Evil Genius at Work

It’s for regular people, too. Click the pic and enjoy! And yes, it’s 100% work safe.

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Today we took the Metro to town to see, not the cherry blossoms, but a TRUE national treasure:

As you can see, I attempted to maintain a suitably solemn demeanor, as befit the occasion. It’s not every day one is in the presence of a national treasure, after all. I even dressed for the occasion in vintage Pendleton.

But Stephen will only be on display (ooh, doesn’t that sound nasty?) for a limited time - see this and other American treasures through April 13th at the National Air and Space Museum. You can also touch a moon rock.

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Let’s see… I’ve been  traveling, working too hard (as usual), reading and proofreading manga, and I’ve lost 11 lbs so far. Oh yeah, and knitting! Here’s the latest finished project, which knitted up really fast in medium-weight Socks that Rock:

Pattern: Serendipity - 2008 Rockin’ Sock Club Pattern #1
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts medium weigt Socks that Rock in Dragon’s Breath
What I did different: Nothing this time - I actually knit the pattern as written.

Red, striped socks are really difficult to photograph. But they look great on, and go so well with these shoes

I’m almost finished with the second sock kit, will post that soon. And then it’ll be time to work on some of the UFOs that are cluttering up the lair. Which reminds me, I need to declutter the lair. In preparation for moving? Could it be? Too soon to say, but maaaybe…

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So, guess what site is down this morning? Go ahead, guess. It’s 9:40 AM EDT on a Friday morning,  and eDiets is down because they’re performing “system upgrades”.  Well, they certainly need them, because they couldn’t get a whole lot worse. Their timing could be better, though - because I don’t know what I’m supposed to have for breakfast today! I’ll probably just have what I had yesterday. Maybe they’re performing an upgrade that will allow me to print my meal plan in a legible, usable manner so that I don’t have to rely on being able to log in every morning.

A girl can dream.

But seriously - they should be doing their upgrades in the middle of the night! This is so typical of eDiets - they do things on their own schedule, when it’s convenient for them, with no apparent regard for the needs or convenience of their paying customers. Unless, of course, they DID start the upgrade during the night and things have gone horribly wrong and are taking longer than they expected. Unfortunately, that would be typical too.

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I think this is one of the nicest pairs of socks I’ve knitted yet. They fit like a dream.

Pattern: Bartholomew’s Tantalizing Socks
From: New Pathways for Sock Knitters - Book 1, by Cat Bordhi
Yarn: Jitterbug by Colinette in Castiglione
Needles: Sizes 1 and 1.5

What I did different: I used a finer weight yarn than called for by the pattern, since I like a fine gauge sock. To compensate I went up one pattern size (made size 3 instead of size 2).

I will definitely be making more socks from this book, but not for a while since I have a million other projects on my list to finish first.

And if you have not yet used Jitterbug, definitely give it a try - it just may be my new favorite sock yarn!

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Tonight was my second (and last) Tunisian crochet class. It was great fun, and I have some projects in mind already. I’m also going to take a regular crochet class the next time it’s offered to improve my technique in handling the hook and the yarn.

I wore my new pink vintage dress to class and got lots of compliments. Unfortunately, the threads are old and the vertical seam in the back came out. Wardrobe malfunction! Fortunately the ladies at the shop had some safety pins and I was saved from further embarrassment. So, now I need to stitch up the back. It’s too bad - I really wanted to post some pics of myself in this new dress. It fits to perfection and makes me look… dare I say it? Thin. That’s what the right style and cut can do for you. I will definitely be trying to copy this dress when I’m feeling more ambitious!

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Here’s some new information that I found tucked away in one of the boards:

Nutrition Tracker is supposed to be back online by the end of this week.

If you are having trouble getting through by phone or using the site’s “contact” option, some people are having success canceling their accounts by emailing community@ediets.com.

This is typical of the way they’re handling this mess. Only the small portion of members who pay to access the message boards are able to see this information, and then they announce it in only one thread that only a small portion of those members may follow. No broad announcement, no notice on the site itself when you log in. The loss of the Nutrition Tracker has generated numerous complaints, you’d think they’d want to let people know - don’t worry, it’s coming back!

Really, you just have to wonder…

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I certainly didn’t expect my little eDiets post on my brand new blog to be so popular or to generate so much discussion. I have tried to answer everyone’s questions to the best of my ability, but I would like to point out that aside from being an eDiets customer I have no affiliation with the site or the company. That being said, here’s a front page update on my eDiets experience in particular, and what seems to be going on with other folks.

I’m getting used to the new boards. They’re not as easy to navigate, and they’re not pretty, but they are functioning and serving their purpose, which is for people to communicate with each other. As one commenter to my last eDiets post mentioned, they are “sanitized”. Which means if you get too vocal or angry, or mention competitors’ sites, the thread could be removed for violation of terms of service. While I acknowledge that the purpose of the boards is for members to support each other in their pursuit of a healthy lifestyle, I do think that eDiets needs to allow members a place to support each other in their pursuit of a healthy eDiets site. And boy, have we needed support these last weeks.

My diet plan is back on track. Like many others, after the change my meal plan was giving me meals way outside the range of calories I should be consuming - around 700 - 800 extra calories each day! I now have an appropriate meal plan which I got by switching to another diet plan. I could have switched back to get a good menu in my original plan, but I think I like this one better and will try it for a while. This is how a lot of community members were able to get new plans during the week. Each week when you weigh in you get a new meal plan, and people who are doing their weekly check-ins are now getting appropriate meal plans. I do hear stories that some people are still having problems with check-ins and meal plans, but as far as I can tell this is cleared up for most people.

I have also heard that some people are having browser-related problems. Internet Explorer 5 and 6 are displaying the site differently. I use Firefox, and have had no display problems. If you are using IE, and having problems with how the site is displaying, or certain buttons are not working, you might try Firefox. Try Firefox anyway - it’s just plain better.

I’m still not happy with how the weekly meal plan displays and prints - it is too faint, too small, too over-engineered. It was clearly designed by someone who does not actually USE eDiets. Someone who thinks buttons and tabs are really cool. But these are cosmetic issues - the content is correct and that’s the main thing.

Bottom line - for me, the site is fulfilling its purpose. It’s not as convenient as it used to be, but I hope that once eDiets puts out the bonfires that are raging they will be able to address some of these smaller issues.

It’s sad that eDiets did this to themselves - they have lost an incalculable amount of customer goodwill with their ill-conceived, ill-planned, and ill-executed site change. They have lost many customers, and there are more on their way out. I can see no way that this has benefited eDiets - and I’m sure they figured the new site would benefit them somehow. So, why did they do it? What benefits did they expect, and how were those benefits to be realized? Have there been any short-term benefits? Can anyone see any future benefits coming from this site? Their services have not changed, only the way things look. If anyone out there has a theory, I’d love to hear it.

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You learned this in grade school, right? If you didn’t, was your grade school accredited? And if you didn’t learn it there, you can’t spend long in the kitchen without figuring it out. So why is it that so many publicans (and I use this in its modern definition of tavern-keeper) seem to have forgotten?

Go into any bar and order a pint of whatever’s on draft. They will probably serve that “pint” in a conical glass that flares out towards the top (or narrows at the bottom, depending on your perspective). Anyway, these glasses are ubiquitous and you know the type I mean. I have a small collection of them that I have picked up at brewpubs, trade shows, etc. Buy a pint and keep the glass, they say. But take that “pint” glass home, fill it up, and pour it into a measuring cup. How much does it hold? Chances are it holds 12 ounces - all of mine do.

Which means if you are paying for a pint, then you are paying for 4 ounces of beer that you’re not getting! If your bartender hands you one of these glasses and you pour a 12 ounce bottle of beer into it and there’s no room to spare, then it’s not a pint glass.

Let’s not even get into Imperial pints, which are 19+ ounces, because apparently the 1 pint = 16 ounces equation is already more than modern barkeeps can handle.

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Today was a beautiful day here in the DC area. We cleared out and aerated one of the vegetable beds. We’ll get to the other one later - it has some nice kale growing in it that I don’t really want to dig up yet. We harvested some of it and had it for dinner. Yum! I never imagined I’d get to have fresh-picked veggies this early in the year!

I will present for your enjoyment this picture of my long-suffering kitty:

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