sixth book in Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series. I'm a bit disappointed that I read through this one so quickly because I'm out of books and there's only two left! Well, so far. Hopefully she'll continue with the series well beyond eight books.

In this book, Sookie has discovered that she has inherited her vampire cousin Hadley's earthly belongings. This is no easy task and goes beyond merely cleaning out an apartment an arranging new homes for the belongings. Sookie has made many enemies in the vampire world, and not always through her own actions but merely knowing some of the inner workings of the vampire world. While in New Orleans, Sookie comes into contact with the Vampire Queen of Louisiana, who is newly married to the Vampire King of Arkansas. Also into the mix is Quinn, Sookie's new shape-shifter boyfriend. Oh, and there's also the family of her friend Alcide's ex-girlfriend--they want to find out what happened to their daughter and sister.

Until this point, I have preferred the books that Harris has written about the small town of Bon Temps. Although this one is mostly set in New Orleans, it was still a good read. The usual crew of supes were present in this book as well: weres, shape-shifters, vampires, fairies, and the just plain undescribable. Harris weaves a very good story without bogging down the narrative with infodump. She explains just enough of the characters to catch the reader up without explaining every little detail.

I also loved the humor in the book. The opening scene is the photo shoot for a romance novel cover portfolio she promised the fairy Claude she'd shoot. And the new element in the book are witches.

I can already anticipate what the next book is about and can't wait. The Queen of Louisiana and the King of Arkansas are not happy newlyweds, and all did not end well for them in this book.

Power Play by Deirdre Martin

2008-10-18T10:04:00.005-04:00

I searched high and low for this book. I went to all two bookstores in town the day it came out, the day after it came out, and two days after it came out. I gave up on Books-A-Million because they didn't have any in stock, which doesn't surprise me considering they can't even alphabetize their books. Barnes and Noble at least bothered to look in the back for me. I suppose that since the book didn't go on one of the tables or an end-cap, shelving it was not a priority. Never mind that the romance genre is a billion-dollar industry. So, this book better be pretty good in order to justify the gas and time spent searching for it.

Power Play is the latest book in Deirdre Martin's New York Blade's series, following the events in Chasing Stanley. (I'm not sure if Just a Taste really qualifies as part of this series, even if it does include Michael Dante from Fair Play.) The book follows the budding romance between Monica Geary and Eric Mitchell.

Monica is a popular soap star whose star may be eclipsed by a younger, less talented actress. Monica isn't very sure about her profession, thinking she'll work in the soaps until something more "professional" comes around. But now that she may not be the number one star on the show, she's realizing her job's worth. But is it too late? In an effort to give her profile a boost, she agrees to a fake romance with Eric.

Eric Mitchell is the newest player on the New York Blades, a professional hockey team in New York City. Eric's pretty unpopular because he was traded from Jersey (that enough should damn him) for a popular Blades' player, Guy Le Temp. Not only do the fans not like him, but the team doesn't like him, either. Oh, and his play sucks. He's not living up to the hype from the trade. He jumps on the chance to up his profile by dating Monica, that and because he thinks she's hot.

I like the whole idea of the plot. How many hockey players in reality date models and pageant queens? (Yes, I'm speaking of you, Willa Ford. Eye roll.) The plot is completely believable, and the fact that Martin used to work for soaps makes for an interesting look at the behind-the-scenes of a soap. The backbiting, the gossiping, the casting couches... But what the book needed was better execution. The dialogue was often wooden, and I had a really hard time with the character of Eric. I had a hard time to like him, and if a reader can't like the hero of a romance novel, then the romance is not believable. It's like watching your best friend date a jerk.

While the soap opera part of the book was believable, the locker room bits with the Blades was a bit harder to read. Her writing of game plays read like copy from a newspaper article.

Eric could hardly contain his excitement as he and Monica headed uptown toward their respective apartments in her hired car. To say he'd slaughtered out on the ice tonight was an understatement. He'd scored on the power play two minutes into the second period, and he'd orchestrated the team's other three power plays as if he had the puck on a string. They'd scored three out of four chances on the power play, in addition to their two even-strength goals. He'd excelled in his own end as well, skating the puck and making crip breakout passes.

That paragraph completely threw me off from the rest of the narrative.

This book earned a solid C.

Panther Pillow

2008-10-16T19:01:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago my friend Alison (who is probably the most generous person I know, because I know I'm not) asked me to make a pillow for the homecoming tiaras. Since she asked, I made it, most of it from stuff I had laying around (or from her own mother!). The only thing I had to buy was some thin silver ribbon and the blue and gold grosgrain.

I absolutely love this pillow. I know I'll be making more just like it!

Samantha's Retirement

2008-10-11T09:36:00.003-04:00

One of the websites that I frequent is The Complete Guide to American Girl Doll Collecting. When I went on this morning, the website showed this announcement. In it, it details Samantha's retirement, including the entire collection and the Nellie collection as well. Samantha was one of the three original dolls, including Molly and Kirsten.

Since Samantha was my first American Girl doll this is a blow to me. She has the most exquisite collection of them all, with beautiful clothes and accessories. Is this a move to ramp up interest in the collection and therefore increase sales in this economic downturn? With this announcement no doubt the prices on E-bay will continue to skyrocket as collectors attempt to finish their collections.

Over the years I have been disappointed in the expansion of the collections with the Best Friend dolls. The American Girl of Today and the Just Like Me dolls are the focus of the company since Pleasant Company was sold to Mattel.

ETA: The site I linked above by Kurt Danhauser is amazing, and nothing I've found rivals it. It's my source when I need to remember what an outfit looks like or what has been retired.

Oh, and I'm still sad about this. Idiots.

Are We Back in the 1980s?

2008-10-10T17:32:00.003-04:00

The NHL is stuck in the 1980s, from the preponderance of mullets worn by current and former players to last night's entertainment on Versus.

It was Def Leppard. Now, I love Pyromania, and they've done some great stuff--in the 1980s--but last night's gaffe proved how out of touch the NHL is.

Yeah, dat's right. He put the Stanley Cup back upside-down and then says, "Oh, never mind."

But my big question is this: Why the hell did the NHL choose Def Leppard, a band that apparently knows nothing about hockey? Why not pick another band that knows hockey, or at least heard of it and the Stanley Cup, to do the entertainment?

Project Runway Season 5: Finale Part One

2008-10-09T19:19:00.003-04:00

I realized last night as I was watching that there was no reunion show! What is up with that? The best part is when they all get together, choose who is going to be Fan Favorite, and yell at the one villain the entire time.

How can we forget Vanessa's lying about the interview she did with that one website (long since forgotten by me, when she trashed the other designers? Or how mad she was that everyone said she can't sew? And then there's the wine stain and her departure after the commercial break.

Or how about Keith being asked about cheating?

And here we are deprived of having Kenley the tugboat captain's daughter not having the chance to defend herself!

This episode was very boring and uninspired. I thought Korto should have gone home, because her dresses looked like they were those woven placemats. I didn't see wedding in either of those dresses.

My favorite was Leanne's, and Kenley's was nice. I'm sad to see Jerrell did not make it.

Eh. Maybe it'll be better on Lifetime.

My View on The View

2008-10-05T15:19:00.002-04:00

Sometimes I have those random days where I don't have to go into work, whether it's a holiday, summer break, or one of those rare personal days that I take for myself. On occasion I use these days to be completely lazy and watch day time television. (I'm still coming to terms with Drew Carey replacing Bob Barker.) So, at 11 AM, I watch The View, with Barbara Walters and company.

Some days, it's entertaining. Other days it's excruciating with celeb gossip and political leanings. The best times are when the ladies end up on Best Week Ever or The Soup, usually for something stupid Sheri Shepard has said.

But dare I say it? The show "jumped the shark", so to speak, when Meredith Viera left the show for a more lucrative career at The Today Show. That was when she was replaced with Rosie O'Donnell, who I used to love until she showed her true colors. I'm not talking about her being a lesbian, because I could care less about her sexual orientation, but her rudeness. I can't put myself in her shoes, with all the hurdles she's had to jump to have her career and to keep her family life separate, but the shouting match with Elisabeth Hasslebeck nearly two years ago was the last straw. Such intolerance for another viewpoint!

And isn't that what the show is about? Different viewpoints? Elisabeth is the first truly conservative view on the show. The other ladies include Whoopi Goldberg, the "moderator"; Joy Behar, who likes to talk about menopause; and Sheri Shepard, who doesn't realize that Christianity was not around the time of the Ancient Greeks nor does she put much thought into the shape of the earth (it's round). And then there's Barbara Walters, who has written a scandalous, tell-all book, and is hardly an unbiased journalist.

The last straw was when I was watching The Soup and saw a clip on how the ladies finally want Elisabeth to explain her viewpoints. Righfully so, she felt she was being pop-quizzed, and sounded quite bitter about it. She's always being called out on her conservative issues.

Sure, I should have watched the entire clip, maybe see it in context, but I work, and I don't have DVR for a reason. (Besides, all I'd have on it were USC games--as in South Carolina--and hockey games. Why waste the space on a talk show?) And I don't agree with Elisabeth's politics, but she has as much right to her beliefs as Whoopi and Joy. Girl, leave the show. Barbara has already said that she loves having you on the show, so leave now while the leaving's good. The end is near, and no doubt Fox News has something for you to do.

But this seems to be the way that "news" shows are going--constantly yelling over each other, interrupting, and general lack of respect.

Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

2008-10-04T16:47:00.004-04:00

After watching the recent episodes of True Blood on HBO, I've read two Charlaine Harris books. Dead as Doornail is the fifth book in the Southern Vampire series.

Less than a month after finding her brother Jason a were-panther, Sookie and Jason are dealing with his new supernatural powers. Little time is made for adjustment, though, when someone starts shooting at the area's shape-shifting community. Sookie has to find out who has shot her boss, Sam, and the leader of the were-panther community, Calvin Norris, because her brother is once again prime suspect when it comes to the shootings. One piece of information she has over the Bon Temps police force, however, is that all of the victims are shape-shifters, who, unlike vampires, keep a low profile.

As if this weren't enough for Sookie to deal with, she also has her romantic life to deal with. For someone who was solidly single for her entire life before meeting ex-boyfriend Bill, Sookie is quite sought after by the supernatural bachelors of Louisiana. All are intrigued by her telepathic nature, something that scared off "normal" human beaus. The count is pretty overwhelming for Sookie: Sam, her boss; Alcide, the werewolf; Calvin Norris; and multiple vampires. But as she's dealing with conflicting emotions and the discovery of being used by many of these men for her abilities, she meets another shape-shifter who I have no doubt will be in future books.

Other plot-points in the book include her friend Tara's relationship with Mickey the vampire, as well as more intrigue in the Shreveport wolf-pack. When their pack leader is killed, the pack must find a new leader, and Alcide's intentions towards Sookie are less than gentlemanly. Add on top of this a house fire and more attempts on Sookie's life, and the book is packed solid for the entire three hundred pages.

The supernatural world of Bon Temps is becoming larger and larger with each installment. At times it becomes confusing trying to keep all of it in my head, but Harris has been very good about keeping the new information to a minimum. One thing that I dislike about series is the constant regurgitation of information from one book to another. (I remember skipping entire chapters of Baby-sitters Club books when I was ten, and complaining to my mom that I thought it was stupid.) But with all the recurring characters in the book, the information Harris reviews sounds natural in Sookie's first person narration, and I'm quite thankful for it!

Harris also keeps her world very real and humorous. My favorite part of the book is when Claude the fairy picks up Sookie from the hospital. A surly and (hopefully for Sookie) bisexual fairy that exudes charisma and hotness, Claude is the twin brother of Sookie's fairy godmother, Claudine.

Claude had been a stripper on ladies' night at Hooligan's, c club in Monroe, but lately he'd not only moved into managing the club, he'd also branched into print and runway modeling. The opportunities for such work were few and far between in northern Louisiana, so Claude had decided to compete for Mr. Romance at a romance reader's convention. He'd even had his ears surgically alters so they weren't pointed anymore. The big payoff was the chance to appear on a romance cover. I didn't know too much about the contest, but I knew what I saw when I looked at Claude. I felt pretty confident Claude would win by acclamation.

Of course, Sookie becomes involved in even that.

My favorite books in the series have involved the shape-shifters and have taken place in Bon Temps. Harris' characters in the Bon Temps area are real and interesting, but when Sookie was in Dallas and Jackson in previous books I was less than impressed. Unfortunately, with future books, I have a feeling that Sookie will be traveling because Eric will be hiring her for a job.

And I'm disappointed over the whole Alcide thing, because I love him as a character, but he treated Sookie horribly in this book. Oh, well. I have three more books in the series to read. And if he's ever cast in True Blood, I have some ideas, folks at HBO.

A. (Though not A for Alcide.)

Sidenote: I am completely unhappy with the guy playing Andy Bellefleur in True Blood. He looks like a detective, but I was expecting someone more... well, someone more.

Last Night's Project Runway Episode

2008-10-02T16:51:00.002-04:00

Oh, the last episode before the two finales drove me nuts! What was the point?

Jerrell won, and the judges couldn't decide between Kenley, Leanne, and Korto. So, they're letting all three come back and decide among the FOUR of them who will make it. So, Jerrell isn't even automatically in. NO ONE at this point has been decided to go on to the final three.

So, all four get to make a collection. Big freakin' deal. So do Joe and Suede, because neither of them had been eliminated on the air by the time Fashion Week came. So, there were SIX collections.

Last night's episode was a waste. It has been an underwhelming challenge to judge in every season. Remember the Nancy O'Dell challenge in Season One where Wendy Pepper won? All of the outfits were bad, but the judges still managed to make a decision!

This is a huge, disappointing cop-out.

Why the NHL Must Hate Women

2008-10-01T17:30:00.003-04:00

The NHL really needs to employ at least one woman in its merchandise development office. For years I have lamented over the fact that there is no jersey for women in team colors. There's the stereotypical pink and white jersey, which you can wear with your pink and white team hat. WTH is up with this? If I'm a fan of a team, I want to wear the team colors. For some reason, the marketing geniuses think that women will only support their teams with "girly" colors. (Way to ruin a Black-out, my friends.)

So, two Christmases ago, I got a Carolina Hurricanes jersey (# 26, Erik Cole) in a men's medium. (Two months later, they started selling smalls. Hate that.) It's huge, but I love it. There was nothing comparable in women's sizes, not for lack of trying. My only other option was the hated pink and white.

Today I got my NHL catalog in the mail. Inside, there are women's jerseys in team colors! Yay! They look great, and are cheaper then the men's Rbk Edge jerseys. (Of course they're not authentic, but whatever. At least it would fit.) And on the page next to them, I found this:

What? A "Fashion Jersey?" Isn't that an oxymoron? This particular model is the "Silver Ice Jersey", "frosted with silver metallic foil graphics." Gee, thanks! Make me five years old again when some metallic and sparkly shirt was all that made me happy.

Then, if you look down the page, there's the Rbk HerShield Jerseys. I couldn't come across a picture, but there are versions that exist for the NFL. This "Fashion Jersey" is gray with baby blue or baby pink accents. And to top it all off, it is "Ultra fun with sugar glitter." Ooh, shiny! Must buy.

Thanks NHL for continuing the stereotype.

Just One of the Guys by Kristan Higgins

2008-09-29T21:11:00.003-04:00

Just One of the Guys is the story about Chastity Virginia O'Neill, youngest child and only daughter in a clan of five children. Standing at nearly six feet tall, she's always just been one of the guys, a tomboy, tagging along after her brothers. A journalist for the local newspaper, Chastity meets a local doctor and things seem to be going pretty well.

Enter Trevor Meade, family friend and her first love. Though things have seemed to cool down between the two of them, Chastity still loves him, though he still sees her as a friend. Will she find happily ever after, or will she always be just one of the guys?

I have enjoyed Kristan Higgins previous books, Fools Rush In and Catch of the Day. As in the previous two books, the setting is the Northeast, in this case upstate New York. Higgins writes a rich setting in a small town, with everyone getting their happily ever after.

The secondary characters in the story are delightful, probably more so than the main character. My main issue with the book is how the secondary characters are much stronger and tend to overshadow Chastity. I actually wanted to know more about them. The doctor was also painted two-dimensionally, and I had a very hard time liking him. He wasn't a bad guy, he was just a caricature. From the beginning, we know who Higgins wants Chastity to end up with, and it's not the doctor.

The book reads more like a chick lit than a romance. As with the previous two books, the heroine's love for a certain man seems doomed, but works out fine in the end.

A-.

Samantha's Lacy Whites

2008-09-27T16:53:00.003-04:00

I just bought the above off E-bay for an amount more than it cost before American Girl retired it. Samantha's Lacy Whites include a petticoat, stockings, and a shirtwaist with garters. The petticoat buttons to the shirtwaist. The garters somehow connect to the stockings, but I still can't figure it out. (Which is why I'm thankful for pantyhose.)

And I'd appreciate any type of clue with the garters!

I am currently attempting to make this with the patterns I have, but the material I chose was thicker than the fine lawn used in the original one. I'm still working on it, but at least I won't have to figure out how to do garters with that one.

New Outfits

2008-09-26T20:59:00.003-04:00

I've made the next two outfits in the past few weeks and have just had the time to update the blog with the pictures!

The first is a nightgown from McCall's Crafts 3275. The patterns are made for Gotz dolls, but they also fit American Girl dolls. I made two nightgowns out of a flannel that Mama Wiebenga gave me over the summer, and the eyelet trim was also from her as well.

One of the nightgowns went to Hannah and one went to McKenzie.

The second picture was made using McCall's Crafts 3627. The outfits do fit the American Girl dolls, though are made for a doll that is a bit thicker in the body. The material is also from Mama Wiebenga, though the hat and trim is from my own collection. The skirt lies flat because I did not make the "bum roll" that accompanies the patterns.

This outfit went to McKenzie.

The Book Store Blues

2008-09-26T19:12:00.003-04:00

Florence is not a niche market. There is nothing I'd like more to have a yarn store and a cross-stitch store in town. Instead, I have to go out of town for yarn and buy from Hobby Lobby, which has a little inventory on a lot of items. It's the same deal with bookstores. We have one Used Book Store (UBS) and two chain stores. No independent stores. This if very frustrating for a reader.

Until as recent as a year ago, we only had one chain bookstore in town. (I won't name names.) I was a captive buyer. The customer service at this store was sketchy to say the least. The help had no clue what the difference between a trade paperback, a mass market paperback, and a hardcover was. I'd come in, looking for a book on its release date, say it was a mass market book, and they'd look with the trades and hardcovers. I told them that it wouldn't be on the tables (Avon Romances generally don't buy table room for their MMPs), I told them the internet said it was out on this date, and they'd tell me that the internet release dates were just for the online stores.

Don't lie to me. Apparently, I know more about the book industry than these bozos. I know when they're making stuff up because they don't know. I don't make stuff up when a student asks me a question about important stuff, so please don't make up stuff about a book.

Another issue was the alphabetizing of books by author's last name. They didn't. The history department? Effed up and totally focused on WW2 and the Civil War. The biographies should be shelved according to subject's name, not author's, but half of the section was one way, the other half another way. Is it any wonder I shop online?

And then the second store opens. Things pick up for a while. Books are alphabetized. Customer service picked up. Sadly, it was not to last.

And I'd go to the other book store, but it's another ten minutes away through traffic at the mall, and it's too slick. The cafe, the DVDs, the CDs. What happened to a book store?

Looks like I'll be sticking to the online stores and PaperBack Swap for a while longer.

The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks

2008-09-23T20:47:00.004-04:00

I'm going to be straight-up honest: the American Civil War is nowhere near the top of my favorite historical periods. I don't have the patience for it and would much rather be slogging through medieval manuscripts. Okay, maybe not manuscripts, but books talking about medieval manuscripts. (I know old paper would be starting my allergies up again, like that thirty year old Antonia Fraser book I have on the Queen of Scots.) I just don't have the patience for a bunch of stupid men , and I hate arguing about how the civil war started (for the record, it's slavery; every other argument leads back to slavery--you're welcome to disagree with me, but I'll still be right).

Despite this antipathy, I still picked up Robert Hicks' book The Widow of the South. It was on the bargain table at the book store, the cover intrigued me, and the jacket description. Set during and after the Battle of Franklin in Tennessee, the story is based on the true story of Carrie McGavock, whose home was used as a hospital and who later created a cemetery for nearly 1500 dead.

Hicks weaves history and fiction together in a book that is less about the war and more about the people affected by the war. The Civil War is often seen in military and political terms, with the social impact only being explored in the last half-century. Within the reality of Carrie's story, Hicks created Zacariah Cashwell, a man from Arkansas that spent weeks in the McGavock hospital following the carnage at Franklin. During this time, the two became friends, and an old-fashioned romance blossomed between the two, a link that would hold them together through to the ends of their lives.

The story is told in alternating points of view, usually either Carrie or Cashwell. The book switches from third person to first person as well, but the transition in voice was so seamless that this did not bother me. Cashwell's first person narrative was very earthy and filled with colloquialisms, while Carrie's narration sounded more from someone who was used to moving in the highest circles. The voices were so different that had Hicks not titled the beginning of each chapter I'd still be able to figure out whose head I was in. When not with Carrie or Cashwell, the narration was various secondary characters either in the army or in town, but only ever enough to move the story forward.

The characterization was also very good. Each character, even the smallest ones, moved and changed throughout life, the events at the Battle of Franklin marking each person on physical, emotional, and mental levels. Hicks' characters were real, flawed, and likable. When a book is able to capture my emotions (and make me careful about reading it in class, lest I cry in front of my students), I know it's good. Well, unless my emotions tell me to throw it across the wall from boredom.

But since I was not bored at all with this book, I give it an extra special A+. Thank you, Mr. Hicks, for being captured by the story of the Widow of the South.

Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris

2008-09-23T17:46:00.004-04:00

Dead to the World is the fourth installment in Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series. The series focuses on a young Louisiana woman with telepathic powers who is pulled into the world of the supernatural. Each book introduces the reader to new parts of the supernatural world, a world that for the most part is unseen to the average human.

It's a new year and Sookie wants to turn over a new leaf, mostly in resolving to stay out of trouble. She thinks this will be pretty easy since her ex-boyfriend, Bill, is in Peru on vampire business. But on the way home from work New Year's Day, she almost runs over Eric, Bill's boss. Eric is half-naked, on the run from someone or something, and has amnesia. This Eric is seductive not through his actions but by the fact that he is so much more likable than his normal undead self. Of course, problems usually come at once in Sookie's life, just like now.

Eric's condition is due to the fact that he has been cursed by a witch. The witches are on the lookout for him, Sookie's hiding him, and her brother Jason has gone missing. While worrying about keeping Eric safe, she also has to worry about finding her brother. Other supernatural creatures in this book are the werewolves, shape-shifters, and the introduction of Claudine, a fairy. I'm still not sure at Claudine's introduction and hope that Harris has a plan for her.

I picked up this book because I had just started watching True Blood, the HBO series based on the Southern Vampire series. This book was much easier to get into than it's predecessor, and I enjoyed it so much more. Sookie, unlike Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, has changed over the course of the books and is tired of dealing with what she's gone through. Due to her telepathy, she's hardly normal, but she knows she can't return to her previous life.

I fully enjoyed the return of Alcide, the werewolf, in this book. I love Alcide, and as far as Sookie's potential and former lovers are concerned, he's right up there for me. That alone made this book a good one for me. The pacing was good, the plot was interesting, and I like how Jason has changed in this book.

Project Runway Season 5: Episode 10

2008-09-17T21:17:00.005-04:00

I know I've skipped about twenty episodes, and this is probably episode 10 and not 9, but oh, well. That can all be fixed!

I have really discovered that I love Jerrell. Now that he is interviewed more now that there are six left, his personality shines through. His stories are hilarious!

I loved when he said, "we were all waiting to see who would get a Hedda Lettuce this time..."

More later!

PS I Love You by Cecelia Ahern

2008-09-14T16:31:00.005-04:00

I loved the movie PS I Love You. Love it. The dialogue was snappy, the emotions were real, and it was just real period. Which is why I decided to read the book it was based on, written by Cecilia Ahern, an Irish author.

I try not to compare things to the source material, but it was so hard here. Having seen the movie first, I kept waiting for those moments I loved to pop up in the book, but they just weren't there. This was the same experience that I had reading the book The Wedding Date was based off of. Both movies are very loosely based off of their source material, and I had a hard time getting off the ground with both books.

Holly Kennedy just lost her husband after a long battle against a brain tumor. She is having a hard time adjusting to live without Gerry, but she receives a new lease on life when she finds letters her husband left behind. Each month she is to open a new letter with an inspiring message. These letters are his final gift to her, a gift to keep her from merely existing after his death.

The premise is absolutely lovely and inspiring, but there are some writing issues I can't get past. Ahern rambles as an author, not only showing the reader what a character is like through his or her actions, but telling us in the next paragraph. Most readers are capable of inferring information and don't need to be told as well. And when the reader is told, the reader is told frequently.

Holly secured her bedsheet onto the washing line with a peg and thought about how she had bumbled through the remainder of May trying to get her life into some sort of order. Days went by when she felt so happy and content and confident that her life would be OK, and then as quickly as the feeling came it would disappear again, and she would feel her sadness setting in once more. She tried to find a routine she could happily fall into so that she felt like she belonged in her body and her body belonged in this life, instead of wandering around like a zombie watching everybody else live theirs while she waited around for hers to end. Unfortunately the routine hadn't turned out exactly as she had hoped. She found herself immobile for hours in the sitting room, reliving every single memory that she and Gerry had shared....

And so on and so forth. Each sentence says the same thing, how Holly wishes to move on but is unable to. I wish the book would move on as well, because it was very hard for me to pick up most of the time. I didn't really care if she moved on or not, because I couldn't get into her character. I'm told there is a depth to her, but for most of the book I see memories of a party girl who loved shopping.

The book also jumped point of view a lot, and many times I found it difficult to figure out whose head I was in. There were a lot of characters, too, so this was not an easy task at all!

My grade is a C-. If you want good Irish chic lit, head for Marian Keyes.

My Rap Album

2008-09-13T08:19:00.002-04:00

My seventh block is talented. They can freestyle on just about any topic that I throw at them. So, I came up with this brilliant idea: we can make a rap album.

For each unit, I give them guidelines on what questions their rap has to answer according to South Carolina State Standards (because it always comes back around to the standards--I actually like having standards, but that's another story entirely). Then I'm going to record them and at the end of the year--

We'll have an album.

They loved the idea. I have a feeling they won't disappoint. :)

Project Runway Season 5: Episode 9

2008-09-11T17:43:00.000-04:00

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

2008-09-06T10:51:00.003-04:00

Why did the chicken cross the road?

BARACK OBAMA:
The chicken crossed the road because it realized that this is a time for a CHANGE! The chicken wanted CHANGE! We can all cross the road if we work together. Yes we can!

JOHN MC CAIN:
My friends, it doesn’t matter why the chicken crossed the road; that’s the past. What’s important is that the chicken doesn’t surrender to any ongoing traffic and lose his credibility to those who doubt his commitment to crossing roads.

HILLARY CLINTON:
When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure -- right from Day One! -- that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.......

DR. PHIL:
The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on 'THIS' side of the road before it goes after the problem on the 'OTHER SIDE' of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his 'CURRENT' problems before adding 'NEW' problems.

OPRAH:
Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his lifelike the rest of the chickens.

GEORGE W. BUSH:
We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

ANDERSON COOPER - CNN:
We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY:
Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

PAT BUCHANAN:
To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART:
No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS:
Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the Chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY:

To die in the rain. Alone.

JERRY FALWELL:
Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth?' That's why they call it the 'other side.' Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like 'the other side. That chicken should not be crossing the road. It's as plain and as simple as that.

GRANDPA:
In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS:
Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the Chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life long dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE:
It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

JOHN LENNON:
Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES:
I have just released eChicken2008, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your check book. InternetExplorer is an integral part of the Chicken. This new platform is much more stable and will never cra...#!&^ (C%~........reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN:
Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON:
I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. This all depends on what the meaning or cross is.

COLONEL SANDERS:
Did I miss one?

DICK CHENEY:
Where's my gun?

Elizabeth's Meet Dress

2008-08-31T22:13:00.005-04:00

I was inspired by another dress out of the American Girl catalog. Elizabeth is Felicity's best friend. The "Meet Dress" usually refers to the dress worn by the main character in her Meet book. Here is Elizabeth's.

As you can see, mine has some differences. I used the pattern for Felicity's Christmas dress. The pink color is not the same, though I prefer my lighter pink to the rosy mauve of the Mattel dress. I also made a complete underskirt instead of just having a panel in the middle.

Most of the material came from the stash that Mama Wiebenga sent me. The fabric, the lace, the trim on the sleeves and around the front, as well as the flowers on this stomacher were al from her. The thread and the lace on the sleeves was mine.

I decided this time that I wasn't going to pleat ten feet of ribbon. Instead, I ungathered the trim and used it as a ribbon instead of a lace. That saved a lot of time, and I think it ended up well.

I prefer my version over the inspiration.

Another Doll Dress

2008-08-30T18:48:00.004-04:00

I made the following today from McCall's Crafts 3275. The fabric I used came from Mama Wiebenga.

The pattern was very easy, and I didn't make any adjustments to this one, like I have the others.

While the pattern fits American Girl dolls, I think McCall's patterns fit better on dolls that represent younger girls, like 4-5 year olds. The American Girl dolls represent eight and nine year olds, so the body is slimmer than it would be on an 18 inch doll representing a younger child. As a result, the dress is baggy on this doll.

More Changes at Hancock

2008-08-30T14:02:00.002-04:00

I have a Hancock's Fabric right down the road for me. I love how convenient it is and the great sales they have on patterns. 99 cents for a pattern? That's freakin' awesome! At that price, I'm able to pick up two, one for me and one for my mom.

Recently I noticed that Hancock switched their cross-stitch thread from DMC to Sullivan's. I didn't like this change because I have an extensive DMC inventory, not to mention the fact that all my patterns are in DMC. I know DMC.

Recently I noticed another change in the store, this time at the Coats & Clark display. The spools changed! Now, I understand that this is no longer a Hancock issue, but a Coats & Clark issue. The spools have become more stream-lined and smaller. Not only are the spools smaller, but the amount of thread has been decreased. No longer 300 yards, the new spools hold 205 yards. That's a difference of 95 yards, or 285 feet. That's a LOT of thread.

Of course, the prices haven't changed. The spools are giving less thread for the same amount of money. I suppose this is the manufacturers way of what is essentially the equivalent of puffing potato chip bags full of air.

Project Runway Season 5: Episode 7

2008-08-28T16:59:00.001-04:00

The Saturn View Episode!

After the Kiss by Suzanne Enoch.

2008-08-25T18:03:00.005-04:00

I admit that I haven't read one of Suzanne Enoch's books in a long while. I have this horrible habit of glomming books once I like an author, and this can be tragic. I get tired of the books. And there were quite a few title of hers that I did like. I loved A Matter of Scandal, The Rake, and London's Perfect Scoundrel. Then came England's Perfect Hero and although I loved the story of the soldier suffering from war fatigue (shell-shock, post-traumatic stress...), I didn't buy the romance angle of the story as much.

So I took a break. I haven't read any of her contemporaries or the entire Griffin Family series. I may have read Sin and Sensibility, but by that point I was so glommed out that I don't remember too much of it.

So, it was with much trepidation that I read review on Enoch's After the Kiss, the first book in a trilogy. Oh, the romance trilogy! But I found that people actually read it. And the more I read what they wrote, the more intrigued I became.

Sullivan Waring is a well-respected horse breeder who also happens to be the illegitimate son of a marquis--and the Mayfair Marauder. His mother's legacy, left to him after her death, had been stolen from him by her landlord, who is also the father who won't recognize him. Sullivan wants his items back, and is willing to steal to get back what is rightfully his. One night he comes across Lady Isabel Chalsey. In an effort to get away, he kisses her.

This moment changes both of their lives. Lady Isabel recognizes him, but instead of turning him in she chooses to find out why he stole from her house. She buys a horse from him and demands that he train the mare and teach her to ride the horse.

I loved this book. It brought me back to the With This Ring series I first read. Waring is not bitter that his father won't recognize him, and he doesn't want a thing from his father but the items that were stolen from his mother's home. He is proud of his own accomplishments while accepting of his place in society.

Isabel is young, still 19, and she makes reckless decisions. She takes responsibility for them, though, and all she wants is to be with Sullivan. I loved how her family had not one evil member among them, but was rather supportive over all.

I'm not sure if I'll read the rest of the books in the series, I enjoyed this one so much. I'll wait to read the reviews. :) A-.

Kirsten's School Dress

2008-08-24T15:17:00.004-04:00

This weekend I made Kirsten's School Dress, from the Pleasant Company patterns for dolls that have since been retired. The material I used was from Mama Wiebenga, who sent me a lot of stuff over the summer. In order to use every scrap possible, the pattern is vertical on the top but horizontal on the skirt. I have no problem with it and think it adds to the charm of a pioneer dress.

I also used the wrong side of the material because it looked more homespun and less perfect. I also liked the way it looked better than the right side, which was too "neat".

The back and wrists are closed by Velcro, another contribution by Mama Wiebenga!

Project Runway Season 5: Episode 6

2008-08-21T18:43:00.001-04:00

The designers are eating breakfast, getting ready for the next challenge. Korto wonders how Daniel keeps coming up safe, and Joe does not think Keith should have won. "Swatches and strips" are Keith's style.

On the runway, Heidi comes out and says there is a very special guest. What, no models? No, it's a hug monster! No, it's Chris March! With disco-ball boobs! He's dressed like a space-age Viking goddess. The next challenge? Designing an outfit for a drag queen. "Too much drama."

The "models" come out. Each lady has her own persona, from Marilyn Monroe to flamenco dancer to Southern belle. Farrah Moans, Hedda Lettuce, and Sharon Needles are my favorite names. The designers are encouraged to be theatrical and over-the-top, which allows for a lot of freedom.

Keith chooses Sherry Vine, who has a great set of legs. Heidi agrees, and Keith says, "Hell yeah." I know he's gay, but the way he said it was still really creepy.

They all go up to the workroom to get to know each other. Tim reminds the designers that it is the designer's responsibility to be true to the persona and to be theatrical. And the looks will be auctioned off to help those affected by HIV/AIDS. Miss Understood tells Blayne that drag is smoke and mirrors. Hedda Lettuce wants everything in one outfit but be tasteful as well. And yes, she wears green. Stella, of course, wants to grommet everything on Luisa Verde's outfit. Joe seems to be completely out of his element.

At Mood, they buy feathers and shiney and sequiny and fabulous. Keith did not get immunity last time he won and feels that he deserves it. Whatever. Joe's queen left him the bra to put on the male mannequin form. Daniel tries to borrow Kenley's bra, but she refuses. Blayne's drag name would be dragalicious. Everything is -licious.

Terri's making a kimono and legging outfit. Joe's making a catsuit. Suede is making a green outfit with gloves that have tiny heads of lettuce on them. Hedda Lettuce asks if he's just too lazy to make a sleeve, which hurts Suede's feelings. Keith is making a fringed, tiling piece. It's mostly swatches of black, gray, and white, with nothing theatrical about it.

Tim walks in. The clients walk in, but they are not in drag. Blayne seems almost shocked that his client is actually a boy under all that outfit. Korto has this huge flame outfit, fire everywhere. Jarrell's client wishes that the collar wasn't covering so much of his face.

Tim makes his comments on the outfits. Blayne's looks like a "a pteradactyl from a gay Jurassic Park." Tim is worried about Daniel's outfit, as it isn't really drag enough. Daniel is still talking about his taste level, how his outfit is more couture, blah blah.

The fashion show is fabulous! It's so over-the-top, so much fun, probably the best runway of the season. Ru Paul is the guest judge. So awesome! They're sashying, dancing, and hamming it up for the camera.

The bottom three are Daniel, Jarrell, and Keith.

The top three are Joe, Korto, and Terri.

The winner of immunity? Joe!

Auf'ed? Daniel.