01:25 pm - FRIENDS-LOCKED THIS JOURNAL IS NOW FRIENDS-ONLY, and comments are disabled. Please comment on my Dreamwidth entry, using either your Dreamwidth account or OpenID.
08:21 pm - Cat-sitting again Just for a long weekend this time. So far Smokey has told me it's time for her pouch of food, and hinted that she should have extra Thrive because I'm only Temporarily In Charge. I've given her a few Dreamies instead. She has also come and meowed at me for Unspecified Reasons, some of which have resulted in a fuzzle. However, when I sat on the sofa, she said I was Doing It Rong. She came and begged at my feet when I was eating my own dinner; I think she was hoping for more steak or chicken, as last time. But it was plain cauliflower cheese, so hard luck there.
I have abused my hostess's wifi printer again, so now have a proper printed copy of the next sock pattern, also the Sierpinski Gasket Shawl. And having idled away my afternoon, I really ought to knit at least 10 more rounds on the stripey socks before bedtime.
01:27 pm - Adventures with ... doorbells? So, yesterday, I did get up late, but I was lying in bed with the tablet and mostly awake, and I never heard the gate, or the doorbell, or anything. But I went to the door to see if the postman had been, and there was a jiffy-bag hanging out of the letterbox flap! (It was some yarn, which I'd been expecting.) This morning I was up earlier, and saw the postman come (delivering my Graze box, which alas this fortnight has nothing in it that I particularly fancy), so I ran to the door, caught him while still closing my gate, and asked if he'd been delivering yesterday, and please could he ring the doorbell in future. And he said he had, and he'd knocked (well, not hard, because I might have heard it...). So I tried the bell.
In other slightly sad household appliance news, the built-in spark igniter to the gas ring on the stove which I use most has stopped working. On inspection, there's still a spark when I push the button, but it doesn't seem to be lighting the gas. Good thing I've got a manual sparker, which I keep handy because the other front ring's ignition went quite a few years ago! The two back rings, the grill, and the oven all seem to be working fine. Otherwise I'd have suspected the battery.
In good household appliance news, I bought a stick blender from Sainsbury's a few months ago, because it was on special offer, but have had no occasion to need it till this week, when I made plomeek soup (oh, OK, it's carrot and courgette, but it's an appropriate sort of orangey-green colour), and used the stick blender to liquidise it IN the slow cooker! And now I'm going to reheat and eat the last portion of it before I go and collect the boy from school.
A couple of days ago, as I was putting on my Half-Blood Prince T-shirt, my brain gave me Severus Snape: Agent of SHIELD. WTF?
This morning, I woke up from a rather good dream - I was with someone who'd just made a special cake for some sort of feast-day, though I can't now remember what it was, but the cake was a sort of flat gingerbread-type thing, with sticky-up pieces of gingerbread showing through a cheesecake or cream-cheese or whipped cream topping and I think some fruit, and it looked yummy, and I was just about to have a slice of it when the alarm went off... Grrr - and having already woken up in the middle of the night to go pee and then spent at least 20 minutes awake considering how I might best construct a knitted Loki doll - preferably to the older comic-book version as it would be somewhat easier to knit than the new movie version, much as I like that (the horned helmet would be so much better, I never really liked the ponytail at the back of the comics one) - yes, well, THEN the alarm went off just after 8 for me to go to the gym, I rolled out of bed, and my half-awake brain offered me My Little Loki.
NO. I can't make one of those. And as I remarked on Twitter, it would have to have 8 legs.
Oh dear, I wish I could draw.
Also, Loki being the latest *slurp* obsession, I have been reading rather a lot of Loki-centric fanfic, among other things, and am now frustrated because not that long ago (last week?) I saw a gif-set/pic-set somewhere where Thor keeps putting his hand at the back of Loki's head, and can I find it now? Can I Hel.
Also also, I realised I have to re-read "Myths My Great-Granddaughter Taught Me" by Fritz Leiber, and have found the anthology containing it; and then I remembered another Norse legends story by (I think?) Edmond Hamilton (and it took me ten minutes this morning to dredge the name out of the back of my mind and the internet!), which I can't remember the title of but thought I'd typed up somewhere years ago. Well, if I did, it must be on paper, because it ain't on the computer; and I can't remember which anthology that one's in. ETA: Found it - "What's It Like Out There and other stories", by Edmond Hamilton, and the story is called "Twilight of the Gods".
Also x3, somewhere I'm sure I had either a picture or the link to the picture someone sent me (?) of a knitted Loki, or of Loki knitting, or something, and can I find that either? Guess.
Well, here's the finished loaf of soda bread! It actually looks OK, and tastes fine too, though the crust is somewhat ... challenging. I've had three small slices off one side for 'lunch', with plenty of butterish. When it's completely cold I'll put it in a bag in the fridge, so it should keep till early next week (with luck).
Now I know what I'm doing with it, I can easily make more. Next time, I'll use all the tub of buttermilk, and stir it before pouring it in - it was rather gloppy and I don't think it mixed properly. I also want to start trying my hand at real yeast bread; I'll have to think of a good place to leave a no-knead bread to rise, though - the only place I can think of is in the microwave! (Not turned on, obviously.)
07:00 pm - Thunder and lightning and hail, oh my! I have pictures of the hail-drifts, but am going to watch TV first - a programme I missed last night, which is repeated tonight.
ETA:This is what the front yard and garden looked like at about ten to seven, earlier tonight. There was water half an inch deep, with hailstones floating in it... Current Mood: hailed on...
08:58 pm - Coffee-pot cosy Finished this today, after unpicking the first attempt to add ribbing in a different yarn, because I didn't have quite enough of the main one!
02:58 pm - Yay, I found my Butcher! Butcher on Copy-Editing, the book, that is. I went up to BY today to get photos of the vacuum cleaner, as someone from the Freecycle list asked for one; so I also retrieved two bags of wadding, the magazine rack of embroidery magazines, two boxes of printed-out Snarry and Snupin stories, and a bag of books ... which I thought I'd looked in before, but turned out to contain not only some books I thought I'd already unloaded, but also Butcher. *headdesk*
I'm running late today - I woke up at 6.15am or so, went to the loo, thought I'd try and get another hour or two napping, and dropped off completely; when I did wake up I discovered it was well past 11am! So 'breakfast' was just a bowl of oats (didn't even porridge them, it's too warm) at nearly midday. I'll probably have a bowl of soup before I go up to the archery club later this afternoon, though.
Also, my raspberries are ripening. I had a dozen yesterday, and there's about the same in a little bowl in the fridge for today. I may have to go out and pick some more, too. Current Mood: okay
07:39 pm - The latest on the rekitchenation cockup; plus other bits Got a letter this morning from Islington - well, I thought it was from the council, till I opened it, when I found it was ... sort of. It was from the Labour councillor (to whom I'd sent All The Gory Details), saying she was 'concerned' about the problems I'd been having, and would be looking into it. Her actual words are: "I will take this up straightaway on your behalf." Whether anything will come of it is another matter, of course.
I hadn't intended to go up to BY at all today, ( but...Collapse )
While eating, I glanced at Radio Times and found that Toy Story was on - since I've never seen it, I took the opportunity to do so. Hm. Hadn't realised Joss Whedon had a hand in the screenplay. And ... the bit in the pizza truck where Woody gets mashed against the window? Looked AWFULLY like the bit in Prisoner of Azkaban where Harry's on the Knight Bus... 10 years later. *g* Current Mood: dorky
12:48 am - I am Born Again. "Sixteen years it's been, and now Trek has been born again..."
Actually, it's almost 30 years since The Motionless Picture, and 27 since TWoK. But this is a damn good film (originally typed 'filk' there - freudian slip, much?), even if it does have strong echoes of Galaxy Quest!
Zachary Quinto does a damn fine job as Spock; I quite liked Karl Urban as Bones although he should have had BLUE eyes, dammit! Didn't cotton to Simon Pegg (whom I don't really like much) as Scotty till right at the end, where they put him in uniform, filmed him from slightly below, and he suddenly got the body positioning and accent right. I can just about see Chris Pine as a younger Kirk, though the guy who played his father was better. Sulu and Chekov? Er, no, not really. And I wasn't wild about the guy who played Sarek either. I had problems with Uhura at first, but then realised that the eyes and most of the face shape were right - it was the hair that was distracting me.
Also, Leonard Nimoy really should have got some stronger denture fixative. :-{
I shall see it again, I've no doubt. And be buying the DVD (preferably the collector's edition) too - though that's something I might hold in reserve, if it comes out in time for Mum to buy it for me as a Christmas present! Current Mood:elated (and born again)
09:55 pm - Bl@@dy Borrowers... I have a heat-proof table mat. It's a circle of the heatproof matting you can buy to put on tables, dark brown leather-look with a white/cream felt backing - I got it as a free sample at an Ideal Home Show or a craft show some years ago. It lives on the dining table, on top of a rubber mat (which is bigger) so I can put hot stuff straight down without worrying about the effect on the surface.
It was there at breakfast time this morning. I'm reasonably certain it was there around midday, when I wired a connector thingyplugwotsit back onto the end of the speaker extension cable. I had lunch in the bedroom in front of the computer after sorting some clothes.
IT'S NOT THERE NOW. So where the FROD is it? I've searched the table; under the table, under the mat under the table, under the chair cushions, in between the newspapers on the table, around the table, on the way to the kitchen, in the kitchen including in the bin and the washing up bowl (it sometimes does get stuck on the bottom of plates), on the way to the bedroom, all the bits of the bedroom I can get at, and I've even been out to the recycling bin to check I didn't pick it up with the newspaper I finished this morning. I've felt under the sofa. I've lifted some of the bags next to the sofa. I've checked down the side of the cooker and down the side of the bookcase. I've looked in the bathroom and the hall. I don't see how it could have got into the wardrobe but I've looked there. I've looked at the bottom of the laptop in case it got stuck there; I've checked the bag of felt/cork/plastic stick-on 'feet' for things because I was putting new ones on a decorative tile; I've checked the small noticeboard I took down from the living room this morning to make space for something else.
Where the FRODDING HELL is it??????????????
ETA: Thursday 9pm - found it an hour ago, IN THE BAG OF STICK-ON FEET, where I had looked several times and EMPTIED once. aarrgghh. Current Mood: infuriated
05:18 pm - Is there no end to the busy? I managed TWO runs up to BY to bring stuff back today! Before the first one I went out to post paper towels to eoforyth for her kids to plant cress on, and paid the TV rental while I was in the PO getting a Large Letter stamp for the above.
How is it that I have at least four times as much work surface as before, and it's now completely COVERED in stuph? I need to move things around to make space for the coffee maker this evening - it's getting another few tries, and then if I'm still dissatisfied with it I'll donate it to the archery club. Or something.
ETA: Have also paid my car tax disc online, which apparently enters me into a prize draw for the chance to win one of three SEAT Ibizas. Chance would be a fine thing... Current Mood: drained
04:27 pm - A-a-aaaaa-TISHOO!!! Have had to take a break from sorting, because of the dust.
However, is it worth me offering here or on Freecycle four pairs of waist 36 Wrangler stretch jeans? All have been shortened to about 30" leg to fit me, and most have been patched between the legs, but there is one good pair. I'd need to lose at least another couple of stone before they'd fit me, so I don't think, on balance, it's worth keeping them. Also a pair of denim shorts size 16, and a pair of home-made blue cotton shorts (with very nice deep pockets!) about the same size.
Speak now, or I'll either Freecycle them or take them to a charity shop. Current Mood: shocked Current Music: Test Match Special
12:14 pm - Painting Progris Riprt OK, looking at the kitchen door in the cruel light of day, it's obvious that it needs another coat. However, I'm going to paint the hall first, as that dries faster and is used more and will be a lot harder to get to when stuff is moved back in. Also, a lot LESS of the cruel light of day in there, so better to paint it while there is at least some!
I also found, while laying the old curtains I use as dust/drip cloths, a little present the Bastard Workmen had thoughtfully left for me. Underneath one corner of the hall carpet. No, nothing disgusting - just the hinges and hinge pins off (I assume) the old boiler-room door, which if you recall they'd tried to put onto the hall cupboard only to find it was too wide, so they'd propped it inside the hall cupboard... And, obviously, dumped the hinges. I'd actually found one of the hinges earlier and put it aside, but found the others just now because I'd left an old torch in the corner of the hall (testing it, I think it's dead), lifted it out of the way of the cloths, only it stuck to the carpet tape, which lifted the corner of the carpet... Gee, thanks, Bastard Workmen. I suppose I'd have found them eventually when I tried to stand the rack of car stuff back in that corner, and would have discovered it wouldn't stand straight... Bah.
Draco Malfoy lost his snooker match last night, alas. Current Location: in the hall (soon) Current Mood: busy Current Music: swish swish swish of the paintbrush
06:43 pm - What I'm doing this weekend Well, since bookcase-moving isn't happening, I think this weekend, while watching the snooker with half an eye, and even though Draco Malfoy Neil Robertson isn't going to be in the final unless he wins seven frames on the trot ... I'm going to paint.
This morning, before breakfast, even, I painted the two skirting boards and half the kitchen doorpost, which the council/Mulalley, in their Infinite Wisdom, had painted Brilliant White to co-ordinate (NOT!) with my Barley White living room woodwork and walls. I'd already bought a litre of Barley White gloss, cheap, in Tesco; so I can finish the rest of the doorframe and the door itself (on the living-room side, anyway). Then, while doing other things, I looked at the walls in the hall. They're scratched and battered from where I used to haul the bike in and out; there's a great bare patch where all the paint came off after the upstairs flat's cold tank burst and flooded me; and several other rather grotty bits. I found the original tin of the paint I'd used, which was empty, but had the colour written on it (I'd had it mixed for me), and a stripe of the colour painted across the lid, so I took that with me as a colour swatch.
Went to Tesco first for some more incontinence pads *sigh*, damn the Cough O'Doom; they hadn't got paint, so I queued along the North Circular to the big Homebase, where they'd got loads of colour charts, and also a Dulux paint mixer. So I matched up as best I could, and have now got a freshly mixed 1-litre pot of matt Pharoahs Gold 5, which is as close as I can get to what was there.
So - this evening, paint woodwork and door in living room; tomorrow, paint hall walls! It's an ideal time to do this, really, before I move stuff back in and can't get to where I need to paint. I may even manage another run up to BY for some more of the loose stuff - I brought some back today, but I think until more furniture is here, it's probably better for me to bring back only things that I'm reasonably certain I can find a place for. Then on Monday, I'm free to head down to the_gwenzilliad's place for her birthday get-together. Assuming I'm not totally knackered from painting...
ETA: 8.05pm - door frame painted, brush washed; I'll do the door itself when I've had something to eat. Draco has won the first two frames... Current Mood:busy
10:07 pm - Grrr, arrgghh. To add insult to injury, my home phone has decided to stop working. It had little fits of that when I was home last over Easter, but this time seems to be a bit more permanent. I don't know what to do to fix it - the two handsets will call each other, but the outside line doesn't seem to. Obviously, since I can connect to the internet, the line *is* technically working; but the phone doesn't want to talk to it. If I dial it from my mobile, I get a ringing noise in the mobile; but the house phone doesn't do anything, and I can't get a dial tone on it.
I know the usual advice is to plug a standard one-piece phone into the socket to check - but my old one-piece phone is ... somewhere in Big Yellow. Probably.
Also, the bastard workmen unplugged my video for long enough for it to lose its clock and other settings. I've just had to reset it so I can watch the late episode of Heroes tonight...
ETA: Have been down to Argos and bought a) a clothes rail (with two rails, one above the other), and b) a broadband filter. That is now plugged into the main socket, and the phone works; the original one has been brought back and plugged in between the phone-line extension lead and the computer, and lo, I have internets AND phone.
Needless to say, no workmen have (yet?) made any sort of appearance.
The caretaker's grandchildren, in his garden which is two gardens away from mine, made these this morning. Note the authentic carrot noses, and also the lovingly draped scarves!
They're still there now (at 5pm!), with the snow accumulating on them. I wonder if anyone will nip out and rescue the scarves?
I've knitted four of these for ook - this is the first one I've put ties onto. Another three to go! Sorry about the rather demented expression, but that's what you get when you're taking pictures at arm's length and trying to work out exactly what the camera is 'seeing' by looking past it to the mirror.
This took me about half an hour or so this morning to make. I started with a length of 1/2" diameter dowel, and got out my electric drill and the sanding disc attachment. Using a coarse disc, I started by estimating where I wanted the handle, and used the edge of the disc to mark out a groove there. Then I started tapering the main length down; that took the longest time! The handle has a very rough - deliberately so - spiral groove running down it, and a sort of knob/button at the end; the main part of the wand has a broken, intermittent and vague spiral groove all the way up. I've kept it intentionally slightly irregular all over. After the main work was done - all with the sanding disc! - I used sandpaper - actually rubbery sanding sheets - to smooth it off better by hand.
It's had its stain - light oak, of course! - and, so far, two light coats of Danish Oil. It can have another one either tonight or tomorrow (or possibly both), and I'll polish it well after that.
And I suppose I ought to tailor myself a wand pocket into my cloak, oughtn't I? Current Mood:Just call me Ollivander
12:54 pm - Who Killed Albus Dumbledore? I've now re-read this book, and have used over 100 'post-it' type tape flags to mark errors. And I believe I promised people that there would be pictures, so lo! Here Be Pictures.
First, a shot of the outside of the book, showing the myriad flags inserted. There's no colour scheme involved - what I had available at first were in several different colours, and then I bought another batch and just used the orange ones.
And this is a picture of a rather typical page - there are five flags on this page, which is, alas, not unusual - and the top one is actually 3-in-1, as there are three instances in the first two paragraphs of 'Rosmerta' being spelt 'Rosemerta'.
I've had no response from the publishers to my email, offering to re-proof the book for them. But as a beta-reader, I'd be ashamed if I let a fanfic go out with this many errors. Current Mood:disappointed
11:31 am - So ... does Voldemort play snooker? As some of you may know, I've been spending a lot of the last week in front of the telly watching the 888.com World Championship snooker. The final concludes today, and I was a traitor to it for five minutes last night, when I changed channels to watch The Sky At Night for its 50th anniversary programme.
So, this morning, I read my way through the Times news pages, and skipped most of the sports pages apart from a quick glance at the cricket headlines, and came to page 64, with reports on the snooker, and an interesting article on how Mark Selby, who has made it to the final as an unseeded qualifier, has mastered the art of staying menacing even while not at the table, while sitting in the chair waiting. Waiting With Intent, perhaps. The reporter, Matthew Syed, starts and concludes his article with brief mentions of Ali Carter, defeated by Selby in the quarter-final round. Carter was 'slumped in his chair ... his limp body drained of life force, his normally dancing eyes staring into the void like those of a man who has been seduced by the darkness...' says Syed at the start; and, at the end, he writes that Carter, normally likeable and mischievous, was 'on that night ... utterly spent, listless and lifeless, like someone who has had his soul sucked out by a ghostly Dementor.'
I must look more closely at Mark Selby this afternoon. Do his eyes glow red? Does his snooker cue have a core of Phoenix feather? Inquiring minds need to know. Current Mood:much amused
See, I bought this book a few weeks ago: Who Killed Albus Dumbledore? - "Six expert Harry Potter detectives examine the evidence", as the subtitle has it. And it has some very worthwhile theories in it, some very interesting stuff, and is worth the money on that account.
But. But. BUT.( But?Collapse ) Current Mood:disappointed
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calm
accomplished
frustrated
elated (and born again)
busy
amused
Just call me Ollivander
disappointed
determined
full
