Best Quote I Heard All Day
You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty.--Jessica Mitford

I'd love to embarrass Billy Gates publicly for his crappy products that I use every day.


You guessed it. More laptop problems. Last Friday, I had el crasho grande again. Second time in four months. Saturday--reload every application, reestablish every cookied password, redo all my links, redo e-mail addresses. Saved e-mail is gone. Feh.

Thank God I had the presence of mind to back up my book on a jump drive before this happened.

Today IE just wouldn't cooperate. I am now going to use Foxfire because I believe it's more reliable.

And don't say "buy a Mac." I owned Macs for years and loved them. However, now all of my software is PC. My child the computer school grad says the laptop runs too hot for the constant writing that I do and I should buy a desktop. So I did. I'll get it the end of next week. And the laptop use will be relegated to trips and when I feel like writing outside on the patio. Next year.

Scarfing
I dragged out the neverending Touch Me scarf so that I could bind it off and be done with it. And start another for John, since this one is too short for his taste. He wants one to his knees or something.It almost looks woven. However, it's simply seed stitch, which I find works well with chenille. Those aren't worms--it hasn't wormed at all. The purl does tend to bubble a slight bit but not enough that I would call it worming. It'll get the washer/dryer treatment this afternoon. And I'm starting another one, this time guaranteed to drag at the ankles.

CMV Little Bits
When we went to the Garden State Sheep & Wool festival the other month, John managed to gather up bunches of CVM (California Variegated Mutants) shorn pieces. These are probably second cuts (when the shearer goes over the sheep a second time) so the spinning viability is potentially questionable.

Nevertheless, I washed the shitload yesterday. The fleece was not all that dirty or vegetable-matter ridden, fortunately. One good hot-water soak in Tide for 45 minutes, spin, soak in plain hot water, spin, soak in hot water and a cup of white vinegar, spin. Good recipe that I got from The Joy of Handspinning, an excellent web site if you're at all interested in learning how to spin.

Loopy suggested that I wash my fleece in a net bag. Another smart idea. So now it's spread out to dry. Next, it'll get carded. John's hot to try this. We'll see. If he's good, he can card the five pounds of Lincoln that I have to wash next.

The Day After
Because I'm relatively indulgent, I promised Liz that I would put up a picture of her (and friend Murph) in her Halloween costume. And I promised Carol S. I'd do the same for her kid. And then there's my grandson Ian, resplendent in his Obi-Wan outfit.

So here they are. Carol made the fish costume. Incredibly rare and handy she is.