kayray.org

Oops :) Forgot! Here’s all the rest of The Apple Stone. Hope you like it!

58 The Apple Stone, Ch. 8: The Muddled Image
59 The Apple Stone, Ch. 9: Stupid as Stone?
60 The Apple Stone, Ch. 10: Big Game
61 The Apple Stone, Ch. 11: Sheep May Safely Graze
62 The Apple Stone, Ch. 12: The Monster

Next up is “The Four-Story Mistake” by Elizabeth Enright.

Happy New Year, everyone! It sure would have been nice if I’d gotten around to telling you all about our wonderful Christmastime, so I’ll try to remember to do that over the next few days, but for now, I’ll tell you about my very nice New Year’s Eve and Day.

First of all, yesterday Dan and Henry cleaned the whole hideously messy back room which serves as hobby-room/office/Kara-closet. I’ve been wishing that room was clean for, oh, years, so that was a wonderful thing!

And then last night my mom and Bob and Chloe came over, and Dan and Henry were here too so it was a very jolly New year’s Eve. We talked and laughed and ate a nice dinner of my carrot-potato-cheese soup and garlic toast, and a beautiful salad that Mom made using lettuce and the few remaining tomatoes from her garden, YUM. Sal gave piano lessons to Henry and Chloe while I was cooking dinner. Mom went home after dinner (8pm is pretty late for her already) and, until midnight, the rest of us just talked and laughed and listened to a collection of Beatles tracks that someone somewhere ripped from the Beatles Rock Band disks, so we could hear JUST vocals, or JUST bass, etc. That was really quite thrilling.

I got to bed around 12:30, listened to The Archers, fell asleep immediately after that, and slept until 9am, so that must have been close to 8 hours of sleep. A good way to start 2011. After I woke up and read email, checked twitter, etc., I did my first LibriVox recording of the year, Charles Perrault’s version of Puss in Boots for the Charles Perrault Fairy Tale collection. When I saw that project go up I begged for Puss in Boots. I just love that tale. Why does he need the boots? Who cares. He just does.

Then I had a lovely chat with Aravis until it was time to wake Henry up. I fixed him a little cup of coffee for a treat (decaf!) and we had a great time listening to The Rite of Spring and following along in the Dover edition of the full orchestral score that Santa brought him. Henry’s dad picked him up around 1:30, and a minute or two later Mom showed up to help me get my garden ready for Spring! She brought me six lovely sacks of composted steer manure (from Home Depot, she doesn’t have any livestock, heh), and she dug those into my little garden bed, and pulled weeds and everything, while I tried to stay warm in the sunshine and we talked and talked. And then we planted peas, lettuce, spring onions, and cilantro.

In the early evening Dan and I went to see “The King’s Speech” which was really superb! I loved every minute of it, as did Dan I think, and the minute we got home I made plans with Mom and Chloe to take them to see it tomorrow. It’s got a quiet but extraordinarily moving story, a great cast (Mister Darcy, Lucy Honeychurch, Lizzie Bennett, Squire Hamley, Mister Collins, and many other familiar faces), and a lovely score with lots of Mozart and an excellent use of Beethoven’s 7th at a critical moment in the story. Read some reviews to see if it looks like your kind of thing, and if it does, please go see it before it leaves the theater. Let’s support those rare movie makers who know how to tell a decent story.

Then this evening I knitted and watched several episodes of a BBC Music History series by Howard Goodall, which was great, and then we watched a few episodes of Venture Brothers and now it is bedtime.

I hope your 2011 started out as pleasantly as mine did!

At least, I hope it’s a treat :)

Here is my recording of “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”:
A Child’s Christmas in Wales

This little story is a Christmas tradition in my family. I remember my big sister reading it aloud to me when I was very small, and I remember my parents reading it to us little ones, and then I remember reading it to them when I was bigger. A bit of info from wikipedia:

A Child’s Christmas in Wales is a prose work by the Welsh writer Dylan Thomas. Originally emerging from a piece written for radio, the poem was recorded by Thomas in 1952. The story is an anecdotal retelling of a Christmas from the view of a young child and is a romanticised version of Christmas’ past, portraying a nostalgic and simpler time.

If you like it, may I suggest that you buy a recording of Dylan Thomas reading it himself? It’s on iTunes (though iTunes won’t sell you the single track; you must buy a whole album of Thomas’s poetry for $6) and here is the single track on Amazon for only $.89!
http://www.amazon.com/A-Childs-Christmas-In-Wales/dp/B00491RONM/ It’s a wonderful recording. It’s a permanent part of my “Best Christmas” playlist.

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you get plenty of Useless Presents. Go ahead and lace your tea with rum; it’s only once a year.

P.S. I worry that the joke of “Snakes and Families” and “Happy Ladders” is lost on Today’s Youth… The real games were called “Snakes and Ladders” (you might know it as “Chutes and Ladders”) and “Happy Families“. Now you know.

Dan and I went to the art museum yesterday to see the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit again. (Henry was recovering from a sore throat, so he stayed home).

Hm, I thought for sure I wrote a blog post about this exhibit (I’ve seen it three times now) but I can’t find one, so I guess I only imagined writing it.

Our museum owns a complete collection of Toulouse-Lautrec’s posters (as well as other works) but they are so fragile that they are stored safely off-exhibit most of the time. The last time they were displayed here was back in the 80s, I believe. So this is a really rare chance to see them all. The exhibit was supposed to end on December 12th, but it was extended to December 31, thank goodness!

I really like Toulouse-Lautrec’s work. It’s so hard to say why, though. I guess I find his art to be exhilarating! I like his colors, I like his shapes, I like his perspective, I like the energy and freedom in his lines, which seem to me to portray movement but not agitation. There are a couple of pen-and-ink sketches in the exhibit which just knock me out every time I look at them — a group of racehorses jumping a hurdle, and a view of some street performers. They’re just brilliant. So few lines, so much meaning. I’m also extremely fond of the six or eight different posters and portraits old Aristide Bruant. What a guy! Here he is:

After much experimentation, I think I’ve created the world’s simplest, least-fussy recipe for Eggplant Parmesan. (Eggplant = Aubergine, my non-USA friends.) I have found that you don’t need to bother with the salting-waiting-pressing step, nor the breading and frying, nor any pre-cooking at all. You don’t even have to grate the cheese if you don’t want to.

To feed 3-4 very hungry people, buy:
Two medium eggplants
One brick of mozzarella cheese (Full-fat, please, let’s not skimp. I think they typically weigh one pound)
One jar of your favorite tomato sauce
A lump of parmesan cheese, or some of the pre-grated stuff if that’s how you fly. I won’t touch the pre-grated stuff, but that means I have to do a bit of grating. Up to you.

Pre-heat oven to 350F

Ok. Slice up those eggplants, peel and all, into rather thin slices, maybe 3/8 of an inch thick. Less than half an inch, anyway. Let’s call it a centimeter. That’s less than half an inch, right?

Slice up the mozzarella similarly. Grate up some parmesan cheese if you’re snobby like me.

Dump a little bit of sauce into a fine large casserole dish with a lid. Layer about a third of the eggplant slices on top of the sauce, overlapping as necessary. Layer about a third of the cheese slices (this will not even remotely cover the eggplant. That’s fine. It will spread out as it cooks), then about a third of the remaining tomato sauce. Repeat eggplant/cheese/sauce layers, then sprinkle a generous handful of grated parmesan cheese on the very top.

Cover and bake for a LONG LONG TIME. I think I ended up baking mine for about 2 hours. Test after about 1.5 hours and see if the eggplant in the center is tender yet. Pull some out and taste it. Raw eggplant is revolting. Bake a while longer if you’re not sure. Take the lid off for the last half-hour or so. Let it cool just a few minutes before serving.

This is so freaking tasty, and easy too! And it doesn’t make a big greasy mess in the kitchen. And it smells so good while it’s baking. Yum!

Oh, you can throw in some slices of fresh tomato between the layers, if it happens to be summer and you happen to have a lovely ripe flavorful tomato handy.

The next book in the “Kara’s Free Audiobooks” podcast is a wonderful little thing called “Grammar-Land”:

In this charming 1877 book of grammar instruction for children, we are introduced to the nine parts of speech and learn about the rules that govern them in Grammar-Land.

Judge Grammar is far mightier than any Fairy Queen, for he rules over real kings and queens down here in Matter-of-fact-land. Our kings and queens have all to obey Judge Grammar’s laws, or else they would talk what is called bad grammar; and then, even their own subjects would laugh at them, and would say: “Poor things!

They are funny fellows, these nine Parts-of-Speech. You will find out by-and-by which you like best amongst them all. There is rich Mr. Noun, and his useful friend Pronoun; little ragged Article, and talkative Adjective; busy Dr. Verb, and Adverb; perky Preposition, convenient Conjunction, and that tiresome Interjection, the oddest of them all.

Here is the Preface and Introduction:
00 Preface and Introduction

And here is the rest of This Country of Ours, part 3:

31 The Hunt for the Regicides
32 King Philip’s War
33 How the Charter of Connecticut was Saved
34 The Witches of Salem

One of my tweets was featured on the BBC’s “The Archers” website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thearchers/2010/12/a_shed_for_tony_-_listener_dis.html

So I’m all proud and honored and stuff :)

This is completely unrelated except for being another thing I’m proud of, but 300 people have downloaded our little German book!
http://www.archive.org/details/first_little_german_book_1011_librivox

On June 1, 2008, (thanks, gmail archive) our dear Chris Hughes sent me an email recommending “Peep Show“. Dan and I tried it and absolutely fell in love. We’ve watched all six series over and over and over, to the point where we can recite along with the characters. Or all we have to do is say, “Mark, are you ACTUALLY Sherlock Holmes?”, or mention “tricking the boiler” or “invisible rays of bullshit” or “endlessly pooing” or “red next to black, jump the fuck back”, or scream “JOHNSON!” to make each other crack up.

Last year some time we heard rumors that there would be a seventh series. Eventually the rumors were confirmed, and then the writers and actors (we follow some of them on twitter) even began talking about filming… and finally, months ago, they announced that Series Seven would premier on November 26th. So we marked the calendar and began counting the days. And today was the day! Finally, finally, finally, some brand-new PEEP SHOW!

We tried not to expect too much… not every episode is great even though they all add up to something remarkable, but tonight’s episode was everything we could have hoped for. Ahhhhhhh Peep Show. Thank you, cast and crew and writers! Can’t wait for next week!

If you haven’t seen Peep Show yet, I should give you a word of warning as to content. I’ll paraphrase the warning that Chris gave us originally:

It is very innovative, and very funny – BUT dark, dark, dark, to the point of cringe making in places. Adult themes. Bad language. Do not watch with children or the elderly and infirm.

If you can handle it, you’re in for a real treat. Check youtube (carefully). You can probably watch every episode there in bits and pieces. Look for Mark and Jez:

And of course Super Hans!

This is OUTRAGEOUS! This is CONTAGIOUS!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope your day was as cozy and peaceful as mine.

Henry went to Rhode Island on Tuesday with his dad and grandpa to spend Thanksgiving with his Rhode Island relatives (he says they all talk like Peter Griffin), so Dan and I had a quiet Thanksgiving with just the two of us. I hadn’t really planned on making a big feast… but then Trader Joe’s tempted me with their pre-cooked half-turkey, and I do love mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. And stuffing. And gravy. So I went ahead and made everything as usual, heh.

Dan requested a cranberry cheesecake so I bought a springform pan and we made a cheesecake together on Wednesday so it could chill overnight. It turned out fabulous! Here’s the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cranberry-Cheesecake/Detail.aspx But you should double the amount of cranberry topping, and also follow the alternate baking directions: bake at 350 for 15 minutes, then at 200 for 75 minutes, then turn off the oven (NO PEEKING) and let it sit in there for two or three hours. Perfect creamy texture and no cracks! We served the extra topping on the side so the pretty marble pattern didn’t get covered up.

I also invented a saute of cauliflower and asparagus with a lemon/butter sauce. Turned out nice! Oh, and we shared a bottle of sparkling cranberry juice. Here’s dinner:

Yum!

Elli and I just recorded an adorable little picture book together: My Very First Little German Book. The text is here: http://www.read.gov/books/german.html and the free librivox audiobook is here: http://librivox.org/my-very-first-little-german-book-by-anonymous/. I read the English parts and Elli read the German parts. I edited the whole thing together, and she did the cataloging. So much fun! Here’s a sample page:

Poor little boy!

I’m quite proud of myself because I have just read an entire novel in German: “Klassensprecherin Dolly” by Enid Blyton. I’ve read a lot of other stuff in German over the years — chapters of this and that, short stories, and even half of Alice in Wonderland for LibriVox (Elli read the other half), but never a whole novel from beginning to end. And Enid Blyton is unknown here, so I wasn’t even familiar with the story or characters. Our library has NONE of her books in English, though she is a British author! They only have a few German translations in storage. Hilarious.

Yes, it’s “just” a kids’ book… but still it was quite an accomplishment for me! And very fun, as well. I’ve always loved boarding-school stories. And I was just delighted when Dolly gave horrible Irmgard a good shaking!

Now I’m in the middle of “Balletschuhe” by Noel Streatfeild, which I’ve read before in English, of course, so that helps quite a lot. But I think Streatfeild’s writing style is a bit more complex than Blyton’s.

A few weeks ago, one of the moms on my homeschool email list asked if anyone could find an online text of “Grammar-Land” by M.L. Nesbitt (published in 1877). I had a look and found the text on Google Books: http://books.google.com/, and after I’d glanced through it I decided I had to read it for LibriVox, since, you know, I’m kind of obsessed with grammar and language, and it looked like a really fun little book.

Elli did the proof-listening for me. We both loved the book. It’s utterly charming, and so lively and interesting! The chapters are nice and short, which didn’t hurt either. It’s a lot easier to find time to record a 10-minute chapter than a 45-minute one.

I finished up the book on Wednesday, so here it is:
http://librivox.org/grammar-land-by-m-l-nesbitt/

“They are funny fellows, these nine Parts-of-Speech. You will find out by-and-by which you like best amongst them all. There is rich Mr. Noun, and his useful friend Pronoun; little ragged Article, and talkative Adjective; busy Dr. Verb, and Adverb; perky Preposition, convenient Conjunction, and that tiresome Interjection, the oddest of them all.”

Whom do you like best? Elli and I are both quite fond of Dr. Verb, and we dislike the smooth and slimy Adverb. Notice how the author has each character use his own kind of word as much as possible — very clever. :)

Just finished up a lovely new pair of socks for Dan. They’re the “Gentleman’s Sock with Lozenge Pattern” from Nancy Bush’s “Knitting Vintage Socks“. Great book.

Yarn: Lang Jawoll Superwash
Needles: size 000

I knit the cuffs on 72 stitches and the rest of the sock on 70. I used the cuff pattern and the nifty “lozenge” pattern, and did my own favorite heel and toe. This is a great pattern if you don’t like to count rows! The purl stripe comes every tenth row in the cuff and the lozenge pattern is very easy to memorize and you can just work as many repeats as you need by just counting diamonds.

These socks are here on Ravelry:
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/kayray/gentlemans-sock-with-lozenge-pattern (no log-in necessary)

I’ve already started another pair in dark green.

It seems I started posting Through the Looking-Glass before This Country of Ours Part 3 was quite finished. Oops :) So now I’ll start posting the rest:

29 The Founding of Connecticut and War with the Indians
30 The Founding of New Haven

Happy November! Here are a few more chapters of The Apple Stone for you:

55 The Apple Stone, Ch 5: The Sword and The Planets
56 The Apple Stone, Ch. 6: The Feathered Serpent
57 The Apple Stone, Ch. 7: Detectives

“The Sword and the Planets” might be my favorite chapter… well, one of my favorites, anyway. I love Sir Amias.

Dan and I spent the entire weekend upgrading the librivox forum software. Our forum has a lot of customization so we had to figure out a lot of crazy tricky stuff, which we tested all day yesterday on a dummy install. This afternoon we actually did the upgrade and it all worked and nothing has exploded so far. *whew*

Got my hair cut today and the guy did a pretty bad job, so then Chloe fixed it for me :) It’s quite short now!

Henry and I made a Vault Dweller costume for Halloween:

Ugh, I have a little cold. Cough, headache, runny nose, scratchy throat. But it’s not an actual SORE throat, for which I am grateful.

I decluttered the house all day, and it looks worse than ever. But eventually it’ll look better. Right?

Super sleepy tonight… up early, did groceries and other errands, then spent the rest of the day migrating my photo library from Aperture to Lightroom.

Made Eggplant Parm for dinner. Chloe came over and knitted a garter for Lena.

This weekend was Henry’s Double Daggers seminar!

Henry and I spent hours and hours today working the “Pip-Boy Model 3000” for his Halloween costume. We had so much fun! He’s going as a Vault Dweller from Fallout 3. For those of you who don’t play, the Pip-Boy is a wrist-mounted “Personal Information Processor”. We built ours out of a water bottle, a PSP, several sheets of craft foam, velcro, and some other stuff. It looks so cool!

Last Monday we ordered the necessary navy-blue coveralls, which arrived today and fit him perfectly. Now I need to sew some yellow stripes on them and put “101” on the back.

Photos soon…

Oh, and the White Dragon Kung Fu School banquet was tonight. We had a great time! The food was forgettable, but we sat at a table full of MIss Edwards’ students and had a riot. They were all just as kind and friendly as could be, and I almost didn’t even feel shy (and I had my knitting, which helped). The joke of the evening was how hard it was to get a pitcher of water brought to our table :)