Technology is upon me

Over the two weeks or so since my last posting, I've discovered just how much I rely on gadgets. A couple of Fridays ago, I was running errands while Sylvain worked at one of the MSU hockey game concession stands as part of his Order of the Arrow lodge to raise money for an upcoming trip. After arriving home for the night, I decided to catch up on my Friday shows since our trusty DVR was set to record Ghost Whisperer and Battlestar Galactica. With the afghan that was for Afghans for Afghans in my lap, I was appalled as the Ghost Whisperer that was recorded was a garbled mess. I thought that maybe the beginning of the show was ruined, but found that it couldn't be skipped through. Giving up, my stomach twisted with the thought that the BSG episode was in the same condition. I've been on the fence as to whether to keep watching Ghost Whisperer since I am not enjoying the current story line. But, this is BSG's last season and I've gotten really into it. Sadly, it was unwatchable too. Chuck was out of town, so there wasn't anything that I could really do to fix it. By Saturday night, the DVR had quit altogether and wouldn't even show the live Direct TV channels. Gone was the shows I had wanted to save in perpetuity: the Price of Right Million Dollar special hosted by Bob Barker, a Kylie Minogue concert that was on Channel 101 in 2006, all of this season's episodes of Damages and Desperate Housewives (both were waiting for a truly lazy Sunday). Since that little meltdown, Chuck was able to order us a new DVR, and was able to connect it to our wireless router to download the missing BSG episode, so there's hope that I may be able to recover some of what was lost.

My other techno-hiccup involved my new phone. Last month, I replaced my Motorola Razr with a Blackberry Curve. It's a neat phone, but comes with next to no instructions. I've tried my phone carrier's website and downloaded the user's manual, but even that provides little help with much that I wanted to do with the phone. My goal is to be able to use it to update this blog, which will help significantly when I travel and don't have normal computer access. The limitation will come when trying to add photos and links.

As for my actual knitting: I finished the blanket shown and delivered it to Sarah as part of our Guild's contribution to the Spring 2009 campaign. I started the Estes Vest from the Fall 2008 issue of Interweave Knits. It's made out of Cascade Pastaza, and (despite my awful photos) is going to be olive-colored. This has been a pleasant reprieve from the baby afghans that I've been working on for Chuck's cousin Aaron and his wife Claire. They're expecting twins and the shower is March 8th. I'm about halfway done the first afghan, so need to get into high gear to get that finished up and the second one completed.

It's getting late and I have more stories, photos, patterns, and a review of Coraline to share....there just isn't enough time in the day sometimes....