What the cussword was NBC *thinking*????

I am so completely & utterly disgusted with NBC that I could spit. We're in the same time zone as Vancouver, so why did NBC wait until NINE O'CLOCK to start showing the opening ceremonies? Instead we were "treated" to three hours of mini-biographies of a few athletes, most of which went along the lines of "So-and-so began (insert sport here) at the age of 5." You know, I would expect an Olympic athlete to have started up in his/her sport around that age; now, if they'd only been skiing or whatever for three years--that would be newsworthy. This was alternated with repeated slow-motion replays of the tragic & fatal luge accident. Absolutely NO reason for that.

As for the Ravelympics--my my my! I spent a long time last night (over 3 hours) chatting online w/fellow Ravelers all jumping with excitement waiting for the start. The posts were flying so fast & thick that for a while I would finish one page, click to the next, and there would be two more pages added to the end of the line. Whew! It was a lot of fun though.

And after weeks of anticipation, I finally got to cast on for Hermione last night! In fact, I got to cast on for Hermione eight times last night! Yes, you read that right--eight times, which incidentally equals the number of times I frogged her last night (boy, that sounds dirty, LOL!) Five times were for messed up cast-on (ran out of tail before getting all 80 stitches on, or ending up with a 15" tail). Twice was for actual errors in the knitting, and once was because I realized the colors I had chosen were NOT going to work. I ended up setting her aside & casting on for my Skele-gurumi project, which I finished up this morning:



Isn't he cute? I didn't do the head quite right--it's off center, which made my seam off-center as well--but I think it gives him a certain charm. He's actually entered in two events, the Skele-gurumi and the Holiday Ski Jump since he's going to be a Christmas gift. He's also the FIRST completed project for Team Knitted Toys, thankyewverymuch.

After I finished the hammerhead shark, Ralph & I headed out to the yarn store to buy yet another batch of yarn for Hermione since the color scheme just wasn't working. We also went to the bookstore where I picked up three paperbacks. Once home again & after a quick lunch, I cast on for Hermione for the ninth and tenth times. I had given it a lot of thought last night, and have flipped the chart so I'm working from the top of the head down instead of from the neck up. This meant I only had to deal with six bobbins in the first couple rows, as opposed to the fourteen (!!) that the "proper" first row uses. I also managed to reverse the direction of the rows so she's going to be facing left instead of right, which is not a big deal IMHO. I've worked 11 rows so far and am really liking the color scheme. The original chart calls for white, light grey, dark grey, black, and mauve. I've replaced the greys and black with a greyish tan, light brown, and dark brown.

Leftover honey mustard pork loin & green bean casserole for dinner tonight. Don't be impressed by my cooking skills--the pork came pre-seasoned. All I had to do was open the package, put the meat in a pan, and toss it into the hot oven for 45 minutes.