Jacquie's Journal

Lost 'Lost'

Last night was very frustrating.  First of all my favourite 'Idol' got voted off (I didn't vote myself so I can't really complain, but really, America, what were you thinking?)  I won't say who it is because the UK don't see it til Friday night, but it is quite upsetting.  Then the DVR screwed up recording 'Bones' (minor tragedy) and 'Lost' (MAJOR tragedy).  Luckily Sam was watching Lost so he didn't miss it.  Now we will have to either buy it from iTunes or watch it on abc.com.

On Tuesday I went to Agility class again with Lucy and Charlie.  Charlie was much better behaved this week - she knows where she is with Lucy - played with her toy and everything on cue.  She didn't like the chute much at first (that's a tunnel with a cloth part they have to burrow through) but she did it eventually with lots of treats.  She has two weeks left and I will have to take her by myself the last week.

On the knitting front, I  have just about finished the back of my Vogue top.  I must make a mental note to remember put a loop of yarn around a stitch in the centre of the first row of the armhole shaping in future.   The pattern usually says to "work until piece measures x inches from beginning of armhole shaping" and it's so difficult to measure without a marker.  This time I will have to go and square it up on my quilting cutting board and measure it that way, or work out where that row is and mark it belatedly.

The more I see the Lotus Blossom Tank on the front of the latest Interweave Knits mag, the more I like it.  It will definitely be my next project.  I don't know what colour yet though, or what yarn.

Yesterday, I found out who my One Skein Secret Pal is, and I have to send her a questionnaire to find out more about her.  She has a blog too so will be reading that.  I also received the questionnaire from the person who has me as their Secret Pal - Hi there, who ever you are - hope you enjoy my blog.  I will complete and send the questionnaire back just as soon as I can - some of those questions aren't easy like "Which yarn is most like your personality?"  - that will need some thought!.

Today I have to take Sam to the Department of Motor Vehicles to surrender his Driver's License.  No, no, it's OK he hasn't done anything wrong.  it's just another case of us being lumped in with illegal immigrants.  Utah recently changed the law so that if you don't have a Social Security number then obviously you are here illegally and shouldn't be entitled to a proper driver's license that counts as official id.   We are here legally but temporarily so the kids don't have social security numbers because they aren't entitled to work.  Both Lucy and Sam had to surrender their Driver's Licenses on their first birthdays after they brought this law in and be issued with "Driver's Privilege Cards" which allow them to drive but don't count as Id.  I would be in the same boat but when I got my Driver's License the law was you had to have a social security number and once I had passed my test here they issued me with one specially.  They changed that because they found a lot of illegals were driving without insurance because they didn't want to draw attention to themselves by applying for the SS number, and you could get a license with just a tax id number.

And that is why it was important for Sam to have his new passport, which he will have to use as Id from now on.

Intelligent Design

This will be a short rant brought on by the news yesterday of the defeat (thankfully) of a bill in the Utah Senate attempting to insist that schools teach "Intelligent Design" along with Evolution as the mechanism for creation.

Personally, I think evolution is the most sensible theory given that we are all made of the same stuff and DNA is so similar between species, but that is not the purpose of my rant.  What gets my goat is the sheer arrogance of people who think human beings are so special that we can't possibly have evolved from <shudder> apes </shudder>.  We are all part of the universe, bound by the forces of nature and humans are really a very small part of it.  We have set ourselves up as the guardians of the planet, but really we haven't done a very good job for the most part - what with global warming, deforestation of the jungle etc etc etc.  I think everyone should visit something vast and controlled solely by nature such as an ocean or a desert, once in a while, to give themselves a sense of just how insignificant we really are in the grand scheme of things.

I was quite dismayed at the recent discovery of a lot of new species in the jungle in Indonesia.  Their days are numbered I thought to myself, now that us humans have gone poking our noses in yet again, where they are not wanted or needed.

Many Happy (Tax) Returns!

We did our US Tax return today - or at least we got Terry, our lady at H&R Block, to do them for us, and we got a very nice refund from both state and federal taxes.  We are huge procrastinators with most things, but with our tax return we always manage to get it done just as soon as we have received all the information we need.  Last year we ended up having to pay a load extra, but this year as I am not working we will get some back.

Apparently there was a 2.1 earthquake very close to us last night, but we didn't notice.  It was centred about 5 miles away, but the first we knew was hearing it on the news this afternoon.  They are not expecting it to lead to any more seismic activity, but of course we are all supposed to be prepared for a big one - water, food, radio, flashlight, etc, but we are not I am afraid.

I have volunteered to beta test PodFitness.  The company producing it, Power Music, is based here in Salt Lake City and one of my favourite instructors works for them.  They also produce special CDs for all types of group fitness classes.  I haven't heard whether they will need me yet, but it should be fun if they do.

One of my erstwhile favourite novelists is publishing a new book next month, but I am not going to tell you who because I am so mad with him I don't want to give him any publicity.  He is using 9/11 as a plot point and I get really irate with people who use other people's misery to make money - if they donate the proceeds then fine - if it is their own misery then it sometimes OK to milk it for all it's worth, they probably deserve it, but this is not the case here.  I will not be buying this book, or borrowing it from the library, or even telling people about it.

I am working on another calculator to work out the even spacing of increases across a row, such as when transferring between the ribbing and main stitch areas of a sweater.  I know there are other calculators for this out there, but I need the challenge.  I have got a bit bogged down with it and made it more complicated that I think it really needs to be, but I will probably finish it tomorrow.  It's good to get my head round a little bit of programming now and again - it really gets the brain cells working.

Larry H Miller and Brokeback Mountain

As someone, non-LDS, who lives in SLC I feel I should have an opinion on this, so this is it. 

First of all, Larry H Miller owns 3 movie theaters, one Jordan Commons , that all the hooha is about, one downtown and one further south at Thanksgiving point.  None of these theaters is showing the movie.  Luckily there are plenty of other places where one can see Brokeback Mountain in and around SLC.  I have not seen it yet myself - I am not sure if it is my cup of tea, being about cowboys, but I did enjoy City Slickers and I am imagining it might be a bit like that. 

Anyway back to Larry H Miller.  They are his theaters and he has the right to show what he wants but If he is such a good Latter Day Saint then surely he should guard against us seeing anything the LDS church considers immoral - profanity, any kind of sex, and violence - by not showing any R rated movies.  If he didn't want to go that far, he could of course show the Clean Flicks versions!