Needles

So, I have had the Knit Picks Options Harmony Needles for a bit now, so I feel ready to talk about them.
The Look
The colors are more muted, as others have pointed out. I prefer them as they are, but really, since once you are knitting you are looking at the kitting and not the needles so much, I didn't have a strong preference.
I knew going in that the needles do not have the size marked, which clearly puts them below every other needle I own on that front. Knit Picks does offer a sizer and also some danglies you can put on the cord, but, I think those are not the greatest solutions. The card, with the sizes marked, does fit in the case that comes with the Harmony needles, so that helps. I am also thinking of marking mine up with a a Sharpie. Because I know this will be a problem once I have all these needles engaged in projects.
The Feel
They are very smooth. The wood is laminated and shiny (although not in a distracting way). The Clover needles and the Skacel are my other wood needles, while these look smoother, in the end I think it's probably a wash. But they are very smooth.
They are pointy. I use the Denise's all the time which others have complained are not so pointy, so clearly pointy is not a big thing for me, but they are pointier than Denise or Clovers. The Skacel's I have are fours, so they are pretty pointy.

I have never found the memory on Denise's to be a problem for me, and it seems to disappear after a round, but the Options clearly have no memory (for good or bad).
I have not yet had any issues with the Options needles coming undone. I did once have that happen with the Denise's - it was early on before I figured out how to twist them until they locked. The Options needles started to untwist a few times, on one project, but I used the cable key (comes in the package) and that seemed to take care of it. The Options needles come with a cable key. It's basically a thingie that you stick in the hole at the join to give you leverage to twist better. (Kind of like the extension thing on a car jack.)
I have heard from others that you can also make use of the hole to thread a lifeline through so that it is magically set up as you knit. I may need to make use of this for the Mystery Stole.
Both the Denise and the Options set come with little caps that let you turn the cable into a stitch holder which is great for victims of starter-itis (although you'll need more cables) and for projects where the knitting is started in the round and then split.
The Denise set also comes with connectors that let you attach cables together, thereby increasing the number of sizes you can achieve with the same set of cables. I have used this a lot for big projects or projects that expand. The Options cables do not currently have any cable connectors.
Even though they are wood, I think for air travel, I would pack the Options needles and take the Denise's on the plane. While I think most wood needles look pretty innocuous, somehow I feel that the Options set looks a little less so. (Who knows what the TSA might make of the cable key.)

The Customer is Not Presumed Innocent

I heard the story about the guy who took the sticker off of a low priced item, stuck it on the box for a flat screen TV, and went through self check out. So, I understand that these things do happen. And most, when caught will say it was accidental. And I do recognize that stores lose giant amounts of merchandise each year to shoplifting and retail shrinking (getting a lower price incorrectly).
And I understand that often the big box stores maintain those low, low prices by not carrying a lot of staff to assist customers, monitor them, or keep the stock in order.
My mother and I were shopping in a discount store and we were looking at golf bags, since she wanted to buy one for my brother. We noticed that one of the golf bags had been marked (by the store - this was an attached price tag) at a lower price than the others. So understandably, we bought that one. When the cashier rang it up, he was surprised and called for a price check. My mother politely pointed out that the price was marked clearly on the item. The cashier called for a manager. The manager looked at the price tag, agreed that that was how it had been marked, and had the cashier ring it up at that price. He also, very nicely, asked us if we had noticed any other bags marked with that price. (We had not.)
Errors happen. Things end up mis-marked, or in the wrong box or what have you. But, it seems to me the solution is to assume that while the customer wants a great deal, the customer is not necessarily trying to screw over the store.
This is why I am so saddened to read the story of the Wall Street Journal editor who was detained in Kmart after she placed a pair of flip flops in the wrong box. Now, I understand that by placing the flip flops in the box, it gave the appearance of retail shrinkage. And, the store didn't break any laws and apparently acted within its standards. But, it would seem to me that for a scenario where we are detaining someone who just bought $800 worth of stuff, that for the $8 difference it might be worthwhile to assume human error. But maybe I am naive. Perhaps they assume that the $8 of retail shrinkage is part of a pattern of behavior and that they are better off losing this customer (since they told her never to return) than taking the risk.
I think perhaps if the shelves were not so often in disarray, then it would be easier to spot customers who really are trying to ticket switch, but I guess it costs less money to get rid of your current customers than to hire more staff.

Book Update

Since I whined about it, I went to my favorite Border's and they had the Crazy Aunt Purl book (Crazy Aunt Purl's Drunk Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair, which on the price tag is hilariously shortened to Crazy Aunt Purl's Drunk Divorce) and it's not October yet so, ha!
And I have already finished it, and it was wonderful. If you have read the blog, the voice is the same. I really enjoyed it. Even if you haven't had your husband tell you at the dinner table that he is leaving you, I still think there is something everyone can relate to in having your plans crumble and having to come up with new ones. And there are 14 patterns in the book too.

Not That Old

Somewhere around twenty four it seems, the signs started. Things that indicated I was old. Not decrepit or ancient, but not so young either. After you pass twenty one and possibly twenty five - the age of car rentals and car insurance discounts - most of the age marks seem to be about being old. Um, yay?
But really, the twenties were fun, but I happily moved on from them, because thirty was wise and mature but not old, right? But then there was the fifteen year high school reunion, making me a whole high schooler worth of time away from high school, and the ten year college reunion and then they started having special re-releases of movies from my teen years, like "Dirty Dancing". How is "Dirty Dancing" twenty years old? How am I old enough that people my age have somehow found time to make millions, get married, have kids, get divorced, and/or travel the world? Huh? And it doesn't help that by UU sub-divisions I age out of young adult-hood in a little over a year. But I'm still feel young. Really. (And I do know that all of these things are arbitrary and in many ways meaningless, but, still.)
And now the freaking American Girls are in on it. Apparently the latest doll is from the historic 1970's. (I heard about this here.)
The 1970's are in the past, and okay, it's apparently far back enough that there's been a sitcom about it for a while. But for some reason that didn't bug me. I was just a tiny thing in the 70's, so a story about teens in the 70's is a story about people older than me (yes, it is twisted logic, I am quite proud of it.) And, I know that this really means they ran out of decades although it seems they have some gaps - might I suggest the 20's, the 50s and the 60s. But my life is now historical. What? Just because I remember the Berlin Wall coming down doesn't make me historical. I am young. Stop trying to make me think otherwise.

The SKINny

Note: Contains reference to a racist sports team name.

I am a bit sad over the Redskins loss. The first home game, I was traveling back from Maryland's Eastern Shore, so listened on the radio. This means that I missed the awful new light uniforms. Look, I understand wanting to integrate more color into the light uniform - I'm sure the Skins laundry service in particular is grateful. Yellow is a very nice color, but there are many many shades of it, and many many ways we could could have added yellow without making the Skins look as is they had been caught in a mustard storm of some sort.
I don't care if they are retro, that doesn't make it any less ugly. Also, just because 75 years ago someone thought this looked good, doesn't make them any more correct.
For much of the game I had better things to pay attention to, but then there was the second half. I know 2-1 certainly isn't the end of the world, but being undefeated was such a nice thing while it lasted.