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Yesterday (Saturday) was the big concert! Dan, Henry, and I arrived at the theater at about 10:20am. Dan immediately started setting up equipment, while I showed Henry around the theater. It’s really fun to see the backstage area and the dressing rooms and everything! Then we staked out a spot in the hall and amused ourselves until Chloe and Bob and the rest of the band showed up. There was much setting up and testing of equipment. Henry and I read and drew and knitted and talked and played nintendo and just watched the activity on stage. I ran out to the drugstore for bottled water. Henry was so good all day long. I know he got a little bit bored at times but he never complained. I tried to notice when he needed help finding something to do so I could suggest something. Eventually the band started to rehearse, so that was entertaining! I took Henry across the street to the Claire de Lune coffee place for breakfast pastry, and then later for a bagel. The orchestra kids got there in the afternoon, and their conductor ran through some of the material, and then the band joined them. And then Henry finally got to practice Penny Lane with the band! I taught him the part (whole note keyboard chords during the chorus) at 8pm the night before and he’d never played it with the band, but he did fine during the run-through.

At 5 or so Chloe and I walked over the the near-by pizza place and ordered 12 pizzas and 8 six-packs of soda to feed all the musicians and crew, then Henry and I went back to pick it up in time for the 6 to 7pm dinner break. Lucky they had a trolley and helped us wheel all that food back to the theater!

At a little after 7 Henry changed into his show clothes (nice dark pants and his tie-dyed t-shirt) and we found our seats and got ready to watch the show. Chloe had set aside three nice seats for us, and joined us just before the show started. It was sold-out, or very nearly so! Rehearsal was a little bit rocky (but what rehearsal isn’t?) so we were kind of nervous, but when the band began to play it was obvious that everything would be just fine! They were AWESOME. They started out with songs from the Rubber Soul single, and then performed the whole album. It was just indescribably good. We loved it and the crowd did too!

At intermission I took Henry backstage. Chloe offered to walk him up to the stage when it was time for Penny Lane, but he preferred to wait backstage because it was “fascinating”. So I went back out with Chloe and we watched the second set, which was all Beatles music of course, with the Magical Symphony Youth Orchestra helping out on songs such as Eleanor Rigby, Here Comes the Sun, Something, Revolution (the slow on, yay!), etc. For All You Need Is Love, Bob asked for some children from the audience to hold the signs. Celia and Henry helped, too. It was too cute!

(sorry for the blurry band, but you can see the kids and the signs ok)

The crowd loved it. After that came Penny Lane, for which Henry stood front and center at Bob’s keyboard and played his chords during the chorus. He did a wonderful job! I was so proud of him :) He ran back out to the audience and sat with us after his song was over.

(That’s Henry in the center)

After the last song, “The End,” the audience leapt to its feet and gave the band a huge standing ovation. And then they played a few more songs! Henry and Celia went back onstage and danced to Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, and the audience just ate it up. They played until 10, I think, or a little after. Man, what a show, what a show! Rockola rocks!

After the show, Dan helped tear down for a while, and then we finally left maybe around 11pm or later, I’m not sure. It was a long but wonderful day. We all slept late this morning :)

I just discoved Star Trek: New Voyages!!! It’s a fan-created continuation of the original Star Trek series, with all the same beloved characters — Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Uhura, McCoy, etc. — but played by different actors. They use the same costumes, the same props, the same background music and sound effects.  I’ve just downloaded the three available episodes and watched a few minutes of the pilot.   It made me giddy with glee!  Sure, some of the acting is amateurish, but so was most of the acting in TOS, heheh.   It’s so much fun to be back in that good old Star Trek universe again.  Here’s some more information from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Voyages

I can hardly wait to watch these three episiodes, and I hope more will be on the way.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I sat in Dan’s workroom and played WoW on my new laptop (it works acceptably well if you turn the graphics settings all the way down) and we listened to Loveline.  I made a feast in the afternoon — mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce (homemade, not the stuff in a can), stuffing, and a couple of cornish game hens.  Yummy.  And then a bit later we drove down to Chloe’s house for a visit and to help them get ready for the show.  We listened to music (FabFour Christmas stuff, hilarious) and talked, and I worked on Henry’s cloak and my green sock, and Dan changed guitar strings and went over the technical things he’ll have to do at the show.  We had a wonderful time with them as usual.  It’s nice when family members are also really good friends.  Stayed there until about 1:15 and then drove home on the nice empty freeway.

Yesterday I didn’t write about anything but my lovely new macbook, so I’ll catch you up:

Woke up, developed a migraine which lasted all day, went to thyroid doctor in the morning, blood tests (ouch), then drove to Fargo’s house, brought him home with us, went to the bank and the mailbox, then came home, taught students, then lay around feeling crappy and doing LibriVox work. Then Dan got home and gave me my macbook :)

Today was busy but I felt ok again so that was nice. Karate in the morning, then groceries and pharmacy, then home for an hour, did laundry and chores, then out to Mythology class. I sat and played Harvest Moon DS while the boys had fun in class. I unlocked the second Hot Spring and found my first Cursed Tool. I’ll ask Flora to marry me as soon as I unlock a few more Sprites (I already have the blue feather and her heart is red, so I’m pretty sure she’ll say “yes” ;-)

Then took the boys to the trading card store, then home and taught a student, then did Librivox work for a little while and then made lasagna for dinner. And have been enjoying my lovely MacBook all day. The glossy screen kind of bothers me but I’m certain that I’ll get used to it in time. It’s different, but it’s no worse than a DS screen, which I got used to just fine. It’s so nice and fast, and Dan bought me some extra ram so now it’s even faster! And I have TWO processors ;-) And my iBook’s display was noticably fading, but the colors on this one are nice and bright. And the battery lasts forever and ever and ever.

Time to read a bedtime story (Greenwitch)!

Karate (Tiny Tigers)
Mythology class
A Way With Words (Australian Slang etc.)
handwriting practice

Dan said he’d buy me a new battery to replace the dead one in my 3.5 year old iBook today. Instead, he came home with an early Christmas present for me — a brand new white MacBook! He says he did buy me a new battery, he just wrapped it in a new laptop :) Dear dear Dan :) It’s just lovely. I’ve been working on getting it all set up properly. Dan copied over my Mail and Firefox settings (including all my extensions – Foxmarks, DownThemAll, Fuzzy Time, Google Notebook, TabMixPlus, FlashBlockM, adblock), (updated April 3, ’08: super drag and go, quickdrag(Aug 2008, works with FF3), FoxClocks, and the PMOG extension), and I’ve been installing my favorite Mac OS X software (most of which is free!):

Firefox (web browser. Free!)
Jumpcut (clipboard buffering: copy many items, then choose which ones you want to paste. Free!)
Quicksilver (indescribable but indispensable. Free!)
SoundStudio (audio recording/editing. Overpriced at $80 and has many flaws, but the nicest editing interface I’ve found)
Smultron (lovely text editor. Free!)
MenuMeters (shows cpu, ram, network traffic etc. Free!)
bean (lightweight basic word-processor. free!)
cyberduck (FTP client. Free!)
colloquy (IRC client. Free!)
vlc (media player. Free!)
twhirl (twitter/identi.ca client. Free!)
Adium (AIM/iChat client. Free!)
NeoOffice (MS Office replacement. Free!)
seashore (lightweight GIMP-based image editor. Free!)
Skype (telephone client. Free!)
pandora boy (pandora standalone player. Free!)
GrandPerspective (Helps you find wasted disk space, and looks like yummy candy. Free!)
FizzBall (pinball/breakout game, adorable and well worth the $20)
Skitch (amazingly wonderful screenshot tool, free beta right now (Aug 2008)

Still need to install:
World of Warcraft (Best. Game. Evar.)
GraphicConverter (very useful graphics program)
scanner drivers
tablet drivers
MobilePre USB drivers
And probably other stuff I can’t think of right now but I’ll notice someday.

More tomorrow!

Verbal math drills
Karate
A Way With Words (Pirate terms, etc.)
Greenwitch
cooking

Just off to return things to the library and wanted to jot down a few titles:

The Illuminator, by Brenda Rickman Vantrease — historical fiction, very well-written and a good read!

Rattled, by Debra Galant — satirical, funny, thought-provoking.

Me and Emma, by Elizabeth Flock — gripping, beautifully written, impossible to put down.  I have a hard time reading any book in which horrible things happen to children, so this one was very difficult for me.  But once I got started I had to finish anyway.

How the Nintendo Wii will get you emotionally invested in video games:
http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2006/11/a_console_to_make_you_wiip.php

This afternoon I went to visit Chloe and listen to another rehearsal.  It was so much fun!  Chloe and I got to hang out, just the two of us, and talk about all sorts of things.  I want to help her manage her hundreds of tasks, so I’m going to try to make her a database of some kind.  Cross your fingers.

Wen I got home, Dan and I put in the dvd of the first season of The Office (USA version) and watched the whole thing.  It’s really odd to see the same characters but with different names and played by different actors.  They kept the script of the first episode the same, but then branched off for all the rest.  The Gareth character (Dwight) is a lot less likable than Gareth.  You could sort of root for Gareth sometimes, but not Dwight.  On the whole it’s very good and we’re going to rent the second disc next.

We just got home from seeing Casino Royale. I enjoyed it very much! Daniel Craig, the new James Bond, is the best since Sean Connery. Maybe (gasp) better. There’s nothing pretty about him and he’s quite, um, attractive :) *fans self* He seemed to give Bond quite a bit more personality than usual.

This was one of the best Bond movies I’ve seen. There were not more explosions or chase scenes than the plot could handle, though there were plenty, as expected. The dialogue was believable and non-cheesy. I loved the camera work and the grainy B&W opening sequence. Yum. The last few Bond movies I’ve seen just seemed silly most of the time. (Remember the Ice Palace? Remember the Tank Chase? Remember Bond falling FASTER than a plummeting airplane?) This one did not seem silly at all, though there were several laugh-out-loud humorous moments. It was extremely violent, so don’t take your kids :) But for 2 1/2 hours of good solid spies-and-bad-guys entertainment I recommend it!

Oh I almost forgot — the opening credits/titles/whatever they’re called (I’m too tired to think of the right name) were creative and beautiful!

050 – How King Richard II Lost his Throne

math at aleks.com — rays/lines/line segments, beginning long division, decimal places

Here are photos of a little hat I made, of blue and white cotton yarn. The pattern is horseshoe lace, which has an 8-row repeat so I worked four rows in each color. MY dentist’s receptionist asked for one just like it in navy blue, so when I make that one I’ll write down the pattern for you.

Bayshore science (muscles)
Bayshore art (plaid)
Bayshore Spanish (crossword puzzle)
handwriting practice
multiplication

Finally, photos of Henry’s Dragon costume:

It was constructed on a pair of navy-blue sweats. Henry bought the purple-and-green latex dragon head at Costume Castle. We made spines of green felt, stuffed them, and sewed them to the back of the shirt. The tail is purple felt, stuffed, with spines inserted into the top seam, and attached to a belt around Henry’s waist. The wings are leftover pool-cover material, which is basically blue bubble-wrap. We cut the wings out and just stitched them to the sleeves and sides of the shirt. Voila! A dragon!

049 – Wat Tyler’s Rebellion

This morning after chores Henry and I sat down with the big bag of geometry stuff that Lyndy sent home with us. (Henry was sick on Math Club day but Lyndy saved our materials for us and gave them to us on Science Club Day). We read about polygons and polyhedrons, Platonic Solids and Archimedean Solids. We built polygons with pretzel rods, and polyhedrons with gumdrops and toothpicks. We played with tangrams and pentominoes. And I think we both learned something! I took photos of our gumdrop creations, which are, of course, still in the camera… I’ll try to dump/upload/post one tomorrow.

Sally went out for a bit so the house was quiet (so funny that a 66-year old makes FAR more noise than an 11-year old) and I recorded the last 2/3 of chapter 4 of Vanity Fair for Betsie. The woman who originally read chapter 4 disappeared so we couldn’t get her to fix her truncated file. But I recorded it, and pasted both parts together, and tried to get them to match in sound quality. I think I did pretty well.

Oh! Our LibriVox “A Tale of Two Cities” audiobook is done!!! Frabjous Day! You can download it here:

http://librivox.org/a-tale-of-two-cities-by-charles-dickens/

(All LibriVox recordings are volunteer-created, FREE, and in the public domain. Please download, copy, share!)

Worked with Lyndy’s geometry materials for hours — polygons, polyhedrons
Built polyhedrons with toothpicks and gumdrops
Built polygons with pretzel rods.
Worked with pentominoes and tangrams
researched and built a Fuuma Shuriken
karate

Karate in the morning — Henry helped with the little kids’ class. I ripped out my green sock (for the fourth time) and started over in a pattern that is more fun to work. (k2, p2 around for 8 rows, then k 2 rows plain, then p2, k2 around for 8 rows, then k 2 rows plain. Cute!) The pretzel cable was beautiful, but the pattern was too complex to memorize and I got tired of needing constantly to refer to my chart. Not good if you want to knit while having a conversation or watching a movie.

Then bank, then hardware store for glue and things for Dan, then fabric store so Henry could choose cloth for a cloak for Christmas. He chose a lovely leaf-green linen blend for the outside, and a tasteful brown plaid flannel for the inside. I’ll make it reversible so he can switch it around as the mood strikes him. He says he wants a round hood, not a pointed one. Good to know.

Then home, chores, laundry, email, food, LibriVox. Then out to Bayshore for Mythology and Musical Theater. I dropped H off and went to the far-away hobby store to get more glue for Dan. A man needs the right kind of glue! And then I drove back to Bayshore and knitted my sock and listened to Loveline during Henry’s classes. Ice T and his wife were the guests. He seemed quite intelligent, actually, and I enjoyed the episode a lot. Usually I can’t listen to the rapper-guests because they say “y’know’m’say’n’?” every other word and it drives me nuts.

So — then home again. Henry played with young Colin and I taught a piano lesson. Then we looked at all the fun Geometry stuff that Lyndy sent home with us and did a couple of five-minute room rescues, and then I tried to whip Henry’s iPod into shape. It complained about being full and I had to struggle with it quite a bit to get it to empty some things out, and load on the things Henry wanted. Its behaviour was vexing and puzzling — but at the VERY end I think I figured it out — Henry had accidentally pasted his entire library, or nearly all of it, into a Harry Potter book playlist. So of course it was loading the whole library onto his iPod even though we didn’t THINK we were telling it to. Then Henry’s dad came to pick him up and I threw together some dinner and then Dan came home and ate and then we drove down to Chloe’s house to listen to a band rehearsal and hang out a bit. Very fun!!! I worked on the Tale of Two Cities project the whole time — resampling and re-encoding several files, and fixing up all the id3 tags, and adding the reader names into the validator. I still need to do a quick listen to the beginning and ending of each of the 45 files, to make sure none are truncated. Andy, the wonderful volunteer who took over the project (the original BC disappeared without a trace) and I are worried that some files might not be complete. But we’ll get it figured out.

Then home late and to bed.