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Busy and fun day.  Henry and I went out to do errands, including returning a book to the library.  While we were there he asked a very nice children’s librarian for recommendations. He told her his favorite books and she led him around and helped him pick out a good stack of the dark fantasy books he loves so much.  He’s a reading machine lately.  He started on A Wind in the Door right away in the car (lucky guy can read in the car without getting sick).

In the afternoon I helped him record more Pirate’s Chorus parts for librivox’s Pirates of Penzance production.  I tried again to record Ruth but my voice is just not good enough.  Sigh.  So I gave up on that and passed the part along to someone else.  Before my students came we baked a cake, too.  Then I taught, then took him to karate and watched the class for a change, then came home and made dinner, which was brown rice, stir-fried veggies, and Trader Joe’s Hawaiian Beef, yummy!  Plus cake for after of course :)

Dan and I started watching Survivor Thailand last night so tonight we get to watch the second episode.  It’s wonderfully soothing bedtime television.

021 – Edward the Confessor

Woke up way too early but lay in bed and dozed and listened to the Efren Ramirez (Vote for Pedro!) episode of loveline. By the time it was over it was a decent hour, 8 am, and I got up. Worked on LibriVox stuff for a while, fixed some screwy non-English characters in several long posts. By the time I was done with that my voice had woken up too and I recorded my last seven chapters of Our Island Story! Jim already finished his and spliced the last chapter together (we alternated reading the List of Kings) so after Anna proof-listens it, I can catalog it! Wooohoooo!

Also beat the Boss in the Wavy Beach world in Super Princess Peach. Oh, what a good game!

The weather has changed!  Autumn is on the way!  It’s still mainly warm in the daytime but I’ve been taking a sweatshirt with me when I go out because it’s chilly (to me) in the shade sometimes, and the nights are cool.  My feet are cold all the time again, and I’ve been wearing the brown wool toe-up socks I made last year.  I finished one of my blue and white cotton socks this afternoon, too tired to get up and take a picture though.  And now I suppose I should make the other one to match, except what I really want to do is use some of my new green Jawoll sock yarn and make some nice wool socks, maybe lace or cable for a change.  but I really should finish the cotton socks.  Here’s what I hate: self-patterning sock yarns.  Eww.  I’ll do my own patterning, thanks.  My nearest LYS has a big basket full of nice skinny wool-blend sock yarns — but not a solid color in the basket!  All nasty self-patterning stuff.  Bleah. So I went to the further LYS for nice solid Jawoll.

Tired tired tired.  The budgies went bananas early this morning and woke Henry and me up, but we had a nice morning anyway.  Made him a blintz and read The Talking Parcel to him on the porch until his dad came to pick him up for the weekend.  Then I came in, put the birds in the laundry room, re-installed my USB mobilepre drivers (trying to get rid of obnoxious clicking — it worked!), and recorded 4 more chapters of Our Island Story.  Jim is done with his half and I just need to read 7 more short chapters and then we’ll be done!  So exciting.  Henry started listening via my podcast the other night, and got up in the morning brimming with excitement.  He loves it!   He was telling me all about Vortigern’s exploits :)

From Boingboing.net:

The Section 115 Reform Act (“S1RA”) is back, and its provisions smashing Internet fair use are as bad as ever. Among many subtle, dangerous changes to copyright law, the bill implies that licenses from copyright holders are needed for every digital copy made in the transmission of digital media — including cached copies on servers or on your hard drive, and even temporary copies in RAM. The bill is coming up for a key vote in the next two weeks.

Take action now by visiting EFF’s action center and help stop S1RA. More info on the bill here.

Please click the EFF link, get your representative’s number, and CALL.

This morning Henry and I went out to get something to paint blue swirly designs on his body, so he could be a Celtic Warrior (Last night he followed directions in the Story of the World activity book for a double-bladed axe, a dragon brooch, and a cloak.) We thought of blue body paint, but the costume store didn’t open til 10 and we were out at 9:30. So we went to Target and bought Crayola washable markers. They worked great. Henry drew blue swirls all over himself and posed for photos in his Celtic Warrior costume:

A nice fellow from Channel 10 news, Kyle Majors, came over this afternoon to do a quick interview about LibriVox for the Tech news spot. He was super-nice and geeky enough to know what archive.org is. Also he’s a Mac guy, heheh, so he gets automatic cool points. He asked better-than-average questions. The spot will probably air on Monday or Tuesday. I’ll let you know how it turns out…

This afternoon Henry and I did a lot more projects out of the History activity book! I read him the first chapter, Fall of the Roman Empire, and the rest of the second chapter about the Celts and how Vortigern invited the Angles and the Saxons to Britain. Then we made a cookie-dough Ruined Roman Column (and some cookies, too) and colored a map page. Henry likes the little tests so we did a couple of those too. We had so much fun doing projects together! I’m really tired now, but at least I had enough energy to do projects for a few hours :)

020 – Canute and the Waves

Mom took me out birthday shopping today! We had a great time. We went to Common Threads (1996 called, they want their website back, but the store itself is wonderful) in Encinitas to look at yarn and things, then we got a little bit lost on the way to Barnes and Noble but we found them eventually. Mmmmm yarn and books!
This aftenoon there was some actual quiet, except for the budgies, so I recorded my part for Twelfth Night (The Sea Captain, lol) and two chapters of Our Island Story. Getting some annoying clicking with my new mic setup, even after a reboot, grr, but the sound quality between the clicks is very nice so I guess I can put up with a few clicks. Sigh.

Henry and I were looking through his educational materials and he spotted the Celtic Brooch pattern in the Story of the World activity book. And then he saw the Celtic Double-Bladed Axe project! Go read his blog (spaceman3000.blogspot.com) and he’ll tell you all about it. I also read the Ancient Celts chapter of the history book to him, so we covered a lot of edumacational ground today, and will have some “work samples” to give to Karen. Lol, “work samples”. So lame, so pointless. But we play the game nicely because Henry likes the people and classes at Bayshore ;-)

A couple of days ago I made a little roll-up case for my DP needles. I used gray wool for the outside, and green plaid cotton for the inside. It’s just a rectangle, folded over and stitched to make pockets, with a fold-down flap at the top for security. I made a little spaghetti-strap tie-cord first, and stitched that into a side seam when I lined the gray with the plaid. I turned the rectangle right-side out and topstitched the edges, then folded up the bottom and sewed vertical lines to make needle pockets. I left a couple of larger pockets on the right side for a ruler and other small notions. Pictures!

Rolled up and tied:

Unrolled, lifting top flap:

Completely opened:

This afternoon, Henry and I went to a really fun gathering of homeschoolers who like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh. While the kids played, I got a lot of knitting done! Turned my heel and began the leg ribbing. Here are photos:

Snazzy, huh? :) I’ll probably work a solid-color ribbing band soon and stop.

Notes to self: work 9 white stripes, then start heel flap. Inc one st so heel-stitch looks nice. Work 4 rows per stripe, 3 stripes each color.  After third white stripe, turn heel in blue (6 st. each side).  Pick up side stitches with blue, dec at sides every other round back down to 44 st total.

019 – How Edmund Ironside Fought for the Crown

Felt pretty good today, did a lot of stuff — errands, housework, even some recording! Now I’m tired and ready for bed but I just wanted to mention that greencine.com sent us a wonderful documentary about Mister Rogers: Fred Rogers – America’s Favorite Neighbor. Henry and I watched the whole thing after dinner. We loved it. Mister Rogers was a great person.

I’ve started some cotton/acrylic toe-up socks. I actually started them a few days ago, but I wasn’t happy with my first few tries and kept starting over. Now I’m on the right track, though.
Materials:

• Plymouth Yarn Wildflower D.K. 51% cotton/49% acrylic 1 skein dark blue, 1 skein cream, each color divided into two equal-sized balls.
• Skinny gray little dp needles

Pattern: adapted from Footed, Toe-Up Socks and Denise’s Toe-Up Sock.
Here’s what I’ve done so far, just to help me remember and make the other sock the same – not a good idea to try to follow these directions if you’re a beginner! BLUE: CO 8 w/ loop method. K8, turn needle over, K8 in the back of the loops. (16 st)
Inc (twisted YO technique) both sides every round, two times. (24 st). Inc one side only, every row, to 38 st. Then inc same side every other round to 44 st. End of toe.

Start stripe pattern: 3 rows each color. K2P2 rib on top of sock. (K the first round after color change, then rib 2 rounds.)

Here’s my progress so far:

To be continued…

018 – Ethelred the Unready

What would have happened to the folk music explosion in the mid-twentieth century if Barbara Allen, The Erie Canal, and We Shall Overcome (etc.) had been under copyright?

Happy birthday, Ken :) Hope your day was nice!  oxoxox

A few days ago I heard a 1940s novelty song called Shaving Cream, by Benny Bell, on my “Pete Seeger” Pandora station. It came on again today while Henry and I were listening together and, as I expected, he loved it :) Here’s a link to the lyrics: Shaving Cream Lyrics and Chords. It’s not on iTunes or Amazon, but you can find the mp3 easily if you just google for it (hint: archive), or listen to my Pete Seeger station and you’ll hear it eventually. I printed out the lyrics for Henry and we sang it together all day. Lol. There’s nothing funnier than Shhhhhhhhh….aving Cream humor when you’re almost 11!

Here’s a song I love: Saginaw, Michigan by Johnny Cash. Adorable. I’d buy it (iTunes HAS that one) if it weren’t for the stupid DRM. And yeah, I know I can defeat the DRM by burning a cd, but it’s the principle of it.

We went out for Henry’s new notebook and mechanical pencils this morning. When we got home, I made him a freezer-paper cover for his notebook and he colored it while I sewed him a roll-up pencil case. Maybe I’ll post a picture tomorrow when I’m not so tired. Henry says he’s really looking forward to going back to Bayshore! We had our EF meeting with Karen today and Henry gave her a big hug :)

017 – More About Alfred the Great

Dan and I watched the first episode of the first season of Green Wing last night. It was brilliant! I don’t know when I’ve laughed so much.

A hospital comedy that avoids all things medical, Green Wing turns the spotlight on the human interactions, behavioral quirks, and social observations of a group of medics who staff the most bizarre hospital ward on television.

Hilarious, witty, surreal.  We spotted three or four cast members of The Office!  Nice to see those faces again. The only thing that annoyed me was the radiologist, who thinks he’s John Cleese.  I can hardly wait to watch the next episode.  Thanks again, BBC!

09 — Experimental New Blog.

07 — We finished our production of The Importance of Being Earnest today! We’ve been working on it since December 2005 but it’s finished now, finished and cataloged. Funny, I recorded my lines so long ago that I’ve forgotten what they were! All the cast members recorded their lines individually. We had people in the US, in Canada, in Japan, in England, and in Australia taking part. Then Paula, darling Paula, spliced everything together, balanced the sound as best she could, and made it sound like a play. If it weren’t for the little differences in room noise and mic quality, you’d swear we were all in the same room together! I think it’s amazingly successful. I submitted the link to boingboing and they picked it up! Yay boingboing, that’s the site that led me to librivox in the first place.

05 — Rockola performed the entire Revolver album, plus lots more Beatles music, at a wonderfully renovated old theater in North Park. Dan and I went down to help out — Dan did tech for the show and I sat around and knitted and offered advice all day. Heh. We got down to North Park at a little after 10am (traffic was not as bad as we expected) so we got some breakfast at the independant coffee place across the street. Clair de Lune, maybe. Beautiful old building. At 11 we went back across to the theater and Dan helped the band set up and everything. I knitted and watched. Much rehearsing happened. We ran across the street and bought lunch for the band and tech crew, and later Chloe and I went down the street half a block to a pizza place and got pizza for everyone for dinner. Nice guy at the pizza place wheeled 7 XL pizzas and 5 6-packs of sodas back to the theater for us :) Pizza was at about 6pm, then there was more planning and rehearsing before the show started at 7:30. It was a sold out show! I got some photos, will post later. The show was amazing. Too tired now to describe further, maybe tomorrow. But, truly amazing. And the audience loved it. And it went oh so smoothly, despite some rocky moments during rehearsal. Good job, Rockola, as usual! :)

03 — Tired tired tired. I’ll let you know when I’m NOT tired, how about that? Took Henry to the dollar showing of Corpse Bride this morning. Meh. But it was fun anyway. Henry’s a delight at the movies, or anywhere, really. He’s so civilized and pleasant. Then I took him to his dad’s house, then bought groceries at Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s always makes me feel cheerful :) Got some sliced fresh mango for a Dan-treat, and fresh pineapple wedges for all of us. Also ingredients for beans-and-rice for tonight (easy) and Shephard’s Pie for tomorrow (harder, but maybe I’ll be less tired. Ha.) Now I’ve caught up on librivox and email and now I think I’ll lie about and rest and maybe play some Harvest Moon. Gamechild or Gamecube… hmm, tough choice. Cube, I guess. Oh wait first I have to attend to a sinkful of dishes. But then rest and fun.

02 — Tired tired endlessly tired. At Margaret’s art class today we looked at Jackson Pollock’s work and then did a couple of nice free drippy splashy projects. Henry LOVED it. He says the art he made today is his favorite of the whole summer, along with his Eat Your Fruit poster. He wrapped his arms around me while he was waiting for his painting to dry and said he was having a wonderful day. Dear sweet Henry! When we got home we both collapsed on the couch and watched a Poirot mystery (The Murder of Roger Ackroyd). Henry loves both Poirot (David Suchet version) and Miss Marple (Geraldine McEwan version). I think I was about his age when I discovered Agatha Christie novels.

This evening, well, early evening, we went out to the Moonlight Amphitheater for The Sounds of Music. Stopped for mexican food first, then got out to the theater about 6:15 and got in line at the gate. We ended up getting a pretty good spot, just left of center and a few levels back from the front. So we sat and ate and read until the show started. Adorable show, of course. Henry was enthralled. His favorite part was when the Nazi officers came shining their flashlights into the audience, looking for the escaping Trapp family. Heh. My favorite part was when the Trapp family performed Lonely Goatherd at the Festival — with extra harmony bits that didn’t make it into the movie. (Henry always wants to discuss Favorite Parts so I always have to PICK one, heheh) Maria was little too cute-cute, but everyone else was great. The show went really late and we got home about 11:30, utterly exhausted.