Jeeze, when’s the last time I wrote a real post? Well, anyway, I hope you’re enjoying the podcasts. Here are a bunch of things I’ve knitted recently. For more details, click the “Ravelry” button above each photo.
Slippers for Dan (he wears them constantly!)
Heavily modified “Girl Friday” cardi for me (top-down, no seams, elbow sleeves)
Self-stripe socks for Mom’s friend
Striped socks for Dan, in progress
Next time I’ll tell you about the new flower bed that Dan dug for me, and the veggies growing in my backyard garden bed.
Please note: I made these recordings around 2002, and the sound quality is not as good as my more recent recordings. But I hope you will not mind the lower quality too much. You’ll probably be too busy laughing to notice, anyway.
This book is, sadly, out of print in the US. You can find a few used copies on Amazon: Absolute Zero on Amazon. Beware. Every edition after the original 1978 printing has the wrong cover art.
Please note: I made these recordings around 2002, and the sound quality is not as good as my more recent recordings. But I hope you will not mind the lower quality too much. You’ll probably be too busy laughing to notice, anyway.
This book is, sadly, out of print in the US. You can find a few used copies on Amazon: Absolute Zero on Amazon. Beware. Every edition after the original 1978 printing has the wrong cover art.
Please note: I made these recordings around 2002, and the sound quality is not as good as my more recent recordings. But I hope you will not mind the lower quality too much. You’ll probably be too busy laughing to notice, anyway.
This book is, sadly, out of print in the US. You can find a few used copies on Amazon: Absolute Zero on Amazon. Beware. Every edition after the original 1978 printing has the wrong cover art.
Please note: I made these recordings around 2002, and the sound quality is not as good as my more recent recordings. But I hope you will not mind the lower quality too much. You’ll probably be too busy laughing to notice, anyway.
This book is, sadly, out of print in the US. You can find a few used copies on Amazon: Absolute Zero on Amazon. Beware. Every edition after the original 1978 printing has the wrong cover art.
It’s time for a new book in the “Kayray Reads to You” Podcast! Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, is the second book in the wonderful Bagthorpe Saga. Well, I should qualify that — the first four books in the series are wonderful. After that… well, let’s just say I recommend you stick to the first four ;-)
Please note: I made these recordings around 2002, and the sound quality is not as good as my more recent recordings. But I hope you will not mind the lower quality too much. You’ll probably be too busy laughing to notice, anyway.
Absolute Zero takes place in 1970s England and concerns the eccentric and multi-talented Bagthorpe family. In this book, Uncle Parker wins a contest and sets off a hilarious and chaotic chain of events in which the family’s pudding-footed mongrel dog, Zero, plays an increasingly large role. The humor is dry and very British, so it might not suit all listeners; however, I thought this series was the funniest thing I’d ever read when I discovered them at about age 10, and my son enjoyed the stories at age 6 or so, though he has been said to have “an advanced sense of humor”. This book still makes me laugh aloud every time I read it!
While searching for the right cover art (not easy), I bumped into a good review. Here’s an excerpt, and you might like to read the whole thing.
One of the things I like best about the Bagthorpe books is that the family is neither full of happy supportiveness nor full of abuse and negativity. The kids snipe at each other occasionally, mostly ignore each other, and rally around each other against any attack from the outside. The father screams a lot and is relentlessly sarcastic; the mother is practical but occasionally ineffective and distracted. Cresswell finds humor by exaggerating normal human behavior patterns until they break and throwing on beautifully timed coincidences, avoiding both the sickly-sweet feeling of some children’s books and the over-the-top nastiness of others. It’s very nicely done.
The book is, sadly, out of print in the US. You can find a few used copies on Amazon: Absolute Zero on Amazon. Beware. Every edition after the original 1978 printing has the wrong cover art.
On Wednesday we all (Susan, Sally, Henry, and me) went to Tango del Rey for the Rockola show and had the best time! Besides listening and singing along in the audience, we got to perform a little bit! I got to do the “Me and Julio” whistling solo, Henry and I did handclaps on “Stuck in the Middle”, Henry played guitar for “Wish You Were Here” and… something else, I forget what. So much FUN!
On Thursday evening, Bob, Chloe, and Susan all came over to watch Survivor, which was a riot. Dan got a few nice photos; here’s my favorite, but there are a few more on my flickr:
Also I’m knitting a pair of socks for Mom’s friend. Mom chose Felici Sport self-striping sock yarn in the “Ecology” colorway. They’re turning out really nice:
(no login needed)
I’m knitting them both at once on one circ. That way they’ll turn out identical and I don’t have to count rows :)
Aunt Susan is here! Hooray! Chloe, Susan, Mom, and I went to breakfast on Sunday, and on Monday, Bob and Chloe and Susan came over for hours in the afternoon/evening. We all sat around and talked and ate and had such a nice time. I have the best family!
I still feel kind of rotten from that sore throat I had, tired and sniffly and run-down, and in the middle of the night I had a big coughing fit. Ugh.
On Monday my throat felt funny all day, and then at night it turned into a proper sore throat. But not a terrible one. And then by Tuesday afternoon it seemed a lot better but then Tuesday night it came back with a vengeance. And now today it is just tender, but I suppose it will come calling again tonight. And now Henry’s throat feels funny. But we have to get better soon because my dear wonderful Aunt Susan is coming to visit for a whole week on Saturday! Go away, sore throat, go away.
Yesterday was the long-anticipated White Dragon kung fu tournament, Henry’s third tournament since he joined the school. It’s held at this huge gymnasium at USD, and people from all seven branches of the school come to compete all day. We got there at 7:45am because Henry is part of the Lion Dance team, who perform the opening ceremony, so he had to be early to practice. Here’s a video of the lions practicing without costumes; Henry is the tall boy who is usually nearest the camera at the right side of the scene. The back-end of Henry’s lion is a really nice boy named Mister Clements (everyone at the school goes by Mister or Miss).
I tried to film the actual performance but I pressed a wrong button (haven’t used my new camera for video very much yet) and didn’t get it, but the team did very well and Henry and Mister Clements landed all their complicated stacks and everything!
Henry competed in three divisions (based on sash color and age/weight) — Technique, Form, and Continuous Sparring. He did very well in all three and won a Silver Medal for Form! We are so proud of him, so very proud. All three medalists in that division of Form were from Henry’s school. Go Clairemont!
It was a long long long day… Henry’s division of Continuous Sparring was one of the very last ones, so we didn’t leave till nearly 5pm. But I had my book (Busman’s Honeymoon) and my knitting and a big cooler of food, and Henry had his kung fu friends to hang out with, and it was very fun to watch all the other people competing, too.
