kayray.org

April 2006

30 — We went to the Wild Animal Park for a little while today! It was really crowded… I’m spoiled because Henry and I usually go on weekdays. Dan dropped me off at the gate so I wouldn’t have to hike up the parking-lot hill. We strolled around, looked at the gorillas, and watched the new bird show, which we all really like! We miss Lolita and Bruce Nadell and Clarence and Maxwell, but the new birds are wonderful too. Then we got in line for the tram but it was tooooo crowded and the line moved too slowly so we came home for some nice quiet time. Bob and Chloe came over in the evening and we ate pizza and talked, etc. Very fun.

29 — Busy stressful day.

28 — Library in the morning YAY! Got a huge stack of books and picked up a flyer for a new park that just opened in Carlsbad, so we headed over to check it out. Sweet little park and very close to home, with a great big play structure and lots of winding paths. We’ll go back with Henry’s bike soon! In the afternoon we went to Nathan and Laura’s park day at Poinsettia Park, another park we’d never been to before. We took Henry’s bike and were happy to find that there was a big loop to bike on, with some fun bumpy hills at the top. Henry has been enjoying his bike very much lately, wants to ride every day. And we live in an impossible neighborhood for biking so it’s good that we’re discovering some good bicycling parks.

25 — Alarm went off at 9, karate at 9:20 — so I hd ten minutes to wake up, wake Henry up, get us both dressed, put toast in Henry and coffee in me. And we made it to the dojo on time :) Tired tired tired. And you’re tired of hearing me say how tired I am. Then it was back home to check email, then out to Bayshore for Musical Theater. It’s going to be an adorable play! I helped Henry learn his Grandpa Joe lines yesterday, so he was all prepared. Tonight after dinner, while Dan was playing Oblivion on his laptop on the couch and Henry was lying around, I put on chapters 2 and 3 of Dracula for proof-listening. Laura read ch. 2 and Gord read ch. 3 and both sounded so good! Very impressive. Henry wanted to hear more but by then it was past bedtime, so I told him we’ll listen to some more tomorrow.

24 — Yawn. Never get enough sleep, never never. Uh… typical Monday except I was too tired to do the usual housework so the house is looking pretty gross. Maybe tomorrow. Henry and I watched “1776” which we both liked a lot! And I taught three piano students and took H to karate and all the normal stuff. Boosted the volume of a bunch of Black Beauty files which are too soft. Just waiting for the last four to be recorded and then I can get started on the next phase of the cataloging process, so we should have that one done eventually.

23 — Woke up before dawn, so I was pretty tired all day. I lay down for a bit of a nap at 4:30 and slept on and off til 6. I’ve been craving loveline lately. I’ve tried listening to Adam’s new show but it’s just not so good. Adam is still funny but his co-hosts, or co-radio-personalities or whatever they are, are just obnoxious. Since our friend Eric got fed up with no-Adam loveline and stopped providing us with hot fresh podcasted episodes every morning I haven’t heard a single show. I went looking for other downloads today and found an awesome page with not only new episodes in podcast form, but a huge archive of older shows. I’m allowing myself a few old shows at a time, kind of rationing them, heh. And now at least I’ve got new Dr. Drew to listen to.

18 — Henry and I went to the Wild Animal Park this morning and stayed til 2:30. It was kind of crowded, but of course the Animal Park never really FEELS crowded. Lots of open space. We wandered around, walked through the temporary butterfly aviary (it’s only there for three weeks or so ever year), looked at the orchid display, saw the new Bird Show (it’s quite different from the old show, but very good!), and walked on the hiking trail for a while. We had a wonderful time together!

Dan and I have really been enjoying “House” — a TV doctor show starring Bertie Wooster, I mean Hugh Laurie. The plot is pretty much the same every week. Someone shows up at the hospital with bizarre symptoms. He will die in less than 24 hours, no on can figure out what’s wrong, there’s some bickering among the staff, House limps around whacking things with his cane, making snide remarks, and figures out the diagnosis at the last minute. But it’s very very entertaining, and often poses ethical and moral questions with no clear answers, and it’s fun to try to guess the diagnosis, or at least guess which clues the writers drop actually mean something.

17 — Tired, tired, tired. I wonder if my thyroid hormone levels are off again. Or maybe it’s just because I did a million things today. We bought water at the water store, then went to Stater Brothers for Household Necessities — TP, paper towels, razor refils, kitty litter, etc. etc. Swiffer pads now come with a new and improved Scrubbing Strip(tm). What will they think of next. I wonder if they considered adding the Scrubbing Strip(tm) to the original product, but then decided to hold off until later when sales needed a boost. What delights are in store for Swiffer users in the coming years? It’s not like I care either way; it’s not like my buying decision was swayed by the awesome power of the Scrubbing Strip(tm). I didn’t even notice until I was cleaning up the orange cheese stain left by Sal’s macaroni and cheese wrapper, which usually ends up on the floor for some reason. After the errands were done I washed and hung out two loads of laundry, watched Henry swim, let the turtle play in the wading pool which we found on the curb down the street (Henry dragged it home), cleaned up, cooked meals, taught three piano students, helped Dan and Henry move Sal’s bedroom furniture, cooked more meals, cleaned up more messes. Gah, no wonder I’m tired.

16 — Tired, oh so tired. Yesterday I had stress in me so I didn’t sleep that well last night. One of the librivox forum members has always been a giant PITA, and yesterday he reached the Limit of my Tolerance so I’ve decided not to read his posts anymore and let the other mods can handle him. Luckily 99.9% of our members are awesome! We’ve invited three of the regulars to be mods and they’re doing a fantastic job.

15 — I think I’ll make Mom a knitted, felted purse to replace the one that was stolen. I just got Stich ‘n’ Bitch Nation from the library, and the Candy Stripers purse is pretty cute! I asked Mom is she’d like it and she said yes, in a solid color. So I went to the yarn store this morning and bought 4 skeins of lamb’s pride bulky in a beautiful purple. I knit a square swatch and felted it and it turned out really cool, so I think Mom’s purse will be really awesome. I found some photos online at craftster.org in the “stitch’n’bitch” section of the same purse. So I’m confident it’ll turn out nicely. This afternoon I cut apart a pair of Sally’s old velour pants and made Henry a pair of nice stretchy shorts with pockets. Henry and I played World of Warcraft for a while after dinner, and completed four quests!

14 — And today it’s raining raining raining. But I like it. All too soon it’ll be hot and dry for months on end. There is a seriously funky smell in the living room. Sort of a cat-food smell, but of course there’s no cat food down down here… what can it be? Sorry I’ve been kind of lame about blogging lately, have just been really busy with librivox… Did I mention that I recorded Caedmon’s Hymn? That was super-fun!

13 — Absolutely beautiful spring day! I washed the sheets and hung them to dry in the sun. The sky is clear, the birds are singing, the breezes are cool. Recorded chapter 11 of Heidi, and chapter 2 part 6 of the History of England. Mom’s car was broken into while she was hiking. Ugh. We tried to cheer her up tonight with pizza, ice cream, and Survivor. Yay Survivor! But I’m bummed that they voted Austin off. I kinda liked him. Shane is clearly insane. I hope Terry or Sally or Cerie wins the million.

09 — *yawn* lying in bed, just finished reading “Everything Bad is Good For You” by Steven Johnson. Fantastic book, highly recomended. The author suggests (and conclusively proves, in my humble opinion) that popular culture, overall, is NOT getting dumber and dumber over time, as is the common myth, but is actually, in general, growing more and more complex, challenging, and mentally stimulating. In one section, he compares the plot outlines of an episode of Dragnet (one plotline, beginning to end), Starsky and Hutch (one main plotline with a secondary comic plotline thrown in at the begining and end), Hill Street BLues (several plotlines), and The Sopranos (many plotlines, overlapping in intricate ways). I’m simplifying, of course. I got the book from the library but I think I’ll actually go BUY a copy to keep! It’s that interesting. I’d like to re-read it and lend it out.

07 — Happy Birthday Kirsten!

Henry decided that soccer is just Not His Thing, so we didn’t have to go anywhere today, yay! So we went to the library and got a HUGE stack of books. Henry found one full of little crafty project ideas all relating to KNIGHTS so he got all excited about making a sword. We cut a couple of swords out of cardboard, but when Dan got home he suggested making some wooden swords, so he and Henry worked on that for the rest of the evening. They got Henry’s sword finished and are working on one for Fargo, who, we’re hoping, will come visit next week.

05 — Still raining, on and off. Margaret held her parkday indoors, and Henry had a fine time playing games with the girls, and I had a fine time knitting.

04 — After Henry’s rehearsal we went to the Wild Animal Park and had a great time. We had some lunch and then rode the tram, then walked around a bit. They have a new little water play area, and Henry played and played until he was soaking wet. It was windy and he started to freeze, so we headed home. I love the Wild Animal Park. I hope we can go again soon! On days when we’re at Bayshore anyway it’s only a half-hour drive east. On the way home it started to just pour rain! It rained and rained and rained all the rest of the day, and I think we even had a bit of lightning at night!

02 — I hate the time change. I hate it.

I’ve been longing for a new knitting project, so I’ve been searching through knitty.com for ideas. It’s still very cold so I’m tempted to make something thck and warm, except that it’s sure to warm up any day now. Last night I realized that If I unraveled the scarf I made out of the leftovers from my BPT sweater, I’d have the perfect yarn to make knitty’s coronet hat. And I need a hat anyway. So that’ll be a small quick project that I don’t even need any supplies for. I ripped out the scarf last night while we were watching Antiques Roadshow and prepared the yarn for re-knitting. But I also want a more intricate and interesting project, so I finally settled on the I Do lace shrug. It’ll be nice to wear when I’m reading in bed and the chilly air freezes my shoulders, and it’ll be good even in summer over tank-tops and little dresses! I went to Common Threads today to choose some yarn. They have a truly hideous website but a wonderful store packed with luscious natural-fiber yarns. I was there for about an hour and a half, considering this yarn and that… finally settled on a 89% cotton/20% merino wool called Cotton Fleece in a pale green called “peridot” (probably color 44 on that page). I knit a swatch in the store, to see if I’d need different-sized needles, but it worked up to nearly the same gauge as the pattern yarn, close enough anyway. I charted out the lace pattern tonight, cast on a sleeve and knit the first 3 rows.

01 – Henry is staying with us this weekend, YAY! He and Dan did lots of woodworking together, and went to the hardware store for supplies so I had enough quiet time to record my last section of Fanny Hill. Sal’s out of town so the upstairs is quiet and lonely for Henry, so we worked out a good compromise. He has his bedtime as usual, and spends an hour or two in his own room, reading or listening to audiobooks, and then when Dan and I are ready for bed, Henry moves down to our part of the house to a little cozy bed on the couch. So Dan and I have some nice quiet time to ourselves, but Henry gets to sleep down where he feels safe and happy :)