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Feb 12th is Darwin Day!

Darwin Day is an international celebration of science and humanity held on or around February 12, the day that Charles Darwin was born on in 1809. Specifically, it celebrates the discoveries and life of Charles Darwin — the man who first described biological evolution via natural selection with scientific rigor. More generally, Darwin Day expresses gratitude for the enormous benefits that scientific knowledge, acquired through human curiosity and ingenuity, has contributed to the advancement of humanity.

It’s also Abraham Lincoln’s birthday today. Happy birthday, Abe :)

It’s also a good day to donate to Barack Obama’s campaign. See this TPM post.

I propose that on February 12th (Lincoln’s Birthday) we have a money bomb extravaganza of small donations of $5.01 for Senator Obama. The reasons for this amount are easy to see:

1. Small donations are powering Obama’s campaign
2. Lincoln is on the $5 bill and the penny
3. .01 is also for us online progressives making a statement to the
campaign that we are here and we’ve got money. That we aren’t the huge
bundlers for campaigns. We sacrifice parts of paychecks that mean more
proportionally to those of us with smaller incomes. We buy into Barack
Obama because we do dream of a more hopeful future instead of cynicsm.
I would much rather be called a Hopemonger than a Warmonger. So if you
believe in the hope that small donors are powering the Obama campaign,
please join me in showing that when Americans united with Hope can
wield large influence with small donations!

We have donated today. If you support Barack Obama, will you contribute too?

Today is Sunday. On Friday I went to the dentist to get one cavity filled and two wisdom teeth extracted. I was able to keep all four wisdom teeth this long because they came in straight and never caused any problems, but they are really hard to keep clean and now the two left-side ones have decay, so they have to come out. Dan came with me to get his cleaning / exam / x-rays.

They gave me nitrous, which really didn’t seem to do very much. Nitrous was my choice, rather than full sedation. I really really hate being sedated, but I guess things would have gone better if I had been. She had said that I could switch to full sedation if I needed to, but then didn’t offer that during the procedure, I’m not sure why. She filled my cavity first, which was not a problem. But my lower left wisdom tooth WAS a problem. The roots were really really deep and also curved together, and it did not want to come out, so they had to cut it apart, or something. It was awful. It only hurt a little, but the banging and pressure and the feeling of my head being knocked around were horrible. I was in the chair for four hours, and they only got the one tooth out, so I have to have the other one out another time.

Dan took me home and the rest of the day was horrible. My face hurt so much. I had a prescription for percoset but the one I took made me really, really sick — super hot and sweaty, nausea, then chills, and a horrible feeling of panic. It didn’t seem to do much for the pain, either. Dan took such good care of me. He made me lots of cups of beef broth (which I drank room-temperature – no hot liquids allowed) and brought me ice cream, and sat with me on the couch all day. Chloe came over and read to me (Pride and Prejudice) and kept me company for a while. I had to keep changing the gauze dressing, but it hurt a ton even to open my mouth enough to grab the old one and push the new one in. In bed at night, I listened to Annie’s recording of Pride and Prejudice for a while, picking up where Chloe left off.

Yesterday, Saturday was a little bit better. I took some ibuprofin which helped the pain somewhat, though it still hurt all day, and I couldn’t open my mouth, and the left corner of my lips is all thrashed and sore. Dan cut tiny little squares of my homemade sour cream cake that I could poke into my mouth and suck on, and brought me broth and ice cream and yogurt. Henry stopped by to get his guitar and gave me leftover ramen soup from his favorite Japanese restaurant, where he’d just had lunch. I drank the broth (room-temperature) and managed to slurp down the noodles without chewing them much, heh. Dan and I played World of Warcraft and watched The Office all day. My Mage ran out of rest bonus, and I didn’t feel like playing the Druid (level 62 quests are too stressful), so I started up my old dwarf Priest, whom I hadn’t played in years. I re-spec’d her to Shadow and trained her in Mining/Engineering, and did Westfall quests.

Today everything still hurts, I still can’t open my mouth, the corner of my mouth is still sore and banged-up, my face is still swollen, and the entire left side of my mouth hurts every time I swallow. But it’s a lovely sunny warm day and I’ve got all the windows open, and I’ll just lie on the sofa and watch more Office and knit and play more WoW, I suppose. I’ll see if ibuprofin will help a little.

Still on the mend, and this is the second day in a row that I didn’t get a headache! Dropped Henry off at school in the morning, then headed home to mail a few things. It’s an hour and a half round trip to his school, but he loves it there so much and it’s only twice a week, so I don’t mind one little bit. Plus, on Tuesdays he’s only there for a couple of hours so I just wait for him and run errands up there, and on Thursdays his dad picks him up. So it’s not like its an hour and a half twice a day, every day or anything.

I just made a new pandora station, based on William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, and Thomas Morley. Isn’t it awesome that Pandora has a lot of their music??? YAY PANDORA! You can find links to my stations in my sidebar. And the neat thing is, if you’re listening to one of my stations and hear a song you don’t like, you can thumbs-down it, and pandora will clone my station to your account, and you can keep customizing it.

It was sunny and warmer today, so I opened up the windows and hung a big load of laundry outside. And it almost all got dry. I just had to toss a few things in the dryer for 5 minutes.

Also got my first issue of Interweave Knits, a gift subscription from hugh and christine! I like to take my time with IK, first skimming lightly through a few times, then later reading in more detail. My two favorites so far are the Auburn Camp Shirt and the Drawstring Chemise, which would make a darling little summer nightie if knit to tunic length! It could be knit in the round, too. The Good Stripe Dress is darling, too. It’s only designed in little girl sizes, but the largest size would nearly fit me so it’ll be easy to enlarge just a bit. Now I just have to figure out which knitpicks yarns will substitute for the given yarns :)

Feeling much, much better today! I still have The Cough, and probably will for some time, but I had enough energy to do the grocery shopping today and I didn’t get a headache in the afternoon, YAY!

Henry had his weekly private Kung Fu lesson this afternoon, and I got a few photos of him and his teacher, Miss Edwards. Here’s one:

He loves Kung Fu! He’s at a group class right now. His school lets him attend as many group classes as he wants, plus there’s a special group class just for his level once a week.

Henry baked a cheesecake today. We’re going to try it out when he gets home :)

edit: Henry’s cheesecake was delicious. The three of us ate half of it in one night, and he took the other half to share with his dad!

It’s election day here in California, and lots of other places too. Go vote! Things can get better! You can find your polling place here: http://www.smartvoter.org/

If there are electronic voting machines in your county, I suggest asking the poll workers for a paper ballot. They gave me one last time.

Still sick.

Still sick, little cough, headache, feeling rundown and gray. I planned to do the big weekly shopping at Trader Joe’s today but it was Too Much To Cope With, so I just ran around the corner to Henry’s Market and bought beef for Dan’s favorite soup for tonight, and a thing of broccoli and a thing of orange juice and a thing of kefir. That should last us a few more days.

I still have a little cold, but no sore throat yet, and I think I feel a little better today than I did yesterday. Yesterday I felt pretty crummy, but I kept rinsing my nose out with my neti pot (oh how I love my neti pot) and I really think it helped the sniffles and congestion. Today I had enough energy to make soup and my nose is not nearly so bothersome! It’s nice and rainy outside and we don’t have to go anywhere, so Dan and I played a ton of World of Warcraft today. Now I’m cataloging something for LibriVox and then I think I might work on my red sweater for a while.

I’ve been a bit under the weather for the last few days… nothing drastic, just more tired than usual, a bit stuffy/sneezy, tiny cough, dry throat. My eyes are burning a bit tonight. I think it will probably clear up soon though, if it’s the same thing Henry had last week.

Photogamer was lots of fun in January, and I’m delighted to hear that Bre will continue through February! Here’s a screenshot of thumbnails of all my January photos:

You can see them all in greater detail by visiting my Photogamer Jan 2008 set. Most of mine are not great art, but I am quite proud of a few of them. Leave a comment on your favorite!

The DNA socks are coming along and I’ve finally memorized the cable pattern, so I don’t have to take my chart everywhere I go. I turned both heels and have decided on a nice basic cable pattern for the back leg. Here’s what they looked like yesterday, before I started up the leg:

I really hate working from the toe, but I didn’t know how much yarn the cable pattern would eat up so I did them toe-up anyway. Bah. Never again. I plan to enter these in the fair this year, but I will have to figure out a way to block them so they look good. The standard sideways blocking won’t work at all, since all the interest is across the sock front. Maybe I can display them on a fake foot. Knitpicks’ Risata is a lovely yarn, by the way.

Dan and I watched the third episode of Celebrity Rehab this afternoon. Ok, wipe that scorn off your face, it’s really an excellent show, and not some kind of celebrity-massaging ego-trip reality show at all! It’s not the celebrities that are so interesting, they’re just your average disasters, but it’s the way addiction makes them behave, and how Dr. Drew and his team have to manage them that’s so fascinating. It would be just as good if the subjects were ordinary people, but maybe not so easy to sell to a network. Looking forward to episode four! (oh — this is NOT a show for kids, needless to say. However, I look forward to showing it to Henry when he’s 15 or so.)

Ugh, I just sneezed and I’m not sure where my handkerchief went. Henry found it, yay!

My new reversible apron! I love it. It wraps around and buttons at the back neck. I made the pattern myself. The big pocket is handy for clothespins or storing little things in while tidying up. One side is green gingham, and the other is a scrap of a really nice green print that I’m not sure the origin of. I think maybe I made a laptop bag for Kathy out of it… Thanks, Henry, for taking these pictures for me!

I can’t find my favorite green apron, so I made a new apron today. It’s too dark to take a photo but I’ll try to get one tomorrow. I made it reversible, and put a big pocket on one side for clothespins. I made the pattern myself and it turned out great! While I was sewing, I listened to a couple of episodes of a really great science podcast, The Missing Link, which I discovered at earideas.com:

The Missing Link: A Podcast on the History of Science, Medicine & Technology

Henry’s not feeling so good tonight. He woke up with a little cold and now his throat is hurting just a bit, poor boy. We let him play more World of Warcraft that usual today to cheer him up. Right now we’re watching The Muppet Show — first George Burns, then Mark Hamill (ewwww), then Debbie Harry, and now Marty Feldman. Marty Feldman is hilarious! The Muppet Show is a great way to make sure your kid knows some popular culture from years ago :)

Let’s compare and contrast games from two software companies, shall we? Both sell games for OS X, though GrubbyGames also offers their games for PC and Linux. Yes, LINUX! :)

Company A, http://freeverse.com/ offers a demo version of their 6-game suite, Big Bang Brain Games. The demo works for one hour; that’s one hour total for all six games. Yeah, um, right. That’s ten minutes to try each game, theoretically, if you move fast, but the clock keeps ticking down even while you’re in menu screens or waiting for slow-talking AIs to STFU. I like to play in a window, but when the game goes non-fullscreen the menu options are cut off at the bottom of the screen. The full suite costs $30, which isn’t too bad for six games but I only had time try two of the games, and one of them was lame. Both had pretty graphics but annoying music and AI characters. I had to turn down the volume completely. Sorry, freeverse, two thumbs down.

Company B, http://grubbygames.com/ sells three games at $20 each. Their demos are extremely generous, allowing you to access all features and play a very good number of levels. There’s no time limit at all, just a level limit. I don’t like to feel rushed, so this system makes me happy! All three of the GrubbyGames games are adorable, clever, and unique, with charming graphics, sounds, and music. Playing in a window works as it should. Each has “kid” levels as well, which are very nice when you’re feeling easily frustrated :) I bought FizzBall last year, and it was worth every penny. It’s given us all hours of fun! I asked if I would be able to run the game on my two macs and Henry’s PC, and they said it was fine to download as many copies as I needed for my family. Of course, since they were so generous and trusting, I’ll never violate that trust by downloading more copies than we need or sharing them illegally. (Note to other companies: don’t assume your customers are criminals.) Thanks, GrubbyGames, two thumbs up for you!

I finally got a couple hundred photos winnowed down to 36, cropped, tweaked, etc. Here’s the Flickr set:

Bayshore’s Performance of Grease, 2008

Here’s another favorite:

And here’s the whole cast being awesome during the last rehearsal:

I woke up really early today ’cause I was cold. But I was cold for no reason! I had the same blankets I always have, my nice warm pajamas, the heater was set the same as always… whatever.

Henry and I used our free passes to the Japanese Friendship Garden this morning, and had a wonderful time there. So peaceful. And the weather was perfect this morning, cool and sunny. Then we ate our sandwiches and popped into the Timkin for a while (they have a Breugel there, and a Rembrandt, among many other treasures!), then the Botanical building. A very nice morning at Balboa Park.

Also — Happy birthday Mom!!! You’re the youngest 60-something in the world :)

Lucky for me (and you) Chloe blogged about her weekend, which overlapped our weekend quite a bit so it reminded me of some other things to mention! We hung out with them on Friday and watched the second episode of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, which Dan and I adore. I know, I know, it sounds trashy but it’s not, really. Dr. Drew is awesome. He’s an addiction medicine specialist and he really knows how to handle addicts. It’s a fascinating show. Mature audiences only! Those addicts pull some shenanigans, let me tell you… Also we watched Superbad, which was a great movie! We laughed and laughed. Really fun, kind of reminded me of Dazed and Confused, a little bit… it’s a “slice of life” kind of thing, you know? Also for mature audiences only, heheh :)

And then Chloe came over on Saturday evening and I helped her sew elbow patches on her green cardigan, and we watched Wordplay, a fantastic documentary about Will Shortz, the NY Times crossword puzzle, and the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. This one is fine for all ages :) And then Chloe and Henry and I did a couple of crosswords together.

Ugh, I hate it when I miss a few days of blogging. It’s too hard to catch up, so I’ll just jump back in. Not feeling that great the past few days… lack of sleep, lots of headaches, odd stomach problems, etc. Nothing serious, though.

I finished Dita’s mitts:

and sent them to her, and she loves them! I made a pair for myself out of the leftover yarn (our World of Warcraft guild colors), and have also been commissioned to make a pair for Mom’s boyfriend’s daughter. I need to get those done before the weekend! I’ve already gotten one finished so I’m not worried. Photos of more mitts tomorrow, and soon more photos from Grease… I’m still working on those. Oh, the next show they’re doing is “Into The Woods”.

Henry the greaser, dancing with the Pink Ladies.

The show was amazing! More photos tomorrow…

Yesterday was a real San Diego-style Spring day. Warm sun, chilly breeze, not a cloud in the sky, and a certain smell in the air, a kind of planty smell, that means Springtime. Yeah, it’s true that we don’t have seasons here, as such, but when you’ve lived here as long as I have you notice tiny little changes.

Our “seasons” are not only subtle but unpredictable, and often rotate day by day. Today looks gray and wintry again. But Spring might come again tomorrow!

We had a “Read One Book a Week in 2007” thread at LibriVox, so I actually kept track of nearly everything that I read last year. I didn’t literally read one book a week — some weeks I read several and some weeks I read none at all, but whatever, it added up to 52. A few things slipped through the cracks, but here are the 52 that I remembered to write down:

1. Holidays on Ice, by David Sedaris
2. The Christmas Store, by Ray Sipherd (not recommended)
3. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld (Excellent!!!)(Jan. 9)
4. Castle, by David Macaulay (Jan. 5)
5. Cathedral, by David Macaulay (Jan. 9)
6 The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, by Eva Rice (Jan 11)
7. London is the Best City in America, by Laura Dave (Jan 18)
8. The Grey King, by Susan Cooper (Jan 29)
9. The Shepherd, The Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog, by Dave Barry (hilarious and touching) (Jan 31)
10. When Madeline Was Young, by Jane Hamilton (Amazing!) (Feb 3)
11. The Book of Ruth, by Jane Hamilton (feb)
12. Disobedience, by Jane Hamilton (excellent!!) (Feb)
13. Whose Body?, by Dorothy Sayers (librivox – excellent)(Feb)
14. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin (LibriVox) (March)
15: Gaudy Night, by Dorothy Sayers
16: Busman’s Honeymoon, by Dorothy Sayers
17: The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Orczy (LV, read by Gypsygirl) A rip-roaring adventure!
18: Something from the Oven
19: Summer People (meh)
20: Under Orders (Dick Francis, yay!)
21 Making History (Stephen Fry, yay!)
22: Revenge (Stephen Fry. This one interfered with my sleep)
23: Strawberry Girl (Lois Lenski)
24: Aran Knitting (Alice Starmore)
25: A Room with a View (E.M. Forster, recorded for LV)
26: San Francisco Boy (Lois Lenski)
27: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
28: Texas Tomboy (Lois Lenski)
29: Betsy and the Great World
30: Fever 1793 (Laurie Anderson, excellent YA historical fiction)
31: Murder at the Racetrack (short story collection)
32: little women next door (Sheila Klass)
33: Lady Susan (Austen, LV recording)
34: Brat Farrar (Josephine Tey)
35: No Need to Knead (Suzanne Dunaway)
36: Shopaholic and Baby (sophie kinsella)
37: One Third Off (Cobb, LV recording)
38: The Daughter of Time
39: Literacy and Longing in LA
40: Bagthorpes Abroad
41: Born on a Blue Day, by Daniel Tammet (excellent)
42: Make Him Look Good
43: The Four-Story Mistake, by Elizabeth Enright
44: Anybody Out There? by Marian Keyes (loved it!!)
45: The Other Side of the Story by Marian Keyes (loveloveloved it!)
46: Sushi for Beginners, by Marian Keyes (awesome!)
47: Mad Dash, by Patricia Gaffney (very good!)
48: Hypocrite in a Poufy White Dress
49: And Then There Were Five, by Elizabeth Enright
50: The Return of Sherlock Holmes (LV recording, HOT!!!)
51: A Little Princess (LV recording, Karen Savage, HOT!!!)
52: Being Committed, by Anna Maxted

And we’re all set to read a book a week in 2008!

CaroleKnits posted her mother’s recipe for Sour Cream Coffee Cake. It’s a bit hard to find in her archives, so I’ll repost it here:

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla and sour cream to butter and sugar then add sifted dry ingredients.

Prepare nut topping as follows:
1/2 cup chopped nuts
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar

Pour 1/2 batter into greased tube pan and sprinkle 1/2 nut mixture on top. Add remaining batter and top with remaining nut mixture. Bake at 350º for 45 minutes.

I made it last night, and it is truly an amazing cake. Instead of the nuts/sugar/cinnamon filling, I spread some boysenberry jam in the middle. Also, I don’t have a tube pan so I used a loaf pan and increased the baking time by ten minutes, which wasn’t quite enough — the top center was still kind of gooey, but 90% of the cake was perfect :) It’s easy to make, too, and doesn’t require any unusual ingredients, so as long as I keep sour cream handy I can make it any time. Ohhhh yes.

edit: the second time I made it, I added 1/4 cup cocoa powder and skipped the filling. YUM!

Whoa. Sgt. Pepper with the individual tracks split apart. I love hearing things like this. And the sound waves are pretty to watch. I love the grungy rhythm guitar at about 3:30, and all the finger squeaks in that track too. I have a thing for finger squeaks. Can totally live without the brass, though. (Notice the, um, interesting harmony at about 5:50 :) YAY BEATLES!!