Exploring the Twin Cities

One of the Yarn Aboard contests involves taking a picture of your explorer with something representative of where you live. I've really enjoyed the pictures I've seen of the places others live, so I thought it'd be fun to introduce Henry Hudson to the Twin Cities. So, where to bring him? Of course when I think Minnesota, I think the Vikings:



But Metrodome has been more like a House of Horrors this year, so that's not the lasting impression I want to leave. One of the most photographed spots in the Twin Cities is the Spoonbridge and Cherry:



For some people, all they know about Minneapolis they learned on the Mary Tyler Moore show, so here's Henry with a statute of Mary tossing up her beret:



Minnesota's motto is "Land of 10,000 Lakes" - here's Henry at my favorite, Como Lake:



The biggest attraction in Minnesota is the Mall of America:


We didn't get too close because it's still mobbed with the after-Christmas sale shoppers.

What most people probably think of when they think Minnesota, is cold and snow, but unfortunately, all I could come up with was this little patch of snow on the green grass out front:



So, which picture do you think I should submit for the contest?

Another Guest

I found a gentleman caller waiting for me when I returned to the office yesterday:



Yes, it's Henry Hudson from Yarn Aboard II! He sailed into my port while I was away on holiday, so it was a great delight to find him waiting for me upon my return. As you can see, he's made quite a journey, and was loaded up with quite the cargo!



Here's a closer look at that cargo. We have some lovely sheep soap, straight from the Rhinebeck Wool Festival and some lotion from Bath & Body Works - love that stuff!



And some yummy goodies - an old favorite - some Lindt Truffles, a new favorite - Tootsie Roll Mini Chews, and something new to me - Guylian. I can't wait to try that one out. And there's a cute little chocolate covered gingerbread man:



Some very cute stitch markers - LOVE those little stone Christmas trees:



And the creme de la creme, some Fleece Artist sock yarn in a gorgeous mix of purple, blue and brown:



I tried to take a closer picture of the colors of this skein so you could really admire it, but it's so dang cloudy here they were either washed out from the flash or muddy without a flash. Just trust me, this is a beautiful colorway. I've never used Fleece Artist yarn before, so I'm excited to try it out.

Henry Hudson brought these goodies from Katy over at Knitterpated. Katy, thanks so much for the wonderful boatload of goodies.

I also want to thank Amanda for organizing (and sometimes re-organizing) this fantastic exchange. It's been so much fun to follow all the boxes around and see what fun gifties they carry to each port. I was a bit late to the show and Amanda bent over backwards to make sure I got in on the fun and I really, really appreciate it! I'm going to take Henry on a tour of the Twin Cities and then send him off to what I believe is his last stop.

Besides petting that yarn and eating candy, I also saw this film yesterday:



I really liked it a lot. This film has been out for a long time, so you probably already know what it's about. It's also really complex and hard to describe. It's directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, who also directed "Amores Perros" and "21 Grams". This film is similar to the previous two in that it combines a few different narrative threads into one film. As you might guess from the title, the film is about the inability of people to communicate - across cultures, within relationships. Like Iñárritu's other works, it's also about family - especially the parent-child relationship and about how one event can effect so many people. The cast is just amazing. Two of the actresses are nominated for Golden Globes (Barraza, who plays a Mexican nanny who makes one life-changing mistake and Kikuchi as a deaf Japanese teenager who desperately wants to fit in and tries to heal her feelings of loneliness and depression after her mother's suicide by acting out sexually). Brad Pitt is also nominated and I was just blown away by his performance. He plays the father of the children the nanny cares for, who is in Morroco with his wife, trying to fix their marriage. This film is appearing on almost every Top Ten list I've seen here at the end of the year, but it's getting very mixed reviews at Rotten Tomatoes. I'd definitely say it's worth seeing.

I also have been meaning to mention the fantastic episode of The Charlie Rose Show I saw last week. He had on the three top Mexican directors: Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men) and Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth). They had a round table discussion of their films - all three of these films have been popping up all over the place in the Top Ten Lists and Critics Awards. They also talked about their relationship with each other - they are all three very close friends and help each other with their work. That's pretty amazing. I just can't imagine three American directors - like Scorsese, Spielberg and Eastwood - sending each other rough cuts and helping each other out. It was a fascinating conversation. The Charlie Rose Show website says they are upgrading soon and will be offering streams of interviews - if you have a chance to see this one and you're a film lover, I'd highly recommend it.

It was a merry Christmas

Wow! That holiday flew by. I haven't posted in a while because I've been knee deep in holiday preparations. I didn't get everything done I usually do or that I wanted to do, but it was a good holiday anyway. The busy work week contributed to that, but this week looks like a good time to recover. Last Wednesday we had a little gift exchange with my other knitting group and I received some lovely gifts - it's so nice to feel so known and understood. Thursday we FINALLY had a little snow. Great big fluffy flakes. I had a meeting in the southern metro that took more than three times longer than usual to get to, but I was just happy to see the white stuff. Unfortunately, it didn't stick around and we had a brown Christmas. I took Friday off and did the rest of my shopping and wrapped all the presents. I love to shop, but I was just EXHAUSTED by the end of the day. Happily, all of the gifts were pretty well received, so I feel good about that.

I did do a little bit of knitting for Christmas. I'm almost done with the second Alien tooth fairy pillow. I'm exchanging gifts with Bill and his family next week because my nephew Michael is at his mom's house this week. So, the deadlines for my knitting weren't pressing. Since I was knitting something for the boys, I knit this for Katie:



The pattern is called "Kiki" and it's a free pattern from the Berroco website. I used leftovers of Cascade 220 for the body and some stashed Woolease for the head. I think she's pretty cute. I also knit up another square for the mitered blanket, but I haven't blocked it or sewed it together yet, so a picture of that is coming. I'm getting close to finishing up the knitting on that project!

I also made a non-knitted gift. I got my sister, Laura, a gift card, so I made this little tin box to hold it. I think it's really cute and hopefully she'll be able to use it in the future:



Now I'm going to get picture heavy and share some pictures of my family - I love to see pictures on other people's blogs, so I thought I'd share my own.

My mom and her kids (Laura, Greg and me):



A very cute picture of my mom:



Greg and Michael:



A cute picture of Michael - he's an Eagles fan, as you can see:



Michael's sister, Jessica:



Michael and my other niece, Alexis (Laura's daughter):



That's my mom's side of the family. We had our celebration there during the day on Christmas Eve because Alexis was dying to open her presents and my brother had to get headed back up here to the Cities fairly early on Christmas Day. I spent the day over there on Christmas Day too, though. Alexis and Mom and I played Monopoly for a while and then Alexis went over to her dad's house, so Mom and I just watched tv and I knitted a bit and read some blogs. It was very relaxing. My dad lives in Orlando, so I didn't see him over the holidays. I did spend Christmas Eve night with my other sister, Kerry, and her mom, Kim, who I still call my step-mom even though she and Dad aren't married any more. She'll always be my step-mom. Here she is with her boyfriend, Bill:



My sister, Kerry, and her boyfriend, Raine. You can kind of see my future nephew, who's just a bump right now:



We had a great time opening presents and laughed our heads off. We also played Scattergories. I think I came in last every time. That is just not how my brain works, I guess. I always like to go to a movie on Christmas, so Kim and I saw this one Christmas night:



I'd give this one a mixed review. A lot of bloggers have mentioned they've already seen it, and even if you haven't, you probably know what it's about. Will Smith plays a real-life guy (Chris Gardner) who works his way from homelessness to become a multi-millionaire while caring for his son, played by Smith's real-life son. Smith and his son are both very winning in the film and you are drawn to them and want them to succeed. Things are pretty predictable, though. And everything that could go wrong, does, but you always know that things are going to work out in the end, so there's not a lot of dramatic tension. What really bothered me about the film, was that it seemed like Gardner was at least as interested in becoming wealthy as taking care of his son. He makes a risky move by taking an unpaid internship with a brokerage in the hopes that he'll be offered a position as a stockbroker at the end. He and his son end up having to move from homeless shelter to shelter because they don't have money for rent. He is trying to provide for his son, but might it not have been better to provide for his son by having a regular paying job instead of going for the big bucks? I did like how the movie showed the obstacles that the poor face that middle/upper class folks don't have to worry about - his boss asks for $5 for the cab and doesn't even think about it, but $5 is the difference between eating and not for Gardner. And he has to do the same amount of work in fewer hours because he has to go pick up his son, while his co-interns have wives or nannies to worry about that sort of thing. However, I also wondered how he could possibly get by with only the one suit and not stink or look rumpled or in other ways turn off his potential clients. How could he manage to do business without a home telephone number? How could he drag a five year old around all of these homeless shelters without social services ever being called? I was also bothered that his race was never even raised as an issue. There's one boss that seems to pick him more often than the others to do menial chores for him, which sort of hints at racism, but never more than that and he's never faced with any outright prejudice. Which seems extremely unlikely to me in the world of brokerage firms in 1981. I think whether you'll respond to this film depends on how willing you are to just open up to Gardner and his son and root them on.

Weekend Update

First, here's the hat I posted about last time:



The pattern is "Painted Turtle" from "Itty Bitty Hats". It's knit in Manos Cotton Stria yarn. I originally was going to make it for my sister's baby, but I'm not happy with how it came out, so I'm going to donate it to the Pine Ridge Reservation. Mine just doesn't look as cute as the one in the book. I can't put my finger on why, though. Maybe the way I sewed on the turtles. It was my first time using Cotton Stria and it's not a favorite. I like the subtle variegations, but it was really hard to knit and I prefer a smooth, mercerized cotton over a textured cotton like this. I also couldn't get gauge without going down more needles sizes, so it's bigger than baby size - more like toddler size. I had a hard enough time knitting on size 6 needles, so I didn't want to go down any smaller.

I also wanted to show you the yarn I got this month from the Sweet Sheep Socks Club:



It's from the Sweet Sheep itself, called Sweet Socks. I LOVE this colorway. It's great purples and turquoise and gray - so beautiful! The colorway is called "Comforts of Home" and is based on "The blue morning glories in my mom's backyard, the violets that always catch my eye, and the silver for my mom's beautiful salt and pepper hair." It's a nice superwash and nylon blend that feels soft, too. I can't wait to knit this one up! I saw the "Not Just Socks" kids book this weekend and I may have to go back and buy it after the holidays, because it had some great patterns for sock yarn, which I have in abundance, y'all know.

Saturday was Talk Cinema day and we saw this film:



I really liked it, but I think I was once again a litle out of step with the rest of the audience. It seemed like I liked it better than most of the rest of the viewers. The film stars Edward Norton as a bacteriologist in the mid-20s who meets and falls instantly in love with a spoiled society girl played by Naomi Watts. Since Norton's work is done in China, he must act quickly and proposes to Watts. She accepts, not because she loves him, but because she wants to get away from her disapproving mother. Once she goes to Shanghai with her new husband, she realizes she may have made a mistake and falls into an affair with a diplomat played by Liev Shreiber. Norton soon finds out and threatens to publicly humiliate Watts and Shreiber with a divorce unless Watts goes with him to a small village that is suffering a Cholera epidemic - a suicidal mission. The rest of the film shows Norton and Watts beginning to see their own problems within the bigger context of this epidemic and a background of political turmoil in China - the Chinese don't really want foreigners occupying their land. The film has lushly beautiful scenes of the Chinese countryside and a wonderful score. This is the type of old-fashioned period romance that I just love, so if you like that type of film too, check out "The Painted Veil."

Saturday afternoon I had my nephew, Michael, over for a little card-making. He's a very crafty boy and when he heard I was making my own Christmas cards, he wanted in on the action. Here are a couple of the cards he made - I think they're adorable:



Saturday night was the Christmas party for one of my knitting groups. It was so much fun! We had a potluck and the food everyone brought was wonderful! Needlework Unlimited is generous enough to allow our group to meet in their shop after hours, which is always a lot of fun. We laughed and knitted and time flew by. We also had a gift exchange and I received this lovely addition to my tape measure collection from my friend Velia:



I love it! It's so pretty and sparkly and I love frogs! Last year we all went out for lunch and to "The Nutcracker", which was really fun, but this simple get together was even more fun, I think. I think we have a new yearly tradition! I even managed to get out of the store without buying anything - a first for me. Although I did ask for a couple of skeins of laceweight yarn to be ordered in for me. I think we're all going to do our first knitalong, too. That doesn't count, though, because I haven't actually bought the yarn yet.

Sunday was a disappointing day at the Metrodome. I'm seriously considering not renewing my season tickets for next year. It's such a huge production to get to the train, ride into downtown, get through security and the packed stadium to get to your seat, watch the game, then all the madness in reverse. The team's inability to play well for the last couple of years have just sucked all the fun out of it. Of course nothing can top the high flying, record-setting, 15-1 team of 1998 and the great fun of those Sundays, and I don't expect that every year, but it's just becoming ridiculous. There aren't even many players that I delight in seeing play, like I used to look forward to seeing the long strides of Robert Smith, gliding into the endzone. I guess we'll just wait and see what happens.

We Have the Technology...

sort of. We're not going to make this blog better, stronger, faster, but the old pictures are at least up. (I hope you're all as old as I am and get that reference). Unfortunately, even though my domain is moved to a new server and is up again, I couldn't post new photos to it this morning, so I signed up for Flickr and we'll see how that works, at least temporarily.

I've just been working almost non-stop since my last post. I haven't had a lot of time to knit, but I did finish that present I mentioned was partially done last time I posted.



It's a Tooth Fairy Pillow for Ben or Red. I'm making two of them, so I'm done, but REALLY only halfway done. That mouth is a little pocket. You put the tooth in the pocket and then the tooth fairy leaves you some money. The pattern is from "New Knits on the Block" by Vickie Howell.

I also finished another mitered square:



And I felted the striped bell hat I showed you a few weeks ago:



I think it turned out really well. The pattern is the Striped Bell hat, a Pick Up Sticks! leaflet.

I mentioned another hat that I made, but I forgot to take a picture of it before I brought it into my office. I'll photograph it before I put together all the stuff I'm mailing to Pine Ridge. Since I've been working so much, I haven't had time to organize and inventory all of the stuff I collected. As soon as I do, I'll post a photo here.

I can't believe how fast time is racing. I was thinking about leaving for So Dak next Friday, but I don't know if I'll be ready to go by then. I did spend last Sunday making my holiday cards, but I haven't mailed any of them out yet. I have done some shopping, but I still have some left and I've only wrapped three presents, so I have a lot of wrapping left to do. I haven't done any baking, so I guess that's going to get punted this year. Then there's that other pillow to knit and I'm making something for Katie too, since I made something for the boys. I wish I could just take the next week off of work, but it's another busy one.

Technology

When Red was a little guy, one of his favorite words was "technology". He used it more as the name for an object than as a concept, though. For instance, he'd say something like "The Rescue Heroes used their technology to get the dog off the mountain." I think he thought of "technology" as any piece of machinery.

Well, the technology is failing me now. Our web server has a bad card and so our tech guy is moving all of the domains to a new server. But in the meantime, my online knitting diary - where I record all my FOs and the yarn stash, is still down. And that's where I host my photos for this blog. So, still no knitting pictures. If he doesn't get it back up soon, I'll probably just sign up for Flickr or something, at least temporarily.

I have been knitting a little bit. I have one Christmas gift that I'm partially done with, to show you. And another mitered square. A hat that was going to be for my sister, but I think I'm going to send it to Pine Ridge and that pink and green hat felted. Plus all of the knitwear I've collected for Pine Ridge. So, knitting to come.

In the mean time, I did something very exciting last night - I went to a movie theater on its opening day. I've never done that before. The AMC Theater closest to my office was in a little mall called Har Mar. I have one friend who refused to go to Har Mar any more because it was so run down and old. It consisted of three big theaters and then 8 little tiny theaters. I will admit that sometimes you could hear the films from the next theater in your theater. And the seats were not the most comfortable. But I had great affection for the Har Mar 11. I probably saw more movies there than any theater in the Twin Cities in the 20 years I've lived here. In the last couple of years, they've tried to compete with the stadium types by also playing some of the indie/art house type of films with buzz. That theater is much closer to me than the Landmark Theaters in town, so I appreciated that effort. I also loved that in the ladies room of the section with the three big theaters, each stall was a little self-contained bathroom, which included its own sink and mirror. That's the ultimate in privacy in a public bathroom. Plus they were each a different color and sparkly. However, they just couldn't compete and so AMC put a fancy new theater down the road at Rosedale Mall. Thursday was the last day for Har Mar and Friday was the first day for Rosedale.

It is indeed a fancy, modern theater. All stadium seating. Fancy flat screen monitors in the concession area, with those "butter" stations so you can butter your own popcorn. The theater I was in was tiny - less than 150 person capacity, but I suppose that will allow them to keep running movies with smaller followings. The seats were lovely plush red and so very new. Since it was opening weekend, I got a free hot cocoa when I walked in the door and then a free bag of popcorn at the concession stand. This is the film I saw:



It's from the group that made "Waiting for Guffman", "Best in Show" and "A Mighty Wind." This time they dispensed with the mockumentary format, but are still skewering the entertainment industry. The film is about a small indie movie called "Home for Purim" about a Southern gothic family that is Jewish - so they mix yiddish and a deep southern drawl. The actress playing the matriarch of the family is described as giving an "Oscar-worthy performance" by a visitor to the set on his/her blog and the Oscar madness begins. The film within the film is hilariously awful. As a movie buff and admitted Oscar-phile, I loved the sharp commentary on the film industry's obsession with winning the little gold man. However, I thought this film wasn't quite as strong as this ensemble's previous works.

The cast is fantastic. The usual suspects are joined by a few newcomers, including Ricky Gervais as a studio executive with a sudden interest in the film after it starts getting a little attention. In fact, part of the reason I didn't love the film is that there are so many great actors that I wanted to see more of. Other than the leading actors in the film within a film and Eugene Levy as the leading male's agent, you don't get to see anyone in more than a couple of scenes. I just wanted more. The part that worked best for me, though, was the send up of the entertainment media. Jane Lynch gives her usual strong performance as a Mary Hart-like host of an entertainment news program. About 2/3 through the movie the actors are on a press tour to feed the Oscar media push and it's hilarious. One bit has the screenwriters on a "Charlie Rose"-like show and it was spot on. Last night when I was watching the actual Charlie Rose, I couldn't help remembering it and laughing.

Weekend Update

The weekend update is a little late this week because it's been another busy one. This weekend was Red's 8th birthday, so I had the good fortune to spend time with him all weekend long. It's hard to believe it's already been 8 years since he was born - I distinctly remember when Bill called and told me he was born. It was when I was thinking about going back to school to get a Ph.D. in psychology, so I was working on a research study at the U of MN. I was in the lab, as we were preparing to run a subject through the experiment. How much life has changed since then, but how much is still the same.

Friday night I took Red to Toys R Us to buy a birthday present. His mom buys him a ton of toys, so it's hard to know what he has and what he doesn't, so I decided the easiest and probably most of fun thing would be to go shopping with him and let him pick it out. He chose a Power Rangers semi-truck. Then we met up with Greg and Michael and had some dinner. Red and Michael just love each other and always have fun together. Red really looks up to Michael since he's a bit older and I think Michael gets a kick out of that.

Saturday was Talk Cinema, and we saw this film:



I didn't care for it, but the comments from the audience afterward were almost all positive. Peter O'Toole plays an aging actor who falls in love with his best friend's great niece, a woman a good 60 years younger than he is. I didn't really care for that aspect of the film. I felt uncomfortable with the overt sexuality of the relationship and with the way the younger woman used and humiliated the old man for her own needs. I also felt a lot of what happens in the film is pretty predictable and we've seen it before. I don't want to get into too much of what happens so as to ruin it, but it just didn't connect with me. I'm a huge O'Toole fan and he does do a wonderful job in the film. I especially loved the scenes where he's acting in films, where he's with his two theater friends and my favorites are the scenes with his ex-wife, played by Vanessa Redgrave. There seemed to be so much feeling and true connection between these two, that I really wanted to see more of that relationship and less of his chase for youth with the young girl.

Saturday night, Michael and I met up with Red, Bill and their family to see this:



Yes, indeed, I went to Monster Truck Jam. I'm not sure how I managed to live almost 40 years without going to one, but I did. It's not something I'd do on my own, but the boys loved it and it was really interesting. I had no idea these things were so popular - there were more people there than you'd find at your average Timberwolves game. Of course, Monster Truck Jam only comes around every so often and is much, much less expensive than an NBA game. I also didn't realize that this was set up as a competition. The first part is a race through an obstacle course, with trucks racing each other in pairings in a bracket system. Then there's a "free style" competition where the trucks can do whatever they want for 90 seconds and the truck with the best response from the audience wins. The freestyle competition is what draws the interest, with all sorts of things getting driven over and through and the trucks doing wheelies and donuts, etc. The boys begged to go back again when they come back in January.

Michael spent the night at Bill's place on Saturday night so I went and picked him up Sunday morning and we picked up the cake while Bill's family went to church and then we went to Red's actual birthday party. He chose a local rec center where they had roller skating, one of those climbing areas and videogames. I stayed for the birthday presents and cake, but then went out to watch the rest of the Vikings game. Ugh. Michael was just exhausted from such a busy weekend and fell asleep in the car on the way back to their house. It went fast, but it was indeed a fun weekend.

TV Update

My little bits of knitting progress really aren't photo-worthy at this point, so I'm going to do my semi-regular tv show update. I usually post about the new shows that come out every now and again and since the fall sweeps are over, I thought now would be the perfect time. It's also a time of transition for me because As of yesterday, I can no longer get the east and west coast network feeds on the dish. If two shows I like were on at the same time, I could watch one on the east coast feed and then three hours later, watch the other on the west coast feed. But, the cable companies sued the dish companies claiming that offering this was an unfair advantage and won, so the dish companies can no longer offer anything except the local network feed. So, now I'm either going to have to cut way back on what I watch, which is what I should probably do, or watch one show and tape the other, if I'm home. It'll be interesting to see how my lifestyle changes with this. Maybe I'll go to bed a little easier since I won't be watching the west coast feed of CSI: Miami or New York or Without a Trace until 1:00 a.m. anymore. Anyway, on to the new fall shows.

This year it seems that the networks are giving their shows a little more time to build an audience than they did the last couple of years. I hear there are a lot of shows "on the bubble", but they probably would have been cancelled by now last year. Some shows have been cancelled, but most of them I didn't care for anyway. Here's what I do like:

Mondays:
This is sort of a guilty pleasure, but I sort of like "The Class". I'm not sure what it is about it that I like. I'm drawn to the characters and I like the couple different love stories going on. I don't watch that many sitcoms, in fact this is the only one I watch other than My Name is Earl and The Office which are both much superior shows. I think this one is on the brink of cancellation.

NBC's new block of Heroes and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is probably my favorite. I love Heroes. Adrian Pasdar has been one of my favorite actors ever since the too quickly cancelled "Profit", so I'm excited to see him on a good show - and with a very complex character. I love the special powers and the people who have them. I love the intrigue surrounding why these people have powers, how they're going to save the world, and why someone is killing them. I can't wait to see that show every week.

I know not everyone is on the Studio 60 bandwagon, but I really do like this show. Yes, I agree that the show within a show isn't very funny, which makes the concept of this being a big smash hit sort of unbelievable. But I love the dialog and I absolutely love Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford. I love D.L. Hughley too. I like Amanda Peet and Steven Weber more as the series has gone on - they've rounded out both of their characters more. Yes, I think Sarah Paulson is annoying, but I've thought she was annoying in other shows she's been on too, almost all of which were cancelled right away - maybe she's a show killer. I was riveted to the recent two-parter with John Goodman as a local judge. This one is in jeopardy also, but it has a good demo for the advertisers.

Tuesday:
The only new show on this night that I'm liking is Standoff. The stories are pretty routine, but I love watching Rosemarie Dewitt and Ron Livingston. They just light up the screen.

Wedneday:
I'm still watching Jericho. This one is kind of borderline for me and if it gets cancelled I won't be too sad. I started watching because Skeet Ulrich is a poor woman's Johnny Depp. I love his parents played by Pamela Reed and Gerald McRaney - two great veteran actors. I'm intrigued by the whole idea of what would happen if there was a massive attack against the U.S. And I'm interested in the mystery of why these attacks happened, who is behind them and what role the new guy in town has.

Thursday:
Men in Trees. I didn't like it at first, but I have to admit it grew on me. Anne Heche is one of the most annoying people in the world, but I like this show enough to put up with her. She's getting a little less screetchy as she gets more comfortable in Alaska. It's got the sort of quirky little town in Alaska feel of Northern Exposure that I like. And, let's face it, I like watching McTreemy, as they're calling him now that he's on after Grey's Anatomy. I think that was a great move. Once that move was made, I stopped watching Shark, which I sort of liked, but not all that much.

Friday:
This show has been moved all over the place, but it's on Fridays now - "Justice". This is another one of those shows that I like, but am not sure about. I watch it mainly for the actors: Victor Garber from Alias, Kerr Smith who used to be on As The World Turns when I watched it and Eamonn Walker from Oz, one of my all time favorite shows. There's also a woman lawyer but I don't particularly like that actress. The stories are pretty typical and predictable, but I love watching these actors. And I do sort of like the way they show "what really happened" in the cases at the very end. Legal dramas, I guess I like them.

There's nothing on that I watch at all - new or old - on Saturday nights.

Sunday:
Brothers and Sisters. Calista Flockhart is another actress that I don't particularly like watching. But I've really grown fond of this family drama. I like the way the family interacts and all of the other actors. Although Balthazar Getty (who has a FANTASTIC first name!) is a little heavy-handed in his role. I like the politics that is in the background. I LOVED that Rob Lowe guest starred and would love to see him become a regular.

So, that's it for the fall season. 7 of the series have stuck with me through November. They're prety much all in jeopardy of cancellation except Heroes and I think Brothers and Sisters is doing ok. If you're going to try just one, I'd say go for Heroes.

I think it's obvious from this what I look for in a tv show - I like familiar actors who I've watched on other shows. I like dramas. And I like serial dramas better than standalone episodic shows, although I do watch the Law & Orders and CSIs of the world too.

One other show that I really like but that has been pulled from the schedule and is thus probably cancelled is "The Nine". I'll be sad to never find out what all did happen during that bank robbery.