kayray.org

I’ve always had trouble sleeping. When I was younger, I’d have trouble falling asleep and would just lie there for hours, waiting. When I got older, I could fall asleep pretty well but couldn’t stay asleep, or get back to sleep if something woke me in the night. A night of good solid sleep is a rare and wonderful thing for me. Last summer, on Dan’s recommendation, I asked my doctor if I could try lunesta. It works well for Dan, and doesn’t make him goofy or groggy. It worked well for me for a long time, but then seemed to lose effectiveness. I switched from 1mg to 2mg, but that didn’t really help a whole lot. Finally, last week, I realized that I was actually sleeping WORSE than before I started taking lunesta — waking up anxious in the middle of almost every night and being unable to fall back asleep, waking very early, waking up with headaches, never feeling rested, etc. So I thought, heck, enough of this, let’s try skipping the lunesta for a few nights and see what happens. And, presto, that first night (a week ago yesterday) I slept well for the first time in I don’t know how long. One night of good sleep could be a coincidence, but I’ve not taken lunesta for over a week now and my sleep is still relatively good. Oddly enough, it seems better than before I started taking lunesta, and better than while I was ON lunesta. Did the lunesta somehow train me to sleep better? I wake up a few times in the middle of every night but am able to fall right back asleep, which is a miracle. Very strange. I hope I haven’t jinxed anything by blogging about it.

Field trip to Science museum

Bayshore day:
Art
Science
English

Karate

Math review (addition with carrying, subtraction with borrowing)
multiplication drills (3x)
drawing
dancing
piano practice
karate

Karate
Musical Theater – Audition for Sound of Music
Mythology
Guitar/Bass/Drums
Math (5x drills)
computer programming lesson!

Finally I have a minute to sit down and write something because my 4pm piano student canceled. It’s been a busy week so far. Yesterday morning I vacuumed and mopped in the morning, and then it was time for Henry’s Science club, then piano students, then karate, then Henry wanted help with his essay. He’s writing his very first essay, about dragons.

Today was karate, then many errands (library, music store, mail, pharmacy, bagels), then home for a shower, then off to Bayshore for Mythology and Musical Theater. (Auditions for Sound of Music!) It rained all morning, so nice. And now it’s nearly four and I’m resting for a bit, and then I guess I’d better go catch up on the housework and plan dinner. Oh, I finished Henry’s first blue sock today. Had to rip it out and start over yesterday as it was to small.

Science Club – da Vinci, Pringles Challenge
Handwriting
Math
Karate
Worked on Dragon essay

Worked on Dragon essay
da Vinci

Tonight Bob and Chloe came over. I put a new zipper in Chloe’s sweater, and Bob and Dan went to Guitar Center, and Bob, Henry, and Dan played music together, and we ate candy, and a splendid time was had by all.

Worked on Dragon essay
music (drums, bass)

Bayshore Day: Art, Science, English
Karate

I decided to quit complaining about never getting enough sleep.

So, moving right along:
LibriVox volunteer and all-around awesome person Kristin Hughes discovered, a few weeks ago, that the 1923 copyright on Dorothy L. Sayers’s classic murder mystery, Whose Body?, had never been renewed — thus it was fair game (in the U.S) to be read aloud and made into a free, public domain LibriVox audio book. She graciously shared the honor of recording it with me, for which generosity I will forever be grateful. I’m not certain I would have been able to share so nicely if I were in her place :) She took the even chapters, and I took the odd.

We zipped through it in record time, with several proof-listeners helping out. Kristin cataloged the finished audio book today:
http://librivox.org/whose-body-by-dorothy-l-sayers/

This is a cracking good story! I adored recording it. I’d read it years ago but couldn’t remember the plot at all, so it was a real delight to watch the story unfolding. This is the only Sayers novel that is currently in the public domain. Her others will not rise into the public domain for decades, and then only if the horrid, restrictive, pointless new copyright laws don’t get extended again — a fact which makes me literally angry with rage. (Thanks, Disney and Sony Bono and idiot government officials!) I want to record more Lord Peter Wimsey for the world to enjoy! Grr.

Promoting Science and Useful Arts: The Growth of Copyright Since 1976

As Lessig argues, copyright is robbing culture of its lifeblood—collaboration. Truly vibrant culture requires the freedom to build on, modify, and borrow from others’ work. Copyright makes this process difficult, if not impossible. The creator must apply for permission to use each recognizable source of inspiration, and must change his or her work if denied. Copyright expansion is pushing us toward a sterile, lifeless “culture” where everyone pretends to work in isolation, afraid that others will hurl accusations of theft and sue for damages.

Imagine if copyrights were limited to, say, 50 years after publication. We could record Catcher in the Rye. We could record Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, and 1984, as well as countless other less-famous works which are languishing, out of print and all but forgotten, off-limits far into the future.

Math
Karate
Silver on the Tree
reading

Karate
Mythology
Musical Theater

I slept horribly last night and I’m tired and headachey today. BAH. And I felt so good yesterday. It’s very frustrating. Henry’s best friend, Fargo, has come for a visit and the boys are playing nicely, as usual. I took them to Henry’s Mythology and Musical Theater classes and was too tired to drive all the way home and back, so I sat in the car knitting and listening to Loveline for a couple of hours. I’ve started a blue sock for Henry and a Tubey for me! Photos soon (hahaha do you believe me???)

Dinner will be simple tonight. I’ve got an extra burger that I cooked last night, for Dan, and I’ll make that rice medley again (I think both boys will eat it) and steam some broccoli and throw together a salad. I was going to make those awesome burrito things that I learned from Hugh but that takes too much energy, so maybe tomorrow :)

Piano student soon.

On Sunday Dan and I played some Wii tennis, golf, and bowling. Tennis used to be my favorite, but bowling is really fun too. That was the first time we really played golf and I haven’t figured out how to swing the club just a little bit, so putting was kind of frustrating. I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

Did a lot of stuff today — much housework, many errands, a recording (chapter 19 of Letters of Two Brides), plus made a nice dinner and homemade cinnamon rolls. Yum! And then we bowled some more after dinner. My muscles are sooooo sore.

Silver on the Tree
Math
Karate

There was a big yarn sale at Yarning For You this weekend. I got there just after they opened this morning and it was a zoo! There was a special room in which everything was 50% off, so I picked out enough Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran for a long-sleeved sweater for me (rusty-orange-brown, cream, and brown), and 4 balls of baby wool in red and orange for, y’know, socks or mittens or whatever. When I got home I googled the Debbie Bliss yarn and found that a lot of people say it pills badly, and I had a kind of a meltdown but Dan made me feel better, and then I thought about it some more and decided that since it’s sooooooo soft, I don’t care so much if it pills. I’ll handwash it carefully and shave it if necessary. So then I went looking for inspiration and found Tubey, which actually calls for this very yarn. I found a million photos of finished Tubeys online and *most* of the time it works up really cute. And I think I see where some people went wrong — shrug part too long down the back, and too many stitches around the body. I’m going to fit the shrug part ever so carefully, knit a couple of inches of sleeves, then a couple of inches of body and make sure everything is fitting properly before I go on.

And I recorded several chapters today! I did a couple of the horrid Letters of Two Brides (I hate Louise and hope she comes to a bad end, asap), and my chapter of Heidi in German, and a chapter of my children’s history book. Woohoo!

I do probably 99% of the grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s — no fooling, really, they have just about everything we ever need, and if they don’t have it, we probably don’t need it ;-) I go to Stater Brothers for things like hand sanitizer, TP, and Swiffer thingies. But almost all the food comes from Trader Joe’s, as well as soap, cat food, laundry detergent…

Tonight’s dinner was all courtesy of Trader Joe’s. I cooked their Brown Rice Medley (brown rice, black barley, and daikon radish seeds — terrific chewy texture and great flavor) in chicken broth and served it with their roasted red pepper and artichoke tappanade, as suggested by the store’s Sample Lady. I also sauted up a bag of Chard of Many Colors, which is a mixture of chard and kale of all varieties, washed and chopped bite-size, in olive oil with a little garlic and chicken broth. YUM. So delicious, and a very nutritious dinner as well, with all the dark-green leafy veggies and whole grains. How virtuous I feel. Better have some Valentine’s candy now.

Bayshore Day: Art, Science, English
Karate