Magazines and miscellaney

[susandennis]

From somewhere quite mysterious, I got a 6 month paid subscription to TV Guide a few weeks ago. I've overly interested in TV news but after several weeks now, I have discovered that TV Guide is not the place for it. Back in the olden days when we had maybe 20 channels and 3 of them were Christian and 2 of them government access, and there was no TiVo, the weekly TV section in the newspaper just wasn't enough and TV Guide filled the bill. Plus there was a little snap of a mini rush when you completed the ohsosimple crossword puzzle in about the same time it took the local news guys to finish up the weather report.

But, now, there are 579ish channels give or take 300 or so and many of my favorite programs are on several of them and repeated during the day or week. (And, why doesn't TiVo just ship with a batch of Law & Orders already recorded anyway??) And the cute little handy TV Guide size that used to fit so nicely on the arm of the chair necessitates that the program listings be in type the size that gnats would need reading glasses to see even if I wanted to read them anyway.

And I haven't even bothered with the crossword puzzle. I just thumb through the 8 or so pages of content that isn't gnat size and then toss it. But, this morning's paper brings news... yep, TV Guide is growing up and getting a makeover... October 17. I'm interested.

Last Sunday, I saw a piece on TV about Readers Digest. That old standby. My grandma loved that magazine. I hadn't seen one in years and this time the tiny size appeals to me. What a fun thing to toss in the old backpack for the bus ride? So I picked one up the other day. Weeeeellllll turns out that it's not all that fascinating. Or interesting. It's size, however, is perfect for bus reading.

Today, here, it's again with the hot. Yep, not hot like the east coast and midwest and yep, some people just think it's perfect. But, I am not one of them. On the other hand, it will, likely save me a boat load of cash. This weekend is a huge arts & crafts fair in Bellevue. I have been in years past and it is loaded to the gills with beautiful stuff. It's a wonder to just walk around and look and very treacherous to the pocketbook. It is also generally packed to the gills. The only time to go is Friday after work and as it is held outside in the streets, I'm taking a pass this year. Hot street, hot sun, hordes of people? No thanks. Plus, now that I have a beautiful place to put wonderful pieces, it would just be too tempting.

Tomorrow is knitting night at the Mariners game. It's the first annual Stitch 'n Pitch night. It's been quite the talk around town (well around blog-ville anyway). There's a large group of people who are aghast - what a stupid idea?! How many knitting baseball fans could there be anyway? And then there are the people who bought the tickets. And now there is a growing group of 'whaaaaa, I didn't get mine and now there aren't any more in the knitters' section!' Crazy, man... it's just crazy. They have, apparently, sold 1,200 tickets to this knitters section. (And, I did the G2. The section - my seat in particular - is on the side facing east that will have been in the shade for a good 4 or 5 hours by the time I get there.) Should be interesting at least. It might be nice to get one night off from the relentless forced optimism of the announcers. I appreciate their efforts and know they have to do it but the team sucks and there is just no sugar coating that.

Oh and I am planning a pre-game stop at the Ben and Jerry's just outside the front gate.