kayray.org

Fires still raging, a quarter of a million people are still evacuated. We are safe here in north-west Oceanside. The air is bad and we are staying indoors, though I did tie a wet bandana over my nose and went out to run a few errands earlier today. Here is how the entire county looks tonight:

and here is our part of town:

In non-fire news: I went back into the Hourglass dungeon today and got the last sea chart! Henry showed me where a few shortcuts were and reminded me what to do in the upper levels, and coached me through the lower levels (though he hasn’t beat it yet). I got through the first section in 3:15 and he was most impressed :)

Also worked on his Halloween costume for hours. He’s being a Leaf-Chonin (?) ninja from Naruto and needs a green vest with all kinds of specific shaping and decorations. I made the pattern and cut everything out yesterday, and got most of the construction done today and it rocks. Henry is very pleased. It’s made of fleece, fully lined, sturdy and warm, so I hope he’ll get some post-Halloween use out of it as well! Photos tomorrow I hope. Also made a new pair of Naruto Shoes yesterday. I hate making Naruto Shoes, but I am really enjoying the vest. It’s quite a puzzle to translate a cartoon image into a real garment.

KPBS deserves an award for their fire coverage. They have covered it, live, for 75 hours. Thanks, KPBS!!!

Thanks to kpbs.org for keeping this map up to date, for their twitter feed, and for their live streaming radio coverage, which was very hiccuppy last night but smooth and fine today. Good job kpbs!!! This is how the map looked at 10:00am on Tuesday, October 23, 2007:

It’s not clear to me what the red and yellow areas indicate. Red might be actual fire zones or extreme danger zones, yellow might be evacuation areas. Anyway, they’re not good, and it’s unheard of for wildfires to threaten our coastal areas. We live under the “Oceanside” text, just north of the 78 and very near three of the evacuation centers — if they’re sending people to those schools for shelter, we are still safe. I just heard that residents of Solana Beach are being sent to the mall that’s just south of us across the freeway.

Approximately 1200 houses destroyed so far; 300,000 people evacuated.

Fires are burning all over San Diego. So far we, in the north-westerly-most part of the county, are safe, but we are ready to evacuate at any moment. Here’s a frequently-updated fire map, courtesy of kpbs.org, who also has a twitter feed!

More William, by Richmal Crompton.
Read by me!
Chapter 5: William’s Hobby

Dan’s been talking about Leopard, the soon-to-be-released update for Mac OS X, for quite a while. Last week he showed me the page which lists 300+ new features, and some of them seemed really neat! For instance,

Quick Look:

Look inside any document without launching an application. Use Quick Look with documents, images, songs, and movies and get a large-size preview of the file. Flip through multipage documents, preview movies, even add images to iPhoto. You can use Quick Look in Finder, Mail, and Time Machine.

Spaces:

Organize your activities into separate spaces and easily switch from one to another. Make a space for work or play. Choose from a number of convenient options that make moving from space to space fast and easy.

(I haven’t had proper workspaces since I ran linux)

Scroll Non-Active Windows:

Scroll any open window, even if it’s not active. Simply position your mouse over the target window and scroll.

Path Bar:

See the path of a file when you view it in the Finder. Just choose Show Path Bar from the View menu and the path is visible at the bottom of the Finder window. You can also drag files to any location in the Path Bar.

So I got a little more excited about Leopard. And then, a few days ago, Dan downloaded the Guided Tour and we watched it together, and my head exploded and I became a rabid fangirl and now I can’t WAIT for LEOPARD! LEOPARD LEOPARD LEOPARD!!! Features that didn’t seem that interesting in print (stacks, time machine, new Finder layout, search shared Macs, etc.) look fantastic in use.

Only 5 days to Leopard! Yay Apple!

We had such a good day today! Last night we stayed up until 1:30am playing Civilization 4, so this morning I slept until 10 or so, very nice. In the early afternoon we went to Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas. I haven’t been there since my big sister took my little sister and me in the early 80s, and Dan had never been there. It’s only 20 minutes from our house and is a beautiful, peaceful place, so we’re planning to go back a lot more. We bought a family membership, in fact, which was only $60. We strolled around, looked at plants and trees, enjoyed the shade and the good-smelling air, and took a billion photos. We got there a little after 1pm, and before we knew it, 3 hours had passed! We had planned to buy an office plant for Dan at their annual plant sale, which was taking place near the parking lot, but they were packing up by the time we got there, so we’ll get his plant another day.

The gardens are divided up into zones — an Australian Garden, a Tropical Rainforest (with waterfall and pond), a Bamboo Forest, an Herb Garden, etc, with paved main paths and little dirt side paths as well. The place is huge. I don’t think we saw half of it. I’ll post a lot more photos after I’ve processed them, and I’m sure Dan will too. We’re so happy knowing a nice place, closer than Balboa Park, to take out-of-town guests!

After Quail Gardens we stopped by Dan’s work to pick something up, and I got the tour of his new building. When you have an internet start-up in coastal California, you have:

(if anyone can tell me how to align those two photos in a row, please let me know. I tried some basic html alignment code which failed miserably) Edit: Ada suggested a table! Thanks, Ada!

When we got home, I did some recording and LibriVox work (we’ve got 981 finished audio books!), and then we watched Knocked Up, which was very enjoyable.

The Aeropress coffee maker! OMG! OK, yeah, I try to avoid coffee, generally. But every couple of months I give in. I might as well make that rare treat as good as it can be.

Watch as Nerd God Mark Frauenfelder demonstrates the awesomeness:

Dear Santa, this is available at thinkgeek! Hint, hint :)

Materials:

About 200 grams worsted weight wool or wool blend — this will be plenty even if your Knight is bigger than mine and you want short sleeves. I suggest Knitpicks’ Wool of the Andes. At $2/ball for real wool you just can’t find a better deal!

Size 15 circular needles (Or bigger. Or smaller. Add or subtract a few stitches from the body if you use different size needles, or your knight is more round or much smaller than mine. Garter stitch is VERY stretchy, so don’t sweat it too much.)
Yarn needle
Scrap yarn for cast on and stitch holders

The Chainmail Hauberk:

Using scrap yarn and a provisional cast on, cast on 30 st for top of shoulders.

Back: Work back and forth in garter stitch to underarm (8 ridges or so for a sleeveless hauberk, maybe 9 or 10 if you want sleeves. Use your own judgement.) Put these 30 stitches on a string, and pick up 30 from the cast on edge.

Front/neck: Work 10 stitches (right front). Cast off the next ten. Work the next ten (left front). Turn. Work ten, drop yarn, skip the ten cast off stitches, use the other end of the yarn (or the other ball) to work the next ten. Turn.

Neck increase row: work to last stitch of right front, make one, knit last stitch. Now the right front has 11 stitches. For the left front, knit one stitch, make one, knit to end. Now the left front has 11 stitches too.

Knit back across for the wrong side, using both balls of yarn to keep fronts separate.

Repeat the right-side neck increase row and the wrong-side plain row until you have a total of 30 stitches again: 15 for the right front and 15 for the left front. On the next right-side row, knit all the way across with the first ball of yarn so the two sides are joined.

Continue working back and forth to underarm (count ridges and make the front match the back), then join with back section and begin to work in the round. Place a marker at the join. Now that you’re knitting in the round, you’ll need to purl every other round to stay in garter stitch. Invite your Knight to help!

(If you don’t want to purl, leave the front and back separate and sew up the side seams when you’re done.)

Here is how it looks after having used up my first ball of yarn:

When the body is long enough (to lower hip), work a split in front and back to allow easy horseback riding:

Put all 60 stitches on a string. Starting at center front (count 15 over from the side marker), pick up 30 stitches (to center back). Work these 30 stitches back and forth until the flap is long enough (8-10 ridges). Cast off.

Pick up the remaining 30 side stitches and work flap to match the other one. Cast off. Weave in ends.

If you want sleeves, pick up stitches around the arm holes. I’d work flat and weave the underarm seam so you don’t have to do any purling :)

And now, photos of the finished armor!

(Thanks for letting me take pictures even though you still don’t feel well, Henry :)

(When Ravelry goes live, you can visit this project there: Chainmail Hauberk for a Young Knight)

Poor Henry is sick. He came down with some kind of horrid virus on Sunday while he was at his dad’s house. He felt too awful to go anywhere, so he spent the night there and his dad brought him home today. He felt a bit better today, no more fever and puking, but his throat is still sore and he feels pretty miserable. I let him watch Survivor All-Stars all day. Survivor makes great entertainment when you’re sick! We’ve got several other seasons saved up.

I did bills and shopping and housework and laundry and LibriVox stuff all day, and kept Henry company, and worked on his chainmail (and he helped with some of the knitting). I’ll have that pattern to post very soon, as soon as the thing is finished.

Henry’s in bed now. I hope he sleeps ok. When he’s sick we always read cozy happy familiar picture books for bedtime — tonight it was Blueberries for Sal and Goodnight Moon. While we were reading, Dan put a Legend of Zelda ringtone on his phone for him, which made him very very happy.

Now I will eat Trader Joe’s Gingeroo cookies and read Hypocrite in a Poufy White dress, which I’m really enjoying. I finished Anybody Out There last night and can’t WAIT to find more by the same author!

Oh here’s the chainmail as of yesterday:

Today we started knitting the bottom part that’s split in front and back.

More William, by Richmal Crompton.
Read by me!
Chapter 4: The Knight at Arms

We just got home from a great afternoon/evening with Bob and Chloe. We played a ton of music together, and talked, and sat around, and watched School of Rock, which was really entertaining and funny and well-made! I thought it would be quite a different kind of movie and was most pleasantly surprised.

We wish we lived closer to them but at least we don’t live farther apart.

Also watched last Thursday’s Survivor… my, what an unpleasant group of people.

Ran out of yarn for Henry’s chainmail so I’ll have to buy another ball tomorrow. Hope the yarn store is open.

Last night Dan, Henry, and I went to see The Australian Pink Floyd down at Humphrey’s! Henry and I picked Dan up from work at 5, and traffic was remarkably light so we got down to the place at about 5:40. We amused ourselves (Phantom Hourglass! Rush!) until 7:00-ish and then found our seats and waited for the show to start. It was a fantastic show, of course. Man. They did the entire Dark Side album, then a ton of other stuff. It was a three-hour show. We were all extremely tired but we had fun anyway. My favorites were One of These Days and Pigs. Great show, great show. If you’re a Pink Floyd fan, try to see The Australian Pink Floyd!

Meg over at The House of Mirth just gave me the Rockin’ Girl Blogger award :)

Thanks, Meg!

I, in turn, give this award to Mari, a 4-year old photographer. See The World According to Mari! You rock, Mari, keep posting those beautiful photos!

I’ve been really tired the last few days, but I think I feel better today. It’s only 10:45 and I’ve already taken Henry to his classes, got my bloodwork done, bought bird food, bought flea stuff for the cat, filled up my gas tank, read email, checked LV, waded through part of my unread feeds, and blogged. Go team kayray. Next up: dishes, housework, maybe some recording, maybe some Phantom Hourglass. I started the Ice Dungeon last night! Also need to fix the WoW add-ons on my iMac but that’s easy, I already fixed them on the Macbook so I’ll just copy the AddOns folder over.

Oh, I forgot to mention — the freeway was closed on the way home last night. Yup, closed. Whee! They detoured us onto a sort of frontage road for a few miles, which narrowed down to one lane at times, and eventually let us back onto 5. But hey, they’ve got to do roadwork sometime, and 11pm on a Wednesday is probably the best time for it.

Also: concerts would be a lot more fun if it weren’t for the other people. Don’t their mothers teach them to stop talking at concerts? The people behind us carried on a loud, drunk conversation through the entire Dark Side set. They left after that. Why on earth did they bother to come at all? Stay home next time, people, put on a cd, and have your loud drunk conversation where you won’t be ignoring hard-working real-live musicians and annoying the people all around you.

I ripped out my BPT sweater last winter (the poor neck design bothered me) and all that red yarn has been waiting around to be made into something new. I considered the Tilted Duster from the recent issue of Interweave Knits, but after looking at finished ones on ravelry I changed my mind. Very few of them seem to end up fitting and hanging properly, and I didn’t want to fuss with altering a not-very-good design. I liked the looks of the Cobblestone pullover (except for the curled neckline), but wanted a cardigan. It wouldn’t be hard to work it mostly as-written but split the front, but as my gauge is wildly different and I prefer to work top-down, I decided to re-write the whole pattern to suit my requirements.

Here are some in-progress photos:

Have done neckline and collar and am increasing down the top:

Yoke nearly done! Have worked three short rows across the back portion, from center shoulder to center shoulder.

Have divided for fronts/sleeves/back and am working sleeves flat, simultaneously on one long circ. Added 12 total st. to underarms, making sleeves 58 st each. Fronts right now are 38 (will be 44 when those underarm st are picked up). Back is 64 (will be 76). There’s an 11st overlap for the front edges, so I make that out to be about 38″ around, which should fit me in a loose, jackety way. I might nip in the waist a bit when I get there. Will work a few short rows across the back now and then.

I wonder if it’s too big:

Well, I’ll work a little more on the sleeves, then join the body sections and work those for an inch or two. Not much to rip out if I need to go a little smaller. Or I might just need to decrease away those underarm sections.

More William, by Richmal Crompton.
Read by me!
Chapter 3: William’s Burglar

The long-awaited Legend of Zelda game for the Nintendo DS was finally released last Tuesday. Phantom Hourglass, YAY!!! Henry and I were at the store before it opened to buy two copies. We’ve been playing all week. It’s a fantastic game. Here’s an in-depth review on Gamespot: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

It took me a little while to get used to the stylus control. I kept wanting to steer Link around with the d-pad, but now I’ve got the hang of it, and the control system is flawless. The ability to make notes on the maps is fantastic. The puzzles and bosses are perfect — not too hard, not too easy. I really enjoyed the boss fight on the Ghost Ship — yeah, I died the first time but by then I had figured out what to do and I won the next time. The graphics are beautiful. The music is perfect.

If you have a DS, buy this game. If you don’t have a DS, buy one and then buy this game.

Read a banned book!

Here’s a thingy I picked up from Amythyst’s Shiny Pebbles (she a fellow librivoxer and admin). It’s a list of the 100 most frequently challenged books in the US, 1990-2000, according to the American Library Association – that is, books that people have wanted to ban. Bold the ones you’ve read.

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
8. Forever by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry
15. It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine (at least, some of them)
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
19. Sex by Madonna
20. Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel(I think… Was that Clan of the Cave Bear? Ghastly thing…)
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
28. The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
31. Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
32. Blubber by Judy Blume
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
34. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
35. We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry
37. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood(didn’t finish, hated it, but still :)
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
40. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
45. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
46. Deenie by Judy Blume
47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
48. Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
58. Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
60. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
61. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
62. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
64. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
65. Fade by Robert Cormier
66. Guess What? by Mem Fox
67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
71. Native Son by Richard Wright
72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
73. Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
74. Jack by A.M. Homes
75. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
76. Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
77. Carrie by Stephen King
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
79. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
80. Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
81. Family Secrets by Norma Klein
82. Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
86. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
87. Private Parts by Howard Stern
88. Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
91. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
93. Sex Education by Jenny Davis
94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
95. Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

That’s 26 for me. Which ones have you read?

Happy happy birthday to my sweet, classy, kind-hearted sister Kathy :) Hope you had a great day!

Here’s a little treat for you, maybe. We just finished Wives and Daughters at LibriVox and I cataloged it today:
http://librivox.org/wives-and-daughters-by-elizabeth-gaskell/

I think our readers did a great job on this one.

More William, by Richmal Crompton.
Read by me.
Chapter 2: Rice-Mould

Here’s a 13-minute CBS interview with Daniel Tammet (author of Born on a Blue Day):
Interview with Daniel

I love soup, I really do. I’d eat soup every night if I could. Not canned soup, good homemade soup. The soup I made tonight turned out so good that I’m going to write the recipe down so I can recreate it again soon.

Put 1/2 cup of barley in a pan of water and bring it to a boil. Turn off the heat and let it soak for a couple of hours. Drain and rinse.

Chop up half an onion, two potatoes, two celery stalks, a chunk of bell pepper, a handful of green beans, and a handful of baby carrots. Gently saute the veggies in a big lump of butter until they turn bright colors, then add a 32-oz carton of good beef stock, a pinch of salt and pepper, and a pinch of thyme. I had an open can of Italian tomatoes in the fridge, so I diced one up and threw it in with a bit of the thick tomato juice from the can. Simmer gently until veggies are tender. Oh man, it was a good rich soup. Man oh man. I try always to make enough soup to eat for the next few meals.