November 2004
November 2004
Nov 29 — Henry’s home! He and Sal got in around 2am, so I picked him up from Sal’s house this morning. It’s so good to have him home again! We looked at a children’s art book tonight for his bedtime story, and he asked me “How does art get famous?” and I had to think about that one for a while. Good question. So I told him some of the ways that art can get famous and said we could look through some of my big art history books together and see more art and talk about it. He was really enthusiastic about that, and asked if we could go to an art museum sometime soon! Yay art boy!
Nov 28 — Sunday, end of the nice 4-day weekend. It was a nice holiday, just Dan and me spending lots of time together.
Nov 26 — Dan’s got a new game — “World of Warcraft”, an online RPG. I’m watching him play and it’s super-cool!
I discovered something today, while searching Limewire for Christmas music. I LOVE Nat King Cole’s early work. Somehow I found him doing Deck the Halls and liked it, so I started looking for other songs of his… found three or four and the best was just him singing and playing piano, accompanied by fabulous guitar and bass. “Dream a Little Dream of Me”. I really super-love it. I did a little research and it seems that it’s The Nat King Cole Trio, recorded in the mid-40s sometime. Awesome. I see that Blue Note Records has a 2 volume set of “The Best of Nat King Cole Trio: The Vocal Classics” which would sure be nice to have sometime! (in case anyone needs a Christmas hint, heheh)
Nov 25 — Happy Thanksgiving! Our tiny little turkey is in the oven, Martinelli’s is chilling, potatoes are ready to boil. I’m watching the Macy’s Parade on (gasp) Live TV. I don’t know the last time I actually watched commercials. An animated dancing bear it trying to sell me toilet paper… (mute) The parade alternates between entertaining and annoying. Oo it’s back on, and there’s a marching band! (un-mute). I love love love marching bands. Now there’s a float, that’s nice. Oh horror they’ve parked in front of the grandstand and a Pop Star is lipsynching to a maudlin Pop Song. (mute) OK they stopped, now there are hundreds of cheerleaders shaking pompoms, making human pyramids, and flinging each other into the air! (un-mute) Hey there’s a Mister Monopoly balloon! But the EmCees are blathering. (mute)
Later… well. we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner in the early afternoon, and then we went over to keep Dad company for a while and watch movies. We had a Christopher Guest double feature — Best in Show and then A MIghty Wind. Wonderful funny movies!
Nov 24 — Got started making Christmas cards today! I think they will turn out well. I don’t want to give details because several people who read this blog will be receiving one and I want them to be surprised ;-) Dan gave me a really good suggestion for one problem that I was having and it involves tinkering with flash and/or photoshop so that’ll be fun. Ooooooo also my Romantic Blouse Pattern (scroll down; I like the short-sleeve version) arrived today! This evening I traced off my size onto waxed paper, so as soon as Joanne’s has another sale I will pick out some fabric. And until then I can make a muslin.
Nov 23 — Grocery shopping today with no Henry-Monkey! Every checker asked where my little helper was today :) Finished my new Molly Apron and took some photos with the digicam on the tripod. Quite a crummy photo but you get the idea. I’m wearing it over my green plaid 1830s dress. In a few days perhaps I will post a how-to for my Molly Apron. I think I did a really good job emulating the apron from the movie! Finished my online Christmas shopping today! I feel very happy to have taken care of everything so early, while there’s still plenty of shipping time left and nothing is out-of-stock :) Go Team Kara!
Nov 22 — I did such a good job on the house! I cleaned and de-cluttered our computer area and it looks great! Dan says he loves our apartment. Nice praise :)
Nov 21 — I was going to sell my model trains on Ebay today, since I don’t have room to do a big setup and they’ve been languishing in a box for a couple of years. but when I got them out of their box they just looked so dear that it made me feel sad to sell them… So Dan suggested figuring out a way to display them on a shelf in our living room! We decided that we could fit a shelf above and behind our monitors, so we went to the True Value Hardware Store (I love that store so much I would marry it if I could) and picked out some shelf stuff and Dan built me a train shelf! It’s 5 feet long and 6 inches wide. I laid out some track and set my train on it, with a couple of the little farm buildings I built and a little guy. I plan sometime to make a backdrop and some trees or something :) It’s so nice to be able to admire my trains again. I think Henry will really like my little shelf, too. Maybe he’ll help me make some scenery!
Nov 20 — Henry went to Florida! He called me in the afternoon to let me know he got there safely. Have a wonderful time, Henry-boy! I went to the library today and got a large pile of books, and hung out in the craft store for a while. This afternoon Dan helped me completely re-arrange the bedroom and we threw away a ton of old junk! Yay!
Nov 19 — Got my Molly Apron almost done and it looks great. Photo soon. This morning Henry and I did some errands, getting him ready for his big trip to Florida! We found a paperback copy of his library book, Hank the Cowdog, at the bookstore so I bought it for him so he would have a good book to read on the plane :) And I helped him pack and everything. He and Sal went down to San Diego to spend the night at Matthew’s house so they wouldn’t have to get up so early tomorrow.
Nov 18 — Started work on a new Molly Apron, trying to get it to look even more like the ones she wears in Wives and Daughters (BBC). So far so good… This evening before bed Henry and I sat together on the couch and read our own books quietly for maybe a half an hour or more! That’s a first for him. He’s really loving Hank the Cowdog! He’s leaving for a 10-day trip to visit relatives in Florida with Sal on Saturday and is wishing to take his book with him, so, since it’s a library book, I’m going to see if there’s a paperback for sale at Barnes and Noble tomorrow. Tonight Dan and I finished our Twin Peaks dvd! Oooo I forgot how odd and creepy that show is.
Nov 17 — This morning after breakfast Henry finished his robot and it’s so cool! When you connect the battery, it rolls forward on the floor until it hits something, and then the top circle part makes it turn around and go another way. Very very cool. I helped him post pictures at his blog. I picked out the bodice darts on my new dress and turned them into pleats, which looks better. Now it’s really done ;-) We watched the last two All Creatures episodes, and played music, and did other stuff. I got him a book called “Hank the Cowdog” at the library and he really likes it. He is reading it to himself and brings it along in the car and reads bits of it to me while I’m driving. He always points out the cowboy dialect which pleases me because it means he know how “proper” English is supposed to sound.
Nov 16 — Henry helped me with the shopping this morning. We did a good job. In the afternoon, we wached the first two episodes on our new All Creatures dvd. My first piano student was at 5:30, so we stopped by the beach for a little while before that. We had a nice little walk at sunset and Henry ran about and did lots of gymnastics. It was really pretty there!
Nov 15 — I did a super-good job on the house this morning, oh my yes. It sparkles! And I also took a break to play some music with Henry, and then when the housework was done we sat in his room and listened to the new “All Creatures Great And Small” audiobook that I got at the library on Friday! I worked on Dan’s quilt and Henry started building a little robot. It’s hot today, and I’m tired. I helped Henry set up a blog today — he’s at spaceman3000.blogspot.com. He says he’ll write more tomorrow :) Ok now it’s time to read more P. D. James!
Nov 14 — Here’s a photo of Henry in his homemade “Dash Incredible” costume. He whipped this up last weekend after he saw The Incredibles twice. Since the photo was taken, he has improved his costume with the addition of real knitted black gloves and a yellow ribbon belt. Great costume, huh? :)
Nov 13 — I made Chloe’s laptop bag today! It turned out really nice. Also piped the edges of the green plaid dress sleeves, so all that’s left now is to finish the hem. We caught up on some stuff in the tivo — Dan’s Enterprise episodes and my Colonial House (great show!) and then in the evening we went out and bought a new spatula and a few sharp little knives. I hate to confess it, but we went to Walmart — they were the only store still open at 9:30. Ordinarily I wouldn’t be caught dead there. And then we went to Coldstone for milkshakes, yum. Ooo I started a new book today — “The Murder Room” by P. D. James. Very good so far!
Nov 12 — H and I took Tab to the airport this morning. We’re all so sorry to see her go and hope she comes back for another visit soon :) Then we came home and H did his music practice and I paid bills etc. We worked on our banjo and electric bass duet of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” and it’s sounding pretty good! When H was at karate this evening I took myself to the library and got a nice new stack of books.
Nov 10 — Finally I am uploading a great picture of Henry in his Halloween costume! He was Megaman X, of course :) I made his costume by sewing gray and blue fleece shapes to a light-blue sweatsuit (Target, $12). The helmet I made a couple of months ago out of fleece and a discarded dark-blue sweatshirt. Henry made the Blaster Arm himself out of construction paper and a packing tube of some kind. Isn’t it a great costume???
Nov 09 — Grocery shopping with Henry this morning, and we made a couple of stops to try to find black gloves for his “Incredibles” costume. He’s been dressed as Dash Incredible for the past three days :) Finally found some at the grocery store, of all places! In the afternoon we worked on our banjo/electric bass version of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” which is sounding pretty good! This evening Dan took me to the Toyota dealer to test-drive the car I’m wishing for, again. I’ve driven it twice already but never at night or on the freeway and I wanted to do that, ’cause I’m weird. It’s such a lovely adorable little car! Mmkay now I’m going to go read some more of the book I just started — “Cassandra French’s Finishing School for Boys” which, so far, is very good and very funny.
Nov 08 — Let’s see, after I got the Monday housework done it was a movie-full day. Watched “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” (again) with Henry and Tab but with the commentary on this time. Delightful! Henry liked it too. And he used the word “crestfallen”, correctly, in a sentence. Toula’s dad did indeed look crestfallen, as Henry pointed out. In the evening, while Dan tinkered with a server, we watched “The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra” which was fabulous. If you’re a fan of bad cheesy 50s sci-fi, you must rent it. It has everything — a bad scientist, a good scientist (he works in the field of science!), a rocket, a couple of space aliens, a mutant, a cheery housewife, a radioactive meteor composed of “atmospherium”, and of course a talking skeleton. It was very very funny. Thank you, greencine!
Nov 07 — Listened to lots of Loveline and worked on my dress. I got the skirt pleated and pinned and basted in place (my, it takes a long time to get pleats looking nice and even) and sewn, and then handsewed the lining into place over the waist seam, and then basted and sewed the zipper (yeah I’m using a zipper on an 1830s dress — so sue me, I’m not interested in 100% historical accuracy :) and pinned up the hem. Whew. I wish I’d remembered to even up the hem from the waistline before attaching the skirt but I didn’t. Next time. Then I tried it on and the zipper BROKE right in the middle at the waist seam. GRRRR. I actually had to pick out the stitching before I could take my dress off. SIGH. So now I need to buy another zipper and re-sew it tomorrow. But hey, before the zipper broke (when I was taking it off) I got a good look at myself and my dress is lovely! Watched “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” (again) with Dan and Tab tonight :)
Nov 06 — Worked on my green plaid dress most of the day — got the sleeves sewn on and the waist seam piped, and sewed the skirt panels together. I attempted catridge pleating the skirt, but it’s not really full enough to look good that way, so I think I’ll reverse box pleat it instead. This afternoon we went to see The Incredibles and it was soooo good! Very entertaining, very funny, YAY PIXAR! Before the movie started there were some truly horrible previews, including a cliche-ridden story about a zebra who wants to be a racehorse, or some-such. It looked so mind-bogglingly bad. Dan said he could hear me rolling my eyes during that one :) The preview for the next Star Wars movie made it seem pretty good. Footage of Storm Troopers and Vader and Obi-Wan (Alec Guiness-style) always gives me the happy shivers. I expect the movie to be as bad as the last two, however. My goodness those were bad movies.
Nov 05 — My Pokemon savegame disappeared. Sigh. I was really enjoying it, too. I guess I just can’t use pirated Pokemon roms :) I’ll just have to hope that Santa brings me a real actual cartridge!
Today was a fun-filled trip to the UCSD medical place for another Echocardiogram and appt with my ph guy. Dan wanted to come with me so I met him at his work in the afternoon, which was really kind of fun :) We don’t usually see each other in the afternoon on a work day! So anyway he came with me and it didn’t take too long and they say I’m not getting any worse and to just keep taking my $1000 pills. So that was good.
Nov 04 — After watching Henry playing Pokemon LeafGreen a lot, I decided it looked like fun. I tried to put LeafGreen or FireRed on the flash cartridge, but neither rom worked. So I tried Sapphire and it works! I played quite a bit today and enjoyed it a lot. Also completed another big square of Dan’s quilt — number 10!
Nov 03 — Bush won. Ugh. Sorry, world, we tried. We’re not _all_ stupid — almost half of us voted for Kerry.
In other news, Henry’s karate class did some point-sparring today and he scored a point! It was fun to watch. Tab and I did some shopping at the Mall during his class but we got back early enough to watch the point-sparring. Seems as if there was something else I wanted to say, here, but I’m very tired and I can’t think of it.
Nov 02 — Voting day, yay! How exciting. *crosses fingers* Good luck, John Kerry.
We bought a half-dozen pumpkin bagels and a tub of pumpkin cream cheese from Einstein Brothers today, and oh my oh my are they good. I just had one as a bedtime snack :) Yum!
Nov 01 — Monday. I did all the housework, which was actually kind of fun! I’ve got a good routine going, and it’s satisfying to see how nice the house turns out in not very much time. I even put the featherbed out on the porch railing to air! Also worked on my green plaid dress — got the sleeves and sleeve piping basted on.