Wandering through E-Space

"There's no point in being grownup if you can't be childish sometimes." -the 4th Doctor.

about me

My name is Romanadvoratrelundar, but the Doctor says it's too long, so you can just call me Romana.

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Outpost Gallifrey: The Doctor Who News & Information Magazine

moon phases

Darkly Dreaming Dexter
by Jeff Lindsay

Dragonsblood
by Anne and Todd McCaffrey

Good Omens
by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett

Doctor Who: Bullet Time
by David A. McIntee

American Gods
by Neil Gaiman

A Great Deliverance
by Elizabeth George

Manga Reads/Graphic Novels

Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 10
story and art by Hiromu Arakawa

R.O.D. Read or Dream, vol. 3
stroy Hideyuki Kurata and art by Ran Ayanaga

Bleach, vol. 3
story and art by Tite Kubo

Godchild, vol. 2
story and art by Kaori Yuki

Death Note, vol. 7
story by by Tsugumi Ohba
art by Takeshi Obata

Current Project(s):

pearl ribbed slipper-socks
felted bag
crocheted bag(s)
snowflake prayer shawl
quick cables afghan
slouching socks
wave and shell shawl
multi effects socks

Farscape banner courtesy of the SciFi Channel

Friday, December 31, 2004

Happy New Year

Hey everyone! While I was 'out and about' on the net, I thought I would take the time to wish everyone Happy New Year!!

Everyone have fun and be safe! See you in 2005!!

posted by Romana1 on 6:22 PM | *

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Hi, I'm back!!

Hey, everyone!!!

I'm back from Minnesota!! I had a great time!! Not as much snow as I would have liked, but it certainly was cold! ;)

Some of you probably already know this from reading Perseph's blog (thank you Perseph!) I have a new little niece!!! Malinda came into the world on December 17th, at 7lbs, 5oz, and 21 inches. You'll notice a slight spelling difference in the name-when I called Perseph after visiting my sister in the hospital, I thought her name was spelled 'Melinda'-I didn't find out until several days later that it's really 'Malinda'. Silly sister-she knows if it's an unusual spelling, that she needs to tell me-I made the same mistake with the spelling of Boo's middle name almost 5 years ago! LOL ;)

Malinda is so adorable!!!! (no, I'm not just saying that 'cause I'm her Auntie. ;) ) well, ok, maybe I am a bit biased, but aren't we all? I got to hold her when she was just an hour old. That makes her the youngest baby I have ever held in my life. She was so tiny!!!! Of course, we were all 'oohhhing' and 'ahhing' at all her little baby noises-at one point, while I was holding her, she got the hiccups. I started to giggle uncontrolably, 'cause it sounded like she was saying 'D'oh!' in a high pictched voice. My sister looked at me with wide eyes and said, 'BREATHE!' Everyone wanted to hold her-my sister had warned me that I would have to probalby arm wrestle with our mom and Shanna-when Boo was born, the two of them kept arguing who got to hold her! I overruled both of them this time, because I won't see her again until she's almost 7 months old, probably.

When we first arrived in her room, Boo, my Mom, and the kids' aunt Michelle and cousin Malinda (yes, the baby's first name came from her cousin-she doesn't have an original name to her-she was named after two cousins and an auntie! Guess which auntie? ;) ) Anyhoo, when Shanna and I walked in, Boo was jumping up and down and saying, 'Come and see our baby! come and see our baby!' She was so cute-and looked so precious holding her new baby sister.

So far, Malinda has a head full of dark hair, like her sister Boo. Also like Boo, she has grandma's fingers (long and thin) and mommy's toes (long, thin, with a pinkie toe that can stretch way out into the beyond. lol) Shanna says when she scrunches up her face, she looks like big brother Kyle (btw, when Kyle was holding her, we told him to smile for a picture-he srunched up his face, proving Shanna's point.) :-D

In case you are wondering-I did finish my baby blanket!!! Finished it that morning while I was at Shanna's. ;) My sister loves the blanket! When I showed it to her, her eyes grew wide and she said, 'WOW, that is beautiful!' She has it draped over the baby's basinet. :) The baby looks so cute!!! (have i mentioned that Malinda is cute?) ;)

Gotta get back to work-hopefully I'll get the chance to write more about my trip to MN later-just wanted to let you know about the big event! :) :) Malinda's nick name for this blog will be 3M. *heeheee* (I mentioned she was cute, right?) :)

posted by Romana1 on 12:52 PM | *

Monday, December 13, 2004

Getting ready for Christmas

D.W.Q.M.: "Our lives are different from anybody else's. That's the exciting thing. Nobody in the universe can do what we're doing!" -the Second Doctor

Happy Santa Lucia Day
A few notes about St. Lucia Day:
-Santa Lucia, December 13th, is celebrated only in Sweden on a national scale. Lucia was a 4th Century Sicilian saint. No one is sure why she became so revered in Sweden. I've heard at least 2 different stories...

-At dawn, on December 13th, the eldest daughter dresses in a white dress with a red sash and wears a wreath of ligonberry branches with 4 lit candles (the same number as the Advent wreath). She carries a breakfast consisting of coffee, lussekatt (sun-colored saffron buns), and gingerbread cookies on a tray to her parents, with her younger sisters and brothers in tow. They are also dressed in white-the girls carry lit candles, and the boys wear tall, pointed caps.

-before the change to the Gregorian calendar, December 13th was the shortest day of the year. On that day, St. Lucia, the queen of light, was believed to lead the way for the sun to bring longer days. People lit "St. Lucy's fires" on the evening of her feast day, throwing incense into the flames. They believed that the smoke from the flames would protect them from witchcraft, disease, and other dangers.
-------------------------------

So, is everyone ready for Christmas? I'm not! I still need to do some more shopping, but I think I'll finish most of it when I'm in Minnesota. I'm having a hard time figuring out what to get my neice T for Christmas. I finally found out what she liked, thought of something to get her, only to find out that my sister and Jon already got it for her! Those stinkers! :p Ah, well-guess I'll have to come up with something else... ;)

Last week the gang went to see Paul's holiday concert at the Spot on campus-it was really cool.

the gang at the Spot.

Now imagine all of us in a Ford Mustang. It was quite comical. ;) Afterwards we went to the IHOP to celebrate (with a quick stop at P^2s, to get Adam's truck) Afterwards I went back with them to help decorate for Christmas. Their tree is really pretty, and on taco night, Jerm and I helped Perseph put up the Christmas lights inside and outside. The place looks great, Perseph! :)

Speaking of Perseph, we had our second annual Holiday Baking Party on Saturday-it was a huge sucess, even if we didn't get around to making the sugar cookies. ;) There were plenty of goodies to go around! Arthur helped out again, and my friend Alicia joined us this year. :) We were hoping that Sharon could make it again, and bring her twin boys! But alas, she wasn't able to make it-that's okay, we understood, and besides-there's always next year! ;) We started this last year when both Perseph and I needed to do some holiday baking-we decided to do it together, and we invited Arthur and Sharon to join us-we had so much fun we decided to do it again this year. Hopefully we'll be doing this for many years-it always alot of fun!!

I think I'm going to try to enter Michaels Village display contest. I've never done anything like this before, and the prizes are really cool. ;) They are judging on creativity, originality, and location of display. Hmmmm...well, I dunno, but I guess it never hurts to give it a shot. I took a couple of pics with my digital camera, but I'm thinking I might have to use the ones I took with my SLR camera. Now I just have to remember to develop the film... All entries have to be submitted by December 31st. You know you've been collected these houses too long when you have the next few years planned. Since I only have 4 buildings for my Halloween village, I'm not quite sure what direction I want to take with the village. My Christmas village, on the other hand, I would like to eventually add a post office, a couple of regular homes (hey, I have several people in my village, and only one house-they can't all live there!) and eventually I would like to add to my 'North Pole' scene-right now it just consists of Santa and some elves decorating a Christmas tree-but there are some cute Gingerbread and candy covered buildings that would look great next to them. Yeah, I'm set for the next few years. Yeah, I'm nuts. Just call me crazy. lol ;)

BTW, I updated my front porch, and even though I still haven't finished Krismutt in Columbus, I added a page to his page-Krismutt at the baking party. Enjoy! :)

posted by Romana1 on 12:40 AM | *

Friday, December 10, 2004

December Night Sky

D.W.Q.M.: "But we're still heading for the biggest bang in history." -Sarah Jane Smith

author's note: I originally wrote this during my lunch hour-but blogger was acting funny, so I couldn't post it til now.

Okay, okay, okay-I know this is REALLY late-I do apologize! I finally found my copy of Sky and Telescope...I didn't

think there would be anything too exciting before today, but it shows how much I know. ;)

Today's astronomy post is brought to you by Sky and Telescope

Planetary Alignment

Starting tonight (December 10th), when Mercury passes inferior conjunction, the planets will be in their natural order outward from the Sun in Earth's sky. It will last until the 13th, when Pluto leaves the evening sky. They say such a lineup is rarer than the transit of Venus, and that they haven't been in their proper order westward from the sun since before the invention of the telescope. It's not going to happen again for at least 4 centuries. (I dont' know about you, but I won't be around. Planetary alignment eastward from the sun is equally rare.

Last time that occurred was in 1801-it's not going to happen again until 2333!

Observer's note: Only the planets Venus through Neptune are observable during this event. But just knowing the rest are in order is cool enough, in my opinion. ;)

Geminids

The December meteor shower!! The Geminids are quite unique. Most annual meteor displays are the result of comets passing by, leaving a trail of debris in their wake. The Geminids, on the other hand, does not come from a comet, but the psuedo-asteriod-comet, Phaethon. :)

They say that this year, the Geminids display may even surpass the Perseids of August. Up to 75 meteors may be seen per hour under ideal conditions. Since the Moon will only be a two-day old crescent, you don't have to worry about the moonlight. The peak is around 2 am local time on the 14th, but since the radiant (near Castor) is so high, good viewing times can start as early as 10pm on the 13th. They say that the rates will increase steadily up until the maximum and will drop significantly after that. However, meteors seen after the maximum will be very bright. :)

For more information, and to find the link to the star chart, just click here. :)

And now, because this month's copy of S&T got lost among all the boxes of Christmas decorations, I will tell you what you missed. I'm sorry, I have to say something, 'cause it's still cool (hey, it was cloudy here anyway.) ;)

Occultation of Jupiter

Just like last month's occulation, Jupiter disappeared behind the moon for a few minutes during the wee hours of December 7th. The event started around 4am EST with Jupiter disappearing behind the moon, only to reappear on the opposite side,
around 5am. (assuming I've calculated the times from UT correctly)

To read one lucky observer's account, and to see a cool animated display of the occulation, click here. :)

Clear skies and happy viewing!!!

posted by Romana1 on 3:08 PM | *

Monday, December 06, 2004

check your shoes... ;)

Happy St. Nicholas Day, everybody!!

posted by Romana1 on 12:01 PM | *

Sunday, December 05, 2004

umm...okay.

What happened to my post about last Monday night's game? It was here up until when I posted a few minutes ago. I didn't delete any entries. ARGGGGGGG. >:-O!

didn't have a backup of that entry, either. ARRGGGGG!!! @&%$!!!

posted by Romana1 on 11:11 AM | *

ahh, the holiday season...

D.W.Q.M.: "Sleep is for tortoises!" -the Fourth Doctor

Hello everyone! Okay, I know I've been bad about posting-I was hoping to post a little more this week, but time just seemed to slip away-I didn't even do a lunchtime post, 'cause yesterday, after a coworker and I were showing our knitting projects to a few others, a group of us decided to skip lunch and head to JoAnne's to shop for knitting supplies. ;) (I didn't get any 'cause I'm in the middle of a project-I need to finish this baby blanket! I don't need new yarn or needles to distract me from it. LOL.)

Speaking of babies, my sister is having...another girl! :) Her nickname here will either be M&M or 3M, depending on the final decision of her name. ;) (loooong story). I'll be in Minnesota for her birth, so I'm really excited!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend! Mine was good-cooked enough food to have leftovers all weekend. My sister called me that evening, and all the kiddies shouted 'Happy Thanksgiving!' from the dinner table-it was cute. :) The next morning I got up early and headed to the stores (Sears) to do a little Christmas shopping. Turns out I missed one of my coworkers by 15 minutes! LOL. They had sales on a number of things I needed (like shoes) and Christmas stuff-presents for the kiddies, and Lemax houses. (50 percent off, plus an extra 10 since it was before 11am.) The best I could have done at Micheals (my usual village sourse) was 40 percent off. The original prices were the same at both stores, so it was all good. I finished shopping for Boo, the new baby, and half of my mom's present. I have a few ideas for Kyle, but I need to talk to my sister first, to make sure I'm on the right track. I have no idea what to get T, though-she's a recent tomboy, and I'm not sure what to get her. (last year, Barbies good, this year, Barbies bad.)

Perhaps some of you are wondering how I got the picture of Krismutt in Brett's jersey on Monday, since I don't have a digital camera...well, I do now! A small one, though-it has a flash, but you can't view your pics right away, and the range isn't all that great. Considering I just want to use it for web stuff (like Krismutt pics) it'll do fine (although I wish I had brought my SLR to the lighting ceremony on Saturday-no one told me Dan Akroyd was gonna be there! My little digital doesn't do well for action shots.) I just have to learn to hold still-it's very sensitive to movement, and I've been spoiled by 400 and 800 film, and the kick-ass digital cameras that my friends let me borrow. ;) Here's one of the first pics I took with my camera-I'm calling it 'Krismutt's version of pumpkin pie.'

Well, I better run, gotta lot to do. I'll do a December Night Sky post soon, I hope-I seemed to have misplaced my December copy of Sky and Telescope. Aggghhh! ;)

Wandering through E-Space

"There's no point in being grownup if you can't be childish sometimes." -the 4th Doctor.

about me

My name is Romanadvoratrelundar, but the Doctor says it's too long, so you can just call me Romana.

my profile

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Innnddddddyyyyyy.....!!!!

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Darkly Dreaming Dexterby Jeff Lindsay

Dragonsbloodby Anne and Todd McCaffrey

Good Omensby Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett

Doctor Who: Bullet Timeby David A. McIntee

American Godsby Neil Gaiman

A Great Deliveranceby Elizabeth George