old letters

I was going through some old papers the other day, and came across an envelope of letters that my family wrote to me during their North Carolina camping trip in 1982. Ruth was 18, Jim was 16. I must have stayed home for some reason. Jim's instructions refer to our computer at the time, a TRS-80 Model III.

The letters are especially precious to me, now that Jim and Mom are gone. The letters from Mom and Ruth both described what they had done on the trip so far, what they planned to do. Ruth's letter included a quick sketch of Jim while he was writing his letter to me (see picture at the top).

Rereading the letter from my brother made me laugh. As you can tell, he was very much into computers even back then:



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As I wrote this Blathering and took another look at the images, I realize that I actually did write the sounds that those two commands created; you can see my notes in pencil just under the commands.

Jim and I used to spend hours taking turns reading BASIC programs out loud to each other from computer game magazines and books while the other person typed in the code. We saved the programs on cassette tape (our computer didn't have a floppy drive back then).

It's Jim's birthday next Friday; he would have been 37.

POLL: Do you save snailmail letters or cards? For how long? Are there any you are especially glad to have?

As I carefully reread those letters from my family, I could tell that the paper was already getting brittle, so I scanned everything and saved the images. It still distresses me to think of those letters gradually disintegrating over the years, no matter how carefully I store them.

Then again, I'll be gradually disintegrating over the years, too. :-)

Links:

James Lileks reviewed The Two Towers in his daily journal yesterday (about 1/3 way down the entry). Check out the opening paragraph of his review:

"Saw the Two Towers Friday night; words fail me, etc. Never looked at my watch once. Commanded body to shut down all liquid processing so I wouldn't have to miss anything. Iíve never seen a three-hour movie that made me wish it had been four - but perhaps that disappointment was salved by the knowledge that the special edition DVD will stretch it out to five."

My sentiments exactly.

Terry Tate - Office Linebacker: Watch the Quicktime or Windows Media Player movie. Pretty funny. :-) (warning: strong language, violence) Thanks to Ray for the link.

Jan/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

brianna

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For those that missed my afternoon update yesterday:

I'm pleased to announce that Brianna Morgan Fullerton Allen was born Sunday night at 10:11 pm EST. She weighed 3 lb 10 1/2 oz.

I went to visit Brianna and her parents at the hospital yesterday. Bryan took me into the Prenatal Intensive Care Unit, where a row of incubators sat side by side. Brianna lay in one of them, tiny and pink and perfect-looking, with a small tube coming out of her nose. She had been on a respirator her first night, but she's breathing on her own now. Depending on her development, she'll be in the hospital for the next 4-6 weeks.

Despite having seen many newborns over the years, I still find the whole thing a miracle. Not just the birth process, but that fact that this tiny being exists independently in the world now and didn't a few days ago.

Congratulations, Elizabeth and Bryan. :-)



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Jan/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

poll: cookies

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[Update 11:29 am] I'm pleased to announce that Brianna Morgan Fullerton Allen was born last night at 10:11 pm EST. She weighed 3 lb 10 1/2 oz. Mother and daughter are doing fine; I just talked to Elizabeth a few minutes ago. She sounds tired but pretty happy.

Congratulations, Bryan and Elizabeth!

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So I told Jeff I was making curry for him at the end of last week. He heard the resolution in my voice so didn't try to fight it, only commenting, "Uh, sure. (insert nervous laugh here) Just hope my head doesn't explode like Ruth's did."

This time I found regular coconut milk instead of lowfat, used about a quarter of the curry paste that I did for Ruth, and tasted it before I added the chicken. It turned out fine! I'm going to keep tweaking. So far I still have a slight preference for Indian curry, but using Thai curry paste takes a lot less effort than grinding up all the spices for garam masala.

Thanks to all those who suggested online radio stations:

BBC radio (Christo)

WVXU.com (Jim)

KDHX.org (Jean)

Also, those who suggested solutions to my static problem. The most frequently suggested fix was to get more humidifiers. Jeff and I already have one in the bedroom, but unfortunately my office is too small. Other suggestions: body lotion, touching things with the flat of my hand instead of fingertips, touching things with a metal object first (like a ring).

Went to my sister's for dinner last night, and brought a bag of Maple Creme cookies. I adore maple cookies, yum.

POLL: What are your favourite cookies? Least favourite?

My favourites

White chocolate macadamia nut.

My friend Justin's homemade chocolate chip cookies. Heck, pretty much any homemade chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven, with the chocolate chips still warm and gooey.

Felix & Norton (can't remember the exact name) cookies.

Maple cookies.

Crabtree & Evelyn Lemon Cookies (really thin kind, melt in your mouth).

Homemade ginger cookies (soft).

My least favourite

Hard and crunchy cookies.

Oreo cookies (sorry, Lissa :-)).

Dad's Oatmeal Cookies

Links/News:

Gibson guitars with Ethernet? More info: Slashdot

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Today's Blatherpics:

Jeff and I used to host New Year's weekends at our house in the country. This photo was taken on New Year's day, 1992, after our friends helped restock our firewood. From left to right, back row first: Reid, Luisa, Christine, David Brake, Bruce Macintosh, Jeff, Andrew, Kaarel. Front row: Bronwyn, Andy, Jennifer Brasch, Ruth, Mark T. I took the photo, which is why I'm not in it. :-) Part of my photo archiving project.

Jan/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

brownies

Hey, I made brownies yesterday. I haven't baked in a long time. I used unsweetened Scharffen Berger (a gift from Joey a while back) and a recipe from my new Moosewood Cookbook. While the brownies were still warm from the oven, Jeff and I had them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Yum.

I've started to combine my outdoor run or walk with chores when my days are especially full and I'm tempted to skip the workout. When I need to go shopping for some cooking ingredients, for example, I'll wear my knapsack and run to St. Lawrence Market or Dominion's on Front Street and then walk back.

Today the sidewalks were too slushy to run on so I went for a brisk walk instead. Walked up to Eaton Centre, bought some glue (am I an exciting shopper, or what?), walked down to St. Lawrence Market for some bread, back home. Round trip: 1.5 hrs. Helped me feel somewhat less guilty when I pigged out on the chocolate brownie and ice cream.



In the afternoon, I worked on the bookmarks I promised those who posted New Year's Resolutions before the end of 2002. Warning: these won't be as fancy as the bookmarks you buy in stores! I designed them in Painter, printed them on Kodak photo paper (heavier than regular paper), manually cut them out with an Exacto knife.

I also experimented with hand-laminating sheets, so don't be surprised if you get some laminated bookmarks and some unlaminated. Anyway, each person will get a Waiting For Frodo bookmark and a Blatherings bookmark.

A curious question: Are any of you going to be watching the Superbowl? Jeff and I have never watched it, will likely never watch it, but I'm interested in knowing if any of you are football fans.

Jan/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

poll: dreams

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Today's poll: Do you remember your dreams? How interesting are they?

From time to time I hear from friends who have extremely vivid and exciting dreams, complete with music soundtrack and clever camera angles. Mine are pretty dull in comparison. My nightmares tend to be silly ones from my school days, like being late for an important exam, etc.

Today's Blatherpics:

I took this photo of Jeff years ago in Adaskin's Bay, Algonquin Park. Part of my print photo archiving project.

Jan/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ