Playing with Electronics/ "Blues in the Night" by Cleo Laine

A bright side to my knee problems this week.  As long as I have to spend more time sitting around, I've got something to keep me busy.

Okay, there are many things I could do to keep myself busy, but this is a fun one (grin).  My mp3 player came on Monday so I've been putting lots of music on it.  Dear husband also installed the computer cassette deck that he got me for Christmas so I can record songs from cassettes to mp3s.

I'm not sure which is more exciting.  The mp3 player will be lots of fun - bringing music various places.  However, there are numerous tapes that I've had for years which are not doing so well, and I'm very cautious with them - meaning that I rarely play them.  The cassette deck helps me get some of my favorite music back (and onto the mp3 player too).

CleoLaineReturn Two of those tapes are the first things I recorded to the computer with the new deck.  Both albums are difficult to impossible to get - Born on a Friday, which is an expensive collectible, and Cleo Laine, Return to Carnegie Hall (right), which is the impossible one.  The latter is the album which started my lifelong love of Cleo Laine's singing.  After making it into an mp3, the opening song, "Blues in the Night" was the first song I put on my mp3 player.  I would love to be able to sing like she does. 

I'm back to taking short walks - though I was able to go past the end of the court this afternoon so that's progress.  I tried listening to my new player on the walk, but I don't think that's where I will use it.  It was a wonderfully blustery day today, and it was fun to watch the trees sway back and forth.  However, instead of listening to the wind while watching the trees, I was hearing Janis Ian singing:

I remember when boys told me
You play like a girl.
It's a matter of genetic history
You play like a girl.
You can't be in our band.
You can't play like a man.
There's one thing you can do
Teach us to play like you! (Play Like a Girl)


I love the song, but the juxtaposition made me feel like I was, sort of, inside looking out at the weather.  I'm not really an inside-y person so this is not a good result - particularly this winter when I've been stuck inside more than usual!


Oh, Hai... AND "Tango Maureen" from "Rent"

funny pictures of cats with captions
more animals 

 Oh hai...

...miss me?

Things got rather busy last week so, on Tuesday when it snowed, I set up a number of automatic posts for my blog.  Dear husband was gone for four days, and I was getting back to normal, activity-wise, which still wears me out much more than usual.  Daughter had a great time at her FL dance workshop and told us all about it.  Also, last week, older son was extremely busy getting his portfolio ready for his admissions portfolio review at the NC State School of Design on Saturday.   After the review,  we went to my mother's house to celebrate younger son's and dear husband's birthdays.

On Sunday, we had fun seeing everyone at a late Christmas celebration with dear husband's side of the family.  He left again yesterday morning for SC and just got back a few minutes ago.  I had a setback this weekend - Sunday evening I had sharp pains every time I put any weight on my right leg.  I was back on crutches again (and very upset).  Ice and elevation helped, and, although I'm not driving again, I'm back off the crutches and the knee feels much better.  At my appointment today, the doctor said that about one out of every ten patients has a setback like this.  Just my luck...

Oh, and, on Thursday evening, daughter and I went to see "Rent" at the Durham Performing Arts Center (Click here for a picture of the theater.  Notice how high it is, how many stairs it has...how daunting if you've had knee surgery).

A week full of good things, but still overdoing it.

Now, life calms down a bit - at least until older son's and daughter's birthdays in...two and a half weeks!!!

 "Rent"

I was going to do a separate review of "Rent," but I don't think I'll get to it.  If you have a chance to see this touring production, with two of the original Broadway stars, Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, you should.  The whole cast is excellent, particularly the singing.  Mimi is a stand out - the actress sings gospel and it shows!  The actor playing Angel wasn't as girlish as the one we saw a few years ago, but his dancing was very energetic and very precise - every turn and kick.  Maureen was a petite blond which is very different from both the other stage performance and the movie performance, but she also had a great voice. 

The performance I enjoyed the most, though, was Anthony Rapp's as Mark.  He was very good in the movie, but, onstage, he throws his whole body into his acting.  We often talk about dancers who dance all the way to their fingertips.  He acts all the way to his fingertips.  Here's the "Tango Maureen," from the Tenth Anniversary production, with Anthony Rapp and Fredi Walker (not the same Joanne we saw).  The one we saw had even more flourish than this. I don't think that this isn't a professional recording, but it gives you a feel for the production. 

 


A Full Day...

P1200286 ...for one where we didn't drive anywhere.  Younger son and I got right up this morning and went outside to play in the snow - only to find that there's not much besides snowball fights that I can do in the snow.  You need to squat down to make snowmen, and I wasn't even going to try sledding.  I did enjoy talking to neighbors while they sledded with their children. 

We finally went back inside to watch the inauguration.  I've never watched one before.  Usually, by this point, I'm thoroughly sick of the whole election process so I was surprised at how moved I was by various parts.  I have lots of thoughts about it, but I'm way too tired to make sense of them. 

To the right is a leafsicle photo that older son took this afternoon after we took a walk.  None of my outside photos came out well. 

Dear husband read the first Harry Potter book out loud to younger son last year.  Younger son has never seen the movie so we watched it tonight.  It was fun to see his reactions. 

Here are some roses that dear husband bought last week.

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Some Favorite Photos of 2008, Part 1

Photos that I never got around to posting:

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Given the name of my blog, I should occasionally have Moomins.  This is Little My, a very opinionated Moomin character.  Daughter got me this glass last year for Christmas.
 
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  Tamlin in a jumble of boxes.
 
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For those familiar with Duke Gardens.  They redid the bowl last winter.
 
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A winter hike at Butner Game Lands - another favorite place, particularly in the winter.
 
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More at Butner Game Lands
 
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 Older son collected Chinquapin oak caps
 
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We pride ourselves on having some of the healthiest, best fed squirrels in the neighborhood.
 
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One of the old Richmond train stations has been made into a Science Museum.  I love it when they keep using buildings.  This still may be a post of its own someday.
 
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St. John's Episcopal Church in Richmond, VA.  In 1775, at the Second Virginia Convention, held here, Patrick Henry gave his famous speech. 

Regular Life and "Per la Gloria D'Adorarvi" by Jewel

PC130092 No serious (or lengthy, aren't you lucky) blog posts today.  Today has been a very practical day.

I realized at church that I need to get back to driving and getting out more.  I've driven a few times, and my knee has been dealing with it fairly well.  However, after not driving for a month, it's actually more difficult, non-knee-wise!  There are too many cars and too much going on.  It's amazing how quickly I've gotten used to not driving.

More alarming than the not driving is the not getting out.  I was fine at choir rehearsal last week, but I had a very difficult time at church today.  There were too many people and too much going on.  Because of that, I actually didn't really want to be there at first.  I got over that when we sang the anthem (grin).

I've gotten used to the peace and quiet at home.  Even running errands with dear husband this weekend (he did all the driving) left me exhausted.  I've grown unused to the pace of regular life.  I've also gotten quieter and quieter...

I don't like either of these results so I'm going to make much more of an effort to get out this week.  Tomorrow, I've already got some errands lined up, and I need to pick daughter up when she gets back from Florida.  Lina kitty has been even snugglier than usual with me while daughter has been gone. 

I've also finally decided to get an mp3 player.  I've been researching them, and I've decided to get the Creative Zen X-Fi.  Over and over, in reviews, people mention how great the sound is on this player.  For me, there's nothing more important. 

One of the things keeping me going, creatively, lately, has been singing.  My voice lessons have been going well, and I've even started working on a piece:  "Per la Gloria D'Adorarvi."  I sing it slowly, and I'm only working on the first third of it at this point, but I'm having lots of fun with it!

Here's a YouTube video of Jewel singing it in concert. 

[Photo taken by older son at the Biltmore House in December, 2008]


Knee update

P1090249 Two steps forward and one step back.  I'm moving around pretty well, able to take walks that are about half my normal length (1/2 hour), doing steps slowly, but normally (i.e. not stepping up with the same leg over and over).  I even started driving again, yesterday, although it left me feeling exhausted for the rest of the day. 

I had a bit of a setback, today (I won't go into details), but, overall, things are getting better.  I tried walking some of the hills in our neighborhood on Saturday, but my knee informed me on Sunday that that was too much.  The physical therapist agreed on Monday, and said that  I should stay on flat places for a few more weeks.  But we live in Hillsborough!

Older son has been sick so daughter (who has her learner's permit) has been driving me around.  She's a pretty good driver.  Dear husband goes with them when they have their learner's permit because he's a calmer passenger than I am, and he's good at calming them down.

The winter jasmine has been blooming (in vase to the right), although I think this week's cold snap will blast the flowers we have. 


"How I Miss the Stone of My Flint"

Update:  Ayeleth kindly translated for me - see the translation in the comments. 

Today, I kept getting people coming to my kitty-sleeping-on-the-computer-monitor post from YNET.  I went to check it out and, although I found the section which linked to my blog, I couldn't read a thing:

נראה אתכם מספרים על פלזמות למומינלייט, בלוגרית אמריקנית, אם לשניים ונוצרייה מאמינה. כשמסך המחשב הישן שלה שבק חיים, היא כתבה שהיא מסרבת לקנות צג LCD דקיק, כי החתולה שלה, טמלין, אוהבת לשבת על החלק העליון של המסך ולהתחמם בחורף. "זה מאוד נחמד וחברותי, כשיש לך חתול שישן מעל מסך המחשב בזמן השימוש בו", היא כתבה. בעינייה חתול חם עדיף על רזולוציה משופרת, אבל היא תיאלץ לקנות את המסך שלה מאתר יד שנייה.


I had to translate this - why would an Israeli news website be linking to my little, throwaway, kitty-on-the-monitor post.  I looked around online for a translator, and quickly found two which translate between Hebrew and English.  There is a limit to online translators, however.  This is the more lucid of the two translations - it still doesn't totally make sense, but you can get the basic gist of it.  This is the last part of the article, and the last paragraph is about my blog ("mominlit"):

When the old televisions will be darkened

And if all of this is not enough, began what 17 in February is next millions of Americans sat opposite television that exhibitor of snow, if is not an universe even causes to their help. At this time nets of the television pass to broadcast in the digital format only, and inhabitants of areas as prime and distant, old and people of little towns of their that the hand is not a lapse of to acquire a new television set, were stuck in middle of. Their analog televisions were old, but they made the work.

 United States will invest 1.35 billion dollar and provide to them coupons of discount to the exchange of the old televisions, but all of them agree that this few to the extreme. Big retailers that seller of products of electronics, like radioshack and bestbuy, said to Wall Street is a journal that they are objectors to the sounds that go and the prevalences that require to delay the execution of the program. Interesting why truly.

 Possibly that you already bomb the article in response like "  Shioao, how I miss the stone of my flint, I used to/would light a fire in the great " and sign " the early man ". We adapted to the continuous consumption. Say us that new this necessarily better, and the advertisements in the television say to buy, to buy and to buy – elaborate more, expensive more, better. And we obey, without to wonder if this is good us or to the pockets of several seventieth shareholders.

 We will show you numbers on  Plzmot  Lmominlit, American blogger, if to the two  Onotsria believe. When screen of her old computer that bey of life, she wrote that she is unwilling to buy screen lcd very thin, that her cat,  Tmlin, loves to sit/shabbat on the top of the screen and to heat in the winter. "This is very nice and sociable, when you have a cat of sea bream over screen of the computer in the time of the use in him ", she wrote.  Bainia hot preferable cat on improved resolution, but she will be forced to buy her screen of localizer of second hand.

I still haven't figured out what "objectors to the sounds that go" really is supposed to translate as.  It wasn't any more understandable in the other translator. I'm also curious about "cat of sea bream."  I like the part saying "her cat,  Tmlin, loves to sit/shabbat on the top of the screen and to heat in the winter." 

[BTW, this article reminded older son of one of my previous posts My Luddite Tendencies.]

I wanted to welcome viewers from that site to my blog so I considered adding a welcome on the bottom.  I couldn't be sure that I was saying the right thing, though, so I didn't.  Besides, when I translated "Welcome to those from YNET" from English into Hebrew, and then translated the result back into English, I got "Welcome are those are from hook shaped net." Fortunately, Tal, a commentor, helped me out. 

Which leads me to a request.  If someone could translate this for me - at least the paragraph about my blog - I'd love to know what this actually says!  As much of the article as I could copy and paste is below the fold (the whole article, here):

Continue reading ""How I Miss the Stone of My Flint"" »


I always appreciate how much my kids do around the house.  However, I really notice it when they're sick and I get it all back (grin).

Older son is still sick, poor guy.  I'm trying to get caught up on everything.  See you tomorrow.

Oh, and here's part of why I like living in NC.  I have to remind myself of this when it's hot and miserable in the summer.  I took this three days ago.

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Computer Monitors

My computer monitor died this evening.  I'm currently using and old (and rather small) monitor from a PC we weren't using anymore. 

I've been looking at flat screen monitors because now, of course, all our monitors are too narrow for websites, although that's not really that much of a problem.  Dell currently has a good deal on a flat screen monitor, but I don't want to get it.

This is why.

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The cats can't sleep on top of a flat screen monitor, and it's very companionable to have a cat sleeping on the monitor while I'm on the computer.  In the wintertime, there's almost always a cat up there.  That's Tamlin relaxing on top of the (no longer working) monitor this afternoon - away from younger son's ten year old birthday party.  Tamlin is currently keeping me company, although Lina is more likely to sleep on the monitor.

You can get used CRT monitors (the type we already have) really cheaply on Craigslist, but I would have to find one with a relatively flat top.

Here's Lina enjoying the streamers in the kitchen. 

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To those from YNET:
ברוכים הבאים
(and thank you to Tal who told me the right word to use!)

More on this post here (What more could there be about a kitty post?).

National Delurking Week

Delurk It's National Delurking Week! - which means that if you lurk (read, but don't comment), here's a great chance to make yourself known.  Please leave a comment!

I like this graphic, which I got from MotherReader, and I delurked over there. 

I've got a long movie post almost finished (maybe tonight or tomorrow).  We're celebrating younger son's birthday this weekend.  He turned 10 today, and we just finished his birthday party. We've had someone in single digits for almost 21 years.  It's strange to have everyone in the house ten or over.