Amazon Unbox is teh suck
Quick post about a crappy service: a week or so ago I got an email from TiVo telling me if I registered my player with Amazon Unbox, I'd get a $15 credit to use when renting or purchasing movies from AU. Sounded great so I registered and got all set up. i used my credit to "rent" (download for limited viewing) 3 movies that I knew Kit wouldn't want to watch with me. According to the large print, I can have movies on 2 computers or two portable devices, and I thought it would be fun to watch them on my new PSP (love it! Shiny!). No dice. Not only is PSP not a supported portable device (WTF?1?!) but the little fine print buried in the FAQ mentions that the multi-license downloads only apply to purchases, not rentals. Okay, fine. I've got the movies downloaded on my laptop. So tonight I'm headed with said laptop and I try to start one of the movies.
"Getting license for content. Please wait a few minutes and try again."
I've had these movies downloaded for 5 days. I even connected up to the intarwubs to see if that would help. No dice. Nothing about this message in any of the help files or on the website. Amazon, you suck. Glad I didn't spend any actual money on this.
On a happier note, someone behind me is listening to Duran Duran. We loves the DD.
I was Represented!
Last Thursday I switched shifts with Erica (we have both agreed doing this is in neither of our best interests -- I think there may be a pinky swear in our future to never do this again) so that I could go up to FIT and see the Yarn Harlot at the Represent! event, wherein many knitters would gather and scare the bejeezus out of the muggles (I think we wre pretty successful at this). The Yarn Harlot was just as funny and cool and nice (from afar -- I didn't get to actually meet her) in person as she is in print, and she talks just like she writes. Much of her prepared talk was about the prejudices we face as knitters, largely because knitting is thought of as "women's work" -- try substituting "fishing" for "knitting" when you talk to people about your hobby and see what a difference it makes. I realized as I listened to her that I am incredibly fortunate that the majority of the people in my life think that it's very, very cool that I knit, and express awe rather than patronization when I pull out my current project. So I wanted to take a moment and give a big public thanks to pretty much everyone I know for, well, not being jerks.
After her prepared talk, the Yarn Harlot opened the floor for comments and questions. She took a moment to remove the beautiful Bohus sweater she was wearing (if you read her blog, it's the one with the gorgeous yellow yoke she's been working on and just finished) and when she turned around I almost died right there in my chair. You see, underneath her gorgeous sweater, in front of a whole whack of people -- New Yorkers, nonetheless -- she was wearing this t-shirt from
my Cafe Press store!
OMG! OMG! I know I squealed at least once. The deal with these shirts -- any of the shirts/merch from my Cafe Press store -- is that I've priced everything $5 over the amount Cafe Press keeps. All of that $5 will go to Doctors Without Borders, via Knitters Without Borders. It's a great way to get a cool shirt (I'll be adding more designs and some mugs and stuff in the very near future) (no, really -- very soon!) and give to charity at the same time, for not much more than you'd pay for just the cool shirt at another store. Stock up!
One of those days
Sorry, y'all -- it was another one of those days today and I just don't have a good post in me. Hopefully I'll be able to engage in leisure activities on the train tomorrow instead of working. :(
It's still Friday in Guam
Okay, so here's the deal. I left work about two hours late last night, and I really, really wanted to get the new design up, because it's just been languishing in my brain and in parts here and there on the computer. So I worked on that last night until I realized that I was making completely stupid mistakes (the fact that it took me five different tries of more and more convoluted code before I realized that the problem was that I hadn't told the one file to look at the other one should tell you something). Then The Soup came on, and I tried to write through it, but if you've ever watched you know that's just impossible. And then it was bed time. So here we are.
Becky first (because I know that's all you really care about):
Becky has been having a monster "growth spurt." I use quotes because I haven't noticed any particular amount of growing, but she's been waking up in the middle of the night for the past 3 weeks (!) and eating 10-12 ounces. She does at least switch off whose shift she gets up during, so Kit and I, while exhausted, are making it through. She actually slept all the way through last night -- no binky replacement or anything -- so I'm feeling quite perky this morning (I'm less perky since I realized I'm out of creamer and my emergency stash has apparently gone bad, but I see a trip to Starbuck's in the very near future so it'll be fine).
Other things I've done in the past way-too-long-since-I-posetd:- Went to see the
Dropkick Murphys at House of Blues in Atlantic City on a Tuesday night. I broke a heel. Wonder husband Kit came to the rescue with his ear tape (it's a rugby thing -- they use electrical tape to hold their ears in place so they don't get all roughted up in the scrum). The show was pretty awesome and watching the kids down below in the mosh pit brought back some memories from my high school days. We were safely ensconced in the balcony, which was nice and had plushy seats. It's such a small auditorium that you don't lose anything (except the mosh pit experience) by sitting up there. I'd recommend it to a friend.
- Finished the stockings and submitted the pattern/charts/photos. Waiting for feedback. I'm pretty proud of them, and think I did a good job writing the pattern as far as clarity and errata goes. Pictures as soon as I can.
- Lost a
Fetching. Replaced a Fetching. Still love the Fetching and wish more of my family lived colder places so I could make them for everyone. I used Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted Navy (Project Spectrum! Yay!) (I was so pleasantly surprised that I can work with this wool. It gives me a little bit of the rash, but not much and as long as I stop after a Fetching or two, it's fine. Weirdly, I can
wear the Fetchings with no irritation at all.) and one skein has already made three mitts, and I'm pretty sure I can get two more out of it. Very impressive. See how pretty:
Or not. I was going to take pictures before we left the house (to head up to Boston), but the camera battery was dead, so I had to charge it up and then just didn't have time to be taking pictures. I did not pack the Fethcings to bring with me because, well, it didn't occur to me. I promise pictures when we get home.
- Got a manicure (as you will see when I post pictures of the Fetchings). I've been wanting to do this for awhile, but first I was pregnant and then I was waching bottles and pump parts every 5 minutes so it seemed silly. But now bottles are down to once or twice a day (the washing of them, not the feeding of the baby), and I have a little extra money, I thought I'd go ahead and splurge. I found a place right by work where it's cheap but not gross, so I'm very happy. And I feel pretty (oh, so pretty...).
- Designed, on paper, several more garments and decided to enter two more design contests. Both of these require you to write and make the design prior to submission, so that's fine. Because as you know from the post that was in my head (you can read those, right? I don't actually have to type them up and post them.) right after I finished knitting the stockings, I will never again design anything on spec. Robynn was great, but it was a huge PITA trying to find the right yarn and waiting for the right yarn to arrive and having to order more of the right yarn and so on. Never again. (For those of you keeping score, the last thing I said that about was knitting socks on size 1 DPNs, which I proceeded to not only do again immediately, but to do
in a design I wrote. Clearly, when I say I'm not going to do something again, I really mean it.)
- Went to see the
Yarn Harlot. That's tomorrow's post, because it deserves a post of its own.
- Replaced our crappy overpriced cable and regular old TV with FiOS and a 42" Bravia. We loves it. Kit -- if you read his blog, you can skip this, he already told this story -- anyway, after we finally got everything all set up (see below), I come home and Kit's watching the Rangers (hockey, not baseball) game, and I can tell he's a little disappointed. And honestly, I was a little disappointed, too. I mean, everything looks nice. And big. Really, really big. But not like it was in the store. Then Lost came on, and it was broadcast in HD. Our jaws just dropped. Holy wow. Unbelievable clarity and color. Just stunning. I highly recommend it.
Now, about the set up. We already had FiOS internet, so the installation didn't take that long and the guys were really nice -- no complaints. This happened when we still had the old (non-HD) TV. Then the Bravia came and...whups. It turns out that while TiVo
does work with FiOS, the only TiVo boxes that can handle HD are the DirectTV boxes (which only work with Direct service and also are obsolete) and the new Series 3 boxes, which cost like $700. Plus you still have to pay $12.95/mo for the TiVo service. To get an HD DVR from Verizon is...free. A regular HD set top box is $9.99/mo. The HD DVR goes up to...$12.99. So I can
save ten bucks a month PLUS not have to lay out another $700? We no longer have TiVo. And honestly? There are some things I like better about TiVo's interface (which is the complaint you see most often about non-TiVo DVRs), but there are actually a lot of things I like better about the FiOS DVR interface. So I'm pretty happy.
I think that's just about everything exciting that's happened to me lately (except some stuff that happened at the Yarn Harlot, but I'm saving all that for tomorrow's post). If you know I forgot something, holler out.
So much to blog, so little time
So I'll just give you this until Friday, when I promise there will be a tremendously huge post about what I've been up to for the past two weeks (stockings and concerts and growth spurts, oh my!):
Gangsta Kitter music video
Inside the Baby Studio
Sorry for the lack of posts/updates recently -- Becky had a nasty stomach virus over the weekend so I spent all my time taking care of her, or completely vegging out when it was Kit's turn. She's all better now. Readers with kids in daycare, if your baby is vomiting and/or has diarrhea, please keep them home. Becky caught this bug from another little girl at school whose parents brought her in with those symptoms.I enjoy James Lipton's
Inside the Actors Studio (when he has actual actors on -- lately his guest list has been a little froofroo). One of my favorite parts -- probably everyone's favorite part -- is the Bernard Pivot (say it with a hoity-toity French accent for the full effect) questionnaire. I've decided to post Becky's answers to same.
What is your favorite word?"Bottle." I pronounce it "bah."
What is your least favorite word?"No," especially when Mommy and Daddy say it.
What turns you on creatively, spiritually, or emotionally?Fingerpaint and board books. Also Mickey Mouse.
What turns you off?Hair dryers. Very scary. Not a fan.
What is your favorite curse word?There are so many to choose from. I'll have to experiment with them as I grow up before I pick a favorite.
What sound or noise do you love?The Manah-manah song. I can't get enough of it.
What sound or noise do you hate?The creaky floor outside my bedroom. Wakes me up every time.
What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt?Toddler looks fun.
What profession would you not like to do?Daycare worker seems like it would be hard. I mean, they've got me, and I'm wonderful, but some of those other kids...oy.
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?You made your mommy and daddy very happy. Good job.
