American Gladiator

I have a confession to make......

I love American Gladiator. :)

It's good old fashioned thoroughly smary fun, completely devoid of reality. Something to strive for, to cheer on, to mock, hiss and boo.... in every episode. Bright colours, simplistic scenarios....it's got everything!

Karen

conflict of interest

Honestly, I can't decide whether to be completely bummed out that West Wing is now... done. over. finito. Forever. What can possibly come close to it?

Or just plain... tickled pink.



This is absolutely, by far, my favourite picture this year.

Karen

gardens, pie, serenity and shooting, oh my!

The foxglove in the garden is behaving strangely. It gave me one stalk of flowers in the middle of the summer (pictured above) and then died back. I assumed this was normal, since it's the first year I've grown foxglove.

But now, 2 months later, it's growing and flowering on another stalk. I've never seen another plant do that. Fascinating. I can't wait until it's more established and starts reaching the 4 or 5 foot range that I've heard foxglove can go.

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No news on the pie front yet. I've been busy this week. Although I do hope to get to the pumpkins soon. I promised my Mum that I'd bring her a pie for Thanksgiving dinner on sunday.

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In the meantime, we were at the Bogenschuetzenfest today. It's an archery contest that is part of Oktoberfest every year. Now, I generally loath all things to do with Oktoberfest, but I make an exception for the Bogenschuetzenfest.

Today, it was pleasantly chilly - you know when it's definitely turning into fall, but not so cold that I couldn't spin between my times to shoot. The day went on so long that they were needing to rush the shoot to finish so the club could open for evening festing.


That's me, up to shoot. I didn't win anything but I did enjoy the shooting, the spinning and hanging with friends.

The scarf that I'm wearing in the picture, by the way, is my first weaving project off the warp-weighted loom. I took it off over a year ago, and haven't been wanting to cut it for fabric but it's perfect for an oversize scarf.

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Last night, we finally got out to see the movie Serenity. Joss Whedon did a fantastic job following up on his too-soon-cancelled series Firefly.

A friend of mine went to see it a week ago and wrote me this:
oh
my
gosh
wow
oh dear
whew
oh no
exhausting

An excellent summary. :)

who wants pie?

Well, I made a pie. For the first time ever, from scratch. Apple. It's a little dry. Not enough sugar.

But the making pastry, and rolling out therof, proved to be not hard at all.

So overall, I believe I can learn to make good pie, with a little practice.

Picked out a few dozen photos from all that is online, to be printed. I still like physical albums and the hubby needs something to put up on his office walls.

Didn't get the porch stained 'though.

Soon.

There's snow in the air on the West Wing rerun that I'm watching, and a chill in the air. I'm thinking of Christmas. But I suppose that I shouldn't get ahead of myself - there's still Thanksgiving, Octoberfest, the hubby's birthday and Halloween first.

Will have to put the garden to bed sometime in the next month. Watch for a wrap-up soon, and plans for next year.

Does anyone else feel pensive at this time of year?


Karen

Long, full weekend

I'm getting somewhat tired of feeding Ginger through her tube, but she is getting better. She's drinking on her own, and holding down her food, for the most part. And there was even the tiniest bit of poop - woohoo! The things one gets excited about, eh?



Started working on the new deck, designed and implemented by the man himself - my very own hubby. Those are my toes. :)



I stained my new deck chair, and started on the deck pieces, but there's no pics. The chair was a first-date anniversary present. :)

On saturday, we went out for dinner and a movie, and ended up doing dinner and an hour or so of browsing in Chapters instead. I'd mentioned to Neil awhile ago that I had been wanting to spend some more time then our usual 'magazines and sci-fi' trips, browsing other sections carefully. And *sigh*, after a very thorough trip around the store.....all I ended up with was one magazine.

I want to find - on the shelves - books on herbs that include growing, harvesting and using them for natural dyeing, medicinal purposes, and the kitchen. I want to find books on spinning, dyeing, weaving that aren't all about the modern versions thereof, without a lot of technobabble. I want stories of why people do what they do in the fiber crafts. I want to find something new and thoughtful and intelligent in the pagan sections - right now, it all seems so cheesy and cheap. And I want to find books whose information I can trust. Especially about health issues - I support alternative medicines, in theory, but it's so understudied, and overwritten. Everyone and their grandmother with a theory that knows a publisher....

I can find many books online, even on the Chapters website, and I'm less resistant to online shopping then I used to be, but still.... I want to find them on the shelves! The damned stores are certainly big enough.

Feel free to make recommendations, by the way. :)

And of course, did more weeding and flower shots and watching season 3 of Babylon 5. We tried to finish the mulching project but the place where we've been getting the mulch decided to close for the holiday weekend.

Brown-eyed Susan. I prefer the brown eyes to the black eyes.


And two shots of the echineacha.




I think I'm out of words now. :)

Karen

Harry Potter

Oh my god, I can't believe that Rowling killed that particular character.

It's so not fair that everyone that Harry looks to as a parental figure dies.

And I liked him!

Karen

stuff

Vandy got herself a blog! I'll put a link in when she lets me.

Been watching a lot of Babylon 5 on DVD lately. It's such a good show 'though I do keep wishing that JMS could have written the whole story without having to accomadate mid-story network cancellations, actor's egos, and budget constraints.

Back spasms, sinus troubles and TMJ - all in one week. No fun.

But I did get the lawn cut yesterday, and today I spread some Scott's turf-builder stuff. And we went and got more mulch (yet more mulch) to add to the new space. Maybe I'll get out there soon.


Karen