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The ship movement rules in the Seafarers of Catan expansion are vague, to say the least. After much digging at boardgamegeek.com, I found the answers to some plaguey questions. The entire “Observations on Ships” thread is helpful, and in the middle of it is the answer to a question that came up yesterday: Can you move the one and only ship attached to a settlement? Answer: yes.

Example and Official Answer:

townA shipA

townB shipB

Could I move shipA over to the open shipping route next to townB, like this:

townA (now all by its lonesome, no roads or ships!)

townB shipB shipA

Mayfair Rules Guru: Yes, it is possible that a settlement will be left with no roads or ships connected to it. If you move the only ship adjacent to a settlement to another shipping line (which you may do because that route is “open”), then the settlement would be left barren.

I hope this helps someone out there!

Also bumped into a rule variant that sounds good to me: When you roll a 7 and move the pirate, the robber goes back to the desert. If you move the robber, the pirate goes back to the frame of the board.

Friday, after Dan bought the Seafarers expansion for Settlers of Catan, he and Simon and Henry played twice. I felt too rotten. But yesterday I felt better so I got to play too! We played twice. I won the first game, and Dan won the second. The second one had a crazy layout — a long skinny winding island — and all three of us had quite a struggle. Dan reached 12 points first, with Simon and me at 11 and ready to win if Dan didn’t! It was very exciting. It looked for a long time as if Dan would leave us in the dust but amazingly we managed to almost catch up — Simon by competing with Dan for Longest Road and getting a lot of territory, and me with a handful of Cities. Great game!

Thursday night I took the boys to see “Into The Woods” at the Starlight. We already had tickets and I decided I felt just barely well enough to go. I’m glad I did, ’cause it was a fantastic show and all three of us loved it! I felt pretty bad the next day but it was worth it.

Thursday morning I had taken the boys up to Game Empire so Henry could buy the Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition Players Handbook and a few dice. On Friday Dan went up to Game Empire and bought us the Settlers of Catan: Seafarers expansion. He’d had a lot of fun playing it in Canada. It turned out that the expansion didn’t work with our 8-year-old version of Settlers, so he had to go back to Game Empire to buy the newer version of Settlers, heheh. Henry went with him and bought more D&D dice.

Lucky for me, Fargo’s mom’s friend happened to be down in San Diego and offered to give him a ride home, which spared me three hours of driving that afternoon. *whew*

Sally and Gary showed up in the afternoon to drop off all the old stereo components from her house. It’s all about 21 years old but as far as she knows it still works, so when we get it set up I’ll have a real radio and cd player and turntable and big speakers and everything! Very exciting.

Also on Friday our friend Simon came by — he’s from Australia but has been traveling all over North America on his motorcycle. He’s staying with us for a few days now, which is great! He’s easy-going and super nice.

So yeah lot of stuff happened on Friday. I was really tired and still in a lot of pain that night and didn’t want to cook so Dan and Simon went out and brought home In-N-Out and then we watched a few episodes of Arrested Development and I went to bed early, and then Dan brought his laptop in and we watched podcasts and stuff, including the rest of The Guild and also Cute with Chris’s Barf Animation Contest, which made us laugh until we couldn’t breathe.

Yesterday Henry’s dear friend Fargo came to visit for a few days. Hooray! He and Henry spent hours in the backyard kicking a soccer ball around and having mock battles of some kind. Dan says boys that age must fight. Fine with me, as long as no one has to go to the emergency room and no more teeth get smashed. Henry chipped two front teeth last year horsing around with Fargo and now he’s got braces so I really will kill him if he messes them up.

Oh, and yesterday Dan lent me 300 gold so I could by my Epic Flying Mount (costs 5000g for training plus 200g for the mount). I chose the Swift Red Gryphon. He is blazingly, blindingly, brilliantly fast! Now I need to figure out if there are any special quests I can access now that I have him.

The house is a filthy cluttered disaster area. Argh. I think I’ll ask the boys to haul some extra crap out to the garage today. That might help a little.

I felt awful yesterday but slightly better this morning. Maybe I’ll be able to get some housework done soon.

Yesterday we drove up to the fairgrounds in Del Mar (it’s the racetrack, really, but they do lots of other things there when it’s not racing season) to pick up our fair entries — Henry’s dragon collection and my sweater and fern lace scarf. We both got blue ribbons, and I got a fancy yellow rosette because of my Donated Award from Common Threads, a $50 gift certificate.

Also went to another doctor for a second opinion and more tests. She thinks my Strange and Very Painful Condition is shingles, which is what I think too because it makes more sense than anything the first doctor suggested, and that’s also what my ER doctor friend thinks. Ugh. Whatever it is, it hurts like hell. The first doctor I saw (who was open on the Fourth of July, thank goodness, which is when my Strange and Very Painful Condition erupted) didn’t think of shingles so now I get to go get my blood drawn again. Hooray!

Helen’s Babies by John Habberton, Part 2

Helen’s Babies, Part 2

Read by me!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book here, for free: http://librivox.org/helens-babies-by-john-habberton/)

Henry and I went to the 9:30pm showing of WALL-E last Wednesday. I case you live in a cave and don’t know it, WALL-E is the new Pixar movie. I hadn’t seen any commercials or previews, hadn’t read any reviews, hadn’t looked it up on rottentomatoes or wikipedia, so I had no idea what it was about or what it would be about. All I knew was that Henry had seen it and liked it and thought I would like it too.

Henry was right. I loved it. I loved every minute of it and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. The characters are appealing, it’s beautifully made, it’s warm and romantic and optimistic, and it’s funny without the stupid in-your-face loud vulgar annoying wisecracking animals so common in kids’ movies.

Go see it, take your kids and your grandparents, and be sure to stay though all the credits and see if you can name every period of art history represented :)

Arghhhh twitter.com is down, and http://identi.ca (an exciting new open-platform microblogging thing that just went live yesterday) is down. I’ve been beta-testing identi.ca for a while and doubted that it was sturdy enough to go live already, and now half the people I encouraged to try it will be frustrated and give up. Sigh. Poor identi.ca. I’m sure it will be back soon and then everyone should try it. The plan is, someday, that it will read stuff from twitter and all the other microblogs so you don’t have to convince your friends to switch. You can find me on both twitter and identi.ca — I’m “kayray” of course.

So anyway, since all my microblogs are down:

So tired.

Off to drop Henry at Kung Fu. Was planning to shop tonight but will put it off till tomorrow or Saturday.

Watched two episodes of Nova on hulu.com with Henry today — one about reconstructing an ancient Chinese bridge and one about trying to erect an Easter Island statue to see how it was done. (oooh more than 140 characters there!)

Anyway. Come back, microblogs!

Catching up on some recent photos:

Our backyard container tomato plant. We ate this tomato for lunch one day and it was so good!

And there are more ripening right now!

Progress on the Hopscotch Socks:

Far too big for my skinny feet and the pattern doesn’t lend itself to alterations. I think they will fit Chloe, though. I really like this heel! You turn it with short rows and then work the heel flap as usual but with this lovely cable and seeded ribbing pattern.

Turkey Stampede at the fair. Hilarious. The RC truck had turkey chow in the back so the turkeys chased it like anything.

Two weeks ago Henry was awarded his Yellow Sash:

Which means he can attend the point sparring class now! Here he is in his sparring gear:

Oh, and here I am at the Home and Hobby award ceremony at the fair, having just been presented with my $50 yarn store gift certificate:

I just dumped half a box of oatmeal on the kitchen floor, but it was uncooked and easy to vacuum up. And that was a lot better than the time I shook the bottle of salad dressing with the cap off, and the time I knocked my big cup of coffee on the floor, and the time I nudged the beer bottle off the top of the fridge and it shattered. I swear. Clumsy, who me?

Helen’s Babies, by John Habberton

A new recording for you to listen too! This one is really funny. It’s probably a little funnier to teens and grownups, but I think kids will enjoy it too. I could hardly keep from laughing aloud while I was recording this one.

In this hilarious novel, Harry Burton, a bachelor white-goods salesman, goes to take care of his sister Helen’s two little boys for ten days while she and her husband are out of town. Helen says, “The children won’t give you the slightest trouble; they’re the best children in the world!” but, as you can imagine, Toddie and Budge are always up to something, and all sorts of comic mischief ensues. It just so happens that there’s a lovely young lady in the neighborhood whom Harry admires very much, but she always seems to be passing by when he’s deep in some terrible mess of the boys’ making… (Summary by Kara)

Helen’s Babies, Part 1

I’ll post another part here every Monday, but if you can’t wait just go to the catalog page and download the whole thing:
http://librivox.org/helens-babies-by-john-habberton/

Yesterday Henry and I watched two very good movies. First was Murder on the Orient Express, the one with the all-star cast including Albert Finney, Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall, Anthony Perkins, Sean Connery, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael York (Basil Exposition!), and many other faces you’d certainly recognize. I’d seen it years ago and of course read the book so I knew whodunnit, and Henry guessed before the end. We prefer David Suchet to Albert Finney as Poirot, but Finney was plenty good enough. I thought Ingrid Bergman was stunning in every one of her scenes. She’s truly an amazing actress. The only thing I don’t like about that movie is the goofy, annoying soundtrack, especially in the “train rushing through the snowy countryside” scenes. Ugh. But other than that, a fine and very entertaining movie!

Then, in the evening, we watched the 1990 Hamlet starring Kevin Kline (my name is Otto, it means “eight”) as Hamlet. It was very good. Though I found a lot of the cast competent but unremarkable, Kevin Kline was excellent and practically carried the whole play. What a great actor he is! Gertrude and Horatio were also strong and convincing but Ophelia was ghastly. We turned her down. We were more-or-less gripped for three solid hours. Hooray for Shakespeare!

One my entires in the Home and Hobby section of the fair, the lace scarf I designed, won not only first place but also a special donated award from a local yarn store (Common Threads, in Encinitas)! Yesterday was the Home and Hobby Award Ceremony at the fair. Henry and I had planned to go all day so I could enter the one-day Nimble Fingers knitting contest at 1, and then go to the award ceremony at 4, but neither one of us got enough sleep on Tuesday night and we both felt pretty crappy yesterday, so we decided to just head up at 2:30 to get there in time for the ceremony.

We got there in plenty of time and found the place, the rather fancy Turf Club on the fourth floor of the grandstand over the Fine Arts display. Chloe and Bob decided to meet us there, which was really sweet, since there was nothing particularly exciting or entertaining about it :) We had a printed program telling the names of all the special prize winners — Best of Show, Best of Division, Special Awards, and Donated Awards.

A trio of Home and Hobby ladies read the names off and handed out the prizes, and although there were a lot of names to go through it only took about half an hour for the whole thing. They mentioned that Donated Awards were special because a representative comes from whatever store donates the award and decides who wins that award, so it’s independent of the Fair’s judging process. And Common Threads chose just me and one other person. Oh, my prize is a $50 gift certificate to the store! They sell lots of lovely yarn, of course, and also knitting books and supplies, so it will be no trouble at all to spend that $50. And the fair sends either $10 or $15 for first prize (can’t remember) so that’s even more yarn money. Yay!

After that we all went to the infield and saw Henry’s collection and watched the Turkey Stampede, which was hilarious, and the we found food and sat in the shade and waited for the Hypnotist’s show, which was even better than usual, since he had some new material this year. And then Henry and I came home and went to bed, we were SO tired! But we got a ton of sleep last night so we both feel good today and we cleaned the house this morning.

Henry and I saw some friendship-bracelet-type things at the fair, and I told him we could make them ourselves. On Friday I googled and found a fantastic website: http://www.steffe.se/vanskapsband/start.php. He’s got a basic tutorial to refresh your memory (how long has it been since you made a friendship bracelet??) and then a ton of patterns and techniques, and even a make-your-own-pattern generator thing! So Henry and I had a great time making some bracelets and I’m sure we’ll be making lots more. It’s a nice summer craft.

Yesterday was a scorcher — 98 degrees outdoors and 92 indoors. Don’t believe me? See for yourself:

I sat in the shade in the backyard, stuck my feet in a bucket of cold water, and read for hours. It was nicer outside than in because of the breeze. Finished The Year 1000 and started 1215: The Year of Magna Carta, both excellent books.

Last Thursday, Chloe and Henry and I went to the fair again in the evening. So much fun :) There was a nice lady in the Gems and Minerals building wholet us sift through a tub of sand for pretty rocks, and she told us all about what we found and let us keep a rock:

And we walked through the cow barn:

And saw the sheep and goats, too, and watched the horseshow. We saw five-gaited saddlebreds! I’ve read about them but never seen them in action. Very cool to see the slow-gait and the rack! Oh, we saw a harness competition too, with only two entrants.

Henry and Dan and I went to the Fair for a few hours last night, got there around five and stayed till around eight. I love the fair, and Henry does too. I don’t think Dan loves it quite as much as we do, but he does enjoy the crazy fair food a lot! :) We went up to Home and Hobby first and found out that, although my Cobblestone Cardigan didn’t win anything,

my Leftover Laceweight Scarf won first prize and also a donated prize from a local yarn store. There’s an award ceremony on Wednesday the 25th, so I’ll find out what my special prize is then. So exciting! My knitting has won a few 1sts and 2nds, but never anything extra.

We stopped by the yearbook competition and saw that Bayshore’s yearbook won 3rd! Yay Bayshore!

The we saw the Design in Wood building, and then we went over to the Kids’ Best tent and saw Henry’s Dragon Collection, which won 1st prize! Yay Henry!

Then we went over to the slicer-dicer tents so Henry could buy a cool leather bracelet that he spotted on Saturday when his dad took him to the fair, then we went over to the photography display, and by then it was nearly 8 and we were worn out so we came home, and then Henry and I popped over to Bob and Chloe’s house for a bit and watched “Barberland“, a great documentary on barbers and barbershops. Really, it was fascinating and very touching, and there was a marvelous mix of accents among the elderly barbers they interviewed. Highly recommended. Barbering is an ancient and dying art. Support your local barber!

It is so nice to be feeling better. A couple of weeks ago I couldn’t have managed the Fair at all.

I’m finally feeling a lot better, whew. I just have a slight little cough, not bothersome at all. And I think my thyroid situation is beginning to even out. I have a little more energy lately and I feel like doing things again!

Henry’s Guys and Dolls performance last Tuesday went beautifully. He was so awesome! I was incredibly proud of the entire cast, and grateful to their teacher, Karen, for helping them shine. I’ll post photos as soon as I get around to sorting through them.

I finished the Baby Surprise Jacket last week. It only took a couple of days to knit and was so much fun. Now I understand why everyone knits them over and over. The shaping is so very entertaining, and when people come over to admire your work you can ask them what they think it is and no one will guess — and then you do your two little folds and presto! Baby jacket!

(lots of in-progress photos on flicker and ravelry)

The yarn is Knitpicks’ Shine Sport, a cotton/modal blend (modal is beech fiber) and was just lovely to work with, and machine washable and dryable! I tumble-dried it until it was barely damp, then patted it into shape to block it. I used almost all of three 50-gram balls on #3 needles.

And I finished Mom’s striped socks:

(that photo is a bit washed out. The real green is a nice grass-green)

They’re made with Knitpicks’ Essential sock yarn, which is the only Knitpicks yarn I’ve ever used that I don’t love 100%. It has a funny, almost slippery feeling in my fingers. But oh well, it’s a nice inexpensive superwash wool/nylon sock yarn anyway.

I have more things to say but will save them for another post!

Still sick (at the coughing up gunk phase, and boy does my throat hurt from all that coughing), but it’s Monday and I don’t have to drive anywhere or do anything major today, so maybe I can just rest and try to get better. Last week was so busy.

Thursday it was Henry’s big school day (9-2:30 and I sat at school and waited since gas is too expensive for me to drive home and then back again to pick him up), an oil change at Danny’s house, and then at night we went to a musical (Crazy For You) at the Starlight ’cause we had already bought tickets in advance and we decided we felt just barely well enough to go. It was fun, but boy were we tired afterwards.

Friday I did the grocery shopping, a million errands, and an oil change for Dan.

Saturday all three of us went up to Vista for an all-day homeschool archery tournament at Margaret’s ranch. Dan took photos, Henry had a marvelous time and won a make-your-own-arrow craft kit, and I sat in the shade and knitted and coughed. Again, fun but tiring.

Sunday was Henry’s dress rehearsal up at school for his performance of Guys and Dolls. More driving, more sitting around and knitting and coughing. It was fun to watch the rehearsal, though. It was a disaster (dress rehearsals are always a disaster, aren’t they?) but I’m sure the show will come together nicely. I’m really proud of Henry — he knew all his lines, has great stage presence, keeps his head up, has a nice clear voice and great diction so you can actually understand what he’s saying! Also he sings in tune.

So anyway today, I hope, I get to just lie on the couch and try to get better. In the last few days I finished mom’s green and black socks and started a Baby Surprise Jacket for a soon-to-arrive baby niece. It was going to be a Tomten jacket but all that garter stitch was boring me, so I switched to a BSJ, which at least has lots of interesting shaping. I’ll post photos later.

Yeah I felt tired and awful all weekend and then woke up in the middle of Monday night with a sore throat. Sigh. But by Tuesday afternoon it was just scratchy, so I think it’ll get better fast. This morning it’s still scratchy, but I think I feel a bit less awful.

Last night we watched the season finale of The Tudors. The actress who plays Anne Boleyn, Natalie Dormer, is really amazing! Anyway, very enjoyable show and looking forward to more in 2009. I think they’ll have to squeeze in more than one wife per season from now on, though, ’cause none of them are as interesting as the whole Anne Boleyn situation, or maybe they’ll rush through the rest of Henry VIII and get on to Bloody Mary. She should make good TV. Also watched the first episode of Season 3 of The Venture Brothers (to cheer us up after poor Anne’s execution). Hilarious, awesome show.

And my knitpicks order arrived! Yarn for four gifts — Wool of the Andes for a felted laptop bag for Dan, enough Shadow for two Print o’ the Wave stoles, and Shine Sport for a little Tomten jacket for Tab’s baby. I cast on for the Tomten last night and the Shine Sport is lovely to work with. I was a little bit worried… I don’t enjoy working with cotton yarn, but Shine Sport is cotton blended with modal (beech fiber) and it’s very nice indeed. Also got a #3 wooden circ and #9 wooden tips. And the total was just over $50! Yay knitpicks! That’s my whole fun-money allowance for June, but hey, it’s four new projects to work on and four nice handmade gifts for people I love.

I love a good potato salad, but it’s nearly impossible to find a perfect one. I don’t want eggs, or too much GOOP, and it shouldn’t be very sweet, but it should have a bit of crunch and tang. I combined elements from a few different recipes and created a perfect potato salad:

Kara’s Perfect Potato Salad

about 2.5 pounds of red potatoes (I buy a 5-pound bag of organic reds and use about half per batch)
4 or so green onions, thinly sliced
1 or 2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of dried dill (you might want less but I like MegaDill)
1/2 c sour cream
1/2 c mayonnaise
2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar (the kind used to make sushi; it’s slightly sweet.) NOTE: I accidentally used three tablespoons last time and it was even better

Boil up the potatoes gently so they don’t fall apart. Don’t overcook them! Cool and chop into nice little bites.

Mix everything else in a bowl to make a nice dressing, and then gently mix the dressing with the potatoes. Salt and pepper to taste. Chill, and then eat for every meal till it’s gone.