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The Story of Mankind, Ch. 26

September 11th, 2009 — 7:48am

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

vanloon_mankind

26 The Fall of Rome – 10:27

You can buy a lovely thick reprint of the original book, with dozens of lively illustrations, from http://mainlesson.com.

Impatient? Get the entire free audio book here: http://librivox.org/the-story-of-mankind-by-hendrik-van-loon/

2 comments » | Audiobooks, Blog

Beatles Rock Band!

September 9th, 2009 — 9:55pm

Yeah! What a crazy day! We had a news film crew and a rock band in our house, not to mention the excitement of our new game!

That’s Henry in the green shirt. That’s my messy but interesting house. You might spot my new inkle loom, Henry’s Kung Fu diplomas, the portrait of him that Chloe drew, and Dan’s beautiful photo prints. And my millions of books.

Beatles Rock Band is amazing, really amazing. I’m worn out — more tomorrow.

5 comments » | Blog

The Story of Mankind, Ch. 25

September 9th, 2009 — 7:46am

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

vanloon_mankind

25 Joshua of Nazareth – 9:07

You can buy a lovely thick reprint of the original book, with dozens of lively illustrations, from http://mainlesson.com.

Impatient? Get the entire free audio book here: http://librivox.org/the-story-of-mankind-by-hendrik-van-loon/

Comment » | Audiobooks, Blog

The Story of Mankind, Ch. 24

September 7th, 2009 — 8:13am

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

vanloon_mankind

24 The Roman Empire – 19:20

You can buy a lovely thick reprint of the original book, with dozens of lively illustrations, from http://mainlesson.com.

Impatient? Get the entire free audio book here: http://librivox.org/the-story-of-mankind-by-hendrik-van-loon/

Comment » | Audiobooks, Blog

LEGO iPhone stand

September 5th, 2009 — 9:31am

I use my beloved iPhone in the kitchen a lot. I have a power cable for it and a set of little speakers, and it sits on top of the microwave while I listen to iTunes, Pandora, Stitcher, and Public Radio. I used to lean it against my sugarbowl but then whatever app I’m using switches to landscape mode which is useless and annoying. So yesterday, after thinking about it for months, I finally asked Henry if I could borrow a few LEGOs and I made a little stand! It’s perfect:

DSC05896

DSC05897

It’s quite stable and the phone leans back at a perfect angle. Clicking the pictures will take you to my flickr, where you can see close-ups of the stand without the phone in it, in case you want to make one for yourself.

5 comments » | Blog

A little treat

September 4th, 2009 — 11:32am

Here’s a little treat for you – Bach’s incomparably lovely Goldberg Variations played on the harpsichord by Janine Johnson and streamed courtesy of Magnatune. (Buy it there!)




Bach Goldberg Variations by Janine Johnson

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The Story of Mankind, Ch. 23

September 4th, 2009 — 8:11am

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

vanloon_mankind

23 The Rise of Rome – 5:27

You can buy a lovely thick reprint of the original book, with dozens of lively illustrations, from http://mainlesson.com.

Impatient? Get the entire free audio book here: http://librivox.org/the-story-of-mankind-by-hendrik-van-loon/

Comment » | Audiobooks, Blog

The Story of Mankind, Ch. 22

September 2nd, 2009 — 8:08am

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

vanloon_mankind

22 Rome and Carthage – 23:42

You can buy a lovely thick reprint of the original book, with dozens of lively illustrations, from http://mainlesson.com.

Impatient? Get the entire free audio book here: http://librivox.org/the-story-of-mankind-by-hendrik-van-loon/

Comment » | Audiobooks, Blog

The Story of Mankind, Ch. 21

August 31st, 2009 — 7:44am

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

vanloon_mankind

21 A Summary – 5:28

You can buy a lovely thick reprint of the original book, with dozens of lively illustrations, from http://mainlesson.com.

Impatient? Get the entire free audio book here: http://librivox.org/the-story-of-mankind-by-hendrik-van-loon/

Comment » | Audiobooks, Blog

More about yesterday

August 28th, 2009 — 9:35am

Forgot to say that Dan took us to lunch at the Studio Diner yesterday! I love going there. We went around 2:00 so it was practically empty, and nice and cool, too. My BLT was excellent, made with good ripe tomatoes, curly lettuce (not iceberg), lots of bacon, and thin crisp toasted bread. Henry, the Teenage Eating Machine, who used to barely eat anything, wolfed down an entire 1/2 pound burger with everything except pickles, and a huge pile of fries. And Dan had some kind of open-faced sandwich with meat and cheese, and clam chowder which he said was really good. It was relaxing and fun, a lovely birthday treat!

On the way home we stopped at the craft store so I could get some cotton yarn to start a belt for Henry on my new inkle loom. And then we spent the rest of the day hiding in the air conditioned bedrooms again until Henry had Kung Fu from 6:30 to 9. Chloe came over in the evening and we spent a couple hours scanning more of 1961.

In January 1961, the family went to look at the aftermath of a 45-car train wreck near DeWitt:

1 comment » | Blog

The Story of Mankind, Ch. 20

August 28th, 2009 — 7:43am

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

vanloon_mankind

20 Alexander the Great – 4:07

You can buy a lovely thick reprint of the original book, with dozens of lively illustrations, from http://mainlesson.com.

Impatient? Get the entire free audio book here: http://librivox.org/the-story-of-mankind-by-hendrik-van-loon/

Comment » | Audiobooks, Blog

I’m 40!

August 27th, 2009 — 12:17pm

It’s my 40th birthday. Doesn’t that sound old? But I just talked to my 88-yr-old grandmother and she says 40 is young :)

Henry gave me a Barnes and Noble gift card (knitting books here I come!) and Dan gave me a Ravelry tote bag, a wooden darning egg, a Knit Picks gift card, and a Schacht inkle loom, all things I’ve been wishing for! I can’t wait to start a weaving on my very own inkle loom. You may remember that I borrowed one for a while in Spring and really enjoyed using it. Henry requested a handmade belt for his birthday so that’s the first thing I plan to make.

It’s 100 degrees here today, good lord, so we’ve got the AC running in the back of the house (we can close off the bedrooms from the living room) and are hiding back here, all three of us.

I got hired to record an audiobook for a little publishing company, so I’m working on editing the very long Chapter 2 right now. I recorded it last night from 8 to 11 (the aircraft flies over my house less frequently at night).

5 comments » | Blog

The Story of Mankind, Ch. 19

August 26th, 2009 — 7:42am

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

vanloon_mankind

19 Athens vs. Sparta – 4:40

You can buy a lovely thick reprint of the original book, with dozens of lively illustrations, from http://mainlesson.com.

Impatient? Get the entire free audio book here: http://librivox.org/the-story-of-mankind-by-hendrik-van-loon/

3 comments » | Audiobooks, Blog

The Story of Mankind, Ch. 18

August 24th, 2009 — 7:41am

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

vanloon_mankind

18 The Persian Wars – 8:51

You can buy a lovely thick reprint of the original book, with dozens of lively illustrations, from http://mainlesson.com.

Impatient? Get the entire free audio book here: http://librivox.org/the-story-of-mankind-by-hendrik-van-loon/

3 comments » | Audiobooks, Blog

Hyde and Chestnut

August 21st, 2009 — 11:26am

I slept really well last night, hooray! And I woke up slowly, which is always best. I seem to either sleep long enough and wake up slowly, or I wake up much too early and all-at-once. Funny.

I also had a crazy dream: it was my fifteenth birthday and no one was paying any attention to me because of the nuclear war. However, the kindly gay Asian man who was living with us gave me a hug and said we could bake a cake in his convection oven. And there was a wolverine in the attic and a possum in the basement. I don’t know how the possum got into my dream (maybe he hitched a ride with the wolverine), but everything else can be traced back to something I thought about the day before, but y’know, scrambled by the egg-beater of my sleeping mind.

Chloe and I scanned 100 more slides from 1960 yesterday. Grandpa took this photo in San Francisco, October of 1960:

San Francisco, Oct 1960

Dig the 20′ long station wagon!

We noticed the island in the distance and thought it might be Alcatraz. Checked google maps and a map of the cable car system, and discovered that this is the corner of Hyde and Chestnut. Here’s a screenshot from google maps:

San Francisco, 2009?

Notice the apartment building on the left with its columns of gray stone in different shades of gray. Notice the red post-box thing on the corner, and the cable-car tracks of course. It’s the same corner!

2 comments » | Blog

The Story of Mankind, Ch. 17

August 21st, 2009 — 7:40am

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

vanloon_mankind

17 The Greek Theatre – 6:15

You can buy a lovely thick reprint of the original book, with dozens of lively illustrations, from http://mainlesson.com.

Impatient? Get the entire free audio book here: http://librivox.org/the-story-of-mankind-by-hendrik-van-loon/

Comment » | Audiobooks, Blog

The Story of Mankind, Ch. 16

August 19th, 2009 — 7:37am

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

vanloon_mankind

16 Greek Life – 7:41

You can buy a lovely thick reprint of the original book, with dozens of lively illustrations, from http://mainlesson.com.

Impatient? Get the entire free audio book here: http://librivox.org/the-story-of-mankind-by-hendrik-van-loon/

Comment » | Audiobooks, Blog

Mad Men!!!

August 17th, 2009 — 12:01pm

(No spoilers here, haven’t seen the first ep of season 3 yet.)

We’ve been looking forward to season three of Mad Men for so long! It seems like a thousand years since the last new episode aired. A couple of weeks ago Dan and I decided to watch seasons one and two all over again. That was about the 5th time through season one for me, and maybe the 3rd time through season two. That show just gets better every time you watch it. So we had a lot of weekend Mad Men marathons and stayed up too late a few times, and now we’ve just got the last two episodes of season two remaining. Ooo those Jet Set people are so creepy.

So tonight when Dan gets home we’ll finish up season two and then there’s the first ep of season three waiting for us!

And, since Henry knows how excited we are about it, he wanted to watch too — so I started watching season one all over again with him a few days ago. He loves it.

Have you been to http://madmenyourself.com/?

Here’s me:

madmen_icon

and here’s Henry:

madmen_icon_henry

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The Story of Mankind, Ch. 15

August 17th, 2009 — 7:36am

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

vanloon_mankind

15 Greek Self-Government – 5:51

You can buy a lovely thick reprint of the original book, with dozens of lively illustrations, from http://mainlesson.com.

Impatient? Get the entire free audio book here: http://librivox.org/the-story-of-mankind-by-hendrik-van-loon/

Comment » | Audiobooks, Blog

The Story of Mankind, Ch. 14

August 14th, 2009 — 7:35am

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

vanloon_mankind

14 The Greek Cities – 6:07

You can buy a lovely thick reprint of the original book, with dozens of lively illustrations, from http://mainlesson.com.

Impatient? Get the entire free audio book here: http://librivox.org/the-story-of-mankind-by-hendrik-van-loon/

Comment » | Audiobooks, Blog

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