In an attempt to get back in the habit of posting, I thought I'd follow the lead of one of my favorite podcasts, NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour and post a short list of some of the things making me happy this week.

• Lunch plans with mycrazyhair, neeuqdrazil, and crystal_diva. Girls' lunch is always fun, and having crystal_diva in town is a welcome plus.


• The new Star Wars trailer! Every time I see it, I get goosebumps. I wasn't getting my hopes up, after the mess that was the prequels, but all of a sudden, I can't wait to see this movie :-)


• Orphan Black returns this weekend. I love that show, and I'm looking forward to the twists and turns of the the new season.

Yay! Made a post! Could I use more exclamation marks?

It seems like I've been really busy lately, but I'm not sure doin' what...

• I've been knitting lots - I'm working on a pair of socks right now, and I've the yarn for another pair coming in the next week or so. Those, I'm looking forward to - I'm going to be doing Viper Pilots in a dark blue yarn shot with silver, IndigoDragonfly's Shiny, in Tardis - I think they'll be gorgeous, but I'm not sure they'll be exactly high-wear. Kim (indigodragonfly) appears to have graduated from the OPI school of colour names, and half the attraction of the yarn is the names. Plus, it's very schooshy!


• I've been reading lots, too. According to my Goodreads library, I've read 26 books so far this year, so I'm averaging two a week. My Kobo really seems to be upping that book count. I'm currently actually reading a hard copy book, now, though - I'm re-reading Jean Auel's Shelters of Stone before reading her new book, The Land of Painted Caves.


• I've also, this week, been watching Ken Burns' The Civil War - PBS is re-broadcasting it right now, and I've never seen it. It's fascinating to watch, and a little horrifying. I don't think I ever realized how bloody that war really was; the fact is that it seems like the North spent the first two years snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, making the war last a lot longer than it needed to.


• I've also started watching Castle - I've watched the first season, and I loved it! For a show about a murder cop, I end up with a smile on my face an awful lot. *g* Beckett's competent and smart! Castle's a wise-ass and smart! Plus, Castle's actually a good parent - how weird is that? He's, like, Keith-Mars-level good!


• The return of sunshine makes everything better - I feel a little less like hibernating, and I'm watching my garden for changes daily. The lilacs are almost ready to start showing leaves, and the hyacinths and tulips are coming up nicely.

Heh. So that's a list of a bunch of the stuff I've been meaning to post, but haven't quite gotten around to...

So, crystal_diva and I were talking about a possible visit to the Purple Purl tomorrow, since we're downtown anyway, and her ordered book should be in. I've got a shawl in my queue that needs some yarn, and I thought I'd pick up something from Tanis Fibre Arts for it.

Then, this morning, the new Knitty came out. It's the first one I can remember in quite a while where every single click brings me to a pattern that makes me go "cool, I'd like that." Every. Single. Click.

In an attempt to limit the damage, I've narrowed it down to three sweaters (one, two, three), two scarves, and two hats. Now, if I could just narrow it down to one of each, I might be able to get out of there without making my credit card card scream for mercy.

(First world problems, I know! *g*)

All of a sudden, Firefox will not start on my work computer. Well, that's not entirely true - it starts and then immediately crashes (complete with the Mozilla Crash Reporter popping up).

I've installed no new hardware or software, although some of my Firefox add-ons did update yesterday.

So today, I'm using Google Chrome. *g* It seems to work pretty well, although I miss my FoxyTunes control and my Flashblock (and my RSS reader)

Hopefully a reboot tonight will solve the problem; otherwise, I've no idea how to fix it other than a complete new install.

Lazy's pretty much the only way I can sum up today :-)

Last night was mostly about a bout with the insomnia monster, combined with a killer allergy attack. At least - I hope it's allergies, or else I've got one hell of a spring cold.

So, I actually went back to bed at 9:30 this morning, and rested until noon. I've made it out to a drug store, and managed to pick up an allergy med for *nighttime* - why on earth are almost all allergy meds non-drowsy? I'd like to sleep sometime, y'know...

So, now I'm just organizing my LJ Scrapbook pictures and moving them all over to flickr, and updating the associated entries to point to the new locations. I've pretty much decided LJ is getting no more of my money, so when my account runs out in June, I won't renew. That means moving those pictures out now, so that the entries don't break. Oh, and updating carynknits so that the galleries of past projects point to the correct place.

Now, I'm off to find the originals for all the pictures in scrapbook.

On the plus side, I believe we're gonna be watching Sherlock Holmes, assuming I can stay awake that long. RDJ Goodness!

So, crystal_diva appears to be starting to organize a reunion for our high school class. Since I eat lunch with her everyday, this appears to mean I'm helping. *g*

So, I'm now the "web person", and I'm looking for a domain hosting service. Right now, it'll just be a place to collect name and address info, so I'll need php and mysql access, but it'll never be very complicated - just a few information pages and maybe a mailing list, really. And, we're really not looking to spend $30 or $40 a month to do this.

One local hosting service I've found is Ethical Hosting - their base service is only $7/month, which seems really reasonable. Anyone know what they're like to deal with? And "gotchas" I should be looking for? Any other recommendations for hosting services?

We're looking to get a domain registered and a base site up in the next couple of weeks, so there's no big rush, but I've never tried to get this kind of hosting before, and I'm not sure what the pitfalls are.

I've really been enjoying watching Republic of Doyle - some of it is nostalgia, some of it is how beautifully it's shot, and some of it is just enjoying the characters. The acting and writing have gotten better every week, I think.

Last night's can be summed up for me as "Jody! Hee!" It's been fun, watching the show and recognizing the actors - it seems like anyone at all connected to the arts community on Newfoundland is going to end up on there eventually - but seeing Jody Richardson was cool. It seems to me that I went to a lot of Thomas Trio and the Red Albino concerts back in the early 90s. I thought it was Jody, as soon as he appeared on screen, and then the granny referred to him as the Red Albino, and that confirmed it. Hard to believe it's been almost 20 years since the BBQs in his backyard in downtown Toronto, before he went back home to Newfoundland.

And next week they have Victor Garber! Victor Garber!?! How the hell is a little show on the CBC landing someone like Victor Garber in a role?

( American Idol Top 12 Results )

+ Glorious, sunshine-y weather
- not being able to find my roller blades. For the first time in years, I wanted to go out on them, and I have no idea where they are. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I gave them away at some point.
+ Starting a new mystery Knit-a-long project - a purple lacewieght shawl, with beading.
- Having to rip said shawl halfway back because the designer misunderstood my question about how the nupps were to be worked.
- My cholesterol has gone through the roof in the last three months, prompting my doctor to prescribe cholesterol pills. I'm really, really ambivalent about taking them. I think I'm gonna try actually being careful about what I eat, instead. My 3-4 chocolate bars a week habit has to go bye-bye. I'm just not sure what else to change - I don't eat a lot of fast food, although the amount has gone up recently and will be cut back. I have been drinking pop recently, so that'll be cut out - HFCS has got to be a bad thing. M and I spent part of the weekend trying to figure out what had changed to make my cholesterol readings go up my 50% in 3 months, and that's about all we could come up with. I've been eating more pizza, more pop, and more chocolate, so all that will be going away (or at least being cut way, way back).
+ Coming up with a plan for facing the cholesterol problems. I can't just do my usual thing and ignore it, for once.
+ Snow melting - can green, growing things be far behind?
+ Finally figuring out a good chicken tikka marinade (I doubled the cayenne, and it finally has enough kick)
+ Sunshine, and not needing to wear winter boots this morning.
+ A short work week - I have Friday off.
+ An upcoming visit with family, and getting to see my nephew!
+ Sunshine!

So, I thought I'd give home-dying my hair a try. One of the casualties of my home-ownership budget was getting my hair coloured regularly, and it's been boring the crap outta me recently.

I picked out a brand, selected a colour, and this morning, screwed my courage to the sticking point and gave it a shot.

The goal? reddish with blonde highlights (see icon for example. *g*)

The result? brunette with blonde polka dots.

Oh well, it'll grow out or fade eventually, right?

So, I went to the doctor yesterday for my annual physical.

One of the things that came up was my unusually-low blood pressure. The first time she took it, the number came up as 90/50. As crystal_diva noted, that's the point at which, on ER, they start yelling "We're losing her!". So, the doctor then asked me if I'm dizzy or light-headed often, I said no, she re-did the test, and got 90/70. A little better, but still pretty low.

The thing is, it occurred to me later that I damn near passed out in the middle of the liquor store on Sunday. I put it down to the cold I'm getting over at the time, but I was certainly dizzy. Hell, every time I stand up, I grab for a table or chair to balance myself to make sure I won't fall down again. But, everyone gets a little bit of a head rush, right?

If I don't have a symptom in mind when I go in to the doctor (i.e., if I'm not visiting about that specific thing), if I'm asked if I have it, I say "No." Always. Am I the only one who does this? It's a bad thing to do, I think, since my doctor never gets a complete picture of what's going on.

I'm wondering if it boils down to, for me, ignoring any symptoms so that they're not "real", or just the stoic-don't-make-a-fuss-thing that's standard in my family. Or maybe, if I think something's normal, it just doesn't occur to me that it might not be.

Hmm.