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January 2003

Jan 31 -- Henry's last big awful dental appointment was this morning. He's been such a good patient boy during all this dental torture that I took him to the toy store and let him pick out a toy -- he chose a neat grabber-claw thing :) So anyway his mouth is decay-free now! Our dear dentist was so sweet to him and answered all his questions and did such a lovely job on his mouth. They're all so nice at that office -- I'm actually looking forward to my next cleaning :) I think it is time for some dinner now. Mom bought me these really good tomatoes from the Farmer's Market so I'm going to make one of my favorite dinners -- a Big Salad and a pile of corn tortillas, cooked in butter. Mmmmmmmm! Dan's dad has been visiting, but I've been so busy that I've barely seen him at all. I think we're goin to the beach tomorrow, so that'll be nice :) It was 88 degrees here today, and it's still hot at 8:30pm. Jeeze.

Jan 30 -- Henry helped me clean his room. He ACTUALLY helped! I gave him the assignment of finding ten things he could throw away -- including little bits of crud off the carpet. He found so many nice bits of crud that we eventually lost count :) He also found something he could GIVE away! It's a little Spongebob guy... he says he doesn't even like Spongebob so that thing went in the give-away bag. And he did most of the vacuuming, too, which he seemed to enjoy a lot. And I cleaned our bedroom, and wiped down the bathroom (it's not a disaster yet, so it was quick and easy. Henry did the counter.) the flylady (recommended by my lovely sister Kathy) is helping me change my attitudes toward cleaning and de-cluttering and my apartment looks better and I feel a LOT less overwhelmed! It was just plain beautiful out today... Tab and I went to the Goodwill to shop for Thrift! It was so much fun :) I love going places with her. Ooooo I also practiced the piano for about an hour today. I'm working on the Bach 2-part invention in E, the one with the neat syncopation.

Jan 29 -- I just watched the Antiques Roadshow. That show is so enjoyable. It was Good News day for almost everyone, it seemed, except for one poor guy who brought in a paint-by-numbers painting :) He was really cheerful about it, though. I feel kind of strange tonight... I hope I'm not coming down with something. My knees feel achey and I feel bone tired. Blah. I think I'll have some soup and watch Seinfeld.

Jan 28 -- The electricity was off when I woke up this morning. It's back on now, yay! Since I couldn't read my email this morning, when I got home there were 65 new ones. And only about three were spam. (the majority of my spam gets filtered out by SpamAssassin). Tab and I did a couple errands this afternoon, including going to the craft store for more beads! We figured out how to make daisy-like flowers, and we're going to sell them, and other beaded things, on ebay. Ok I am incredibly hungry. Time for FOOD. (several hours later..) We made so many lovely beaded flowers today! And while we were beading, we watched "Shall We Dance" ( Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers) It's the one with the rollerskate dance (Let's Call the Whole Thing Off) and "They Can't Take That Away From me". Great movie -- the plot is thin and goofy, but Fred and Ginger are marvelous. Dan made a photo series of our Tiny Bird having a BirdBath. She's the cutest pet EVER. When she gets in the mood to have a bath, she really goes to town, and splashes everywhere and gets soaking wet, as you can see. She looks funny when she's all bedraggled and wet, but she's really quite elegant when dry.

Jan 25 -- (again) We went to see The Two Towers with mom tonight -- I actually enjoyed it a LOT more this time that i did the first time I saw it. A) I was prepared for the major deviations from What Actually Happened, so there were no nasty surprises. B) I was not miserably sick. C) Eh I'm too tired to think of what C is but it has something to do with how amazing Gollum was, and all the other incredible special effects too. Oh, heh, go here and prepare to laugh :)

Jan 25 -- Well the internet broke for a while there (thanks, Microsoft) but it seems to be working again. More or less. Shall we file a class action suit against Microsoft for the pain and suffering and loss of business they cause with their shoddy products? Well it's another beautiful day here! I think it's about 80 degrees outside, clear and sunny. After Henry's gymnastics class I bought some water and mailed a package for tab, and then she and I cleaned up the apartment! It looks really nice now. You can actually walk down the hall without tripping over stuff :) I like to listen to audiobooks while I do housework, if the apartment is quiet enough. I've been listening to "To Kill A Mockingbird" read by Sally Darling (Recorded Books, Inc.) when Henry's not here (it's a bit much for a 7-yr-old I think, but I can hardly wait until he's old enough to read it) and a Jeeves and Wooster book when he is. Now I'm going to see if there are any movies coming up that I'd like the TiVo to record for me, and then I think I'll make a skirt out of a pillowcase that I bought at a thriftstore last weekend. It's happy yellow, with little embroidered flowers at the hem. I think it will be adorable :) Oh, I'd better update my books page again -- I read another good one yesterday. Oh, I almost forgot! Mom bought me some shoes from L.L. Bean for Christmas but they were backordered and they JUST arrived yesterday and they were a total surprise and I LOVE them. They are the most comfortable shoes I've ever had. I have a lot of trouble finding shoes that don't hurt my feet. Let me see if I can find a picture... Yes, here you go: red shoes. They're the L.L. Bean "Comfort Mocs", if you want some too :)

Jan 23 -- Happy Birthday Mom!!! We met Sal at the skating rink and she and Henry had a fine time ice skating together. I took the digicam but I think the photos are probably all too dark. I dunno, I haven't looked at them on a big monitor yet. I have been reading so many good books lately! My eye problem seems to have gotten better, which is a little odd but very nice :) Yesterday I read a novel called "Must Love Dogs" which was really enjoyable -- I don't remember the author right now but tomorrow I'll update my book page and add that one. Today I started "Quite A Year For Plums" by Bailey White and it's good too, and I'm re-reading "The Mockery Bird" by Gerald Durrell at night. I like to keep a non-disturbing or funny book by my bed to read at night, and I read the more serious ones in the daytime. I read another chapter of "Prisoner of Azkaban" to Tab tonight -- that's fun, 'cause I don't rememeber the plot very well at all.

Jan 21 -- Tab and I walked around Balboa park and went to the Mingei Folk Art Museum (free today!) while Henry was in his class. We saw these lovely embroidered silk ceremonial gowns and fancy silver headdresses from some little area of China, and the antique toys upstairs and the Goulden Baby House, which is this fabulous dollhouse from 1750. I never get tired of looking at it. My nose is cold. I can smell cigarette smoke drifting in through the screen door, probably from the neighbor's balcony. GROSS.

Jan 20 -- All four us took a walk on the beach this afternoon. It was cooler than the last few days, but still warm enough to go barefoot and wade in the water. We walked a long way, looking at the fancy houses. Henry took his big dump truck and pushed it for a while and then I carried it for him while he ran through the shallow water in absolute Henry-style joyfulness. :) The tide was way out. It's nice that way. Seems like the tide is always way out when we take a walk... I know it gets high sometime, though, because we could see the tideline way up near the walls :) Hmm also I cleaned the kitchen, the back bathroom, and our bedroom today. I've been trying to get things cleaned up BEFORE they turn into hideous disasters :) Tabatha made brownies for us tonight! I've been reading several good books... check my books page if you're interested!

Jan 19 -- Henry and I went to the Wild Animal Park all day today! (mouse over the numbers on the map for a few photos) The weather was perfect, we took a picnic lunch, we rode the monorail, we saw the bird show, we hiked around, Henry played for an hour and a half at the new play area, and we just had an all-around wonderful time together :)

Jan 17 -- I can't tell you how lovely our dentist is. She's an angel. We went in yesterday to get some more of Henry's teeth fixed, and she was so sweet to him, and took care of his teeth so well. He was so good. It's awful to sit there with your mouth open for so long with people fiddling around inside, and he was almost in tears by the end, but he never wiggled or fussed. After we got home I let him watch two movies (Toy Story and Toy Story 2) so that was a nice treat for him, and cheered him up. Dan took care of him for me while I went to the store and did a Big Shopping -- now we have food again yay! Dan and Tabatha are the Champion Milk Drinkers of the world. We played Settlers of Catan on Wednesday night and I won! That is the greatest board-type game EVER. I think we are going to play again tonight. Now that Tab is here we have the necessary third player :) Hmm, what else is new... it has been 80 degrees the last couple of days. I think we are going to go to the beach later, and lie around. But we have to go to the library first because I ran out of books! Hmm, I'd better go update my books page.

Jan 15 -- While I went out to do some errands today, Henry made me a story tape! He read a few of his easy-reader books out loud for me. It's a treasure. He even read a book that he had never read before, and since I wasn't there to help him with the hard words he figured most of them out by himself. He reads with nice expression, not just "word word word". I'm so happy that he knows that he can read, and I'm glad I didn't push him to learn earlier. I knew he'd just figure it out one day.

Jan 14 -- We had such a nice day today :) Got up early, dropped Tab at school, and drove down to Junior Theater class. While Henry was in class, I walked around the MOPA (the website seems to be down right now) and read my book. Balboa Park is a beautiful place. After class we walked over to the zoo, and walked all over and ate our picnic lunch in front of the hippo tank. We had so much fun together :) There's a big construction project going on where the flamingo pond used to be, so we peeked through the fence and watched the construction for a long time, and then we rode the sky ride over to the other side of the zoo, then walked down the hill and stopped by the polar bear exhibit. One of the polar bears was swimming and playing and diving, so we watched him for a long long time, and then we headed down the hill again, past the wild cattle and wild boars and peccaries and so forth, and ended up in the Ituri Forest, where, as I said, we ate lunch by the hippos. Then we said "hi" to the pandas -- there are several new signs up telling all sorts of panda information. I read them all to Henry and he was fascinated. On the way home, we listened to my old mp3 cd... the one I made in spring of 2002, I guess. It's fun to hear those old songs again :) Henry is especially fond of "Nouns" (Schoolhouse Rock) and "Down In It" (Nine Inch Nails) so we listened to those, over and over. On long car rides I like to let him be in charge of the music.

Jan 13 -- What was it, Monday? Got up at 6:30am to take Henry to the dentist who takes his insurance. Traffic STANK and it took an hour and fifteen minutes to get there, and that dentist's estimate was twice as much as our lovely non-insurance-taking dentist. Bah. Well so we'll just take him to the nice local dentist and forget about the insurance. Argh. And we went to the library today too! Henry has gotten much more confident about reading so we got him some more EZ-Reader books; his favorite is "NO NEW PANTS!" which is a really funny little rhyming story about a little boy who doesn't enjoy shopping for new pants. Henry read it out loud to me while we were driving! What a treat :)

Jan 11 -- I'm up to page 6 of the "What if LoTR had been written by other people" message board... Here we've got Kafka, C.S. Lewis, Led Zeppelin, and a fabulous Rock Opera featuring The Who, The Beatles, Blondie, Queen, the Shangri-las... I don't know when I've been so thoroughly entertained by anything :) OMG the Matrix one on that page is GREAT. "Galadriel: I'd ask you to sit down, but you're not going to anyway. And don't worry about the mirror. Frodo: What mirror? [Frodo knocks Galadriel's mirror off its table, spilling water everywhere.] Galadriel: That mirror."

Jan 10 -- Hmm, what did I do today... I gathered up a whole bunch of trash and took it out, and cleaned the kitchen really well, and some of the rest of the apartment too. I feel very virtuous! And I went to the bank (again) and bought water from the water store, and taught my little piano students, and made a good dinner for everybody. And I untangled some nice yarn that my grandma spun a long time ago. I think I might knit it into a lacey scarf if there's enough. Ok, bedtime!

Jan 09 -- busy day -- this morning bank, farmers' market, stater bros, trader joe's, then home, put groceries away, feed Henry, shower, play RC cars with Henry, then off to dentist for filling, then race back home to collect Henry, zoom off to karate, then back home to collect forgotten DVD player for Dad and Kathy, then wolf down canned soup, then teach student, then HOME. And it's almost 8:30pm. I'm HUNGRY! hey here's a message board with a long thread in which people are submitting examples of "what if LoTR had been written by other people". LOL! Don't miss P.G. Wodehouse, Gene Roddenberry, Choose Your Own Adventure, Homer (The Frodyssey), John Cage, CNN, Shakespeare, Ogden Nash ("...That being said, it seems to me that to accept a ring from the likes of Sauron/ You'd have to be a mauron."), Dave Barry, etc. etc. You've got to go read them :)

Jan 08 -- I went to the dentist today -- first time in about 4 years. I was very pleased to find out that my teeth are quite healthy, on the whole! I do have one cavity, a big one, but that's it. They're going to fill it tomorrow. I go to the nicest dentist in the whole world -- Dr. Kim Corrigan of North Coast Dental Group. Everyone there is lovely. If you're looking for a great dentist in North San Diego County, go there :) On Tuesday, while Henry was in his Junior Theater class, I finished "Lady Knight"! Wow, what a book. Really good. Last night I felt really awful, so Dan read some of The Gallery Of Regrettable Food. So funny! If you don't own the book yet, you can read a lot of it online.

Jan 05 -- Last night I started reading "Lady Knight" -- the fourth book in the "Protector of the Small" series by Tamora Pierce. It's excellent! Here, read the editorial review at Amazon. This morning I got about halfway though. I can hardly put it down! HOORAY for Tamora Pierce! What joy to read an interesting, exciting, well-written series which features a courageous, and very human, female protagonist! Ok, I'd better go clean Henry's room before he gets home ;-)

Jan 04 -- We went to the beach again today... I've been to the beach more since Tab got here than in the last year, I think :) We just lay around and read... it was very relaxing. I finished "Nightbirds on Nantucket" which was pretty good. We're going to take Henry to the beach next week if the weather stays fine!

Jan 03 -- We took my car in today for its oil change/water pump/checkup. It's doing fine :) Good old car. I updated my crafts page today! Added mittens, socks, and the hotpads that Henry and I made. After we picked up my car in the afternoon, we went for a walk on the beach. The water was icy cold, but I waded anyway because it was warm and sunny. The tide was way out, which is nice 'cause there's so much shallow water for wading. The water was so cold it was actually painful for a while, but I got used to it and then it was just refreshing :) Ok, gonna go pick up Mom at the airport now. Oh, here's Samuel Pepys diary online!

Jan 02 -- Hmm, what did we do today... Tab and I went to a hobby store in Escondido to pick up a part for Henry's RC car, and then we went to the Goodwill there. Fun :) It was HOT out today! 72 here, and probably close to 80 inland. Oh I know, we took the Christmas tree down today and cleaned up really well. It's nice and tidy in here now, well, as tidy as it gets. Heheh :)

Jan 01 -- Happy New Year everyone! Henry and I made two potholders with his new wool loops -- man they turned out beautiful! You can buy them from liveandlearn.com. Yes they are more expensive than the cotton ones, but the colors are rich, and they are all the same size, and they feel SO GOOD! I taught Henry how to finish the edges with a crochet hook and he was so pleased and proud when he got the hang of it. We also played his new Spy Fox Dry Cereal game (lots of fun as usual) and in the afternoon Henry and Tab and I took a nice walk out on the Pier. We saw sea lions and pelicans out in the ocean! Tonight Tab and I watched "Clueless". What a fun movie! I had forgotten how funny it was. It's a perfect modern version of "Emma" -- almost verbatim. While I was watching it, I kept thinking, "Hey that's the part where Harriet meets the farmer... that's the part when she burned the sticking plaster... that's the part when Mr. Knightly danced with Harriet... that's the part when Emma and Mr. Elton were in the carriage together... " When I can borrow a VCR again I'll see if Tab will watch the Kate Beckinsale version of Emma with me :) It was a lovely day.

But wait, there's MORE!

2004

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