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I had such a nice dream last night about an old penpal, Peer Völkner. In my dream he came to visit us and we chatted in bad German (me) and bad English (him) and he drank Scotch with Dan and we had nice visit.

Peer and I were penpals from, oh, 1986 or so till the late 90s, and it was my fault entirely that I lost track of him. A couple of moves, a divorce, a lost letter…

I google his name from time to time, trying to find any contact info. It’s an unusual name, so there aren’t many results. There’s a Peer Völkner who wrote a book on business — that could easily be him. But never any way to contact him. Last I knew, he’d married a girl named Christine, and had a daughter named Paula (I think). And he most likely still lives in Germany. He went to the university in Bochum but has probably moved away from there by now.

Peer Völkner, where are you?

I’ve not been feeling well for the last couple of weeks, not sick, just really tired all the time, low energy, kinda down. But I’ve been entertaining myself with a variety of fun books/tv shows/podcasts/etc. Let me tell you about them.

The Cazalets
Grandma recommended a BBC miniseries called “The Cazalets”, so I got the first disk from Netflix and just loved it. Did a little research and found that it was based on The Cazalet Chronicles, a four-book series by Elizabeth Jane Howard. The books in order are: The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, and Casting Off.

Lucky for me, the main library owns all four books and sent them to my local branch for me, and I devoured them. I tried to make the final book last a while, but I just couldn’t slow down. Marvelous. The setting is pre-, mid- and post-WWII England, and the books tell the many and varied stories of all the members of the large extended Cazalet family. The author writes from the point of view of dozens of characters, so the reader sees events from many angles, which is lots of fun, and I was also really impressed by her ability to write realistic children and teenagers.

If you like books in which nothing really exciting happens but are all about people and the things that matter to them and how they relate to each other, I can’t recommend the Cazalets highly enough.

The Archers
A twitter friend said something a few weeks ago about how she had just discovered The Archers, a BBC radio soap, and was enthralled because someone was making meat pies… sounded like my kind of thing so I did a little searching and found http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/archers/. The Archers is a radio drama that has been playing since 1950. It was originally partly educational, as the producer hoped that farmers would tune in for entertainment and “pick up messages that would help them feed a Britain still subject to food rationing.”

Anyhow, I subscribed to the podcast right away and have been a passionately loyal listener ever since. I get the emailed synopses, which are helpful because they provide names for the voices I’ve come to recognize, and then I can look those names up in the Who’s Who on the BBC site, and try to figure out how everyone is related. There’s going to be a sheep-shearing contest soon, so you’d better tune in.

Sherlock
The BBC (oh how I love the BBC) has created a modern Sherlock Holmes series: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t4pgh
The first episode aired last Sunday, and I watched it once with Henry and then again with Dan a couple days later. I loved it the first time, and loved it even more the second time, believe it or not. It’s fast-paced, witty, and suspenseful, and the casting is excellent; I am particularly impressed by Martin Freeman’s “Dr John Watson”. Watson is a tricky character to get right, but this Watson is perfect; a bit damaged and very intelligent. And Sherlock couldn’t be better.

My only criticism is that, well, ahem, you don’t want to look at the actual plot too carefully. ;-) But that’s ok, in the original stories you didn’t always want to look at the plot too carefully either. Dad would have enjoyed this show so very much. I’ll be thinking of him every time I watch.

Um, that’s enough for now. The family wants feeding. More later.

I think I forgot to mention that Fargo stayed with us for five days in the middle of July! He and Henry have been best friends since they met when they were about 7 and 8 and we lived in the same apartment complex, and they have stayed friends even now that Fargo lives in Arizona. Fargo is a quiet, pleasant, intelligent boy and a tremendous reader. The boys spent hours kicking balls around in the yard, talking, and reading, and we introduced Fargo to Mad Men, A Fish Called Wanda, and This Is Spinal Tap. It was a joy to have him stay with us, and we hope he can come back again soon.

Here are those handsome boys!

Catching up on “This Country of Ours”:

23 The Founding of Massachusetts – 00:08:25
24 The Story of Harry Vane – 00:05:41
25 The Story of Anne Hutchinson and the Founding of Rhode Island – 00:05:11
26 The Founding of Harvard – 00:04:36

Sorry, I’ve been under the weather. Here are the chapters that have posted to the podcast feed recently:

Episode 26: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 8, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 8, Part 2 (8:12)
Episode 27: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 9, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 9, Part 1 (9:36)
Episode 28: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 9, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 9, Part 2 (9:10)
Episode 29: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 10, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 10, Part 1 (9:47)
Episode 30: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 10, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 10, Part 2 (13:00)
Episode 31: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 11, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 11, Part 1 (9:27)

This makes me laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh. It reminds me of listening to P.D.Q. Bach records with my parents when I was little. Thanks for the link, Chris :)

Henry and I went to the Tool concert last night! Tool is one of his favorite bands in the whole world, and it was a real dream come true to get to see them.

We had great seats, dead center and only 18 rows up from floor level. We got there nice and early. The opening band was, er, not too impressive but Tool was GREAT. Interesting music, fabulous musicianship, and no stupid “guitar god” posing like the opening band. They just played their music and rocked hard for two solid hours.

I really enjoyed most of the projections on the giant screens behind the band. Some of it was beautiful patterns and colors and shapes, really spectacular.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Tool lately in preparation for the show. Henry made me playlist of the songs that were likely to be played at the show, and there are several that I like a lot, so it was really exciting to hear them live!

Here are a couple of photos, one of the stage right when we got there (so you can see our view) and one of the band playing, which I cropped a bit.

If there’s anything better than taking your teenage son to hear a band that he loves, I don’t know what it is, and all three of Henry’s parent-type people get to take him to wonderful shows this year! His dad took him to OK Go, I took him to Tool, and Dan will take him to Rush next month :) We’re so lucky!

Episode 22: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 6, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 6, Part 2 (6:19)

Episode 23: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 7, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 7, Part 1 (9:49)

Episode 24: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 7, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 7, Part 2 (11:50)

Episode 25: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 8, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 8, Part 1 (9:59)

My sister Kathy and her husband Scott are in town! They’re staying with his relatives and have a very full schedule, but I met them at the fair on Monday (the last day of the fair). There was a one-day Favorite Apron contest that day, so I entered the apron that I just made for Chloe and took 3rd place in the “classy” division :) Kathy and Scott sat with me during the judging and we could hardly keep straight faces; it was so totally the epitome of the old-fashioned County Fair experience!

Here it is, modeled by the elegant Chloe:

And we looked at the woodworking and the Home and Hobby stuff together, and then my feet got tired so I left them at the fair and came home to grill a nice dinner. They came to our house after they were done at the fair, and Mom and Chloe and Bob and Henry and Dan were all there, too, so it was a jolly family gathering and we had a great time talking and eating for hours. After a bit, I got my camera, Dan and Mom got theirs, and Chloe and Scott whipped out their camera-phones — we were all snapping away at each other like paparazzi. It was hilarious, and we were laughing so hard it was difficult to take pictures.

Here are Chloe, Henry, me, Mom, and Kathy:

And here’s a nice candid shot of Kathy, Scott, and Chloe on the couch with Mom in the background.

I have the very best family in the world! I wish my other sister, Kirsten, and my brother, Ken, could have been here too, but oh well, maybe someday. (In case you’re wondering, Ken and Kathy are actually my half-siblings but I never think of them that way.)

Oh! I forgot to say that on Friday we saw the Sidewalk Stompers Marching Band at the fair!

I love marching bands!

Henry and I went up on the roof last night to see if any of the fireworks were visible from there. We were able to see about ten different displays going off in the distance! Lots of them were partly obscured by trees, but we had a clear view of several, way off in the distance to the south. That was fun!

On Friday Chloe went with me to the fairgrounds for the Home and Hobby awards ceremony, which was adorable. It’s held in the Turf Club up in the top of the grandstands at the fairground. They serve lemonade and cookies, and the dear sweet Home and Hobby women read off the names of the winners, who then run up to the front and get their certificates. This year they showed pictures of the winning entries on a big screen. We recognized nearly all of the items, so it was fun to know which person made them. I got three certificates — a Best of Division and two Donated Awards, all for the fingerless mittens. Here’s what the room looks like:

And then Chloe and Bob came back to our house and we all watched Toy Story 2 and WALL-E. Great movies.

Oh, yesterday I finished my recording of Through the Looking-Glass. I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as Alice, but it was still fun. It felt more self-conscious than Alice, and less fresh. Still, a classic! Download it here: http://librivox.org/through-the-looking-glass-by-lewis-carroll-3/ or you can always wait till I push it through my podcast feed in a few weeks.

Episode 21: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 6, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 6, Part 1 (8:40)

Rockola did their Rubber Soul show on Saturday night! Henry played on several of the songs, so we were there early for rehearsal. We went straight from Henry’s ballroom dancing class so he was starving; I ran across the street to the Claire de Lune coffee shop and brought back lovely sandwiches and lemon cake. Here’s a quick and crappy video of Henry and Cody (Henry is on the right) playing the balalaika bits in “Girl” during rehearsal (the boys start playing about 1/3 through):

And here’s Henry playing the keyboard stuff in Here Comes the Sun during the performance! Henry is the blue blodge second from the right. He gets to fiddle with knobs to make the slidey keyboard sound. You’ll hear that right near the beginning. Oh, and that’s Chloe who scampers across the stage to do the handclaps and gets a big round of applause :)

Henry also did some percussion stuff, some vocals, more keyboards… It was such fun to watch him on perform, and the whole show was just fantastic, as usual! They played not only the whole Rubber Soul album but lots of other Beatles stuff including Hey Bulldog and Happiness is a Warm Gun (two of my all-time favorites). I sold t-shirts in the lobby during intermission.

Henry is in the purple shirt, here:

And here are a couple of him waiting around, playing games and making a fierce face:

Thanks Rockola (Bob, Mark, Doug, Bobby, Chloe, Sandy, and all!) for letting Henry participate and giving us such a musical treat!

Episode 20: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 5, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 5, Part 2 (9:15)

Starting a new audiobook for you today — the third part of This Country of Ours by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall, a book of US History stories for kids. If you want to read along and see the pictures, you can buy a lovely thick paperback reprint of this book at mainlesson.com: This Country of Ours.
22 The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers – 00:23:04

Grandma knows I love BBC costume dramas, and she recommended The Cazalets, so I got the first disk from netflix and watched last week. Really liked it! As usual, there were lots of actors whom I recognized from other BBC things :) I did a little internet searching and discovered that the BBC series was based on the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard: The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, and Casting Off. I sent for The Light Years from my library and read it in three days — could not put it down. (Because I use the lovely “Readmore” app on my iPhone, I happen to know that it took me 7.3 hours of reading in 13 sessions over 3 days, heheh.)

It was just the sort of book I love: a big complicated family, lots of aunts and uncles and cousins, their servants, all the little details of relationships and family life, etc., set against a historical background (pre-WWII England, in this case). Every character seemed real to me, but I thought the author was particularly good at writing the children and teenagers. I can’t wait to find out what happens next. I don’t know which will get here first — the next book or the next disk of the miniseries, but either one will make me drop everything else.

Episode 18 of “Kayray Reads to You”: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 4, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 4, Part 2 (9:56)

And episode 19: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 5, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 5, Part 1 (9:20)

11 Who Stole the Tarts? – 00:12:13

12 Alice’s Evidence – 00:13:21

And that’s the end! I’ll start a new book next Monday.

Just finished that pair of beautiful striped socks for Dan:

The yarn is leftover scraps of light and dark blue Knitpicks’ Risata, and a bit of Regia Bamboo. I split all three balls of yarn exactly in half (yay for Dan’s gram scale) so I could make sure the socks matched exactly. I really didn’t think I had enough yarn, and thought I’d have to finish the feet in yet another color, but I had enough and a little to spare of all three yarns.

They’re worked on 60 stitches on size 0 needles, knit firmly. They are quite snug on Dan’s feet; he says they are fine, but next time I would work them on 64 stitches for just a little more room. I worked in the tails at the color changes as I went, thanks to the Techknitter’s marvelous “overcast” method: http://techknitting.blogspot.com/2007/07/overcast-method-part-3-of-tails-and.html, so I didn’t have to do any tedious finishing. The stripes are six rows of light blue, three of dark blue, three of bamboo, three of dark blue, repeat.

I wasn’t sure they’d fit Dan, and I must confess I wouldn’t have minded taking such a lovely pair of socks for myself :) But I’m glad they fit because he really needs more thin socks for summer.

Episode 17 of “Kayray Reads to You”: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 4, part 1

Absolute Zero, Chapter 4, Part 1 (10:25)

Please note: I made these recordings around 2002, and the sound quality is not as good as my more recent recordings. But I hope you will not mind the lower quality too much. You’ll probably be too busy laughing to notice, anyway.

This book is, sadly, out of print in the US. You can find a few used copies on Amazon: Absolute Zero on Amazon. Beware. Every edition after the original 1978 printing has the wrong cover art.