T is for...

T is for trees! Not to rub it in Lara's face, but the trees are starting to change with the cooler weather and the hills are getting beautiful.

I've got two great views on my way to work that crest a hilltop and look out over the surrounding hills.  It's been really great to watch as the tress change colors and decorate the hills.

Llama Face!

 

Well, I guess, it's really an alpaca face, not a llama face.   But "alpaca face" doesn't really roll off the tongue as well.

So somewhere in the magic of the InterWeb, I found an ad for the Alpaca Owners' and Breeders' Association's (AOBA) National Alpaca Farm Days event.  Basically, it was a big open-house at your local alpaca farm to come and pet the fluffies.  I've never heard of it before, but I live out in the country and people have farms out here, so I figured there had to be an alpaca farm out here.  I dragged John out today (in the rain) to pet the 'pacas... and buy some yarn.  :)

 

I felt bad for the farmers today because the weather was so horrible that what should have been a good-sized event was very... very small.  We were there, another family with small children, a couple who were friends of the farmers, and then one last couple arrived as we were leaving.  It wasn't raining very hard at all, but it was drizzling pretty steadily all day.  Just enough to keep you inside if you weren't a crazy knitter in need of some good alpaca homespun.  :)

 

There were several noticeable things during out visit:

1 - Before we noticed the 'pacas, we noticed what I like to call the Big Effing Dogs.  :)

 

 Farmer said that they are Great Pyrenees, bred to be herd protectors.  And when we walked out to the main herd in the field, this one got up from by the barn and calmly followed us out to the herd.  Friendly dog, but definitely curious about what we were doing with his alpacas.  (You can see in the other pictures how big the 'pacas are compared to us, and thus how BIG these dogs are!)

2 - Alpacas are highly organized.

 See? They not only line up for the food bin, but they do so chromatically!  How fabulous is this?

And yes, I got some chocolate yarn for gloves for John (made from Mojave) and I got a two-tone tan/white yarn for something for myself (from Mojave, Sugar, and Pintura).  I met Pintura, too.  I am now one of those crazy knitters that knows the animal her yarn comes from.  :)

I just need to say that I have the best boyfriend in the world. I got "flowers for no reason" flowers today. :) Yes, I know I am spoiled.

S is for...

S is for Shower Curtains!  Woot Woot! The craziness of owning a new house continues.  Well, this did happen back in June, but I think it is worthy of posting.  

So back when we were painting the house, I had this moment of insanity that John indulged. I looked up halfway through one of the main rooms that we were painting the neutral tan, and I decided that it would be cool to paint all the bathrooms different colors.  I know, I could have blamed it on the paint fumes, but we were using latex paint.  I think it turned out great though, and I still like my bathrooms.  :)  I grabbed several paint chip choices and John narrowed down the field, and we ended up with lavender in the basement, mauve in the guest room, and sea-foam in the master bath (the half-bath downstairs was already done in tan at this point, so we left it alone).  The only thing I would change would have been to do the purple in the master bath, but John wanted neither a pink nor purple bathroom.  I wasn't going to be THAT girlfriend, but I love that purple bathroom!  I don't know why.

Soooo... in the first afternoon or so after we moved in officially, we realized that we did not have all those little things that go in a bathroom, like bath mats, cups, trashcans, and shower curtains.  oopsie.  Off I run to Target for a ridiculously-priced bathroom shopping spree.  I can back laden with the basic necessities for four bathrooms, but I might have splurged a little on the shower curtains.  Now, when I say splurge, I don't mean buying the $40 curtains (they were there, believe me), but I feel that what I paid for them was a little excessive for just a big sheet of fabric.  Nevertheless, I like them all.  And the green one even matches the wall color!

  

 

SQUEAL!

We are now officially playing Batman: Arkham Asylum.  And by "we," I mean John is playing and I am sitting here with imdb.com open, checking out all the voice actors as they come.  :)  Hey, Lara's not laughing at me when I say that.  Well, I won't go deep into the game-review of it all, since there are thousands of them out there done by more gamer-techie people (and since we just started playing and aren't too far into the game).  Needless to say, the game is deeeeelicious and the mechanics are very visually attractive.  So here's a run-down of all the yummy yummy voices (a topic I feel is just as important as anything else):

 - Kevin Conroy = Batman.  And that's not just a little symbol, Kevin Conroy IS Batman.  If you grew up watching any (and I do mean ANY) animated Batman series since 1992, then Kevin Conroy is the voice.  He is delicious!  Seriously, he could read me the phone book, in his Batman voice or not.  mmmm...  (Anne goes to her happy place)

- Mark Hamill - Joker.  Yes, I do mean Mark Hamill as in Luke Skywalker.  Apparently being a Jedi lets you tap into deep reserves of crazy.  And, he is the voice of Joker since forever.  And don't worry if you can't hear Luke in it, I never have been able to.

 - Arleen Sorkin - Harleen Quinzel.  She, too, has been the voice of Harley Quinn since 1993.  The game producers hold a special place in my heart for raiding the Andrea Romano voice actors.

- Tom Kane - Commissioner Jim Gordon / Warden Quincy Sharp / Amadeus Arkham / Louie Green.  Most recently he's been Mr Herriman of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, but he's also been Magneto in the new Wolverine and the X-Men, Yoda in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Professor Utonium from Powerpuff Girls, and Lord Monkey Fist from Kim Possible.... among many others (voice actors are whores for jobs, if you weren't aware).  Warden Sharp is pure Mr. Herriman; it's a little weird to listen to.  I keep seeing a very large bunny bouncing around.  Gordon at least is a little harsher and gravelly-er.

 - Steven Blum - Killer Croc / Ian Kennedy / Jordan Fraser.  Another delicious favorite of mine and Lara's.  He specializes in those dark, deep voiced guys AEB being Wolverine in 8 incarnations, Batman in the Lego Batman game, Mugen from Samurai Champloo, Roger Smith from Big O, and (our favorite) Spike from Cowboy Bebop. He also has major roles in .hack//, Naruto, Afro Samurai, Witch Hunter Robin, GTO, Yu Yu Hakusho, Fushigi Yuugi, 3x3 Eyes, and Wolf's Rain.  Like I said, voice actors get around.  Basically, if he's got a deep voice, the safe bet is that it's Steven Blum.

 - Danny Jacobs - Victor Zsasz / Frank Boles / Robert Stirling.  Not famous (most of his credits are "additional voices"), but funny because his main role was King Julien from the Madagascar tv series spinoff. You know, the effeminate, "I am the King! I have the hat!" lemur?  Yeaaahhhh.... not really lunatic material.

- Dino Andrade - The Scarecrow.  Not much interesting here, but he was Skull (the Troll) from PVP: The Animated Series.  Funny for the followers of  PVP.  :)

 - Tasia Valenzia - Poison Ivy / Martha Wayne.  She's been around, but nothing major.  Though, she was on a few different soap operas before she went to voice acting.  Arleen Sorkin was a soap actress, too.   What is it about soap stars becoming voice actors?  Should we look deep into our image-fixated society and suggest that women who can no longer be the pretty young thing in a TV show are forced into roles where they don't ever show their faces?

- Fred Tatasciore -  Bane / Carl Todd.  Apparently, another master of the "deep and gravelly" school of voices.  :)  His first 10 roles on imdb.com show Hulk, Bane, Solomon Grundy, and misc Transformers, haha; and he is Beast in the new Wolverine and the X-Men.  Must also be very flexible, as he is "misc" in a lot of shows, including Family Guy and Robot Chicken.



 - Cree Summers - Dr Penny Young. Easily recognizable as Numbah 5 from Codename Kids Next Door, Foxxy Love from Drawn Together, and Max from Batman Beyond.  But did you know she started out as Penny on Inspector Gadget before moving on to Elmyra in Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs?

 -Adrienne Barbeau - Arkham Voice / Gretchen Whistler.  First famous for Maude (before my time, sorry), but another classic B:AS voice: Catwoman!  I guess they still liked her, even though Selina wasn't in Arkham.

 - Chris Cox - Misc.  Besides GOBS of game voices, he was Seth McFarlane's George W. Bush voice for both Family Guy and American Dad. haha.

 - Roger Rose - Misc.  Lots of roles, but best to mention that he started out in 1962 in the original Jetsons.

 - Keith Ferguson - Stephen Kellerman / TV Voice.  Foster's Blooregard!  'nuff said.  (Wait, does that count as a DC/ Marvel crossover illegality?  Sorry)




Oh - and due to an in-game clip, be sure to check out http://arkhamcare.com/  They made a website for a fictional asylum!  How great it that?  (arkhamcare.com/prices is a hoot!)

New Toys

Soooo... I've always been against those fancy coffee makers that use the pre-packaged portions of coffee because I think it's a waste and over-priced.  That being said, John and I have been debating the necessity of us to have a coffee maker at all in the new house because we only occasionally drink coffee at home, and I only drink coffee when I really need it in the mornings; so, needless to say, we will never go through a full pot of coffee in a day.  However, for John's birthday, his parents saved us the decision and got us a Keurig one-cup-at-a-time coffee maker. 

We've been playing with it all afternoon.  You can get two small cups (there's a small and a large setting, 7.25oz vs 9.25oz)  out of the K-cups (the flavor cups) before it just gets too weak to be any good.  John's mom says that the second cup after a large brew is noticeably weak-tasting, but I am not so picky, so I can't really say.  I know I brewed a small and a large from one K-cup of tea to fill my big mug, and it tastes just fine.

We, of course, had to get the K-cup carousel to display all the flavors.  :)  Yay for counter space!

I think my opinions have been reversed on the fancy coffee maker for a few reasons: 1 - portion control.  It's nice to be able to throw my travel mug under there and not have to either brew a whole pot or pay McDonald's $1.53 if I need coffee in the morning.  2 - flavor selections beyond coffee.  Twinings, Bigelow, and Celestial Seasonings have gotten in on the Keurig system, so I can get my teas too.  3 - "my K-cups."  This one might be the most important for me, but they now make tiny, fillable filters to fit the Keurig system, so you can still buy coffee in bulk like a normal person.  They say "make your own blends," but I see it as "not being chained to their expensive coffees."  :)

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to my sweetie!  He's ooooollllllldd now.   :)

(Harvey wanted to help with the present unwrapping)

Muahahaha

"Even if it upsets the NCAA logo police, W&M’s win over UVA puts a feather in the Tribe’s cap – maybe 2."  Thank you, Bob Molinaro (of the Virginian Pilot) for saying what we all are thinking.

BOOK REVIEW: Casting Spells

 

Casting Spells, by Barbara Bretton

Summary:  Chloe Hobbs runs a knitting shop in the bucolic Vermont town of Sugar Maple, a shop where "your yarn never tangles, you always get gauge, and the knitter sitting next to you comes out only after dark."  That's right, Sugar Maple is a secret haven for witches, faeries, vampires, and werewolves.  Chloe holds their entire future in her hands with the need to continue her family line, but a girl can still dream to meet Mr. Right... right?  But what happens when Mr. Right come to Sugar Maple in the form of an ordinary, human cop who's investigating Sugar Maple's first murder in hundreds of years? 

I don't know where I first saw this recommended, probably Interweave Knits or something like that,but hey, they got my three top topics: knitting, magic, and romance.  So it's been sitting on my To Read list for a while now, and I finally got around to it today.  (Don't worry, the romance is not smutty, bodice-buster romance novel quality, but they do do the nasty.)

Overall, it was enjoyable.  I churned through it in one sitting, so that says something for the "immersion" factor.  I found it a bit tricky in the start because Bretton uses first-person narrative (which is never my favorite to begin with) ... but with both her heroine and hero, seriously?!  It was a little rough for me getting used to the switching perspectives, but that wasn't a long-term concern.  I was able to get used to it eventually.  The plot moved along well, but I found myself at the end getting antsy wanting to find out the "will he stay or will he leave her" question that was hanging over the couple since they met.  But it was a cute and happy bit of story.

What was highly enjoyable for the knitter in me was all the references.  Bretton knits herself (Romancing the Yarn) and she used Wendy D. Johnson (Wendy Knits) and Dawn Brocco (DB Knitwear Designs) to help her out even more.  All the big yarn names are dropped in the book: Debby Bliss's Cashmerino, Cascade 220, Koigu, Lopi, Rowan, etc.  And the tone is great.  My favorite part was when Luke (the cop) first enters the shop:

I stepped deeper into the store, past a polished maple worktable piled high with pointed sticks and scissors and things that would never make it past airport security... (blah blah blah, describing the shop) I noticed a ball of something blue and fluffy and picked it up.  I squeezed it and the price tag jumped out, and I quickly put it back down again.  For one ball of yarn? This was worse than crack.  Get addicted to this stuff and you would be living in your minivan.

Sigh. So true, so true.  :)

(Followed in sequel by Laced with Magic that apparently continues Chloe's misadventures in love and magic)

My defective kitty

Prayer circles, gather and bend a head for my little Harvey cat.  Where to begin?  His scratching and itching has not abated since the start of the month (even with 2 weeks on antibiotics and steroids); and then on top of that, he got a sniffle last Monday.  Now, for most cats, sniffles are no biggie, but my baby has Feline HIV, a.k.a. No Immune System.  So, when the nose whistle and snot did not go away quickly, I called up the new area vet (we moved, remember?) on Wednesday and made an appointment for Friday after work.

Cut to me getting home Wednesday, and John says, "Watch Harvey's back leg; is he limping?"  So we watch Harvey walk around... then start waddling... then full-on stagger and stumble around. He developed a head-tilt and a lean to his left side, then had a minor fall-down convulsion  fit.  At that point, I had a fit and dragged Harvey and John to the emergency vet in town. After a VERY long and stressful 30 minutes or so, Doc says that there is this thing in cats called vestibular disease.  They don't know what it really is, why it happens, how to prevent it, or (even worse) how to fix it... but it happens frequently at the turn of the seasons and totally screws with the cat's inner ear.  Very traumatic for owners, but not too terrible for the cat.  At least, as not as terrible as seizures or strokes or brain pudding-ification.  Doc says that it comes on quickly and can leave just as randomly.  I had flashbacks to where I was cracked out on that inner-ear medication back in college that made me all loopy and dizzy, and I sympathize with my kitty.

So we got to take Harvey home and watch him stagger around with the grace of a drunken college party-goer... with one eye closed... and one high heel on... on a waxed floor.  :(  It's really heart-wrenching to watch sometimes.  AND THEN, as if all this crap wasn't bad enough, the little fool stopped eating!  He lost a little less than a full pound in about a week, and he only started out at 7.8 lbs! That's about 12%, or about 15-20lbs for a grown person.

We decided to keep the regular vet appointment today, and Vet was able to give me some more information about vestibular disease.  She peered in Harvey's ear and saw a bunch of gunk that might be hiding an inner ear infection that might have contributed to the vestibular disease.  It's all a bunch of maybes and mights, but there's not much we can do but keep an eye on him so that he doesn't have too many problems getting around.

And good news, everyone!  Vet suggested getting some wet, stinky cat food to see if that would entice him to eat, and as I was holding the dish in front of his nose, he started chowing down!  Apparently, it was a height thing- the dish was too low on the ground for him to lower his wobbly head to eat out of!  So, now all his dishes are up on boxes and books to raise them up.  He's almost eaten a whole pouch of Friskies tonight (Granted, a cat his size should eat like 3-4 in a day, but still! more than nothing!)

Hopes and prayers:
1 - Harvey keeps eating and puts the weight back on.
2 - Antibiotic shot clears up sniffle-nose and there are no complications.
3 - Vestibular disease quickly clears up & he stops stumbling around.
4 - Itching fades, too, so his skin can heal.

Like I said, my kitty has problems.  August is not his month.   :(