kayray.org

January 2005

31 — Felt slightly better, didn’t do much. A little housework, one student. Here’s what I hate: having a cold and pms and cramps all at once. Here’s what I like: chocolate/peppermint Luna bars.

30 — Still sick. Felt rotten all day.

29 — Feeling slightly better. This was a nice quiet day with Dan. Um… I did the grocery shopping (finally) while he did some Dan-errands, and then in the afternoon we just hung out together. Went to bed early.

27 — I’ve been sick lately, bleah. So I haven’t done anything worth mentioning I guess. Dan and Henry went out today and brought home my favorite pizza as a surprise, to tempt my appetite.

25 — Tired. I made an mp3 cd for Mom (all Bach), for her to play in her new Scion XB, and made an extra copy for my car. The cello suites are on it, which I love, and some cello/harpsichord sonatas that Henry loves. Ahh, Bach. My new license plates arrived today. Henry and Sal played together and went horseback riding today. I worked on our new family online photo album which I am not going to link to until there are more than 5 photos there. But you can look at my new January 2005 album.

23 — Happy birthday Mom!! Kathy and I took Mom for a nice walk on the beach in the fog — here she is looking pretty cute! And then we met Kirsten and Marcos at Coldstone for ice cream. Mmmm strawberry milkshake, extra-thick.

21 — Henry has been wanting a new needlepoint project, so today we got him started on one. I found a good simple picture of Pikachu (thanks, google images), enlarged it, and traced it onto needlepoint canvas for him. We bought wool yarn in yellow, red, white, black, and brown, and a hoop. He started with the eyes and is now working on the outline. He’s doing great!

This afternoon we watched Return of the King with Kirsten, Marcos, Kathy, and Dad. That’s a long movie… I really love the bit where all the beacons get lit up, one after another. Beautiful. Also when Gandalf rides out to protect Faramir and his horsemen from the Nazgul.

Tonight Rockola was playing at Viejas, so I went down there to hang out with Chloe and hear the band. Kirsten went, too, and we had fun together! They played from 9-1 but I was dead tired and it’s a long drive from here so I only stayed til 11:30. Fun. I drove my dear little scion xa — the first long trip I’ve had in it since we brought it home from LA. What a good car. It kept me amused and alert with Loveline mp3s :)

19 — Blood tests, bank, groceries, home, put groceries away, played WoW with Henry for a while, back over to Mom’s house, sat with Dad, visited with Kathy, taught piano student, Henry to Karate, sat around with family some more, home, tired.

18 — Woke up at 5:30am, couldn’t get back to sleep. Spent the morning with Dad and family, then Henry and I drove down to SD to pick up Chloe, went to the San Diego Museum of Fine Art and had a great time there, also bought Dove bars and looked through the Botanical Building. Then dropped Chloe back at Bob’s house and went back to Shallenberg house, hung out there til 7:30 or so. Exhausted.

17 — Fargo was home from school today so he and Henry played all morning while I did housework, then I took both of them over to Sal’s and they played while K, K, K, and I sat with Dad. We looked at old family documents and stuff.

16 — Kathy arrived yesterday and Ken arrived today so we spent the day sitting with Dad, pretty much. We had a Christopher Guest marathon. Nice. I have a good family.

15 — A lovely Saturday. I woke up at 6:30am. I did stuff around the house til Dan woke up, then made him a nice breakfast (smoothie (banana, orange juice, protein powder, yogurt, and frozen strawberries) and cream of wheat). He went with Sal to help her buy her new car (Scion XB) and I stayed home and played World of Warcraft for hours! Got my warlock from level 16 up to level 18, and got my rogue from 17 up to 19.

In the evening Chloe and Bob (Tedde) came over to hang out and watch movies. It was so very nice to see them! We put in Napoleon Dynamite and watched for a while (what a wonderful movie) and then after a while Kirsten and Marcos got back from picking Kathy up at the airport and they came over too, so we started the movie over again :) After the movie we all just talked and hung out and goofed around. We started talking about our old records (Kirsten’s and mine) and it turns out the Bob had the same Sesame Street one when he was little… and he can sing all the songs just like we can :) Funny! I made another dinner at about midnight (pasta and that special sauce with everything in it) and everyone devoured it so it must have been good. And then we talked some more and watched Marcos playing Spiderman 2 on the gamecube. Didn’t get to bed until around 2. It was the Best Evening Ever.

14 — Here’s a very funny article: Nobody Checks the Signature. Thanks Cosmicray! This morning Henry and I cleaned his room (all except the vacuuming, which he despises). We did a good job and were able to get rid of two paper bags full of clothes and toys he didn’t want anymore. Yay Henry! And then we played World of Warcraft together for a long time, and then I helped him scan a painting and make a blog post of his own. Then I took him to his karate classes. He’s doing so well! I’ve got to remember to take photos again soon. Matthew picked him up from Karate, and I went to sit with my Dad for a while. We watched the History Channel with the sound turned down, I worked on my needlepoint, and we had a fine peaceful quiet time. Very nice.

13 — We were driving today, and I was fishing around on the radio for something, anything, decent to listen to. I hit the classic rock station, and they were playing “Life’s Been Good To Me So Far” by Joe Walsh or whoever. Now, ordinarily I would change the channel instantly, since I’ve heard that song 45 million times… but then I thought, well, Henry hasn’t heard it 45 million times, in fact he’s NEVER heard it. So we left it on, and pretty soon Henry was pointing out the cool bass, and enjoying the talk-box and other 70s sound effects. And I was actually enjoying it too!

I finished my Romantic Blouse this morning, and it’s lovely. Photos soon. Henry worked on some paintings while I was sewing, and we listened to Woody Guthrie and Beatles records. And later we had a great time playing WoW together — we did the Ursal the Mauler quest together, finished up all the quests on Teldrassil, and took the hippo to Auberdine.

I made that curried cauliflower and beef thing for dinner which is usually delicious but the beef I bought is so tough it almost can’t be chewed. But the cauliflower part was good :) Dan had apples and a quesadilla for dinner, heheh.

12 — Ok my CES photo album is up! Consumer Electronics Show 2005

11 — Henry’s got a bit of a cold today, but he doesn’t feel too bad. We did the grocery shopping in the morning, and then in the afternoon Sally came over and I scanned some photos for her. Henry and I played WoW for a couple of hours, too. Tonight Dan and I watched another episode of Northern Exposure, but it was pretty bad, not up to their usual entertainment value. It was the one with the Russian guy.

10 — OK I really have to talk about CES a little here before time gets away from me any more!

The drive out there on Friday was interesting — there was a lot of heavy rain and even SNOW when we crossed the mountains on the 215. I got carsick so we stopped in scenic Barstow at the Flying J truck stop, or whatever it was, for some dramamine which made me feel slightly better and very sleepy. Dan drove the whole way so I just sort of napped between Barstow and Vegas. Also got Dan some In ‘n’ Out in Barstow. That town has everything you need. We got to Las Vegas around 5, I think, and checked into our hotel, the “New Frontier” right on the strip. It turned out to be the “Very Very OLD Frontier” heheh, shabby and trashy and dismal. Our shower had a clogged drain and the TV remote didn’t work, and the handyman who came up to fix it said the hotel was built in the 40s and they’re planning to tear it down this year. And none too soon! It was really quite funny :) I have lots of pictures which I will post in my photo gallery soon. But not yet.

After we checked in and settled down, Dan called Julie and Judie (of the-gadgeteer.com and we made a plan to meet for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory in The Forum (part of Caesar’s Palace, I think). It was one mile away from our hotel, and it took 40 minutes to drive that mile and another 20 to park and find the restaurant. Traffic is CRAZY there! But we finally found them in this mall that was supposed to look like it was an ancient Roman city, columns everywhere and the ceiling painted to look like the sky etc. We had an extremely good time hanging out with them, and went back to their hotel (The Luxor) afterward for more conversation and fun. And they had actual internet access in their room so we checked our email, etc. (There was no internet access at all in our entire hotel — even the pay-by-the-minute computers in the business center were down.) Spending time with J & J was definitely one of the best parts of the whole weekend. They are _extremely_ nice and fun to be with.

Saturday was the big day! We got up, got ready to go, and then drove out to find Dan some breakfast. Ended up at a Denny’s with approximately 400,000 other people. So we just went back to the hotel and got room service :) While we were waiting for the food to show up, we started watching “Napoleon Dynamite”, a movie I won from greencine.com, which was really good! Eventually, after breakfast, we drove out to the convention center. Parking was insane so we ended up in the Hilton parking structure, then walked through the Hilton to CES. We picked up our badge holders and then started wandering around, trying to find Dan’s company. Man that place is HUGE. But we finally found them, and he hung out with the businessmen for a while, and then we just wandered for the rest of the day. We saw all kinds of neat stuff… it’s all sort of blur now though. We walked and walked and walked. By the time CES closed (at 6?) our feet were SO SORE. But we went back through the Hilton to the Star Trek Experience place there, where there was supposed to be a cool Star Trek museum, but in order to get into the museum you also had to pay to go on a couple of rides, and we didn’t feel like spending $70 to get in, so we hung out in the gift shop and bought a couple of Star Trek souveniers for Henry — two packs of Star Trek playing cards (a different photo on every card) and a Spock magnet.

Eventually we limped back to the car, got back to the hotel, ordered a large room service dinner, finished watching “Napoleon Dynamite”, and went to sleep. It was a good day, very fun.

09 — Today we drove home from Las Vegas. The weather was horrible — the 215 was closed due to snow, so we stayed on the 15 and got pounded by a fearsome rainstorm, the kind that is so heavy you can barely see through the windshield. But we made it home ok, whew! It’s so good to be home where nothing smells like cigarettes and everything is clean and nice and there are no slot machines. We had a wonderful time in Vegas but I’ll have to write more about it tomorrow.

07 — Drove to Las Vegas today for CES. It was a good drive but the weather was pretty bad a lot of the time! We have no internet access in our hotel (even the computers in the business center are busted) so I am using Judie’s computer in her hotel room. We had dinner with Julie and Judie and had a ton of fun (and good food) and now we’re visiting with them a little more. Las Vegas is a strange place! More tomorrow (maybe…if I can get online again somewhere…)

06 — I made killer-diller blueberry muffins this morning, oh my goodness. Yes. Yum. Did chores and stuff, then played with Henry, then started work on the romantic blouse, then read to Henry, then went to teach a student and hung out with Kathy. Now I am supposed to be packing for Las Vegas (going to CES there tomorrow!) but I’m writing this instead… ok more packing :)

05 — Today I got out my “Free To Be You And Me” record! It still plays just fine :) Henry and I listened to it over and over all day! I didn’t like “Girl Land” or “Housework” when I was little and I still don’t. But everything else is great! “A person should wear what he likes to, and not just what other folks say…” Quite appropriate for Henry and me :) Henry likes the wah-wah guitar in “It’s Alright to Cry”, and I heard him singing “William Wants A Doll” last night while he was playing outside. I think Grandma sent this record to Kirsten and me originally.. so thanks, Grandma, for “Free To Be You And Me”! I think we should buy the cd, actually, so we can make mp3s and listen in the car.

Kathy is visiting! We sat and did needlework together for a while, which was fun. I started one of my little needlepoint projects today, a moon in the night sky. I have a sun one to match it. I think they’ll look nice in our bedroom eventually.

04 — Ok people I’m linking to my new photo album up there… Be patient, I’ve only got photos from 2003 in there so far. But I’m working on 2004 so there will be more photoamusement up there soon! Today I put up photos from January and May of 2004. Don’t ask me what happened to the months in between — I guess I just didn’t take any photos. But now that I’ve got this awesome new photo album I am inspired to take more pictures, so maybe there won’t be entire months missing from 2005.

Dan just helped me back up my blog… He was amazed to find out that I have typed about one megabyte of raw text. The average Dick Francis novel is about 600k of uncompressed text. This blog has been in existance since early 2001, since wayyyyy before blogs were cool. So I am cooler than all of you :)

03 — I made banana muffins this morning and forgot to put the sugar in! Oops. So we ate them with honey. Um what else happened today… Oh I know, Henry and I ran errands in the rain (but in my new car I felt nice and safe). We went to the bank so the loan lady could photocopy that document from the car dealer, and then we went to the library YAY. I haven’t read anything particularly good lately but I think that may change soon. I got another novel by Elizabeth Gaskell — “Cranford” which so far is very very good so I’m sure it will eventually make it to my books page. Henry got the book he’s been longing for — “Art Fraud Detective” which is one we got ages ago. He wanted to read it again. And we went over the the other library so I could return “The Dark Is Rising” audiobook and give them proof of my address. I realized that, now that Dan’s quilt is done, I no longer have a carry-along project to work on! My scarf is half done already… So I stopped by JoAnn’s and spent a little of the gift card that Mom and Dad gave me, and got two little needlepoint projects. That should keep me busy.

Here’s a funny thing: Cute little puppy vs. cute little ducky and another one: Get My Stuff Done. Ok I gotta go get some stuff done…

02 — Dan and I went over to watch Return of the King with Dad this afternoon. Man, that’s a long movie :) Long, but good. I ripped out the slippers I started with my leftover sweater yarn and started a scarf instead — a good movie-watching project. Tonight Dan helped me un-uglify my new photo album. I’m very particular about having a nice white margin around text, and the nice simple skin I’m using had the text going right up to the edge of the screen — ugh! CSS makes me shiver so Dan fiddled around in the .css file until he found the way to add a nice margin (and take away the ugly boxes around the picture captions!)

01 — Happy new Year, everybody! This morning I made apple pancakes for the guys (just grate up an unpeeled apple and mix it into your pancake batter with a pinch of cinnamon) and then Henry and I played World of Warcraft together while we waited for Matthew to come pick him up. We did the Timberling Seeds/Timberling Sprouts quests. After Henry left, I played Warcraft myself for a while (got Kayray-the-rogue up to lvl 17!) and then tinkered with Jalbum, a freeware java-based web-photo-album-maker thingy. It’s horrible, but it was the most tempting freeware I could find. I fooled with it for many, many, many, many hours and finally got somethign semi-respectable produced. And then Dan suggested Gallery! He installed it on the server for me, and then I tinkered with it for maybe an hour and made a photo album to be proud of, instead of one to be barely-satisfied with. I did an album of all my best photos of 2003, and soon I’ll do one of all the best from 2004. And when I’m completely satisfied, I will link to it here and you people can see my photos. I think I’ll redo my crafts page with Gallery, too. I’m glad I wasted so much time with Jalbum — it made me extra grateful for Gallery!

We had a lovely day. Drove out to get pizzas (Round Table for Dan, That Pizza Place for me), ate, watched Northern Exposure, hung out together. I am very happy to see that people have donated $11,721,658.00 to the Red Cross (to help with the tsunami disaster in South Asia) through Amazon. And that’s only 145946 dontations. What if everyone in San Diego donated? That’s something like 6 million people…

Right now I’m listening to my wonderful recording of The Magic Flute, the one I’ve had since I was a teenager. Otto Klemperer conducts and Lucia Popp is Queen of the Night. Zowie!