Well, it's a cold. (I had a fever when I checked last night). At least it does not seem to be a very bad one, yet...mostly a slight sore throat and lots and lots of PND. And some sneezing. I rarely sneeze with allergies (oddly enough) so that was what made me check my temperature. (You don't get a fever with allergies).

I may have headed off a worse cold (it's always hard to tell with these things) by brewing up a pot of Raspberry Zinger herbal tea and drinking the whole darn thing over the course of yesterday evening. (Raspberry Zinger because it tastes better than hot water, has no caffeine, and, although the box makes no claims in this direction, I can't help but think something that is naturally that dark red a color MUST have some antioxidants in it). I find I can often improve the symptoms/shorten the duration of a cold by drinking lots and lots of fluids, especially stuff like hot tea or hot soup.

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But my cold is minor in comparison with the storm that's headed at the Texas coast. (I really, really hope everyone living in Galveston heeded the evacuation warnings; they were actually saying on the news this morning that "people left behind in Galveston face certain death." Even discounting for news-hyperbole, that's pretty scary).

I hope everyone's left HOUSTON, for goodness sakes.

We're supposed to get rain and wind here; if Ike follows the projected path they're saying 3-4 inches of rain between Saturday and Sunday, and maybe 50 mph winds. I'm more worried about the wind than the rain; I live on a slight hill so all excess rain will flood the street and I can stay safe in my house. But I have two large old trees, and one redbud (redbuds seem to be kind of fragile, branch-wise; the remnants of Gustav took a couple branches off mine).

No, I'm not going to try climbing up on a ladder and removing risky branches like I did before an ice storm several years ago, I just don't feel up to it. If my cable or power line gets snapped, I'll just have to call the companies and wait for service to be restored. (And my Internet comes through the cable...so if I'm not posting for several days it may be that stuff got zapped.)

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The yarn I ordered (from Elann) to knit up the TARDIS for my brother (and, um, some extra in the same color for a vest for me, pattern to be named later) came. It's the PERFECT color, I think ("Twilight Blue" of the Highland wool). I also got some in cream and some in navy for the detailing. The TARDIS is apparently meant to be done in intarsia (inTARDISia?). It's hard to tell for sure because the pattern, such as it is, is charts and directions of how many sts to cast on. So we'll see. If intarsia doesn't seem to work, I'll do it stranded, like a Fair Isle sweater (which, upon consideration, might be better, as it would lead to a stiffer fabric...one of the people who made one commented that you have to stuff carefully lest it become to fat and "bulgy.")

I really would like to finish something before taking on a new project, though.

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Speaking of toys or toy-like objects, I really like the new Bright Spark pattern that Kate Jeffrey made up (the pattern is on Ravelry, so I've linked to Mochimochiland's blog post on it). I like it, in part, because the narrator on Mythbusters often uses the phrase "Bright spark" - to refer to Adam or to Grant or to someone who comes up with something clever.

(I wonder...is the narrator Canadian or British (but without an accent)? Sometimes the phrasing he uses is a bit different from what an American would say. "Bright Spark" is one example...I don't think I'd heard that term before "Mythbusters.")

I want to make one of these. Also perhaps it could memorialize the filament light bulb, which, if I read correctly, is going to be phased out (in favor of those curly fluorescent ones) in a few years. (If I make one, I might name it "Livermore" - if it is not too many layers of twee upon twee to name a knitted toy light bulb - in honor of the famous Livermore Fire Station Light Bulb, which has been burning for more than a century.)