March 2014 Happenings

A few random photos and notes of things happening around here:

Arya

Spectacular sunrise.

Rufus has come over a couple of times so we could plan the class we taught at Winter Quarters, "The Voice of Bygone Days: Bringing Your Historical Persona to Life."  The class went really well, and we've been asked to present it twice more this summer!  Winter Quarters is a sort of Civil War summer camp, in winter.  We stay in camp cabins and attend (or teach!) classes and programs with the 69th New York.  It's a lot of fun, and I wish I had some pictures to share from it, but I didn't take my camera.

While he was here, Rufus was roped in by the kids to take the "geek test."  I'm pretty sure they all passed with flying colors.  Except Hailey.

Karl and Claire took it too.

We were going to have a full period dinner with Rufus, but ended up only going half way.  Here are the "gentlemen" dressed for dinner.

This is so cool:  Captain Brock, Rufus and I gave a living history presentation at a local library, and we got paid for it!  That makes me a paid living historian.  I got paid to be Abigail!

Claire had her spring youth symphony concert.  When the junior symphony came out, I sat back in my seat, waiting for Claire to show up with the older kids.  As I was listening to the music, I thought, "What a great job that snare drum player is doing."  I looked up, and it was Claire!  I had forgotten she was playing drums as well as violin.  She did a fantastic job.

Have you tried this stuff?  I had heard of it, but not bothered, until our friend Alex mentioned it.  Then I decided I had to have some.  It's a delicious spread with the texture of peanut butter and the flavor of really good ginger cookies.  You gotta try it!
  

Spring Sledding - WooHoo!

Every spring, we have a day of sledding with our friends.  We went a couple of weeks ago and had a blast!  The weather was warm and sunny and the sledding was terrific.  Our normal site was not available.  Usually we go to a section of the mountain that has a long slope, plus a steep drop where we create a chute and slide down on just our ski pants!  One summer, while we were hiking there, I pointed the place out to Karl.  "Ooh!" I said, "See those three trees?  That's our sledding spot."  Then I showed him the "chute."  

In summer, with no snow on it, it's a rocky cliff.  A cliff.  

"You take my children down that!?!"  Um, yes.

 Brennan, hauling up for another run.

Claire, ready to go.

Julie, with her bum cushion. 

Wanna ride with me Claire?  No.

 Ready to fly.

 Aaaahhhhhh!!!

Faster than a speeding bullet. 

Hailey fears, Claire cheers.

A great day!!

Tomorrow, When the War Began

In the spirit of my friend Monica, I'm going to write a book review, of sorts.  I just spent several weeks reading a series of books, and I want to talk about them a little.

A couple of weeks ago we watched a movie on Netflix instant play.  I wanted something easy and fun, so we chose one that was billed as an Australian version of Red Dawn.  I saw the original Red Dawn (you know, the 1984 one with Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze?) years ago on a first date, and I don't remember much of it.  About a year ago, Karl and I saw the updated Red Dawn 2012 with Chris Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson (yes, really!)  It was actually pretty good.

So we watched this Red Dawn knockoff called Tomorrow, When the War Began.  And it was really good, much better than either of the Red Dawn movies.  The kids were much more interesting and well-drawn, and the plot had plenty of excitement.  Although the reviews warned that the movie is extremely violent, we didn't find it so.  There is one scene where people, um, catch on fire, that was a bit grim, but I saw it coming, and it wasn't nearly so bad as I'd feared it would be.

The premise of the movie is that a group of Australian teens head out on a camping trip, and while they're merrily splashing in the creek and making eyes at each other, their country is invaded.  They return to empty houses, soldiers, and danger everywhere.  So of course they decide to go on the offensive and become guerilla warriors.  In Red Dawn, the kids in a similar situation called themselves the "Wolverines," after their school mascot.  I call the "Tomorrow" kids the Wombats.

The movie was quite exciting, and ended, not like Red Dawn, with the end of the war, but with the beginning of it.  So, of course, we wanted more.  Sadly, it was the only movie made.  But there are books!  

Tomorrow, When the War Began is the first of seven books in a series, and I blasted through all of them.  They are taut, gritty and incredibly realistic.  The author, John Marsden, creates such lifelike, detailed characters.  In the midst of a cracking good plot, he shows us the characters' feelings and reactions to their horrible situation in ways that really made me think about the psychological effects of war, the things you don't think about, like boredom, spiritual angst, relationships during conflict, life-or-death decisions, consequences.  The other cool aspect of these books, is that they are loaded with tidbits about rural Australian life.  There is even a glossary of Australian slang in the beginning of the books, which I referred to often in reading.  I found myself reading these in an accent!

I'm not generally a fan of "teen fiction" to say the least, but these books were fantastic.  My only complaint, and it's a big one, is the ending.  I wanted the war to end with a bang, preferably a huge explosion caused by the Wombats, who blow a lot of stuff up, but it ended with rather a whimper, and all the great character development that I loved in the first 6 1/2 books kind of fizzled out in the last one.  However, I still highly recommend the Tomorrow series.  I loved it.

The Great 2014 Snowstorm

Eleven inches!!

Brennan, the human snowplow.

The snow lasted several days.  It got a coat of ice on top that made it look like shiny candle wax.

Snowy twilight.

A few days later, all the trees and shrubs were coated in a layer of ice, which made everything look like it was encased in glass.  The whole world sparkled and shone, and when touched, the bushes rattled and clattered.

Spaced Out

I just heard yesterday that it is now standard in writing to put only one space after a period.  All the sources I read indicated that single-spacing is now required in submitting any kind of manuscript.  I hadn't realized this was such a hot topic.  People get very animated about it.  Did you know this?  I'd never heard it before.  That's awkward, since one's hands are trained for two spaces and not likely to change easily.  I looked it up, and according to the article below, one space has always been correct, but manual typewriters required two.  Hmm.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/01/space_invaders.html

But the plot thickens!  This guy has a completely different view.  He says that double-spacing was fashionable all the way up until 1960, typewriters notwithstanding, and provides examples from a number of texts.  If that's true, then even when we learned to type, double-spacing was out of fashion, owing, apparently to the technology of Phototypesetting.

http://theworldsgreatestbook.com/how-many-spaces-after-a-period/

I hope your grammar nerd hat is on today, or you'll likely find this deadly dull.  But I was intrigued to learn that I've been so wrong for so long!

This guy has even more to say on the subject.  He's inclined to find the Space Invaders article (above, top) fictitious.

http://www.heracliteanriver.com/?p=324

The style manuals apparently all say one space, when they mention it at all.  I just read that Strunk & White is silent on the matter, but uses single spacing in its text.

The articles I read attributed blame for the change to several sources.  One guy, who was roundly dissed in another article I read, blames the typewriter, because typewriter font letters are all the same size, so letters look a little more randomly spaced, and an additional space is needed at the end of a sentence to distinguish.  Trouble is, double spacing preceded the typewriter by several hundred years, so that's debunked.  Another guy blames Photo-whatsit that I mentioned earlier, and the timing of the switch suits that argument.  Several sources agreed that single spacing began to come into fashion in the 1960's, in typesetting, anyway.  

Since the 1960's.  That's my whole life.  How did I not know this?  I've never heard of it.  I feel like I must exist in a cave.  How's that possible?  I mean, I'm on the internet almost daily, and yet this is the first I've heard of it.  I gotta get out more.

Civil War Pathways

A couple of weeks ago, Calvin and Abigail made an appearance at the Washington State Historical Society museum in Tacoma to join in the opening festivities for a new exhibit, "Civil War Pathways in the Pacific Northwest."  The exhibit runs through July - check it out!

I didn't get many pictures, but we had a fun day, and it was great to reconnect with some of our fellow re-enactors. ( I'm not sure why the color is so dull in this photo; it looks much nicer in the original.)  We learned some really interesting information about the effects of the Civil War in the northwest.  I hope to browse their online materials soon.

This is a "housewife," a soldier's sewing kit.  I didn't realize they came with patches of fabric.

The museum is right next to the famous glass museum, and is connected by a bridge featuring these incredible works of art.  We ducked out of the rain for a minute to check them out.