~ Today I purchased the final ingredients for last-minute menu adaptations (see, the way our family does Thanksgiving, you MUST have all the traditional favorites each year, but every year or so, we also feel like trying something new. More often than not those items are a hit, and are brought back the next year ... with the end result being that the number of "must-have" favorites continues to expand as the years go by.)

~ Making it's debut on this year's menu is a Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie. Instead of a pastry shell it has a graham-cracker-like crust, only you use ginger snaps instead of graham crackers! I have a feeling it will be making an encore in 2010.

~ In the grocery store parking lot there was a PT Cruiser painted an inexplicable shade of mustard - metallic mustard! - why would someone create a vehicle in that color, much less purchase one?

~ On the topic of more pleasant pigments ... my latest knitting project is in a nice, deep, rich Royal Blue. It has been a series of firsts: first hat, first time with double-pointed needles, first time knitting in the round, first time with increasing/decreasing, first time with circular needles, and first time with Continental stitch. And I have found that I *LOVE* both of those last two!! Makes things sooooooo much faster! Started Wednesday night and I'm about two-thirds of the way through. I've taken pictures of the process, if anyone is interested.

Weight Loss/Fitness ~
After reaching a significant milestone in October, I've been kinda costing within a 5-lb range of said milestone since. This is really unsurprising, as, apparently, if you DON'T pay attention to what you eat and DON'T exercise, than you not only DON'T lose weight, but you actually gain it back. (Who knew, right?)

Knitting ~
Finished the legwarmers this afternoon. I'm surprised at how well they came out, especially considering they are my second knitting project ever!
( Click for pic! )
I need to learn how to increase/decrease, so I think my next project will be something small which uses that. Any suggestions? I was thinking maybe a potholder? Like this one

Family ~
Older-Younger Brother graduates PA school on December 3rd. He's currently on a neurosurgery rotation and will be going to work for them fulltime after the new year (has to wait to get his board results back).
If I had a dollar for everytime someone in the family has made a joke along the lines of "You don't have to be a brain surgeon to [x]" since he began working there, (with the occasional variation of "... oh, wait, - yes, you DO!") I would be a wealthy woman.
...However, not as rich as he will soon be. He's going to be bringing in SIX FIGURES a year. (If that doesn't sound impressive, may I remind you, we live in Oklahoma, the state with the second-lowest cost of living last year)

Older-Younger Sister is heading back to Sierra Leone the day after Christmas... for SIX MONTHS. (At least.) She will be serving as kind of a house mom for the orphanage, in addition to providing tutoring and training in basic nutrition, hygiene, etc.

Younger-Younger Sister (who is modeling the legwarmers shown above) is active in various forms of the arts, as always: chiefly dance and piano. She is looking towards getting a fellowship/internship with a national professional company in the next year or so.

Younger-Younger Brother is as wonderful as always. And almost 6' tall! One of his friends' dads just formed a basketball team through the YMCA, so he has another sport venture, in addition to fencing and biking. He also has a pretty decent "four-pack" after only a few weeks of ab work. I am impressed. His older brother will be jealous. (He has had to fight for every single half-ounce of muscle)

TV ~
Continue to love Castle, like a lapfull of fuzzy, playful, baby kittens.

Recently found a new love in White Collar. (Hardly surprising, given my oft-stated personal preference for rogues, conmen, "pretty people doing cool things with witty banter," and, of course, my major competence kink.)

Currently unsure of my exact feelings for Glee.

Only other shows I'm up-to-date on are Mentalist and Lie to Me, both of which I enjoy watching online while knitting and calling out theories and advice at the screen while knitting. (I fear I am a rocking chair and a couple of pets away from becoming a crazy cat lady)

I am knitting (I just learned how on Saturday! Is fun! and way easier than I thought!) and watching/singing along with YouTube clips. (Currently the "Bust A Move" performance on this week's Glee. For the umpteenth time. Also? Spellcheck recognizes the word "umpteenth")

Later I will make a side dish (decided on Watergate salad) for my 10th High School Reunion cookout tomorrow.




So that's my exciting Friday night plans ... what are y'all up too?

Only one comment about tonight's episode:


I don't believe I've ever wanted live TV instant replay capabilities more in my life.








EDIT: (Yes, I know such abilities exist. I have basic network, people. No TiVo/Faux/DVR. Even my VCR no longer records since the digital switchover.)

That little doggy?

TOTALLY GONE!

Made my milestone goal!

Thanks for the thoughts and kind words. Yesterday was rather surprisingly difficult. I did not expect it to hit me as hard as it did. I'd been struggling a lot and having a bad time the week or so before but I kept thinking it was related to other things. I finally realized it was the anniversary wearing on me. Clearly, it was affecting me more than I was consciously aware. I'm not sure why. (And there's a part of me that thinks how stupid that ten should be a bigger deal for some reason than nine or eight...but you can't control things like that)

We went out as a family last night. Just to have fun and be together and remember Daddy. We didn't even really talk about it much, just enjoyed each other and our family and who we are, who we were, and who we've become. But, you know, that's honoring his memory. Because each and every one of us would not be who we are today without his influence and without going through losing him.

To segue into other news, we went to Chili's for dinner. I split an order of mushroom jack fajitas with my baby brother and it was completely, 100% guiltfree because (drumroll, please)

... as of yesterday's weigh-in I am officially at the lowest weight I've been since originally putting it all on!

I'm not sure how, 'cause I hardly exercised since it was a hard week, but I'll take it! Plus, I have lost more than 10 pounds since Labor Day!

I haven't been this small since sometime in 2002, probably. (I don't recall exactly when I passed certain milestones originally - that's the deal with depression - but I am definitely celebrating crossing them in the other direction!)

In fact, speaking of milestones, I am very, very close to passing a big one.

How close? Well, funny you should ask...

( Clicketh here for ye old picspam )

Ten years ago today.

Ten years ago today.

Wait a minute, Supernatural premieres TOMORROW NIGHT??????

When did that happen?

I know I haven’t posted in – wow, four months! Is that all? – although I keep meaning to do so, but I knew I HAD to come post as soon as I heard this:

Leverage Renewed for Third Season

*happy dance*

I have a feeling that Leverage might possibly be more fun to work at then it is to watch. Hard as that is to believe.




Also...TEN WEEKS TO GO!!!

*tapes note to front door*

Dear World-in-General,

Taking short break.

Up since 4 AM (and only went to bed at 1).

And it's been practically non-stop for the last two days (and especially the last twelve hours)

I should be back on duty once I grab a quick nap, and maybe, you know, a shower.

Please leave all questions, crisis-es, and further complications, on the porch and I'll deal with them in an hour or two.

Thank you,

Me.

You knew it would happen eventually ...an Aldis Hodge-centric Leverage "extra" video.



(NOTE: If you have not yet seen the show [And, if so, WHY NOT????] this is really not spoiler-y in any way other than the very basic concept of "people on this show steal things"

So, revel in the awesome amuse-ity [amusingness? amuse-osity?] of Aldis and the Leverage crew!)

So, I was doing a search for images of Sierra Leone (it is truly a stunningly beautiful country) and I see a "News Results for Sierra Leone" dated only 16 hours ago.

So I click on it.

Headline: "SEVENTEEN HURT IN SIERRA LEONE, POLITICAL VIOLENCE"

"...at least 10 injured being treated at a hospital in the city, many with machete wounds [!!!] to their bodies, shoulders or hands."

Well,...Crap.

I really did *NOT* want to hear that.

Now, granted, she only arrived about four hours ago and I have no idea how close this was to where she's staying, but STILL!!!

...

I will NOT be mentioning this to Momma until she is home again safe. No need for that.

So you remember how last March was rather tumultuous for my family?

Well, this time around is pretty busy, too.

(I'm just hoping it's not ushering in another spring-summer-fall combo like we had in 2008!)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

( Click here to learn which family member is currently on the other side of the planet. Also, some depressing news on a global/historical scale )

( Click here for some depressing news on a more personal scale )

( Click here for updates on some information from last year, and news that is more bittersweet then depressing )

( Click here for a brief update and a wrap-up that tries to dilute the depressing content of much of the rest of the entry )

I don’t think my mom understands what it is I do.

( I know my entries are almost universally 'tl;dr' - so I'm going to cut to be nice. Click if you wanna read me ramble about my family, my life, and having family who appreciate your skills but clearly don't understand what you've actually been doing with your life )

So my last post was a rec for arefadedaway's awesome girl-power fanvid. (If you have not seen it, do so immediately. Heck, if you haven't seen it recently, rewatch it immediately.)

In the comments, omoo talked about seeing a recent movie and being angry at the portrayal of women in it "When afterwards we tried to name positive role models we had a really hard time, and were a bit depressed by that. We were trying to limit ourselves to non sci-fi/ fantasy since it would be nice if girls/ women had role models that were strong and cool in this world, now, instead of something that will just happen in the future."

I take this as a challenge!

Yes, there are a lot of disappointing representations of women out there, but there are also those that encourage, uplift, and inspire. Help me celebrate the many, wonderful, awesome fictional females!

I've never done something like this, so we'll see how it goes.

Here are the rules:

1. Post the name and fandom of the Fabulous Female you want to recognize in the subject of your comment

2. In the body of the comment explain briefly why she is a worthy woman role model.

3. If someone has already started a thread for one of your favorite characters, go ahead and chime in with the reasons that YOU love her! It's a love meme, we can't say too much.

4. I don't want to discriminate against any awesome characters, but for a challenge, let's try to focus on promoting the ones that are based on real women dealing with real life just like we do. That means those a) without special powers, b) living in the modern world c) not involved with magic/monsters/men from outer space.

5. Promote this meme to your friends.

Fanvid Rec

So, I found this a while back, forget now who or what community linked me to this video originally, but I wanted to promote it to all of you.

It’s a multi-fandom fanvid recognizing the wonderful, powerful, inspiring, beautiful, intelligent, fascinating female characters we all have come to know and love over the years.

A celebration to girls everywhere.

Yes, it has the ones you’d expect, like Buffy and Xena.

But it has much newer fandoms (Parker!) and much smaller ones (MISS Parker!)

(...and on a COMPLETE sidenote, although I had never connected those two before this moment, now I want some sort of crossover thingy about these women both known only by the same single name.)

There are the sci-fi chicks, of course: Aeryn, Teyla, Starbuck, Janeway, various Companions, the Firefly girls...

But this is a complete smorgasbord of fandom females:
Dani Reese, Chloe Sullivan, Veronica Mars, Anne Shirley, Susan Pevensie, Ziva David, Sam Carter, Temperance Brennan...

Old-school female roles (Wonder Woman, Emma Peel, Lt. Uhuru) get their due as well.

Naturally, there are women warriors (Sarah Conner, Eowyn, Trinity) girls with special abilities (Storm, Seven of Nine, Claire, River), and girls discovering new worlds and magical adventure (Lucy, Lyra, Hermione), but there are also women just dealing with the ups and downs of life, and deserving to be recognized (Tami Taylor, the girls from Mad Men, Lizzie and Jane!).

Oh, and the animated females are by no means forgotten, from Azula, Toph, and Katara, to Sailor Moon and her posse, ... even Carmen Sandiego!

I especially like that the bad girls (Angela Petrelli, Jadis, Maleficent(!), among others) get their moment along with the heroines.

And the editing is intriguing, the way certain girls are grouped together, or similar scenes/poses reoccur.

You should go watch it.

It’ll probably take several viewings to even begin to catch all the faces.

After all, with every name listed above, I’ve only mentioned less than ONE THIRD of the awesome females represented!

If you are not watching Leverage - WHY???

Let me just put it to you this way.

Last night was the first half of the two-part season finale.

I would be completely satisfied if that WAS the entire season finale.

And we were left with the "To Be Continued" questions of "where do we go from here?/what will they do?" for the entire hiatus.

THAT is how excellent this show's writing/characters/plot/motivations/dialog/etc is.

I was stunned when that thought came to me and I realized it was true. Because I have NEVER felt that way ever.

Onto episode comments!
( Leverage Season Finale Part One )