kayray.org

June 2005

30 — Echocardiogram this morning, while Henry and Sal went biking. When I got home, Henry had successfully installed Neverwinter Nights on his computer and was playing. We put our “Dragonsong” audiobook on, and he played his game while I basted together my victorian corset mockup and created most of a bodiced petticoat. I don’t know how the corset will turn out but the bodiced petticoat is going to be great, I think. I just need to sew the waistband and skirt on tomorrow. I think I’ll make a gored skirt.

28 — Henry and I went to the Fair today! His karate school did a demo at 3:30, so we had free passes and were allowed to park in the performer lot, for free :) We went early, got there about 11, and had a wonderfultime walking around looking at things. We saw Design in Wood first thing before it got crowded. A nice old man was making wooden spinning tops on a lathe, so we watched him for some time, and Henry bought one of the tops he created. We heard the Dixie Hasslers, a wonderful Dixieland group that has been playing at the fair every year since I was little (in fact, this was their 52nd year at the fair). They asked for requests and I suggested Darktown Strutters Ball, and they played it for me! We listened to them for about an hour. Then we met up with Henry’s dad and looked at some more exhibits until it was time for Henry’s karate demo. He did very well, as did the whole school, from the tiniest kids to the Senseis themselves. Then Matthew left and Henry and I ran over to see the Hypnotist! Great show as usual. Then we saw the animals, the kids’ hobbies, and the farm area, and henry played in the playground there until around 8… and then we went home. Lovely day :)

23 — Drove Dan to the airport this monring — another business trip. Traffic was pretty good and we had a nice time talking all the way down, and then I listened to Loveline all the way back. Stopped at Target to see if they had a nice shady umbrella for the backyard (the sun attacks me even when I sit under the shade-cloth) and I found an adorable colorful UV-Protection one! Bought that and a weighted stand for it and only spent about $40. And it will fold up easily so I can take it to the beach as well. Sally took Henry ice-skating this morning and now they’re off again to play miniature golf! They’re going to pick up Fargo to join the game, and then bring him back here afterwards for the day :)

22 — We picked up Henry’s friend Fargo this morning at about 9, and he spent the whole day here. The boys had so much fun playing together, and swam for hours. We’re hoping Fargo can spend lots of time with us now that he’s on his summer vacation! I actually felt good today. Very nice to have some energy.

21 — In the morning I drove to Temecula and picked up Henry YAY!!! And then I taught several make-up lessons and caught up with some housework. Henry helped me a LOT. Pretty tired. 20 — Today we left Iowa. Susan’s flight was earlier than ours, so Sally and I went back to Lagomarcinos so I could buy some nice candy for Dan –I bought him an assortment of the gummiest, fruitiest things I could find — and have another fabulous black raspberry milkshake for breafast :) And then we drove around a bit and ended up at Duck Creek park aagin, and walked about in the shade for a while. Then back to the Quad-Cities airport, the dearest, cleanest little airport in the world. It’s like a little Lego airport or something! Bought postcards and things to read ((Macworld magazine and David Sidaris’s “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” for me) and sat enjoying the free wireless internet access until it was time to board the little plane to Chicago. Flight went fine, got to Chicago with 2.5 hours to spare. Found our gate and sat reading and eating (delicious avocado sandwiches bought in Davenport at the health-food store) until the flight. That flight went fine too and eventually we got home! The San Diego air is very nice, more breezy and refreshing than Iowa. Amazing the different quality air has from place to place. Picked up my car from the parking garage and got home before 9. We had a wonderful trip but it’s soooooo nice to be home! Dan and John kept the place pretty clean and Dan even made the bed for me so it would be all nice and welcoming when I got home :)

19 — Picked up Susan’s high-school friend Chris and drove to Iowa city to see their college and the places they’d lived and shopped etc :) Superfun. We saw the house where Sally, Susan, Chris, and three other girls lived in the attic, saw Black’s Gaslight Village next door where Susan met Dave Sanborn and where my Dad used to listen to Miles Davis records with Dave :) Saw the Hamburg Inn #2 where they used to eat (when they had enough money for something besides bread and honey), and where my dad saw my mom for the first time. Saw the Iowa Bookstore and bought Iowa merchandise — a clingy little t-shirt and some little bitty shorts for me, heheh, and a nice blue boyish Iowa t-shirt for Henry. Walked around on the campus, in the Union, and over the river. It was tremendously fun!! In the afternoon, back in Davenport, we walked through the high school where EVERYONE went (including my grandparents) but it had been remodeled so everyone was disgusted at all the changes :) Then took a ride along the Mississippi and ate dinner in a too-fancy restaurant in Le Claire, also drove on the Government Bridge out to The Arsenal and back. Our last night in Iowa.

18 — Whew long day. Susan and i are tired and are back in the hotel, but Sal’s still out having fun in Davenport :) This morning we went to Starbucks to meet Sal’s old friend Margie Flanders, then went back to the Lustron on Broadlawn so Susan could look at/in it. Then off to the house on Grand and the dear sweet family who lives there let us come in AGAIN and look around, and were so amazingly warn and kind and welcoming, as if it were normal for three crazy women to want to come look around in their house. Then we drove around Davenport looking at all the places we looked at yesterday again, then grabbed some lunch at the healthfood store and went to Lindsay Park to eat. Oh and after that we had fabulous ice cream at a place right across the street from the park. Um and then… we went to the Masonic Temple so Susan could rehearse for the reunion concert tonight while Mom and I drove out into the Iowa countryside. Too lovely! Then back to the hotel for a rest, and then back to the Masonic temple for the concert. Then back here for dinner and bed. I need to flesh this entry out bwith some details but I’m too tired… maybe tomorrow.

17 — Mom and I drove all over Davenport looking at all the places she remembers… houses she lived in, houses of school friends and relatives, schools, stores, parks, etc. Also went to memorial service for MOm’s old friend but I waited in the car, heh. Then drove around some more! So much fun! Davenport Iowa is a beautiful little town, it really is. Picked up Susan at the airport in the afternoon and had a riot together. I’ll add more details later, too tired now.

16 — Mom and I flew to Iowa today. We dropped Henry off at his dad’s house, and then left my car at a parking garage near the airport, then got to our terminal an hour and a half early, and then when we got on our plane they said it was windy in Chicago so we had to wait on the ground, in the plane, for another hour and a half, heheh. But then we finally got to Chicago and raced to the other gate but then that plane was late too, so we didn’t miss it. But it was really stressful. We finally got to Moline and got our rental car and got to our hotel about 11:30, and had a little rest, and then went across the street to the Denny’s and had pancakes for dinner in the middle of the night. This is a super-nice hotel (The Best Western). We have free high-speed wireless interweb! WOOHOO!!! Oh, in case you’re wondering why we went to Iowa, there’s some kind of 100-year high-school reunion thing and also one of mom’s school-friends died, so she wants to hang out with that family and also Susan will be here because of the reunion, but i’m not sure anyone actually wants to go to the reunion… So we’re all going to hang out in Davenport for the weekend. They invited me along for the ride and to see where they grew up. So far we’ve only seen Moline, Illinois, but tomorrow we’ll go to Davenport!

13 — Henry helped me with the housework today — he did a lot of running up and down the stairs to put things away for me. It was extremely helpful. It’s exhausting for me to go up and down these stairs all day. I discovered that a Pine-Sol solution on a scrubby sponge (and a lot of elbow grease) is very good for cleaning the shower, and even got off most of the soap scum. I did our downstairs bathroom today and will do the two upstairs ones later this week, probably. This ends the exciting housework update for the day :) John and I watched David Suchet as Poirot in “Evil Under the Sun” tonight. Suchet is the BEST Poirot, down to his egg-shaped head and ridiculous moustache. He’s perfect. I got a chance to play a little WoW this afternoon, and polished off a couple of quests. I think I need to go to someplace called Thousand Needles pretty soon. Sounds pretty but it’s probably grim. Oh, I hit lvl 33 today :)

10 — Yesterday Henry and I watched most of a 1996 movie version of “Twelfth Night” and tonight we finished it. We both really enjoyed it! Ben Kingsley played Feste _extremely_ well, and the rest of the cast was good too. There were so many familiar faces! Olivia (Helena Bonham Carter) was Lucy Honeychurch, of course. Viola was Lucy Steele in “Sense and Sensibility” (quite a contrast, heh) Maria was terribly familiar — I’m sure she was in one Austen adaptation or another but I can’t quite place her, and I also can’t quite place Antonio, Malvolio, and Sir Andrew. Time for imdb.com! Ah yes, Malvolio (Nigel Hawthorne) was King George III!!! No wonder I kept seeing him as a king in my imagination :)

Since we have more move channels and a bigger hard drive in the TiVo now, I asked it to get a lot of movies this week. (That’s why we were lucky enough to get Twelfth Night.) I’ve got Bells are Ringing on now — I’ve seen it so often that I don’t feel bad about fast-forwarding most of Dean Martin’s scenes and other tiresome bits, and skipping to Judy Holliday’s wonderful singing! I started “In The Good Old Summertime” earlier but I couldn’t stomach it. It’s a remake of my all-time favorite movie, “The Shop Around the Corner” so I thought I’d give it a chance, but it was too obnoxious. None of the charm and subtlety of the original, and Van Johnson seemed to be trying to do a James Stewart impression. Bleargh. Henry’s staying with us this weekend, and since “The Ladykillers” is also in the TiVo I think we’ll try that tomorrow. He saw Alec Guiness’s name in the blurb and got all excited. We’ve also got “Easter Parade”, which we both really enjoy. Movie weekend, yay! Mom’s got that 1990s version of “Midsummer NIght’s Dream” around here somewhere (Stanley Tucci as Puck) so we’ll watch that again if it turns up. Henry and I were talking about Shakespeare and he requested the Midsummer night’s Dream with the bald Puck :) Oh I know why it came up — Feste spoke directly to the camera at the end of Twelfth night, and Henry pointed out that it was what Puck did, too! Smart monkey. It’s been at least a year since we watched Midsummer Night’s Dream together!

08 — Today Henry and I spent a couple of hours putting unpacking his stuff, cleaning up his room, and putting his toys away. His room is very very nice now! We also finished up a very good audiobook — “Ginger Pye” — which we’d been working on for a few days. Very good ending! So then we started a new one; I think it’s called “the Good Dog” by Avi, which is also very good so far!

This evening John, Dan, and I worked together to bring satellite tv and tivo to mom’s new room… A couple of hours later and she still doesn’t have tivo. At some point during the 6 weeks when her tivo was unconnected, her account was deactivated. We’re not sure if the good people at tivo shut off her service because she wasn’t using it (?!?) or because that credit card was cancelled… I suspect the latter. Anyway we should be able to finish the process tomorrow if I call the tivo ppl and get her account reactivated.

07 — Tuesday… Henry and I did the grocery shopping and errands — Stater Brothers did NOT have my new favorite ice cream (B&J’s Dublin Mudslide) this week, darn it — and then he played some Zelda while I played some WoW. Finished up some quests in the Charred Vale that kicked my butt at lvl 29, but were much more possible at lvl 32. I’ll be lvl 33 before you know it hehehe. We picked up Dan at the airport tonight, so now he’s home yay!!! I actually enjoy driving to the airport if there’s no traffic. It’s a pleasant drive and only takes about 40 minutes on a good night. We got Greek food (for us and John) and Chinese food (for Henry) on the way home, so that was a nice treat. Mmm dolmades. “You don’t eat no MEAT??? That’s ok, I make you lamb.”

06 — Typing in the dark, here, so I may not notice and fix all the typos. Nice day, long day. It was a little bit warmer, for part of the day, but then the wind kicked up in the afternoon and it got chilly again. But it was almost summer for a few hours! henry and I drove Dan to the airport this morning (business trip) and then came home and did the MOnday housework. henry did the vacumming for me, and I did the decluttering, mopping, dusting, emptying-of-wastebaskets, etc. And we got the whole place loooking nice! Then he settled down to play Ocarina of Time and I did some more chores and then had time for a bit of World of Warcraft before teaching. Henry played his guitar and bass while I was working. He figured out the Main Riff of “Smoke on the Water”. I picked up my pills at the pharmacy and took henry to the fabric store to choose white fabric for some new stretchy pants for his Link costume. Created the pants after dinner and henry was SO extremely happy! I miss Dan an awful lot but he’ll be home tomorrow night so I might survive :)

05 — Unpacked another box of books and found several to give away, yay! More later, if i think of something to say. …… Well I feel crampy, tired, and moody today so maybe not.

04 — Woke up at 6am. Ugh. John reinstalled Henry’s operating system so his computer is all nice and minty-fresh now. Um what else… it rained a little this morning. Oh, and all three of us drove over to the carwash so we all three have nice clean cars. And we played Settlers of Catan this evening!