My Archives: October 2005
Monday, October 31, 2005
I'm impressed by my friend Jake's Halloween getup! (He writes 8bit Joystick.)
I think grandson R----- is old enough to actually trick-or-treat in our Harper Hill neighborhood tonight. He wore a firefighter outfit to the Halloween party we attended in Bellingham Saturday night but he wasn't interested in keeping the helmet on. That amused me because he loves to put it on at home, run into the powder room and climb the stepstool, and admire himself in the mirror. He really liked the throw beads around his neck (a bit of a New Orleans theme to the party) and showed them to everyone there, exclaiming about how they had "beads, too!"
Jack's costume at the party was an Operation game that was operational -- a lot of work went into it so I think he'll be wearing it again. I wore a batik dress with a wild print, and a rubber Roman Centurion helmet that I got for my birthday. It fits my head better than it did before, now that I'm bald.
We'll do a jack-o-lantern and put up some lights. I've done some fancy pumpkin carving in the past but I'll keep it simple this year.
(tags: Halloween, Operation, HarperHill)
Posted by Anita @ 04:46 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Last Saturday we went for a hike on the Iron Goat Trail, Jack, grandson R----- and me, with our friends Bill and Deanna. What fun! Volunteers have been working since 1990? to convert an old railroad right of way to a very gently sloping trail, with large sections barrier-free in terms of wheelchair access. We drove all the way to Stevens Pass, then took the Old Cascade Highway and a Forest Service road to Wellington, the upper trailhead and site of the train disaster of 1910. It was such a devastating avalanche that they changed the name of the town afterwards!
The trail is provided with interpretive signs to explain the avalanche and all the railroad artifacts and history you see along the way. The first section of the trail downhill from Wellington goes through an all-concrete snowshed (a structure to protect trains from avalanches, built after the big disaster of 1910). Brian McCamish has some pictures -- Jack forgot the camera battery and was very bugged about it.
I do want to visit this trail again, maybe starting at the lower entrance and walking up. Then the way down would be easy!
(tags: IronGoatTrail, hiking, snowshed, Wellington, StevensPass)
Posted by Anita @ 05:49 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Next Tuesday, November 1, it's the East Side Weblog Meetup! Start time is 7 pm, location is Crossroads Mall food court at 15600 NE 8TH Street, Bellevue (NE 8th and 156th Ave NE). Weblog folks who live and/or work on the East side meet to talk about blog topics and whatever else strikes our fancy. Look for us between the main area by the stage and the giant chessboard -- there will be a sign. Free WiFi courtesy the King County Library branch. See you there!
(tags: blog, blogs, meetup, EastSide, SeattleMeetup)
Posted by Anita @ 04:44 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Monday, October 24, 2005
Jack will be attending Seattle Mind Camp November 5-6, but I'll be staying home (that's the weekend after my next chemo treatment). Sounds like fun, and I strongly encouraged Jack to go. From the about page: "All attendees are expected to participate in some fashion, so come ready to share the things you have been working on or that get you excited." That would be coffee geek stuff for Jack. There are still some spaces left so if this sounds good to you, you should apply! Details:
- People can register at http://mindcamp.mollyguard.com
- Limited to 150 people
- 24 hour event, Nov 5-6
Posted by Anita @ 04:34 AM PST [Link] [1 Comment]
Friday, October 21, 2005
Via Jack's del.icio.us page, the Comics Curmudgeon, full of snark about various daily comic strips. I don't read the papers these days, or even follow these strips online, but I like the snark! "But what I want to know about -- what's shamefully actually got me interested in Judge Parker -- is this 'Eon' thing. CIA-Secretary-True-Love girl mentioned it in passing too. What is Eon? Is it like EST? Is it like Scientology? Please let it be like Scientology! Please let the minister performing their Eon wedding be a thinly disguised John Travolta, or perhaps Beck! This being Judge Parker, it's going to take forever for it to actually come out, and then it will be boring and we won't care, but for the moment I'm clinging to my dreams."
(tags: comics, comicstrip, blog, del.icio.us)
Posted by Anita @ 06:10 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Thursday, October 20, 2005
We had a good time last night at the Seattle Weblog Meetup for October. Stuffed animals turned out to be the theme. Those present:
- Ralph and Marguerite. They traveled from British Columbia, and gave me a small stuffed polar bear that is now very popular in our house.
- The Deliverator - Wannabee -- his report
- Manuel
- Jen of Quarter Life Crisis
- Dennis Hamilton of Orcmid's Lair
- Clark of MISCmedia
- Marius of marius dot org and Diann. I know I've met Marius sometime before.
- Kathy Gill - US Politics
- Dylan and Annabel
- Tara brought a big bag of stuffed animals for Annabel, including two life-sized snakes.
- Jack of Antigravitas -- his report
- and me!
Ralph's Grocery was a bit busier than usual, perhaps because of the Lesbian and Gay Film Festival happening across the street at the Cinerama. I ended up buying a box of Rye-krisp and some Irish cheese for my dinner. I was very pleased that they actually opened up the second register so I didn't have to wait in a long line.
Posted by Anita @ 06:57 PM PST [Link] [4 comments]
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Willa, in her Knitting Zen blog, gets rather irate about her local yarn store getting tricksy with a frequent buyer card. "When I got up to the register, I noticed that they had a sign up that from now on, you would get one punch on your card for every $10 in purchases. So they effectively made it twice as hard to get anything free--now you'll have to spend $300 to get $15. I though, oh well, and handed over my debit card and my punch card, thinking at least since I was spending about $15, I'd get one punch. The saleslady took my cards, processed the credit card, and handed the punch card back to me without a word, or a punch. I thought she'd forgotten, and said, 'Um, did you want to punch it for me?' and she said, without looking up, 'Not on sale items, sorry.' And I thought, okay, that's it for this shop."
Way to aggravate your best customers! I'm not buying enough yarn right now to justify a frequent buyer card (I built up a stash on ebay over the past few years) so this isn't a personal problem.
(tags: yarn, frequentBuyers, Willa, KnittingZen)
Posted by Anita @ 04:33 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Monday, October 17, 2005
My dance buddy Steve Steiner (me and Steve) writes more about tech topics these days, but the other day he described what it was like to take a workshop with lindy hop guru Steven Mitchell. "The secret was not teaching you something you didn't know. It was doing the most basic parts of what you know, differently and better. The despair felt midway was for a loss of grace. A stroll was now a stumble. Steven wants you to stroll differently. By the end you didn't just forgive Steven for making you clumsy. You adored him for teaching you to float."
(tags: LindyHop, StevenMitchell, SteveJS)
Posted by Anita @ 05:00 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Next Wednesday, October 19, 7 pm, it's the Seattle Weblog Meetup for October! Location is Ralph's Grocery and Deli, 2035 4th Ave in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood, across the street from the Cinerama theater (map). Free WiFi, and food and drink are available. In fact, you can buy anything in the store and consume it in the deli area. Local and visiting webloggers talk about blog topics and lots else. I hope to see you there! Parking can be tight in the neighborhood but I usually find a space on Sixth.
(tags: weblog, blogs, meetup, seattle, seattlemeetup)
Posted by Anita @ 05:21 AM PST [Link]
Monday, October 10, 2005
Yesterday afternoon we went to see Mirrormask, subjecting grandson R---- to his first in-theater movie. We could do this because the Varsity has a crying room in the main downstairs theater. We had to summon the manager to open the little booth for us (the usher apparently hadn't shown up yet for the first screening of the day), and he did disclose that the speaker wasn't working in there. The sound in the theater was loud enough that I could hear the movie with the door closed during my time in the booth, so that worked out okay. What I should have done was get Jack to go in before the movie started and really make some noise, so I could be convinced that we wouldn't be disturbing people no matter what happened in there. ("What happens in the crying room, stays in the crying room.")
R---- wasn't interested in the movie but he was mostly patient with the waiting. Jack and I both liked it (gorgeous visuals made seeing it on a big screen worthwhile) but the story was a bit on the nose at the end. The ending was really too happy! Two interviews with the movie's creators Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean: Cinematical and the Onion's AV Club.
Other Seattle crying rooms (not verified by me yet): Guild 45th (in the smaller theater?), Seven Gables (can this be true?).
(tags: mirrormask, varsity, cryingroom)
Posted by Anita @ 05:11 AM PST [Link]
Saturday, October 8, 2005
Last night I was looking at the list of free movies in the On Demand section of our cable service, and picked out My Bodyguard. I've seen it before, but not for a long time. My memory had decided that the young man who played the scary guy/bodyguard was Vincent D'Onofrio, but No! It was Adam "not one of the Baldwins" Baldwin, now appearing as Jayne in Serenity. He's worked steadily for the past 25 years.
I enjoyed seeing the movie again, except for the parts with Ruth Gordon. Martin Mull, yay! and a very young Joan Cusak.
Posted by Anita @ 04:23 AM PST [Link]
Friday, October 7, 2005
The Potlatch 15 Book of Honor has been announced! It will be The Avram Davidson Treasury, edited by Robert Silverberg and Grania Davis. Potlatch is a small lit-oriented science fiction convention, to be held February 24, 25, and 26, 2006, in Seattle. It's my favorite con!
Although I haven't managed an RSS feed for this site, I do have a feed for the Potlatch site. Updates aren't frequent so set your subscription accordingly.
(tags: potlatch, scifi, convention, BookofHonor, AvramDavidson)
Posted by Anita @ 07:45 AM PST [Link]
Wednesday, October 5, 2005
We had a fun time at the East Side Weblog Meetup last night! I knew that Tommy Williams would be there, and Alex Barnett had been a last-minute RSVP. Jack and grandson R----- were there, too. But as I walked through the food court, I heard someone calling me. "Hey, Anita!" I turned and it was my old friend Jericho of Irate Weirdos! At first I thought he was just there by chance, and was giving him a lot of credit for recognizing bald me from behind. But no, he'd come to the meetup, too. His wife Steph showed up later for purposes of giving him a ride home.
We all had fun talking about British expressions that not many Americans understand (I confess I didn't know blag or spawny), and gross things that people had actually eaten. Grandson R---- had fun playing with his little trains. A good meetup! Reports:
(tags: blog, weblog, meetup, TommyWilliams, JackWilliamBell, Antigravitas, AlexBarnett, IrateWeirdos, Jericho)
Posted by Anita @ 05:29 AM PST [Link]
Tuesday, October 4, 2005
I've always been very fond of Sarah Polley as an actress, ever since seeing her in Road to Avonlea. I remember her in Terry Gilliam's Baron Munchausen, too. Now she shares some recent correspondence she's had with Gilliam about what acting in that movie was really like for her. (via MeFi)
(tags: SarahPolley, TerryGilliam, Munchausen, MetaFilter)
Posted by Anita @ 04:05 AM PST [Link]
Monday, October 3, 2005
Cat Nilan at Metroblogging Seattle tells us about her Flexcar experiences: "As it turned out, this combination of options has worked wonderfully well for us. Since January of this year, our monthly transportation expenses have averaged about $150 a month. Which means that we are paying less to get around now than we did when we owned a car." I think my sister has used this service a few times, and I remember that Dan Brainlog Sanderson was a Flexcar pioneer. Maybe in the future there will be cars near the Overlake transit center!
(tags: flexcar, seattle, metroblogging, CatNilan, DanSanderson, Brainlog)
Posted by Anita @ 04:43 AM PST [Link]
Saturday, October 1, 2005
Suddenly there are several movies that I really want to see! This afternoon we're going to Serenity with Jim and Ivy. But I also want to see Corpse Bride (I dig Tim Burton), Mirrormask, and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. I might try to go see Mirrormask tomorrow -- it's one where the first weekend box office might make a difference to further release plans. Must do one's bit, you know! For Jack and me to see a movie at the same time takes special arranging because of grandson R------.