arguchik | RWPK

READING: Sean Stewart, Cloud's End. I finished Galveston (also Sean Stewart), which I really liked, a few days ago. So far Cloud's End is interesting. It's one of Stewart's earlier novels--his fourth published, to be precise. I haven't read his first two novels (Passion Play and Nobody's Son), but I've read Resurrection Man, which came out a year before Cloud's End. I've also read a couple of his later novels, Perfect Circle and Mockingbird, both of which are really good. Cloud's End shows several of Stewart's key strengths: character development, interesting conversation and interior monologue, and nicely realized sensory descriptions, particularly in scenes involving characters experiencing the natural environment. This novel also has some clunky bits, though, IMO. The founding premise of the plot involves a character being "twinned" by a human-turned-haunt, and then seems quickly to outgrow the conceit. I'm on about page 100 at this point, though, so I might be proved wrong about that. The book is definitely good enough that I want to find out.

WATCHING: (Formerly WEARING, which I am abandoning as of today. Who really cares what I'm wearing?)

glaucon has gotten me hooked on the Doctor Who / Torchwood universe, so I've been watching episodes with him here and there. We are all caught up on How I Met Your Mother, which we both love, and we also watched the entire series of Freaks and Geeks. I do not understand how that show got canceled. It was so GOOD! Interestingly, while I was sick I decided to start watching Bones after poking around on Hulu a little bit. (It stars David Boreanaz, so it's another of those shows with a connection to the Buffy-verse.) It's kind of a dumb show, but John Francis Daley (who played Sam Weir, Lindsay's little brother, on F&G) shows up as psychologist Dr. Lance Sweets sometime during...I think it's season 4. So it's cool to see him working, and all grown up but still playing a really geeky character. Oh, and speaking of Buffy, we've also re-watched a few episodes from Season 3 of Buffy. (It's so nice to own the boxed set of both Buffy and Angel...) Lest you think I am a complete couch potato, this wasn't all in one week mind you, I'm just summarizing a bunch of stuff from the last couple of months because this is the first time I'm doing the "watching" bit of the blog feature. Oh, I also watched In Her Shoes on Hulu last night, because

glaucon went to bed somewhat early. I was in my room...wasn't tired yet...didn't feel like reading...didn't feel like knitting...so I decided to browse the movies on Hulu. I thought this was going to be a fluffy chick flick, but it was surprisingly good. It stars Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette, who really shines here. I just love her work.

PLANNING: I'm going to the CI this evening. Not sure what after that. Otherwise, the only thing I have planned for today and tomorrow is grading. Sunday I'll probably be going to a cookie party.

KNITTING: I'm still working on the red cardigan for my mom. I finished the body last week (I think I overshot the length, actually, so I may rip back a few rows), and have a couple of inches done on the first sleeve. I am almost done with my Branching Out scarf, which has been my latest bus knitting project. I bought some Noro Silk Garden and cast on for a new bus knitting project, a Noro Striped Scarf. It's a super easy, somewhat boring pattern. It's also a "bandwagon" pattern right now, apparently, because the Yarn Harlot blogged about it. That's not why I picked it, though; I've been admiring Brooklyn Tweed's rendition for quite awhile, and I hardly ever read the Yarn Harlot's blog. I picked it for two reasons: 1. I think it makes a beautiful scarf; and 2. I want to practice my continental knitting so that I can get better at doing stranded colorwork. So. My plan is to knit the entire thing continental style. Mostly while riding the bus, though with the holiday break coming up I will probably knit on it some at home. Next up after I finish my mom's cardigan is a heavily modified adaptation of A Cardigan for Arwen, which is a pattern from Interweave Knits Winter 2006 issue. (Here is a pic from the designer's website.) I'm completely smitten with that reversible cable. I don't like how the sleeves work, I don't want mine to have a hood, and I don't want to knit the thing in pieces, so I'm going to modify the pattern substantially. About the only thing that will be the same is the cables--and their placement. I'm planning to knit this with some denim-y blue Ultra Alpaca (Berrocco) yarn that I bought in Grand Rapids last August. Here's their color card. Scroll down. It's color #6295, Tanzanite Mix. I have knit with this yarn before--a deep eggplant color (pretty sure it's #6244, Fig)--and I really like it.

That's all for now. Gotta get cracking in this e-folder of student papers. Have a great weekend, y'all.