My Archives: May 2005

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

We had a blast yesterday at my birthday open house! And now I have the satisfaction of looking around the place and seeing it all neat and clean and spacious. I'll admit there was some stashing of stuff in the garage pre-party; I'll try and work with Jack so that anything brought back from the garage has a proper home, so I hope we won't end up with things back to their original state. Jack wrote about the event, and we have pictures, most taken by Ivy and my nephew -- I hope to actually post some to flickr.

The turkey was a hit and was eaten up, almost every scrap. Guests got to help with the pre-cooking injecting process because we had two of the marinade injectors -- I was reminded of stirring the Christmas pudding! I'm sure all who helped will have good luck.

People were distributed between the back yard and inside; our couch moved in front of the unused fireplace so there was good flow. Food besides the turkey: crudités, chips and salsa, kettle corn fresh from Folk-Life, some salty snacks like pepperoni stick. The tiramisu cake was grand. My experiment of combining apple crisp and cherry cobbler dessert bakes in one pan worked, but didn't all get eaten up. I never got around to fixing the grapes with yogurt and brown sugar.

My sister M---- and nephew B----- were there, and very kindly spent much of the party wrangling grandson R------. He was mostly well-behaved, took no nap, and collapsed into bed at 7 pm. Some guests were still here, watching Doctor Who.

Gifts weren't requested, but I did get a few things. Flowers, a swing music CD set from Jerry and Suzle (did you know you can get a zefrank birthday card?), a carved wooden frog that makes frog noises when you stroke its back with the included stroker from Jim and Ivy, and -- inspired choice from Elinor Busby -- a crown and rubber helmet from Archie McFee.

Posted by Anita @ 04:53 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]

Monday, May 30, 2005

Eric Mack describes what he's doing to get his four kids to be computer literate. I want to do this with our 2-year-old grandson, soon! He links to previous entries on his blog with details on specific things he's done with them.

Via Scoble's Link Blog.

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Posted by Anita @ 03:55 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]

Saturday, May 28, 2005

SF author Ken MacLeod, in his days as a science undergrad, figured out that all the textbooks about Metriorhynchus, a Jurassic marine crocodile, were wrong. "The heel-bone is connected to the foot bone, and these bones lived. Because they weren't flattened, you could see the planes where they articulated, like facets. And when I looked again at the other bones, I could see that they were all flatter than they should have been, and they all had lots of tiny cracks, just as if ... just as if ... they'd all been crushed under tons and tons of mud. The Jurassic marine crocodile hadn't had a flat foot after all. It's just that the bones of the standard specimens had all been flattened. [...] And my dissertation passed, and was filed in the vaults of the Zoology Department, where it probably remains. Every picture of Metriorhynchus is still wrong." (Via Cheryl Morgan)

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Posted by Anita @ 04:58 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]

Friday, May 27, 2005

Free Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi-Free are not the same thing.

Victrola is a pleasant espresso place a few blocks from where I used to live on Capitol Hill. They've turned off free Wi-Fi on weekend days because Wi-Fi campers were changing the culture of the place, by not interacting with other people (and by not buying much of anything). I've visited Victrola a few times, but not often enough to testify about the culture there (we usually went to Insomniax because it was closer and we wanted to keep it open).

I found this story by poking around the Technorati tag page for Seattle; a Slashdot post pointing to Glenn Fleishman's Wi-Fi Networking News was linked on Delicious.

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Posted by Anita @ 04:47 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]

Thursday, May 26, 2005

We are having an open house on Monday (contact me if you are reading this and would like to come!) and Jack decided to do a deep-fried turkey as part of the festivities. Chuck Taggart of Looka has the number one page on the topic so that's what Jack licked at Delicious. That was by way of being a reminder, though, since we've done it before when we were living in West Seattle. But who would have thought that grocery stores wouldn't have frozen turkeys this time of year? They are frozen, right? so they could just sit in the vault all year round. But Jack had trouble finding one, and I had to call around to every grocery store near us and relay the results to him. Top Foods was the one that came through, but they didn't have a frozen one the right size. We ended up with a fresh bird! Now to find that injector....

The other annoyance yesterday -- I was outside gardening with our grandson and the screen door stuck! I ended up having to cut the screen for us to get back inside. Now we'll have to fix it; the door was sticking since grandson R---- banged into it with his ride-on construction toy a few days ago.

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Posted by Anita @ 03:34 AM PST [Link] [1 Comment]

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Update: The Central now has a better (because simpler) website.

My sister should really check out the new Central Cinema! She lives in Madrona, close to this East Union location. If I was still on Capitol Hill we'd meet there for sure. Hmmm, or maybe Jack and I could take in a movie and grandson R----- could spend the evening with her? Anyway, it's a dinner-movie place just opened up. "The lobby is set up as a restaurant. The waiters also deliver food and beverages to your table in the theater. [...] We have been working on developing the menu and practicing recipes. Great handmade Pizza will be the focus of the menu. Back in the day I used to be a baker so I have been dusting off my skills with flour to develop a tasty pizza crust recipe. We will also be offering hot grinders, hoagies, pasta, soups and salads. Of course there will be specials dedicated to specific movies. You won't have to wait in line at a snack bar because the friendly staff will take your order and bring your food right to your seat."

Playing now, Chungking Express, with Babe as a weekend matinee. Good luck to them!

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Posted by Anita @ 07:31 PM PST [Link] [4 comments]

Fran of Northwest Notes posted the views from her office. Wow! "I’m thinking of taking a photo a day, looking northwest. Northwest is the best view I can get from outside on the decks on the 42nd floor, outside the cafeteria. Southwest would be better for seeing the incoming weather, which has been really dramatic the past few days, but those primo views are from conference rooms (often in use, and the picture would be taken through the glass window in any case) or partner offices. We’ll see how it goes. anyway, today I experimented with a few shots from the cafeteria decks."

Northwest, northwest. Ha! I just got that.

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Posted by Anita @ 04:10 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Jessica Amanda Salmonson (Paghat at Paghat's Garden) looks at the current health fad for blueberries -- scientists have found benefits from the antioxidants in berries and other fruits. She includes a sidebar with a detailed commentary on a typical ad for bilberry extract. I'm all for antioxidants -- I'm sure they'll help me keep better! "By no means have all Vaccinium species been tested, but enough have been tested to say pretty much certainly that any vaccinium species (blueberries, huckleberries, highbush cranberries) will have higher than average amounts of easily absorbed antioxidants. Huckleberries of the Gaylussacia genus; raspberries & blackberries & other berries of the Rubus genus; & tart cherries aka pie cherries (Prunus cerasus), are all of high consequence for antioxidants. A variety of berries is better than focusing on, say, increasing the amount of blueberries in one's diet, as blueberries don't include everything significant in the antioxidant category."

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Posted by Anita @ 04:30 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Jae Leslie (some of her work here) describes what materials and advice she sent to a young friend.

Sharzi was very interested in calligraphy and wants to learn. (She is the girl I got many of my Barbies from, long ago when she was young enough to be losing interest in Barbies.) Unfortunately all the gear I had with me was for brush lettering, not a single broad-edge metal nib to be found, as I had just organized my supplies before I came, so I couldn't show her much of anything. But I had an extra watercolor fillable brush-pen with me, which is pretty cool, so I gave her that, and when I got home I went through all the handouts and stuff I have from when I was first learning, found some useful instructions, and made up a packet... then this morning took half of that stuff out and mailed her just the first couple of bits, with markers and paper to practice. The quality of markers available has really improved a lot from back when, and they are now okay for learning with until she can get her hands on a bottle of ink and a proper pen (when that happens I'm sure her mother will not appreciate the inevitable spill). I also have way too much in the way of duplicate paper supplies and instructional handouts.

"You will never cry over spilt milk once you have spilt ink."

I figure she should start with a Humanist Bookhand (Johnston called his Foundational). This is an upright hand so one doesn't have to deal with getting the right slant; the shapes ares round which is fairly uncomplicated as these things go, while one is getting used to holding the pen at the correct angle. Bookhands are familiar as the basis of much modern type, and it is possible to make fairly attractive letters pretty quickly. But everyone usually wants to start with Italic, what most Americans think of as "Calligraphy", which is only easy to do badly. I says it who knows, and I'm going to throw out more of my old practice sheets Real Soon Now.

Then I also sent her a page of skeletal Roman letters, to trace or copy in order to get an introduction to the basic classical proportions, from Neuegebauer's Mystic Art of Written Forms, not pretty but essential to study. All of these I had on hand in duplicate, from my notebooks, so I didn't even have to go to the copy store. I stuck little post-it notes all over, with tips on how to practice. If she sends me a page of nice letters back again as I invited her to, I'll send on the Italic and medieval stuff.

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Posted by Anita @ 04:42 AM PST [Link]

Saturday, May 21, 2005

No, he hasn't done anything evil as far as I know (assassinations don't move you up in fiction writing on our planet), but Mark Bourne has made some changes to his appearance, with less hair on top of his head and more on his chin. No more "Zero Mostel Comb-Over Championships."

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Posted by Anita @ 04:25 AM PST [Link]

Friday, May 20, 2005

Geoffrey K. Pullum (I keep writing Pullman) at Language Log expands on some points he was quoted about in a Chicago Trib article about Yoda's syntax. I had to read carefully to follow the grammatical examples, but I enjoyed it! "[Yoda's] English is an odd mix, as if he were sometimes thinking in terms of XSV [Complement Subject Verb] constituent order, and sometimes just over-using English stylistic variant orders, and sometimes getting the idiomatic English word order just right. But heck, he's an alien. I bet we wouldn't do so well learning whatever his first language was, the one that he learned nine hundred years ago at (one assumes) his mother's knee. (Hmm. Do the females of Yoda's species even have knees?)"

Eric Bakovic (also at LL) follows up with thoughts about language issues in Star Wars generally, then segues to the Babelfish.

Mark Liberman (again at LL) considers some complaints about Yoda's speech (and wisdom) from Anthony Lane in the New Yorker.

Until today I didn't realize that Language Log is a group blog! I think that's because when I've read it it's been through links from Language Hat. All this via Celine at Naked Translations.

Posted by Anita @ 04:58 AM PST [Link]

Thursday, May 19, 2005

We met at Ralph's, our usual venue. We had a great view of the line for Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith at the Cinerama theater across the way. There were limos and some people in costume (I could see the light sabers glowing in the twilight). The main effect on us was the increase in business at Ralph's -- a long line at the one cashier (some of us waited until later to pay for things we'd already consumed) and a statement by the guy in the kitchen that he'd run out of turkey and ham for sandwiches. When I arrived Jake was already there, talking to two guys who were taking a break from the line. Clark went across the street several times to get pictures (not posted yet) and was blogging from the deli, but the post was on a different topic. I did stand up and report to most of the folks about what's happening with our future plans. Also lots of baby worship, with 8-month Ben Soroos and 5-month Journey Madison being cute. Susan and Karen talked about telecommuting experiences -- they both work for companies based in the Bay area. Matt May and Michael Hanscom finally met - they are twin sons of different mothers, looking so much alike that Kristen, Matt's wife, said she'd often done a double-take when seeing Michael at Jason Webley concerts. Those present:

Posted by Anita @ 05:01 AM PST [Link]

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

I was impressed by this list of favorite spots for sweet food by JN Aquino at Seattle Metblog (or is it Metroblogging Seattle?). Studying this loving description of some of the best places for desserts isn't great for my diabetic diet, but mmmmm. "Over the course of time, I’ve developed into one bon vivant of a sweet tooth. Every now and then, depending on what type of meal I ate before, I ache for something sweetly specific: a decadent double chocolate cake, a sinful gourmet white chocolate truffle, a creamy crème brulee, a fancy fruit tart, hearty scoops of flavorful fruity gelato, a frothy tall cup of bubble tea smoothie with tapioca, a delicious tropical guava chiffon pie or coconuty haupia, a slice of the famous triple coconut cream pie, a luscious square of lemony lemon bar, a melt-in-your-mouth silky tiramisu, a scrumptious freshly-made with juicy strawberries dessert crêpe, an exquisite banana foster flambé, etc. Different taste moods float my dessert boat."

Posted by Anita @ 04:54 AM PST [Link]

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

It's time again for the cover contest at All About Romance, and the most wonderful, funniest category: Worst Covers. All of the nominees were bad in their own special ways, but the winner was truly amazing! On Rumor Has It by Cindi Myers: "I'm completely confused about what it's showing. They're in a car right? Are those the heroine's legs going through the roof? Or is he with a guy? Because that hand on his waist looks masculine to me. I guess it could be a MxMxF threesome in a backseat. And a paranormal one at that, if the lightning shooting out of his butt is any indication. Plus the scene out the window makes it look like they're floating through space - I hope the windows have good seals. Sheesh. So the cover tells me this is about a ménage a trois in a spaceship designed by aliens with Earth auto fetishes, in which the lightning propelled buttocks of one man thrust him with such vigor into the woman she kicks a hole in the ceiling, causing an air leak into space that they must figure out how to stop before they die. Let's hope that other guy is MacGyver. Did I get it right?"

The author Cindi Myers was unhappy with this cover, for sure.

Posted by Anita @ 03:47 AM PST [Link]

Monday, May 16, 2005

Matthew Baldwin of Defective Yeti documents his daily (or at least week-day-ly) run around Lake Union in The Morning News. Hmm, the article blurb says "daily" but he says, "I occasionally take a long lunch and run around Seattle’s Lake Union." My favorite photo is the one of T&A Supply -- I've always smiled when driving by that sign.

Posted by Anita @ 04:08 AM PST [Link]

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Yesterday I updated the Potlatch website and shifted it over to Potlatch 15, which will happen in Seattle next February 24, 25, and 26. I got it all done before our concom meeting (concom = convention committee) except I made a mistake with the Paypal shopping cart. I found my error last night, and now you can buy memberships and banquet tickets with abandon! T-shirt ordering will be added soon.

Potlatch is my favorite science fiction convention, small and friendly with an emphasis on books. Check it out!

Posted by Anita @ 04:08 AM PST [Link]

Friday, May 13, 2005

We helped my brother get a new PC the other day; the help consisted of a ride to Fry's, some advice from Jack on which package to buy, and help from Jack on getting the thing put together and functional. Hmm, I guess I really didn't provide much actual help, but I was there. Anyway, my brother asked me for links to a few weblogs that he had bookmarked on his old machine but hadn't transfered to his new one. These are actually on my list but this will make it easier for him to find them.

Posted by Anita @ 04:31 AM PST [Link]

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Chuck Olsen tells me that there's a free screening of his movie Blogumentary, this Friday evening.


This event is connected to a forum on blogs and the media being held by the Evans School of Public Affairs (part of UW).

Posted by Anita @ 04:29 AM PST [Link]

Next Wednesday, May 18, it's the Seattle Weblog Meetup! Start time is 7 pm, location is Ralph's Grocery and Deli, 2035 4th Ave Seattle, WA, in Belltown across from the Cinerama theater. Look for us in the deli seating area. We usually are still chatting until nine or so, so drop by even if you can't get there early. You don't have to be a Meetup.com member to attend, but if you join I can contact you about any last-minute changes (these are rare). Hot food, salad, pizza, and beverages are available, and anything from the grocery can be brought in to the deli. Parking can be tight in the area, but I usually find a space on the street aroudn 6th Avenue.

Posted by Anita @ 03:59 AM PST [Link]

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

These small structures are adorable! Working drawings are available if you wanted to build one yourself. You could get a Dogtrot Connector to join multiple buildings if needed. How about a fannish compound someday? Jay Shafer says, "My houses have been composed with meticulous attention to light, warmth, energy efficiency, and proportion. I have made the most of each cozy interior by minimizing transitional areas like hallways and stairwells and by using otherwise unusable space as storage. The simple, formal designs that have resulted are the best way I have found to order most any space and make it beautiful."

My only gripe with the site is how (in IE) opening one of the small pop-up windows zaps the main window back to the top of the page. (Via Interrupting Gelastic Jew)

Posted by Anita @ 04:16 AM PST [Link]

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

I turned out to be Greg Benford, "A master literary stylist who is also a working scientist." Jack turned out to be Robert Heinlein, "Beginning with technological action stories and progressing to epics with religious overtones, this take-no-prisoners writer racked up some huge sales numbers." I guess this is appropriate because RAH is one of his favorite writers. (If you use the provided code to display the results, you'll need to fix the image link to be a fully qualified URL.) Are Benford and Heinlein a good match, do you think? and who are you as an SF writer?

Posted by Anita @ 04:25 AM PST [Link]

My mother's day (or surrogate parental unit's day) celebration was great! I told Jack that I wanted him to come to Family Swim at the Redmond Pool with R---- and me, so he could see the boy swim. We had a blast, and Jack was very impressed with his grandson's abilities. Then we went for food at Samurai Sam's since I wasn't interested in being with the m-day crowds. Jack handled most of the dishes for the day and cooked dinner as well.

Posted by Anita @ 03:44 AM PST [Link]

Monday, May 9, 2005

Via Jack. A very short time remains before the Senate votes on the RealID. They've attached the bill to an emergency spending bill to support the military. Very scary! But you can contact your Senators and tell them what you think about it, very easy through this web site. From the Philly Daily News:

In Washington they're calling the proposal floating through Congress 'RealID.' A better name for it would be: 'Real Dumb.' [...] a proposal that would require everyone who wants to get a driver's license to prove he is in the country legally. If approved, states will have three years to impose the new requirement, otherwise residents will be barred from flights and federal venues that require a legal ID to get in. Proponents claim it will help stop terrorists and illegal immigrants from getting official IDs that make it easier for them to travel across the country. But many of the terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attack had student visas and were at one point in the United States legally. The provisions in 'RealID' would not have nabbed them.

Why is a National ID a bad idea? From the Village Voice:
"The simple answer is that it gives the government greater ability to control the actions of private individuals," says Electronic Privacy Information Center executive director Marc Rotenberg. "It has generally been the view in this country that one of the core aspects of personal freedom is to be free of government control."


Posted by Anita @ 04:23 AM PST [Link]

Friday, May 6, 2005

I got a clickthru on my referrers thing (which is provided by blogtricks) for this Google search string: eileen gunn coming to terms is it sf. The searcher must have been very persistent, since I don't come up till the third page! But what really made Jack laugh loudly was the alternative that Google presented: eileen gunn coming to terms is it safe. Well, Eileen, is it? IS IT?

Posted by Anita @ 07:03 PM PST [Link]

Thursday, May 5, 2005

Followup to the Belly-Achin Blowout. Here are most of the links I've found to the Seattle Weblog Belly-achin incident.

Gah! enough meta!

Posted by Anita @ 05:04 AM PST [Link]

Wednesday, May 4, 2005

We had a good time last night at what will probably be the last East Side Meetup that happens under the auspices of The Bellevue-East Side Weblogger Meetup Group. Present:

Shirley came to the meetup because she'd seen the article in the Bellevue Reporter. I was pleased that she brought it along, and let me keep her copy. The article as a whole was more balanced than the portions that I'd been able to read online when it was first posted. Hamburger Lad had searched all around for a copy, and so had I!

I didn't make a big deal of discussing the changes at Meetup.com, but I hope I spoke to everyone who was actually a member at Meetup. I'll be emailing the members and posting on the group message board about my plans: I'll step down as organizer for this East Side meetup and add an event for the Seattle Meetup at the same place and time (First Tuesday, Crossroads, 7 pm). Active members should join the Seattle Meetup or just mark their calendars. It's possible someone might step up to organize the East Side group but I don't think it's likely -- there wasn't an organizer before me that I can find.

I think that people had fun -- we stayed and people were gabbing until the mall closed at 9 pm. (You know folks are enjoying themselves when they say "We need to get going," then keep on talking for quite a while.) Grandson R---- held up fairly well with the late bedtime, playing with a Skarloey red train engine and a little wooden "R" that had magnetic catches so they could work together. I felt very clever because I had drawn a train track on a large piece of paper for him to roll them around on. He ate pizza ("pee-ba!") and drew on a Doodle Pro drawing slate.

Posted by Anita @ 05:01 AM PST [Link]

Tuesday, May 3, 2005

I want Chas Redmond to go on an outing with grandson R----- and me! He does this with a neighbor of his and it sounds like lots of fun. "So today was Zoo day for my neighbor and her 2-year-old son. I volunteer to go on these outings because I can help dispel some of Henry's (the 2-year-old) energy and bad sprits which any two-year-old can get. He was in one of those moods where he was being contrary even to himself. But, it was a grand time nevertheless. When Henry got too out of hand I'd grab him and hold him like Superman and make him concentrate on flying. By the time he'd get tired of flying, his mind was off on another tact and things would continue. So goes it with kids at the zoo - even if they're not yours. I spent days-on-end it seems with my two kids when they were at that stage. It's always fun to go through that kind of experience again - with a new kid and a new zoo. So much of life is ritual which we don't even realize we're engaging in. Ritual which is fun and important and which has purpose."

Posted by Anita @ 04:30 AM PST [Link]

Monday, May 2, 2005

Jack and I took turns seeing Hitchhiker over the weekend, and I went first! It turned out that Jack might need the car on Saturday, so he and grandson R----- drove me to Ballard. I must remember that the McDonalds there has an indoor play area! After we ate lunch I left the two of them there, Jack reading and R---- climbing and sliding like a very energetic climbing and sliding thing. It was a short walk to the Majestic Bay. Too late I realized I'd forgotten the books I'd meant to bring in the car, but I spotted Epilogue Books and hoped I could buy something to read later.

Luke McGuff and Mary Kay Kare met me at the theater. There was a line at the box office, but I think that was because this was the first show of the day and folks were going for the discount price. The theater was respectably filled but not sold out. I liked the movie more than I thought I would -- my expectations of film adaptations are low. There were some weaknesses (I didn't mind Warwick Davis being inside the Marvin suit, but the design of the suit wasn't good) but some funny moments, too. Now I've been reading the big long negative review and being reminded of what was changed or left out.

We had coffee after (not at Verite which had an extraordinary line due to cupcakes being served there, but at Tully's which is right next door), then Luke and I walked to Epilogue and I scored on an Amelia Peabody mystery which I hadn't read yet. There were two copies of The Mummy Case and I chose the one that had an eighties-style romance cover, swoopy type with random Egyptian clip art images scattered about. Luke kindly gave me a ride to downtown so I didn't have to take two buses to get home.

On Sunday I drove Jack to our friend Bill's house so he could go hiking and movie viewing up in Bellingham. R---- and I went to the pool, then hung out at home.

Posted by Anita @ 04:16 AM PST [Link]

Sunday, May 1, 2005

Whoo-hoo! My friend Eileen Gunn won the Nebula for her short story "Coming to Terms", from her book Stable Strategies and Others. The Nebulas are voted by the members of The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a professional association. (We were at last year's awards weekend which happened here in Seattle.)

Says Eileen about the story: " 'Coming to Terms' is a new story, inspired by the late Avram Davidson’s habit of writing in all his books. I started it after helping Avram’s son pack up his father’s apartment after Avram’s death. I worked on the story over about ten years, during which time both my own parents died, and I packed up their belongings and correspondence." More on Avram Davidson. More about Eileen and Anita.

Posted by Anita @ 04:59 AM PST [Link]

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