Fairy Grandmother

Here's the promised updated photo of FG. Apologies for the poor scan. No sun around here in the last day or two so I just scanned the pertinent area on my trusty scanner after removing a most comfortable cat. I didn't bother with a scan of the dress, the area I stitched doesn't show up too well. The lower wing area though, if you compare it with the small pic in the side bar, progress is quite obvious if not as much as I would have liked. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, not while stitching, that I get the wing finished today. The color changes are slowing me down. I've tried the prethreaded needle method and that just doesn't work for me so it's stitch, snip, rethread, stitch, snip, rethread. But can I say again how beautiful this is. The color changes are so subtle, they flow so quietly into each other, just gorgeous!

Now for a quick book review. I went to the library on Friday and checked out a few books and some books on tape. I started Alice Hoffman's The Ice Queen Friday night and finished it last night. Alice Hoffman is a gifted storyteller. This story had me from page 1. The book jacket describes the story this way, "Be careful what you wish for. A woman who was touched by tragedy as a child now lives a quiet life, keeping other people at a cool distance. She even believes she wants it that way. Then one day while standing in her house she is struck by lightning. But instead of ending her life, this cataclysmic event sparks a strange and powerful new beginning."

I had been unconcious for thirty two hours, hence the IV in my arm. Naturally things were fuzzy. Of course my brother and Nina looked concerned. And so I didn't mention anything when the nurse came in with a dinner tray and didn't say a word when I noticed the Jell-O I was being offered was the color of stones. The nurse herself, not more than twenty-five, appeared to have long white hair. The flowers my brother and his wife had brought me seemed dusted with snow. I understood then. I had completely lost the color red. Whatever had once been red was now cloudy and pale. All I saw was ice; all I felt was the cold of my own ruined self....Why the absence of a color would affect me so deeply, I had no idea, but I suddenly felt completely bereft. I had lost something before I'd known it's worth, and now it was too late.

This paragraph haunted me. I thought about it often yesterday. When I finished the book last night, I cried. I don't want to tell any more of the story, even parts mentioned on the book jacket, the story is so powerful, I'll carry it with me for a long time.

Amazon.com: The Ice Queen : A Novel: Books: Alice Hoffman

This is the best book I've read in a long time. I don't know if there's some deep emotional connection I made with the main character, if the story really is that powerful, for some reason, it touched me, moved me. If I even let on why I cried at the end, it will give the story a way and I don't want to take that moment from anyone who hasn't read this book.

Question of the Day:

Do you all think NBC knows that their Olympic coverage sucks?

Let's be clear, they have 5 or so channels, the Olmpics are in a part of the world that is oh, 7 hours or so ahead of us, it seems like something other than hockey could be shown in real time. Seriously. This is a big event, doesn't it make since to show some of this stuff when it is actually happening? I get the whole "prime time ratings" stuff. I understand. But why not show the events in real time on all five of your channels so we can flip around, watch the events we want to, then show your packaged prime time extravaganza at night. We'd all watch again. Not everyone works during the day, some people work at night, give us all a taste. We get the scores. You may have the tv coverage but you don't control the news. Don't you think you are doing your viewers a disservice having Chris Jansing say, "Big happenings on the slopes today. Tune in tonight to your local NBC affiliate to see what happened." Hello, it's happened, you aren't showing it, don't you see something wrong with that? All I have to do is flip over to ny other news channel and find out what happened which I'm going to do because of your stupid tease. 5 channels!!! 5 Channels and we can't get one flipping thing in real time. Even on the stupid weekends! Why were cartoons on instead of the biathalon on Saturday? Why not catch adults when they are lounging around on Saturday morning before taking kids to basketball games? No you wait to show them later in the afternoon. You have 5 channels and there's rarely Olympics on any of them.
You're showing hockey this morning over skiing. You can't show skiing or bobsleding on a Sunday morning? SUNDAY MORNING!