kayray.org

August 2004

Aug 31 — Dr appt in the morning (Dr Guerin). He said it was a good thing I insisted on getting my blood tested last week, because sure enough, I was on the low side. He said it was odd that I felt so bad, because lots of people get down that low without even noticing. What can I say, I’m odd. He actually said, “You are very unusual.” Heh. Surprise surprise. Also I asked him if it wasnt’ a bit strange that I _lost_ weight when I went a little hypo (it’s typical to gain weight) and told him I got down to 100 punds again. And his answer was, well, sometimes scales vary. SIGH. I dropped it, but what I should have said was, no, see, I weigh myself obsessively, and my scale gives me the same reading as the scale in the office here — I know because I weigh myself before every appointment — so now please answer the question! Whatever.

Aug 30 — On Saturday Dan took me out to do a little birthday shopping :) He bought me some lovely little amber stud earrings and a delicate sterling silver chain necklace. It’s so tiny and fine you’d think it would snap if you touch it. Very pretty. Also we went to Fry’s because I thought it might be fun to have a tablet, the kind that is an input device that you draw on. Wacom makes them… you know. So anyway I couldn’t decide between the Graphire model and the Intuous model… Graphire is cheaper but Intuous is wayyyyyyyy fancier, with programmable buttons, a tilt sensor, etc. SO Dan suggested I get the Intuos and try it out for a while. So that’s what we did :) It was a lovely and fun day, oh, and Ken called me too!

Today was Monday… what did we do… Oh I picked up Henry from SD, and after we got home he watched two of the Sherlock episodes while I played with Flash and my tablet. Dan’s letting me use his G5 with the enormous monitor for my Flash work and it’s lovely! Nice day :)

Aug 29 — For anyone who is thinking about joining netflix, greencine, or some other online dvd rental service, here is a very thorough review of greencine (with helpful information about other services, too): CosmicRay’s Greencine Review. I must agree with his praise for greencine, and add that, here in San Diego, our turnaround time is very good — if we mail something back on Monday afternoon, for instance, they receive it Wednesday morning, ship our next dvd that afternoon, and we have it on Friday. So that’s only five days, total, and even less when you consider that we could have watched our dvd on Monday morning and can then watch the next on Friday night. Last night Dan and I watched the first two Sherlock Holmes episodes, and we’ve got two more for today :)

Aug 28 — Last night, after dinner, Henry and Dan played on their guitars together. It was so nice to hear them! This morning I took Henry over to Sal’s — she and Matthew and Henry and Lynette are all going to Big Bear for the day. While I was there, she and dad played the synchronized swimming stuff from yesterday’s olympics for me. That was quite… something, yes indeed. I know it is hard work and everything, but oh my goodness it is funny sometimes to see all those legs sticking up out of the water, waving. Just now I finished the book I was reading, “The Idea of Perfection” which was a perfectly wonderful book. Now I’d better update my books page…

Aug 27 — Happy birthday to me :) Now Dan and I are both divisible by 7. Henry and I watched our Jeeves and Wooster dvd in the morning, and then we went down to SD to visit with Susan and Charlotte and David. Susan made us a fabulous lunch of fresh bread, sliced home-grown tomatoes, avocados, blackberries, peppers, cheese, etc. The typical delicious Susan food. Traffic was HELL, as usual. Now we’re home and Henry’s out playing with his new friend Fargo who seems like a very nice little boy. He actually looks you in the eye when you talk to him and he’s not constantly wary, like most of the other kids around here.

Aug 26 — Henry went to the water park in Irvine with his karate camp group, so I had a quiet day at home all by myself :) After I dropped him off, I went to the fabric store and looked at cloth for a lonnnnnnng time. Bought some red calico (on sale for $1.79/yard!) for an apron, and some heavy plaid flannel ($3/yard) for a miniskirt. Haven’t decided yet whether to make it one of those pleated ones, or a little bias-cut one. Hmm. Well, when I got home I worked on the apron for hours and hours. Having a dressform helps so much! And later I taught a student and then picked Henry up. He had a great time with his friends :)

Aug 24 — Tuesday. Slept 11 hours again last night, so I did a little better today. Henry and I had bagels at Einstein Brothers, then did the shopping. Dan had to fly to San Jose on business and the shuttle picked him up at 6:30 in the morning, eep, and he didn’t get home again til nearly 9pm. I’ve started reading “The Idea Of Perfection” and I love it.

Aug 23 — Drove down to SD bright and early to pick up Henry before M had to go to work. Got home, did mopping etc, and moved my old desk so that Dan could use it as a nightstand instead of the ragged old box he used to use. Much nicer.

Aug 22 — We got our first Dr. Who dvd from Greencine yesterday afternoon, so we watched it tonight. It was great! It was the four-part episode called “The Pirate Planet”, written by Douglas Adams. Very fun! We also bought milkshakes from Coldstone tonight for a treat :) Yum!

Aug 21 — Nice Saturday. Finished my book and then played Tales of Symphonia ’til Dan got up, and then made breakfast etc. We went out to get the GSR washed and to take pictures of it so Dan can sell it, and I took my new GAMES magazine along and did puzzles :) Then we went home, got the TSX, and went out to San Marcos to see Spiderman 2, which was lots of fun. Great villian, lot of funny parts to break up the action and drama. Broom closet scene, elevator scene, lol. Mom came over in the evening and we helped her with her camera and cellphone and computer. Her phone is the same as my new one (which I love) so it was easy for me to show her how to add people to the phone book etc. Fun day :)

The best thing about the TSX, in my opinion, is that its navigation system tells Dan how to go places, so I don’t have to! The second best thing is that I get to control the climate on my side of the car, so I never have to have freezing cold air blowing at me :) Very nice.

Aug 20 — Henry’s off for a long weekend with Matthew and Lisa. They picked him up this afternoon, and I got to say “Hi” to Lisa! It was so nice to see her again. I’m covered in flea-bites from hanging out at Mom’s house, ugh. Hate fleas. Anyway, we had a nice evening. I rented “Tales of Symphonia” and played until Dan got home, and it’s fun so far! Wew went to bed super-early and watched “Persuasion” on my laptop. There’s nothing nicer that cuddling up in our fluffy bed and watching a movie. And it was a good one, too.

Aug 19 — Slept 11 hours last night, so I feel a bit better today. My hair is driving me crazy. It’s been falling out steadily for a year, so, although it loooks long and nice, there are a million little short bits that turn into fluff all over my head. Grr. Anyway I had enough creative energy today to make Henry the Megaman helmet he’s been craving for so long. We used a dark blue sweatshirt for the main helmet part, which I made very cleverly with a strip of cloth down the top of his head and then two curved side-pieces. Then we used some scraps of fleece in light blue, red, and black for the Megaman-type decorations. My lovely Pfaff made it so effortless to sew with the fluffy stretchy stuff. Photo soon.

Aug 16 — Our first two Greencine.com dvds got here today! This evening Henry and I watched the first Jeeves and Wooster episode, and he loved it. I read him half of a Jeeves and Wooster story for bedtime, too. How many 8 yr olds request P.G. Wodehouse for a bedtime story??? Today was Dan’s first day at Pioneer, and he had a good day, yay :)

Aug 14 — Whoops it’s been a week since I added anything here. I am bad. I’ve just been incredibly tired lately. But look, I filled in yesterday! And now we’re going to take Henry to SD and maybe I’ll write more later.

Aug 13 — Today was supposed to be the Karate Camp trip to the water park, but all the grownups got sick, so they cancelled until everyone is healthy again. So Henry and I had a nice quiet morning together. He played his guitar a lot (he’s very into “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin, and started figuring out the melody) and played with his Bionicles, and spent a long time reading the new Bionicle book that Chloe bought him yesterday.

Since Dan is now employed again, we decided to treat ourselves to a greencine.com membership! (Pronounced “Green Scene”) For $15 a month, we get to have two dvds out at a time, and their selection is marvelous. Dan was a netflix subscriber a few years ago, and was unhappy with their service, but greencine seems to be much better. We spent the morning choosing movies to put in our queue — I think we have about 35 in there already! They already shipped our first two movies, so by Monday or Tuesday we should have Persuasion (1995) and they first dvd of the Jeeves and Wooster BBC series! Other items in our queue include Cold Comfort Farm (yes they have it!), All Creatures Great and Small (for multiple dvd items, you get to specify if you want them to send them in a certain order), Wives and Daughters, the BBC Sherlock Holmes series, and lots of other hard-to-find movies and tv series. So they’ll mail us two things, and when we’re done we mail them back, and as soon as they get them they’ll mail us two more. Very exciting :)

Aug 07 — Saturday. Sorry I haven’t been better about keeping this blog updated. I filled in a few missing days just now, so you’re got something to read. I’m always too tired at night to blog, so i think I’d better get in the habit of doing it in the morning! So here I am. M picked H up last night after Karate and Dan is still sleeping, so the house is nce and quiet. I think I will finish “Wives and Daughters” and find out if Molly marries Roger, and then I’ll do some sewing, maybe.

Aug 06 — Almost done with “Wives and Daughters”. I read for a long time this morning before we had to leave for piano students and karate. I am really enjoying it, so I’m glad it’s a very long book! Speaking of books, “The Three Miss Margarets” is finally out in paperback so Henry and I stopped at the bookstore after Karate to pick up a copy for Sal. I think she’ll like it! And I want to borrow it and read it for the third time when she’s done. So tired tonight. Dan and I watched Best in Show and I was almost asleep by the end of it, a little after 10.

Aug 05 — Chloe came over and we worked on her dress while watching P&P :) Her dress is amazingly beautiful! I moved the bodice gathers a bit more to the sides, and then sewed bodice to skirt and handsewed the lining into place at the seam. Also got the hem pinned up; my dress form really helped there. It’s not her size but it’s close enough to put the dress on it and see how the hem falls etc.

Aug 02 — Housecleaning day, also I finished my little brown dress and wore it! Also I cleared my Stack of Bills and updated books.php. Good job Kara. My new favorite song is “Love You Madly” by Cake.

Aug 01 — Nice lazy Sunday. I worked a lot on my brown dress and did Kirsten’s hemming. Love my Pfaff :) In the evening we took a little walk around the neighborhood. The summer night air smells so good.