My Archives: June 2006
Thursday, June 29, 2006
The Redmond Fun Factory program in the parks starts next week. Grandson R--- and I had a blast at this last summer! Though he was younger than the program is technically aimed at, the young guys running things adapted so he could participate as much as he wanted to. They come around to various Redmond parks and do crafts, games, and other fun stuff. Their trailer has a bunch of equipment inside so they can change their plans when needed. We'll be at the Cascade View park, 16202 NE 40th St., on Thursday afternoons starting at 1 pm.
(tags: Redmond, FunFactory)
Posted by Anita @ 04:38 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
While visiting McDonald's Book Exchange to look for vacation reading (we'll be camping with family near Maryhill this weekend) I found a new-to-me Regency romance author that I really like -- Laura Matthews. She was writing most actively in the early eighties, so I'll need to keep looking for her books at the UBS. She does have some of her early work available as ebooks, but I'm not yet in the habit of reading fiction online.
(tags: LauraMatthews)
Posted by Anita @ 04:22 AM PST [Link] [2 comments]
Monday, June 26, 2006
I'm so happy to hear about new episodes of Futurama! (I guess the rumor of a Futurama movie didn't pan out.) I missed a lot of the later episodes when they were originally broadcast, and some of them didn't make it to the air at all! So lately I've been watching the DVDs before going to sleep, on our little DVD player that fits on a pillow on my lap. Usually I get through one episode, or one and then a commentary replay. If my head starts knocking against the headboard ("thump!") I know it's time to go to sleep.
(tags: Futurama)
Posted by Anita @ 05:01 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Jessica Amanda Salmonson hadn't updated her Paghat's Garden site for a few months, but now she's back on track, with many new or updated pages posted in June. Irises, oriental poppies, Lady Banks rose, salal, crocus, and more! On white forsythia: "Purplish buds all along the grey naked branches open into faintly almond-fragrant small white four-petalled flowers occasionally with a faint pink shimmer & yellow stamins. These burst into bloom late in winter, typically for February & March, but the photo here is from the third week in January (2006) when we'd had a warmish & very wet winter. It blooms before the reappearance of its leaves & it blooms well ahead of our yellow true forsythias. Like true forsythia, limbs of winter buds can be brought indoors to open sooner in vases."
(tags: JessicaAmandaSalmonson, Paghat, gardening)
Posted by Anita @ 05:10 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Friday, June 16, 2006
Next Wednesday, June 21, it's the Seattle Weblog Meetup! Start time is 7 pm, location is Ralph's Grocery and Deli, 2035 4th Ave, in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood, diagonally across from the Cinerama (map). There's free WiFi courtesy of Ralph's, and food and drink are available for purchase (you can buy anything in the store and consume it in the deli area, so that includes wine and beer if you want). Local and visiting webloggers talk about blog topics and lots else. This month, we'll also be celebrating Jack's birthday so there will be cake and cherry pie! I hope you can join us!
(tags: SeattleMeetup, BlogMeetup, Meetup, weblog, blog)
Posted by Anita @ 05:44 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Next Tuesday, June 20 2006, one of my favorite TV shows is back with new episodes: Dirty Jobs. Or was one of the episodes last night new? I'm confused! Jack doesn't understand my attachment to this show, but I find it very funny. Here's a transcript of a live chat with host Mike Rowe from March 7, 2006.
an39: Which job do you think was the hardest physically to do (not the most disgusting)?
Mike Rowe: It's a close race, but any of the following would qualify as an honest answer: indoor demolition, hot tar roofer, sludge remover, and two that have yet to air. The first is gandy dancer, which is railroad work. The second, which is the best example of brute work I have yet to encounter, is Malibu stream restoration. Many years ago, residents in the hills of Malibu, Calif., constructed large, concrete dams in the streams that ran through their property, creating watering holes. Unfortunately, steelhead salmon swimming up the stream from the Pacific are no longer able to reach their spawning grounds. Consequently, these man-made barriers need to be removed. The tools: a sledgehammer, a jack hammer, and wedges. Back-breaking, exhausting, unforgettable pain.You can sign up for an email reminder on the "fan site" which is created by the Discovery Channel, not fans.
(tags: MikeRowe, DirtyJobs, DiscoveryChannel)
Posted by Anita @ 03:37 AM PST [Link] [1 Comment]
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Kim Salazar writes one of my favorite knitting weblogs at String or Nothing. She's entertaining and scholarly! Right now she's doing a series of posts on issues regarding knitting in the round vs knitting flat.
- Part 1: "To go from round to flat, there are two big things to take into consideration - the garment shape and the knitting texture or colorwork pattern used. In order to transform a seamless thing into a knit-flat thing, seams must be introduced. Sometimes figuring out where to put them can be a challenge. The sweater I'm working on now is of very simple construction, but even it presents a challenge."
- Part 2: "As in so many things, ideology does play a part. You can find books written in the 1940s through 1960s that sniff at knitting in the round, calling it 'peasant work' or noting it in passing as the dreary ancestor of more modern applications. And you can find books written by knitting revivalists that excoriate the torture of imposing tailored seamed construction on a medium that has so many virtues in its most simple form. I'm dogma-agnostic. I use whichever method is best for me to produce the project at hand. Which brings me to the real reason why I think patterns are written one way or the other: It's what the pattern's author/designer is most comfortable with."
- Part 3: "In general, first I'd begin reading the pattern and noodling out how to deal with it's tougher parts. This sounds like a dumb thing to say, but I know lots of people who knit with the 'headfirst off the pier' approach. They grab needles and yarn and start in without taking the time to work through the piece mentally and to make sure they understand it. While this step can be less intensive if you're knitting something verbatim as written, if you're translating between flat and circular knitting not taking the time to really understand the original can be fatal to your project. I'd also point out that if you are knitter who rarely reads ahead, you are far more trusting than I. I've found lots of patterns that were poorly written or confusing. At the very least, knowing ahead of time that rocks are in the stream makes the the rapids less of a surprise."
Most of the knitting I'm doing these days is in the round (one-skein Noro Kureyon hats) but I've done some knit-flat sweaters in the past. I've not yet tried translating a pattern from one method to the other.(tags: KimSalazar, Knitting, StringOrNothing)
Posted by Anita @ 04:39 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Wow, this is a surprise! Robert Scoble is leaving Microsoft for a Silicon Valley startup. Chris Pirillo has links to a lot of stories about this.
I'll miss Robert -- he's not only changing jobs, he and Maryam are moving to the Bay area. It's a good thing that he'll be closer to his son, I'm sure.
(tags: Scoble, Scobleizer, Maryam, Podtech.net, weblog, blog)
Posted by Anita @ 03:50 AM PST [Link]
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
Fran Mason, who usually writes about her gardening at Northwest Notes, also writes about her scooter. In her latest installment, she talks about downtown parking for scooters. Do you ride a scooter to work? Where do you park? Let her know! "I could have biked to work today, but I hadn't ridden the scooter since Friday and thought it could use some exercise. When I parked it in my usual spot, I was promptly told by the attendant that I can no longer park there. The manager had changed his policy. The parking garage is the one under the Convention Center/ACT Theatre, with its entrance on Seventh Ave. The parking space is an unofficial one next to the bike racks at the bottom of the entrance ramp, before you go under the swing-arm. Three scooters have been parking there in the 11 months I've had my scooter. The new policy is that I'd have to go all the way into the garage and pay six dollars a day, half the cost to park a car. Kicked out, just like that! I got back on and brought it to the building where I work, where they charge five dollars for motorcycles. Have to remember to make sure there are five dollars in my pocket when I leave today."
(tags: FranMason, NorthwestNotes, Seattle, Scooters)
Posted by Anita @ 04:35 AM PST [Link]
Friday, June 2, 2006
Peter Rukavina has been taking a long vacation, traveling through Portugal and now Denmark. He's got a great description (with photos) of the day he spent with son Oliver at a living history center, the Lejre Experimental Center. "Our first activity, ably guided by staff person Sara, was to take some wheat and turn it into flour. We did this by pounding. And pounding. And pounding. A rock against a bigger rock. As we were in a 'between kindergarten classes' empty spell, we had the wheat pounding area to ourselves, and Oliver and I each had our own station. Because of my awesome strength and advanced years, I was able to best Oliver's output; Oliver, however, had a much more entertaining style."