Today in my Christmas Audiobook Extravaganza:
Chapter 6 of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!
Click this link to subscribe in iTunes: Kayray Reads to You
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Chapter 6
(Click the image to see the book on Amazon and buy your own copy!)
Today in my Christmas Audiobook Extravaganza:
Chapter 5 of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!
Click this link to subscribe in iTunes: Kayray Reads to You
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Chapter 5
(Click the image to see the book on Amazon and buy your own copy!)
We finished decorating our tree yesterday! Isn’t it great? Every ornament has a history. Lots are handmade: mostly by me (I make more every year), but there are some very special ones made by beloved relatives. There are a few ornaments that go back to my very first memories of Christmas and many that were gifts from special people. I love my Christmas ornaments :)
On the table you can see my little paper Christmas Village! See this old blog post to read its story and find the files to print your own:
http://kayray.org/2011/12/07/dec-7-2011-a-christmas-miracle-revisited/
(I printed mine at 50% because I wanted a tiny village.)
And here’s our Nativity Scene. Strong Bad and his pals attend every year!
Also, now that I’m finally feeling better, I’ve been working on Dan’s gloves. He now lives in a place that gets actual winter and I don’t want his hands to be cold. I bought conductive thread for the fingertips so he SHOULD be able to use his iPhone without taking off his gloves.
Today in my Christmas Audiobook Extravaganza:
Chapter 4 of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!
Click this link to subscribe in iTunes: Kayray Reads to You
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Chapter 4
(Click the image to see the book on Amazon and buy your own copy!)
This old Sesame Street counting song just kills me. It’s SO much fun to sing along with. I love the modulation after they count to ten for the first time!
I like to imagine the guys in the recording studio. Count it count it count it higher!
Today in my Christmas Audiobook Extravaganza:
Chapter 3 of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!
Click this link to subscribe in iTunes: Kayray Reads to You
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Chapter 3
(Click the image to see the book on Amazon and buy your own copy!)
Over the last few days I’ve really started to feel better — well enough to sit on the couch and watch TV with Henry! A few nights ago, at his suggestion, we put on the wonderful 6-part BBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice. And we found out that it has finally been released on Blu-ray so we didn’t have to watch the super-crappy old DVD rip. Just finished up last night. Ahhhhhhhhh.
The scene where Lizzie is visiting Pemberley and helps cover Georgiana’s discomfort when Miss Bingley mentions Mr. Wickham. SIGNIFICANT GLANCES. That whole Pemberley part is wonderful. I love the bit where Lizzie introduces her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner to Mr. Darcy and everyone is civilized and pleasant.
We got started on our giant collection of Christmas specials and movies. So far we’ve watched:
Elf
Love Actually
The Toys that Made Christmas (A special hosted by Robert Webb, in which British actors and comedians talk about their favorite toys from childhood. Very sweet.)
A Colbert Christmas
A Child’s Christmas in Wales
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
We bought our tree three days ago and finally got it decorated today! I’ll post a picture tomorrow, maybe.
Today in my Christmas Audiobook Extravaganza:
Chapter 2 of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!
Click this link to subscribe in iTunes: Kayray Reads to You
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Chapter 2
(Click the image to see the book on Amazon and buy your own copy!)
Guess what! I have just filled my “Kayray Reads to You” podcast feed with Christmas stories! There will a chapter every day from now till Christmas (and maybe after).
Click this link to subscribe in iTunes: Kayray Reads to You
Today, we start with the first chapter of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Although it was first published in 1971, I missed out on it when I was a kid and didn’t discover it until Henry was little. Hope you like it! There are seven chapters and I’ll podcast one chapter every day, so be sure to refresh your podcast list daily, or come to my blog to download directly.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Chapter 1
(Click the image to see the book on Amazon and buy your own copy!)
I’m still sick but yesterday I felt well enough to sit in the living room and watch movies with Henry and do some knitting. And I’ve been reading a fantastic book that I got from the library a few weeks ago. I’m not done yet but it’s due tomorrow and I’ve already renewed it once so I really do need to give it back. But I’ll just check it out again as soon as I can so I can finish.
Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It
The story of the pandemic is just crazy. Around 40 million people died, worldwide. Forty million! (Record-keeping was spotty, so the death toll was probably far higher.) The pandemic hit near the end of World War One; more American soldiers were killed by the flu than were killed in combat.
In one division of soldiers who fought on the front lines in France from October 26th until the end of the war, “the flu killed 444 men. The number who were killed, wounded, missing, or captured in the war was 90.”
This was less than 100 years ago, and probably affected almost every family in the US. Probably most of us have a relative who died. (Family legend has it that my Great-Great Aunt Irma died in this flu pandemic but she actually died a couple of years earlier, in 1916.)
But this pandemic was, according to the author, “expunged from newspapers, magazines, textbooks, and society’s collective memory.”
Why? One theory is that it was just too horrific. So many people died in such a short amount of time, plus it was combined with the brand-new modern horrors of WWI (mustard gas, trench warfare, automatic weapons). People just wanted to forget the whole thing. Understandable, but I want to KNOW about it. I suspect that more people are familiar with the Black Death of the 14th century than are aware of this very comparable outbreak in modern times.
I watched a wonderful episode of American Experience a couple years ago about the 1918 flu pandemic. I need to see if that’s online somewhere and watch it again.
Still sick. Thank you very much for the kind get-well comments and the praise for my recordings :) It thrills me that there are so many of you who love the Melendy family as much as I do! I hope that someday I’ll stop coughing long enough to record some more.
Sick, sick, sick. I stayed in bed all day and watched season one of Boardwalk Empire, which is just as good as everyone says! I’m totally hooked. Kind of glad I didn’t discover it before now, because it sure is helping to pass the time while I recover from whatever-this-is. I don’t think it’s the flu because I never had chills and aches, and I only had one day of fever. Whatever. It’s no fun.
I can smell turkey and onions and other nice Thanksgiving smells through my open window.
If you’re looking for something really great to listen to while you wait for me to finish Spiderweb for Two, may I recommend The Dark is Rising? It’s a completely different kind of story, but it’s so good and so well-written that I can’t imagine anyone not liking it. I’ve been listening to it again a lot lately. It’s on my “karabooks” playlist which I listen to all night. I’ve been falling asleep to a book which is further up on the playlist, so that I wake up to The Dark is Rising.
Here’s chapter one:
Pt1, Ch1 – Midwinter’s Eve
If you like it, you can find the rest on my Kayray Reads to You page.
Well, even though I’m fairly miserable, I’m very very thankful that I’m not sicker, and I’m not in the hospital, and I’m very cozy, and the cat keeps me company all day, and my lovely family keeps checking on me.
Today I feel like I might be starting to get better. I actually got out of bed and sat on the couch with Henry for a few hours. We got caught up on Doctor Who. The Anniversary episode was lots of fun! I am super-excited about Peter Capaldi taking over as The Doctor. I loved Eccleston and liked Tennant, but never could warm up to Smith. I guess I prefer an older, craggier Doctor.
Cough cough cough. All the coughing rattles my brain around and gives me a headache. May I please have a new respiratory system? My factory-installed one is a lemon.
I really try not to complain about my health here but I guess once in a while it’s ok.
So sick.
It has been a week since I first noticed extra coughing and exhaustion.
Monday and Tuesday I stayed in bed, mostly, and rested, hoping to nip it in the bud, but Wednesday I started feeling really bad. Thursday I had a low fever all day and that night the sore throat started. Meanwhile all week I’ve been having great, wracking, horrible coughing fits that make my throat hurt even more and make all my muscles sore. And my head aches so much, and my eyes burn.
I’d like to list all the things I’m grateful for (warm bed, clean water, etc.) but I’m feeling too ill to write any more. Ugh.
Adapted from the recipe on Serious Eats:
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/07/creamy-cole-slaw.html
This was my first try and I used what I had handy. Next time I’ll add some
shredded carrots.
Toss 10 oz bag of shredded cabbage (Trader Joe’s) with 1 tablespoon salt and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Let it sit for five minutes or so while you make the
dressing.
Whisk:
1 tablespoon of vinegar (I used the last of my rice wine vinegar. Next time I’ll use balsamic ’cause that’s what I always have)
3 tablespoons mayo (next time I’ll cut back the mayo to 2 or 2.5 tablespoons)
1/2 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp sugar
Pepper
Ok now the cabbage should look all wilty and wet; the salt and sugar have been breaking down its cells and drawing out moisture. Rinse thoroughly and spin dry. Toss cabbage in dressing. Done.
I made my coleslaw just before I came down with this horrible virus so it sat in the fridge for a couple of days before I remembered to try it. It’s REALLY good — just a tiny bit too mayonnaisy for my taste. The texture is excellent: tender from its salt/sugar treatment, but still with lots of crunch.
Sick again. Bad cough, congested, phlegmy. I won’t be able to do any recording for a while, I’m afraid. I don’t have a sore throat, though, so that’s something to be thankful for.
Here are some photos of things that I’ve been making:
Crocheted snowflakes. I’m going to sell them on Etsy once I get some good photos.
Two pairs of little socks for Emma Rose:
http://ravel.me/kayray/hls
Well, I guess I’ll have some more juice and close my eyes for a while.
And another chapter of Spiderweb for Two! This is a really good one, and it made me think that around Christmas I should put all the random Christmas chapters out of all the books I’ve recorded into my podcast feed.
Spiderweb for Two 07 The Joyous Season
How perfect is the author’s depiction of that cold, crisp, snowy, winter weather? I’ve experienced that kind of weather just a few times and this chapter brought it all back so vividly.
I really like the new Rage Industries song, “Miami in 89”.
Thanks, Henry!
Hey guess what? My latest LibriVox audiobook, Just William by Richmal Crompton, is finished and ready to download!
Just William is the first book of hilarious short stories about 11-year-old William Brown — eternally scruffy and frowning. William’s family, his elder sister Ethel and brother Robert, placid mother and stern father, and never-ending supply of elderly aunts, cannot understand him. William just likes DOING things, that’s all! It’s not his fault he likes DOING things, is it?
http://librivox.org/just-william-version-2-by-richmal-crompton/
Thank you, Elli, for proof-listening and cataloging and cheering me on :) :) :)
Dearest readers,
I have just discovered that, months ago, my WordPress software stopped notifying me when y’all leave comments, which means that, since comments from readers who haven’t commented before need my approval before being posted, an awful lot of you have left comments that I never read and that never showed up here.
I’m so sorry!
Yesterday I went through a huge backlog of comments and OK’d all the non-spam ones. Except for the one from the guy who was complaining about content in one of the history books I narrated. Dude… I’m just the narrator, I didn’t write the thing. You’ll have to take your complaint about content up with the (dead) author.
And a BIG thank you to all of you who left so many kind and encouraging remarks. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you enjoy my recordings and look forward to them! When life gets difficult those friendly comments not only cheer me up but inspire me to keep recording my audiobooks.
I’ll try to record more of Randy and Oliver’s treasure-hunt adventures tomorrow :)
And I’l try to remember to sort through the unposted comments frequently!
