Tuesday was Henry’s school performance of The Wiz! Henry played the Tinman, and he was just wonderful, singing and dancing and acting and everything! I was so proud! The whole cast did just great. Henry’s good friends played all the lead roles, and you could tell they were all having a lot of fun together. Tawni was the Wiz, Natalia was Dorothy (she was terribly ill with a fever and sore throat, poor thing), Sam was the Lion and Sierra was the Scarecrow. I forgot to take my camera, but I hope to get some photos from *someone* eventually… until then, here’s a photo of Henry in costume. We decorated the shoes and pants with chrome duct tape, the hat was a dollar at Target right before New Year’s Eve, and he has a glittery shirt on under the jacket. For the performance he skipped the hat but had really great make-up — silver face paint and dark lips and a drawn-on jaw hinge.
Here’s a photo of one of my bookshelves, as requested by Hugh:
It’s an Ikea “Ivar”, and it leans a little to the left — my fault. It leaned to the right until I “fixed” it, and then I was tired of trying to get it straight. That’s our wireless router thingy tied to the side and a tub of small balls of sock yarn on top. I’ve got another bookshelf near the piano, and when I get another Ivar (soon, I hope) the rest of my books can finally come in from the garage.
When Mother Lets Us Cook, by Constance Johnson. First published in 1916. Read for you by Kara Shallenberg.
A book of simple receipts for little folk with important cooking rules in rhyme together with handy lists of the materials and utensils needed for the preparation of each dish.
Yesterday was Inauguration Day, hooray! We were up in time to watch streaming coverage of the ceremony on cnn.com. What can I say that hasn’t already been said a million times? I had my hankie handy and I needed it. For the first time in a frighteningly long time we have a president who seems intelligent, capable, and dignified. The ceremony was quite moving, and I thought that Mr. Obama’s speech was beautiful — well-written, clear, non-embellished, powerful, serious yet hopeful. If you haven’t yet, I suggest you go read it: Here’s the transcript on cnn.com.
Some of my favorite bits:
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
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For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth. For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.
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For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers.
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…we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
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And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
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Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.
And by the way, the first family is so lovely! There are a few slideshows of Mr. and Mrs. Obama and the girls on huffingtonpost.com. I stole this photo from them:
Good luck and best wishes to you and your family, President Obama!
As Hodg-man says, I wish I could post this every day forever:
If that doesn’t choke you up, you’re made of stone. How wonderful that after all his work for civil rights, Pete was able to lead this song at Obama’s inauguration concert. Thank you, Pete!
Jaylah is such a sweet baby! She smiles and drools and babbles and loves to stare at our faces and gum on our fingers. She barely ever fusses, and if she does it’s usually just to let us know it’s time for food!
My sister-in-law, Tabatha, and her 6-month-old, Jaylah, are visiting from NY for a week! We’re having crazy hot sunny weather, which is a big treat for them.
Happy new year! I’m a bit sick, came down with something on Monday, but it’s not too bad. Had a little sore throat for a day and now I’m just stuffy and tired. I’m sure I’ll be feeling fine again soon. Anyway, I have to catch up here a little bit so here is some random info.
Last Saturday I took down the tree and then we went to Bob and Chloe’s house to watch the Chargers play. Very exciting game — it was tied at the end of the 4th quarter so they went into overtime and the Chargers won, so now they go to the playoffs! Looking forward to watching the next Chargers game with them on Sunday afternoon. I’ve never cared a fig about football, but it’s so much fun to watch with C&B, and they explain what’s going on.
This year, Henry’s set of little Homestarrunner figures joined the holy family at the manger:
I packed them with the Christmas stuff so they can attend next year.
Back in December, Knitpicks ran a yarn giveaway contest, and I won!! My prize yarn arrived yesterday — twelve skeins of beautifully soft Knitpicks Merino Style so I can knit a Surface cardigan. It’s lovely yarn without a hint of itchiness. It’ll make a great cardigan and would also be perfect for anything you’d wear next to the skin. I swatched it last night, with annoyingly predictable results (I’m a loose knitter). I’m supposed to get 23sts/4 inches on #5 needles. I get 21sts/4 inches on #3s. Sigh. Ok, I can do the math. I don’t want to, and I wish, as usual, that I could just GET GAUGE, but oh well. Also I am tempted to rewrite the pattern and work fronts and back all together at the same time.
Here’s a photo of my lovely yarn:
Upcoming knitting plans: I’m going to knit Jared Flood’s spectacular Girasole Blanket for Mom’s Christmas present using Knitpicks’ Wool of the Andes, but the color she wants was out of stock and should be in tomorrow (knock on wood) so that’s exciting! I already bought and printed out the pattern and it looks well-planned and fun. Also Dan just requested a pair of gloves with no fingertips, and I need a larger laptop bag for my new Macbook Pro, and everyone always needs socks. So that’s a lot of knitting coming up!
