Friday Orts and a Blurb

Oooh! Pretty!

Last week the Small Town Friends of the Library asked me to talk to them about oversharing on the internet, and I had to accept the invitation. I love Friends! I love the Library! I'm a champion oversharer! They were just as wonderful and welcoming as I had expected, but then one lovely new Friend told me she watches my blog to see what I'm currently knitting.

Oops.

I do not do a good job of keeping my "what's on my needles" section up to date. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever updated it, so all of you who have arrived here through the promise of a Five Hour Baby Sweater, I apologize. That sweater was finished and delivered and the baby who wore it is now in kindergarten.

My current obsession is shawls and I've finished three of them in the past six months.The first was intended to be part of my Mother of the Groom ensemble, but when I asked Much Older Sister if it was looking a little ripple afghan-y, she (correctly) told me it was, so it became part of my rehearsal dinner ensemble instead.

Shawls are lovely for those of us who are of a certain age, because they are easily removed when the power surge comes upon us, as it is wont to do. I've just finished the Maharashtra Silk shawl pictured above but it is not yet blocked, so that model is not me. (You may have already ascertained that, because COLLARBONES.) It was quite fun to knit, though, and the yarn has a lovely hand feel. The pattern is linked under the picture, for all of you knit-wits.

*****

I made a startling discovery this week. I pulled some pennies out of my purse and while the heads of Honest Abe were still predictably on one side...

...the tails sides were different.

WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?

*****

If you haven't yet had your awwwwwww moment today, go ahead and pre-shape your mouth.

I am unable to embed Baby Panda's First Steps, but it's worth clicking over to it, even though it looks disturbingly similar to my own getting-out-of-bed-in-the-morning routine.

*****

 Blurb of the Week

Source

Husband and I have been watching Hostages, a CBS drama new this year. We seldom are able to sync our schedules well enough to start a series together, so we were excited to be able to watch a water-cooler-moment-worthy show FROM THE BEGINNING. We've hung in there through the first six or seven episodes, in spite of school board meetings on Monday nights that occasionally force Husband to play catch-up in the middle of the week. I wish I could say we chose wisely and have discovered a new Mad Men  or Downton Abbey, but while I may exaggerate for comic effect, I try to never out-and-out lie in this space.

People, this show is terrible. It is not terrible on the terribleness scale of Two and a Half Men, but that show revels in terribleness. Hostages is trying to be serious and riveting, and make you tune in week after week because you CAN'T WAIT until Monday night rolls around again to find out what's happening. It wants to be 24 and instead I find my brow furrowed with exasperation at the ineptitude of everyone surrounding the President of the United States.

Which, I guess, is the way I spend most of my time anyway, so that's kind of like real life. Everything else about this show is not like real life and leaves us incredulous and drop-jawed. (Brow furrowed and drop-jawed--we are PRETTY when we watch Hostages.) The (grown-up/professional) members of this family really cannot find or borrow a phone to call someone and get help? The life-saving surgery the leading character performed on her husband on the dining room table was so spectacular he healed in a single day? Wow. I know some hernia repair surgeons who need to take lessons.

So thumbs down, way down, for Hostages. Unless you're planning to bond with a loved one over the unbelievability, you can keep your Monday nights free.