Weekend house party (or should that be "cabin party"?)

We had 2 couples join us at the cabin this weekend. We know 3 of the 4 people through theater, and enjoyed meeting B's wife, a bibliophile who was happy to answer all our questions about her Kindle. I've decided the best thing about a "house party" like this is that you can have nice, long uninterrupted chunks of time with your friends instead of chopped-up conversations - 10 minutes here, 5 minutes there. It was very gratifying to see the relaxed smiles on people's faces, hear them comment on how well they slept or how nice it was to be able to linger over dinner.

The Chief & I have sort of settled into a division of labor for these things - no matter which of us cooks (usually me, though he usually helps), he usually insists on doing the dishes while making coffee for those who want it. He loves playing host and I enjoy feeding people (having grown up in a big family, I loved having up to 7 of us around the table), so it works out well.

We didn't get fancy with the menu because I wanted to spend my time visiting, not cooking, but we didn't need fancy to have a good time. We're already talking about when we can do this again.

Smiley face

My sister forwarded this. The original offered it as a reason to do a full, 360-degree check in front of a mirror before leaving the house. Me, I'm more old-fashioned - a slip would have the added advantage of making the skirt hang better.

Recruit has arrived

My nephew arrived without incident and is now safely ensconced out at the cabin with the Chief, resting up for what my sister has dubbed "Home Improvement Bootcamp". The poor Recruit doesn't know what the Chief has in store for him, but he'll find out first thing in the morning. I wonder which project will come first on the list...?

Amazing!

This fossil, named "Ida" (pronounced EE-da), is amazing for its completeness! Not only a 95%-complete skeleton from a period when paleontologists get excited about finding more than 1 or 2 bones, but skin, fur, and stomach contents. I think the media description of her as a "missing link" is sensationalist hyperbole, but it really is an incredible find. Cool stuff!

More Ida info:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0521/1224247034331.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/19/ida-fossil-evolution

On the lighter side, see what abovetopsecret.com has to say on the matter:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread465091/pg1

And here's an a propos variation on the Google logo I got from a friend's blog:

Nice little surprise

They announced by e-mail this afternoon that they're letting us all take off 4 hours early come Friday! Hooray for starting my 3-day weekend at the cabin that much sooner, and maybe beating the worst of the get-away traffic! The Chief will be happy, too, because it means I'll be able to give him that much more help getting things ready for our weekend visitors.

More plants

The Chief and I spent the weekend at the cabin, starting to gear up for the company who'll be spending Memorial Day weekend with us there. In addition to decluttering, hanging pictures (how long ago did those picture rails go up in the new bedroom?!?) and running errands, we managed a trip to the neighborhood nursery. We were loading our buckets of compost, 2 ferns and 1 bleeding heart into the car when I saw something I wasn't sure I recognized and asked about it. Turns out I had spotted a very healthy section of hellebores, which they've just started selling. We ended up adding 3 of them to our haul. Because they're still a year away from blooming (seems they don't bloom until their 3rd year), we won't know until early next spring what colors we just bought. The Chief now has another project for my nephew to help with - a bed near the cabin's front door where we'll plant those hellebores. They assured us the deer won't eat them because they're poisonous, and they spread if the conditions are amenable, so I'm hoping our 3 little hellebores will become a nice, lush bed of them in a few years. Probably not as nice as in the picture, but we can dream...

Great weekend!

Just got back from a long weekend watching a good friend graduate. I'm so impressed by her accomplishment - single mother of many, working full time, yet she still managed to get her Bachelor's. As she put it, "It took me 31 years, but I did it!" Needless to say, those of us in her "cheering section" did our best to make ourselves heard when her name was announced and she walked across that stage for her hard-won diploma.

I'm so glad I decided to stay the extra day, as it gave us some time after Saturday's whirlwind of activities to have a satisfying chat and get caught up. Even better was the fact that my maid of honor not only managed to make it, but surprised us by bringing her parents! She had both the graduate and me getting a bit misty-eyed - what a lovely surprise! The three of us managed to do a surprising amount of catching up in the short 24 hours she was in town, and she shared my hotel room the one night she was in, which gave us that much more time to visit. The 3 of us are already talking about getting together for a "girls' weekend" at the cabin.

Yorkshire vacation!

Yesterday we bought our plane tickets and today we booked a B&B for a lovely week in Harrogate! We were able to find a fare that will run us at least $150 less per ticket than we thought we'd have to pay, and we'll be staying at very conveniently located B&B in this room. We'll be going in late October, so it'll be chilly and probably rainy but that's OK. I lived in Yorkshire for year (nearly 20 years ago!) so I know what I'm letting myself in for. We'll pack sweaters, rain gear and walking shoes and have ourselves a great time: introducing the Chief to my former landlady, taking one or both of them to Betty's tea room, exploring the local sights, perhaps touring a "stately home" or two - can't wait!

Pollen as bio-weapon

Saturday my allergies were so bad, I sat out that night's performance of Follies. I was in such bad shape (sneezing fits, eyes streaming, nose running, constant coughing) that I knew no one would want me anywhere near, let alone doing their make-up. I was so bad off, I was even getting an upset stomach, headache and sore throat.

Yesterday & today I'm still uncomfortable, but it's nothing like as bad as it was Saturday. According to the weather report on the news just now, that's because today's pollen count is 1730-ish, which is miserably high (the non-sensitive start feeling uncomfortable when it hits 200 or 250; those of us with allergies start feeling it when the count's at around 100 or lower). Saturday's count, however, was at 4539! When I was half-joking on Saturday that the count was in the Lethal range, I had no idea how close I was to the truth!

The news is full of swine flu symptoms - sneezing, coughing, itchy/runny eyes, sometimes diarrhea or vomiting. My first reaction was that it sounds indistinguishable from "pollen poisoning"!

All in

Yesterday I braved the pollen-saturated air and got the last of my bedding plants in the ground: one each speedwell, a pine-knot-strain hellebore or lenten rose, and elfin and limegreen thyme. They went into the same sunny corner as last year's phlox. And yes, the three budless plants are now starting to flower - white. And one last laggard is starting to come in with white-edged pink flowers. That corner of the front yard is now quite colorful - pink, violet and white phlox (the 2-tones are only just starting to open), blue speedwell and one or two random yellow dandelions. Now if the flowers would just fill in and cover that awful orange-red clay...

Blown away!

(NB: If there's a chance you'll be reviewing the show, read no further.)

Follies opened last night and all I can say is WOW! I was able to sit in the house for most of it and was blown away by the much-deserved audience response. Every number got a big hand and the production numbers were all very enthusiastically received. I suspect the only reason no one got to their feet at the curtain call was that they were too tired by then from the waves of talent washing off the stage, because they were certainly making enough appreciative noise! The show was not without its glitches, but they were minor; they certainly didn't seem to detract from the audience's appreciation.

This company has the luxury of a big stage - the whole floor of the building where I did Pirates last year could probably fit on that stage 3 or 4 times over; more, if you include the wings. Plenty of room for the cast of 45, and plenty of overhead, so they could put the showgirls with their 3-4-foot-tall headdresses on the top steps and they'd not seem the least bit cramped. The lighting designer did a masterful job of making the changes, features and highlights seem natural and flow smoothly, and some of the special touches do a brilliant job of enhancing the story-telling. And this from someone who always notices costumes first and lights last, if at all.

This is essentially a one- or two-set show, depending on how you count the large pieces that get moved in and out depending on the scene. The orchestra overwhelmed a couple of the soloists in a few places, but not severely, and their internal balance was very good. The singers are quite good, and there are a lot of "star turns" for several of the "Weiseman Girls" which are all very well delivered. The production numbers are incredible - beautifully executed and costumed - and the Act I bolero was like a scene from any of a number of old dance movies. Wonderful! In fact, all the choreography is the most ambitious I've ever seen in a community theater production, and generally well done.

And omigosh the COSTUMES!!! Some of the showgirls' headdresses are full of ostrich feathers and as much as four feet tall! The costumes are just as over-the-top. The Busby Berkely-style costumes for 2 of the production numbers reminded me of some of the first musicals, as did the choreography. The former Follies girls are generally in beaded or otherwise glam dresses, the wigs that most of the cast (even the men in one of the production numbers) wear at one time or another suit the costumes well - it's an incredible accomplishment and makes for an eye-popping stage picture.

My own contribution seems tiny in comparison - I'm doing the make-up for just one of the former Follies girls (she's legally blind). I have to age her a good 30 years or so, and am getting to be a dab hand at the age lines and creases. I'm still getting the routine down - each night the make-up designer tells me I need more shadowing or I've forgotten to line her forehead - but I joked with "Heidi now" (as opposed to "young Heidi") last night that by the time we close, I'll have it down to a science.

Earthworm in the kitchen

Yesterday morning I was going thru the usual motions when I saw a crooked something on the kitchen floor that looked a little too regular to be a stick. It was a dirt-covered earthworm! I can only assume it came from the flower boxes we had brought into the kitchen the night before because the overnight temperature was supposed to get down to the freezing mark or lower. The compost I'd used with the potting soil often has worms in it, so I'm guessing my little visitor was an escapee. I escorted it outside to a nice little bush, where I hope it's much happier and aerating the soil there.

More flowers

This afternoon I finally planted the flowers I'd bought for the flower boxes on the deck railing. Lobelia, violas, dianthus and (something) - some of them are not looking too happy right now, but I'm hoping they'll bounce back shortly. But wouldn't ya know, not an hour after I'd finished, the Chief told me we may have to bring them in tonight, as the forecast is for lows in the 20s tonight!

The first of our tulips opened today and the phlox is just starting to come into its own. A few of the plants are just a couple of days from their peak, though 3 of them still don't seem to have a single bud. I'm still hoping they're just a (much?) later-blooming variety.

Working the Fringe?

This will be the 4th year for the local "Fringe Festival", which I think is modeled on Edinborough's. For about 2 weeks in July, individuals and groups present a very wide variety of theatrical and other presentations. I just auditioned for one such production, a variation on the Christmas Carol theme.

It was an unusual audition in several ways. First of all, it was at the MD's house, not a classroom, church hall or other such venue. We also had to sing a cappella, as there was no accompanist available. I wasn't terribly thrilled with my singing - blasted pollen! - and I didn't go as high as I might have in my range testing, but I didn't see them cringing or wanting to put their fingers in their ears, so I guess it wasn't too horrible. ;-)

The reading was one of the more fun I've done, especially as we got to read each scene twice. I got to read 4 different characters: a stage manager who was less than pleased w/ the props, a bit player considerably less than pleased with her role, a sharp-tongued jealous fiance, and a somewhat insecure actor. All of 'em were fun, and I could hear them reacting with chuckles, but the best bit was when I was reading that last character. My friend & fellow actor is trying to reassure me that I'll be fine in performance and "offers" to bring in some kids as a distraction during a rehearsal. My character thanks him for the laugh, then asks "Tell me you're not serious!" I couldn't see the directors' reactions, as I was looking at the person reading the other character, but I sure did hear them laugh at my slightly panicked reading of that "Tell me you're not serious!" line. And doesn't every performer love to hear the audience react!

They have 2 more nights of auditions, so it'll be at least Friday before I know anything, but the director did tell me before I left that she definitely wants to use me. The big problem is that I've got that 5-night cabaret workshop that happens to run right smack in the middle of the festival, and the festival organizers won't announce all the performances dates & venues for another couple of weeks. In other words, the director won't know until then whether that workshop is a conflict or not. (I'm hoping & praying "our" performance dates don't fall then!) She & I had already discussed the problem last week, as I wondered whether I should even bother auditioning. She told me then and reiterated this afternoon that she's actually willing to consider double-casting me in a role. I find that both generous and flattering, especially as she told me this when I was one of the very first auditionees, and it would be so much easier for her to drop me from consideration so she doesn't have to deal with that uncertainty.

Lotsa moving parts in this one!

Follies had its first tech rehearsal today. It was quite a marathon; the 3 of us who showed up for the make-up tech were there a good 5 hours, and the cast and other crew had another 2-3 hours to go. This production has a cast of about 45, most of whom have to wear at least one wig; one poor woman has four different wigs depending on the scene! They opened with designers' notes and announcements; the lighting designer announced that he had about 200 cues to set and apologized in advance for the necessarily painfully tedious process of inching thru the show to set those cues.

You'd think, as I did, that make-up wouldn't be too difficult; set it and forget it, right? Wrong! A scant handful of the cast have the same make-up throughout. Most change theirs from Act I to Act II, and some change it yet again during Act II. In addition to the make-up changes, there's a lot of "specialty" make-up, involving unusual effects (e.g., covering natural eyebrows and "drawing" higher ones) or special techniques. For starters, several people need to be aged, so the make-up designer has been instructing us in those techniques. The showgirls all get "ghost" make-up, and many in one of the big Act II numbers are to be made up to resemble Dresden dolls. This is going to be challenging, especially as there isn't nearly as much space as we could wish for the logistics of all these changes; little wonder they're telling cast members to get to the theater as early as possible.

Tired

As usual once the trees start pollinating, I'm tired - trying to breathe that stuff is work! Which is why, when I only lasted 15 mins on the treadmill yesterday, and I get a little winded after taking the stairs to my 3rd-floor office, I don't beat myself up about it.

And work's been rather trying - I've spent a couple of days this week working on administrative stuff that shoulda been taken care of ages ago but which refuses to settle (doesn't help that one office completely and utterly dropped the ball on sthg important). Today I only got half a day for "real" work, as I had a lunch meeting (at least it was a useful one), a briefing, then had to take off early for a doc's appointment.

Let's see, 8:30 - bedtime! zzzzzzzzzzz

Jumping up & down and squealing!!!

I'm all set to travel to my friend K's graduation in about another month. I'm hugely proud of her - single mother of many, working full time while earning her degree - and looking forward to cheering myself hoarse in celebration.

As if that weren't enough, I just learned that my maid of honor, who used to be my roommate but now lives thousands of miles away and whom I haven't seen since her brother's wedding several years ago, will also be at the graduation. I can now look forward to a weekend of hugs, tears of joy, and probably much swapping of G&S quotes.

My MoH and I "mother henned" each other so much and got along so well, I'm sure there were those who wondered if we were a couple, and our friend the graduate was like another sister and often spent her non-custodial weekends at our place. The prospect of getting to see them both again, at the same time, has me over the moon - it's too much happiness!

It's alive!

The phlox I planted last year hasn't been looking so great. While everyone else's in the neighborhood seems to be at or near full bloom, ours was still looking winter-dull. Until this weekend, when I noticed that most of them have buds that are just one nice day from opening. Can't wait to see how they do!

We also realized that grape hyacinths grow the flower, then the stem. I don't know why I never noticed before that the little blue clumps form up first, then the stem comes up underneath to raise the clump out of the green blades.

Signs of spring at our house

1. We start getting out and playing in the dirt. (The Chief's current project involves building a bed w/ pavers and planting caladiums and other shade-lovers in it.)

2. One or both of us trot off to the nursery and spend too much money on bedding plants. And this year we might even splash out on a little bitty flowering tree to replace the dogwood on the south side that died a few years ago.

3. When we change the sheets, we replace the flannels with percales. (Though I think we got ahead of ourselves with that this year - lows near freezing last night!)

4. We can leave the doors & windows open, and do!

5. I inspect the garden when I get home every day, seeing what's blooming where.

Playing in the dirt

The Chief & I took advantage of the lovely weather over the weekend and worked out in the yard. He'd gotten some free (wahoo!) daffodils when he was out at the cabin last week and stopped by a local nursery for some of their good, dirt cheap compost. The daffodils were the first things to go into the ground. I was a bit apprehensive, since spring isn't usually when I'd plant them, but we had some rain earlier today and they seem happy so far.

I also dug up some mats of vinca and transplanted them into the dirt strip down the center of the driveway. I'm hoping they establish themselves more quickly than the cuttings I planted last year. The vinca in general is going gangbusters this spring, so I'm hoping that planting them with some of that lovely compost will persuade the transplants that they like their new homes.

Yesterday I spent way too much money at the fancy-schmancy nursery (the local one doesn't look long for this world - shockingly little stock for April). I got the flat of impatiens planted in the bed under the mailbox and installed 2 little pots of Irish moss at the top of the driveway, where I'm hoping they'll dig in and spread to their hearts' content. I also bought 2 varieties of thyme, a hellebore and lots of different plants to go into the flower boxes for the deck railing. Oh goody - more excuses to play in the dirt! :D

Emotional adoption?

Having no kids of my own, and with my nieces & nephews living a plane ride away, I tend to "adopt" the people around me. And the longer I've known you and the better we get along, the more likely you are to get the "mother hen" treatment. I try conscientiously not to do that at work but in the theater, and with the church group I've been singing with for umpteen years (I've known the kids since before they were born), well, it's so hard not to fuss over them. Some of my theater friends have learned to humor me when I start fixing their costumes, bless their hearts. And when we're all singing, playing, dancing, partying..., it's great. I don't have family living nearby, so they become my family - gotta love it! :)

(It's spring, I just spent too much money at the garden center today and planted a flat of impatiens - I'm in a good mood, what can I say?)

Chorus? or not?

I wasn't called back for Gondoliers, so now I'm waiting for the customary call offering me a slot in the chorus. The Chief would like to see me turn it down because I've been in the ensemble of just about every show I've done with this company. (The lone exceptions were the first time they did Merry Widow (lotsa dancing & one of the Grisettes) and Fledermaus, when I had a couple of lines as a guest at Orlovsky's party and had my "daughters" do their party pieces.

The Chief points out that I've had roles with other companies and I should continue to audition for other companies (which I'm doing) and to audition for straight plays rather than musicals (but it feels so weird to have no music!). He also would like to see me get back to having all my weekends free to go to the cabin or otherwise do stuff together, instead of letting Gondoliers eat up all my weekends.

This could be tough - much as I love the music in Gondoliers, I do owe my long-suffering husband a few weekends, given how many of them Merry Widow ate up. Maybe I'll just help with costumes this time round, usher a performance or so, work run crew or something...

That went well, I think.

Another audition behind me. I think this is the first time I've really worked my audition piece (Katisha's recitative and aria, from The Mikado) outside of my voice lesson. I even scheduled an audition coaching session with my former voice teacher, who knows G&S inside & out, both musically and dramatically.

I've started to get at least a little serious about working on specific technical things lately, which is starting to pay off. I also made myself stage the piece and tried to remember to pull out all the stops for the audition panel. Not sure I managed that, but I'm actually reasonably pleased with how I did, which I can't often say.

I doubt I'll get the part I want (the competition includes a mezzo who's done at least a few leads with the company), or anything but chorus, for that matter, but I think I gave one of my best auditions so far. Now it's up to the panel, whose decision will be based on a lot of things I can't control.

Leaving on a jet plane?

The Chief decided back in December, prompted by watching a few travel shows, that we should take a December vacation to England this year, whereupon we immediately started saving our pennies. Tonight I've spent nearly 3 hours looking into airfares, lodging, etc. The exchange rate is surprisingly low right now - only about $1.45 or $1.50 to the pound. We can only hope that's where it is come December.

Yes, I know perfectly well that all those stunningly photogenic gardens, fields, etc, won' t be nearly as photogenic in December. Still, after looking at all those pictures, I'm psyched about this. Even if it's gray and rainy the whole time, we'll be looking at different architecture, listening to foreign accents, exploring the historic sites and needing all day to walk off our English breakfasts. (Broiled tomatoes and mushrooms - yum!)

Feeling virtuous

No, I didn't get to the gym last week, but I did get there twice this week, despite missing a day and a half of work due to migraines. Weights yesterday and half an hour (and 1.45 miles) on the treadmill today. Not only did I give myself a good workout, but today I kept the treadmill boredom at bay by mentally rehearsing my audition piece: characterization, dynamics, etc. And once the other treadmill users left, about 10 minutes before I finished, I even did a little sotto voce singing. Not as good as actually singing, of course, but better than nothing.

More dancing for lawyers

This is one of the reasons I keep my eye on Facebook - it seems the Washington Post article on Saphira a friend directed me to prompted NPR to do a feature on her too. It comes out in the NPR interview that her school has nine instructors - that's a big dance school!

All of which is just feeding the itch I've already been feeling to get back to dancing myself. A belly dance class would be so much more interesting than the gym at work, more fun (better music!), more social, and great for flexibility to counter "Arthur". And unlike working out in a gym, it's also a performing art, where I get to boogie down to fun music in some pretty spectacular "glad rags". What's not to love? :D

Plans and ramblings

Oh, lots of things coming up - prepping for Gondoliers auditions, pencilling the Follies dates into my calendar, trying to get to other people's shows, determining which work training I absolutely have to do and what can wait (so that I'm actually at my desk more than two weeks at a stretch).

I'm finding that the harder I work to prep for an audition, the more I get my hopes up even when I know how long the odds are against me. If I go in not caring, it's not a big deal when I'm not cast; if part of me thinks that I should get it because I've worked so hard that I must be a better singer, I tend to take it personally. The paradox, of course, is that if I don't work on it, then of course I won't be as good as if I do. Maybe my prep needs to include a little psych session on myself. :D

And of course there are the Holy Week services, starting with Palm Sunday (April 5th this year). Only once have I ever sung all of them - between rehearsals and services, it was like tech week without the sets & costumes. It was certainly exhausting, but singing all that music was exhilarating. I'll have to play it by ear and see how I feel, and how many of the services the Chief might be willing to attend.

Busy theater support day

Busy day - flew home from church to change and inhale some lunch before heading off to a meeting called by the Follies make-up designer. We'll be doing some specialty and some age make-up, so I'll get to learn and practice some new techniques. Sounds like conditions will be cramped, to say the least - a cast of 45 crammed into 2 small dressing rooms and a coupla classrooms, along with their costumes, wigs (at least 50!), props, and who knows what-all else. Tech week really will be hell week as we try to get the logistics down, but we'll manage.

From there I drove 27 miles to a board meeting for the company that just did Merry Widow. I was late because of the first meeting, but was still there for a goodly chunk of it. Since I'm supposed to be the recording secretary (this is the first board meeting since the July elections that I've actually made, thanks to rehearsals and performances), that's a good thing. Now I get to write up my notes and send them to the rest of the board.

Let's see - at least 2 1/2 hours in the car (and 71 miles) for just over 2 1/2 hours' worth of meetings. I think it's a tie between driving and meeting.

"Belly dancing for lawyers"

... is the title of the article I found thanks to a link on a friend's site. Nice, lengthy, positive article about a lawyer-turned-dancer in the Washington Post that also has some footage of one of Sapphira's classes. (Her studio looks tiny!) I've danced alongside many a lawyer myself, so I'm not surprised, and I'm pleased to see that her studio seems to be doing well - 300 students, to that she's hired instructors to help out.

Theatrical update

So I won't be doing Catch-22, not because I wasn't cast, but due to a work conflict during their tech week. A pity, as I would have gotten to play a batch of blowhards & bad guys, which would have been fun. However, the one bright side is that at least I can audition for Gondoliers, which techs in a week later. Now I'm cramming to get a new audition piece under my belt so that I'll be ready when the Gondoliers audition dates are announced.

I'll be helping w/ make-up for a local production of Follies. I auditioned for them, wasn't cast, but hope that this will be a way to make myself known to at least some of the company. And since I'll be working with a "real" make-up designer, I'm sure I'll learn some techniques that will stand me in good stead in future shows.

One of the local professional companies is looking for non-Equity singers for their summer productions. I'm sorely tempted, but first need to find out what the rehearsal schedule looks like. Being a professional theater, they may rehearse during the day. Since I already have a day job, that wouldn't work so well for me. ;-)

I'm already starting to look ahead to the 09-10 season, though only 1 or 2 companies have announced their season so far. I've already spotted one show I want to audition for; a long shot, but I don't mind auditioning even when I know I have only a snowball's chance because of the strength of the competition.

Spring?

I saw my first crocuses of the season nearly 3 weeks ago, and the daffodils are blooming almost concurrently with the crocuses, instead of 2-3 weeks later. The forsythia is already starting to come out, several different kinds of trees are already in bud, the Bradford pears may well be in bloom by the weekend, and even our dogwoods are sporting some pretty healthy buds.

Two weekends ago the highs were in the 70s, which brought all these blooms along right smartly, along with the first wave of allergens. Last weekend, though, the highs were only in the 40s, with the occasional light rain and some pretty stiff breezes. By now we should be used to the way spring loves to sucker-punch us like that, but those warm temps lasted more than 2 days running so we made the mistake of allowing ourselves to believe...

Still, I do love seeing the crocuses. Yes, I know they come up every year, and I even know which yards to watch and which colors come in where, but I still get as excited as a little kid at Christmas when I spot those first purple blooms.

Another audition

In about an hour I'm off to audition for a local production of Catch-22. No clue what the turnout will be like, and therefore whether I have much competition, but if I'm cast, it will certainly be a change of pace from anything else I've ever done.

Pros: the theater & rehearsal location are only about 8 or 10 miles from home, there are a few good pre-rehearsal and post-show dining options nearby, I'd be stretching myself and working with a new (to me) company.

Cons: Catch-22 runs concurrent with another show I'm interested in and for which I want to try for the contralto lead; it cuts into my time with my favorite retiree; I'm a little nervous that I might find myself cast in a show I don't particularly like. But these are problems only if I'm cast. ;-)

Guess we got a brush-up after all

Pity our poor audience last night. We didn't have a brush-up rehearsal this week, but maybe we should have. We certainly weren't at our best last night - our Danilo was ailing (modifying his top notes, speaking a few of the "talkier" lyrics, singing at only about 60%), energy was low, timing a little loose sometimes, some tempi sluggish and in general we didn't exactly give a very tight performance. :-(

Not good news

... though it's too soon to tell whether it's bad news. Lab results from last week's doctor visit were mostly normal; the one anomaly "is a surprise" given the other results, according to my doc. She's gonna refer me to a rheumatologist, which has me a bit nervous about what I may learn. Pray for me!

Still standing

... if on tender feet (gotta get better-fitting character shoes). I survived Tech Week and the green room sweatshop; I only built two Pontevedrian dresses, but I trimmed several - 3 rows of trim, 4 yds each, plus bodice trim. Then there was the sewing of random skirt hooks and hems, ransacking of my stores for accessories & props, and trying to survive the up-ended schedule (getting to bed about 4 hours before my alarm usually goes off for work). My fingers are full of holes now, but the costumes look even better than the batch for the last time this company did the show 13 years ago. Same costumer; it was her first show with the company. She's still costuming shows, getting better with each one, and she sings, too - she's Hannah Glawari.

The first weekend went well, we had enthusiastic houses, especially for the outreach matinee, we sound and look wonderful, and I love having the Chief in the wings (he's helping with set changes).

The chorus doesn't have a lot of singing in this show, but the music is wonderful. I'm bummed that my stupid knees keep me out of the running for much dancing - even the 8 bars of polka I do can be uncomfortable on bad days - but the singing I get to do is feeling really good. The harp adds a lot to the orchestral sound, and the harpist is a stitch. Yesterday he brought canteloupe for green room munchies, with the hollowed-out halves upside-down on a plate with one labeled "Glawari" and the other "melons". (Reference to a joke in the show; the Pontevedrian ambassador mistakenly decodes "Glawari millions" as "Glawari melons".)

Laying in provisions for a siege

The Chief & I are bracing ourselves for Tech Week. Yesterday was the Sitzprobe, load-in started at 10 this morning, cast is called for 6 tonight, but my sewing machine and I will report earlier to help with the "green-room sweatshop". Cast is called for 6 p.m. through Wednesday, with 6:30 calls for Thursday's preview and all evening performances. That obviously doesn't leave very much time at all for fixing and eating dinner before leaving for the theater. That's why the Chief put some turkey legs and a whole chicken on to roast yesterday while I was at the Sitz; once they were ready, we took the meat off the bone and now have it for sandwiches. I also made a batch of hummus, a big pot of my mom's veggie-beef soup recipe, and some pot roast (the Chief isn't big on soups). Oh, and I rinsed some red and white grapes and destemmed them and might even prep some carrot sticks so we'll have something a little healthier than pizza and fast food to eat this week.

We're hosting a fellow castmember this week to shorten her home-work-theater commute a bit; I think we have enough food for three. If not, it certainly isn't for lack of trying! :D

Is it July yet?

Yesterday a friend told me of a week-long evening cabaret workshop at a local music school. You spend 3 hours a night Mon-Thu working on a ballad and an up-tempo song, then on Friday everyone in the class gets to sing their pieces for an audience. I've seen announcements for other cabaret singing classes in town that I haven't been able to make, but the timing of this one is just right. I sent off my registration this morning, hoping the class hasn't filled up already, and am looking forward to going through my Cole Porter, Gershwin and Rodgers & Hart collections to decide on my 2 songs. Or I may see if they'll let me sing 1 or 2 Mary Morton pieces - I've got her Wooing the Lorelei CD and love her lyrics and musical style.

Now I'm really looking forward to July - 5 straight nights of singing!

Another good lesson

A lesson or two ago, I finally, finally "got" the sensation of a dropped larynx that my voice teacher and her predecessor have been trying to guide me toward. Sounds weird, or maybe like something you might have to call 911 for, but dropping the larynx opens things up in the back of the throat, giving you a bigger, better resonating chamber.

Then today I was able to incorporate that with some breath timing (tricky only because I've been timing it wrong for so very many years). Once I realized that when I got to the range where I tend to get scared and tighten up, I just needed a little more "oomph" to get me through, well, not only did it feel good, but my teacher lit up and said that was about the best she's heard me sing! Now to make all that a habit...

Ya know, I'm becoming a believer in this voice lesson stuff. :D

Arthur is a pain in the neck.

Learned last night that the chronic pain in my neck, which I always thought was from my sleeping position, is actually from arthritis! The doc had me get my neck x-rayed to be sure; yep, osteophytes (bone spurs) on at least 3 cervical vertebrae! The blasted things like to bear down on a nerve or few, causing tingling and pain to radiate into my hand & fingers.

So now I wanna know - when is medical science gonna come up with a permanent cure for both osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis? This Arthur stuff is for the birds - it's already keeping me from dancing (my knees are not loving the tiny little bit of low-impact polka I do in Merry Widow).

"Family recipe"

This has got to be one of the funniest photos I've seen in a long time. Finish what you're eating or drinking before you click on the link.

Someone's in dire need of Bus Driving 001

I was stopped at a light this afternoon when a bus driver, trying to squeeze past me into the left-turn lane, misjudged the distance and knocked my driver's-side mirror against the side of my car. Sigh. I found a Customer Comment form on the transit company's website and submitted a quick report, and I get to call my insurance company in the morning. Wonder how long I'll have to wait before I can get my mirror fixed. And my poor car isn't even a year old yet!

Boring workout update

"Boring" can refer to either (or both) "workout" and "update" - you've been warned!

After being pretty darn sedentary the past two weeks, between 2 classes and trying to get things done at work around said classes, I actually got back to the gym today. Spent a boring half hour on the treadmill (and who thought people on treadmills would want to look at themselves in a humongous mirror?!?) and logged 1.29 miles at enough grade and speed to break a light sweat without punishing my knees. The machine reported I'd only burned 153 calories, but I didn't enter weight or age or anything first, so maybe I actually burned more than that. Or am I dreaming?

Productive in spite of myself

Not only did I manage to essentially finish the first of 2 Merry Widow costume "kits" I have, but the Chief & I managed to revive my old Saturn (which had been hiding in the backyard while we searched for the title lien release) sufficiently to move it around where the tow truck can get at it tomorrow. And after dinner I not only made another batch of that Moroccan carrot salad, but sauteed some mushrooms to add to the jarred spaghetti sauce and packed up some salad and chicken for lunch tomorrow.

I'm dreading my e-mail queue tomorrow; here's hoping I can be as productive at work tomorrow as I was at home today.

Friends as guinea pigs

I've been known to see the occasion of friends coming to dinner as the perfect opportunity to try a new recipe. Last weekend was no exception; right alongside the roast chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, we served a Moroccan carrot salad. It turned out to be such a huge hit - we had almost no leftovers - that I ended up giving our friends copies of the recipe. It was easy, too; the hardest part about it was throwing it together before I had to leave for rehearsal that day. This one's definitely going into my collection of Favorites.

Other "experiments": goose, duck, flan, the occasional dessert recipe. See, this is how you know if you're one of my better friends - am I secure enough in our friendship to experiment on you? :D

"5 cents, please"

[BTW, who took the cent sign off the keyboards when we weren't looking?!?]

I've been making a long commute (30+ miles one way) to another class for work, trying to learn a very intricate computer tool. The guy next to me had just had some hugely horrible news dumped on him by the girlfriend he just broke up with and has been venting to me. Part of the reason has been that, being female, he sorta hoped I might be able to help him make some sense of what he learned and the anger and grief he's now going through. While the mother hen in me wants to rock him and say "there, there", his situation makes me very paranoid about telling him much of anything in the way of advice - I definitely don't need to make things worse for the poor guy! Needless to say, I've been praying like crazy for guidance in addition to praying for him. "Storming heaven", as my grandmother used to say.

This is the second time I've run into this (the first was when I was coming home from Europe - LONG flight!). Maybe I should follow Lucy's example and set up a little stand...?

Enjoying his retirement

Friday I got home from work late, having tried to do as much as possible to clear my queue between classes. I knew it was going to be a busy night, as we still had some food prep to do before having friends to dinner Saturday. I was pleasantly surprised to find my wonderful husband in the kitchen, at the ironing board putting the finishing touches on the linen tablecloth. Not only that, but he cheerfully peeled & sliced 4 apples for the cake (enlightened self interest there - he loves that cake!), then decided to make the hummus while I assembled the cake. He also did all the pre-party housecleaning, since "I'm home all day now and you're still working."

And while he's only fixed dinner once since he retired, he's hardly goofing off - today he returned my library books for me, he's finished organizing papers and has started on the basement, does the grocery shopping now - this is great! :D

Getting smarter, I hope

As part of taking my new job, I had a 3-day class last week and started a 5-day one today. Both involve long (30+ miles) commutes, but last week's was well worth it. I'm hoping this week's will be similarly worthwhile.

Last week was weird; we'd had snow Tuesday morning, with sleet and freezing rain forecast for the evening and through the night. I ended up spending the night in a nearby hotel rather than risk the drive home on icy roads with an unknown number of drivers who either don't know how to drive in that kinda weather or just freak out. Wasn't how I'd have chosen to spend the evening, but it was the right choice.

And now they're talking about snow tomorrow. Much as I'd love to have a snow day, I don't want it this week because it would mess up the class schedule. If the weather wants to give us a snow day next week, however...

"Thoughts from the whiteboard"

A friend subscribes to a daily Thoughts From the Whiteboard and shares the occasional goodie. I really identify with today's item: What I really need are minions! If someone else could fix dinner, clean the house and pay the bills so I could work on costumes and do vocalises, the world, or at least my world, would be a better place.

TW does do stuff around the house; he's been going thru seemingly every scrap of paper in the house, weeding out the stuff we no longer need, organizing the things we do, starting on the taxes... I bet he'd love a minion or two himself.

"Readability"

Found a link by surfing from a friend's blog, in which she posted the results of a "readability" test. I didn't like the starkness of that version, which gave no explanations of the results or the criteria used to derive them, so I went to another site and got these results:

http://juicystudio.com/services/readability.php#readingresults

It helpfully explains different systems for measuring ease of reading. What's interesting is their phrasing; they talk about how easy it is to understand what you write. It says nothing about your level of intelligence, unless you consider your ability to communicate ideas clearly to be an intelligence quotient.I thought it odd that 2 of the indices purport to estimate how much schooling would be needed to read my blog, but those numbers came in with pretty different results - Gunning Fog says you'd need an 8th-grade education, while the Flesch-Kinkaid index says you'd only need a 5th-grade education. Maybe it depends on the quality of the school system. ;-)

The biggest flaw I see in these "tests" is that the key, or perhaps the only, criterion seems to be number of syllables in words, assuming a direct correlation between "difficulty" and number of syllables. These assessments don't address grammar (or lack thereof) or punctuation (yes, punctuation can affect meaning!). It's completely possible to obfuscate or be unintelligible using words of 3 syllables or less; you don't have to bring out the $10 words to produce confusing prose, though of course it helps. Conversely, it's also possible to communicate complex ideas clearly and concisely without requiring one's audience to know every word in the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary and without "dumbing down" your text.

One more example of why one should take these Internet "tests" with a generous sprinkling of salt.

Maintaining momentum

Back to the gym today for more time on the treadmill. I tried one of the pre-programmed routines this time; a little less boring. One of my gym buddies promised to show me how to use the elliptical machines on Friday, so I'll give that a try then.

As we were getting started, someone else arrived who popped Night at the Opera into the DVD player. Much more entertaining than CNN or some other cable channel.

And tomorrow TW starts a cardio class on base. He sounds like he's looking forward to it.

Another reason to call it Hell Week?

A friend sent me a link to this href="http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2009/01/21/germaise.actor.shot.in.head.wfts">video. The subject line of his e-mail was "the dangers of community theater"; not hard to see why!

Busy weekend

I couldn't accompany TW to the cabin this weekend because I have rehearsals both today & tomorrow. Instead, I'm seeing a couple of shows he wasn't interested in.

Musical of Musicals: The Musical was a lot of fun, even funnier than I'd anticipated, and well done. It's funny how doing theater has skewed my perspective, though - I found myself considering the various numbers' potential as audition pieces, then dismissing them because almost all the women's stuff seemed to be written for soprano, which I'm not, except for the couple of "belt" numbers, and I can't belt. It's all about me, after all! :D

Tonight, friends and I are seeing Orpheus in the Underworld, in English. We've been invited backstage afterwards by the lead tenor. That's pretty unusual - audience members are not supposed to go backstage! - so I hope no one sics Security on us. However, having teched in that theater, I know exactly how to get to the dressing rooms. If we look like we know where we're going, maybe they'll just point us toward our friend and leave us alone.

That's twice...

Monday was treadmills, so Wednesday was weight machines. First time I've done those in (too many!) years, so I was surprised to find I actually remembered some of the basic principles. Better, I took the lowest weight on most, not all of them. I did almost no arm work because my one shoulder was still bothering me from some unknown injury, but the leg work went OK and I even did both regular and cross crunches. Almost nothing hurt afterwards, though, which tells me that I need to up weight, reps or both the next time.

The Chief was talking about hitting the gym on base Monday or Tuesday (since my lesson is on Thursday this coming week). I'm surprised to find I'm actually hoping that happens!

It's a start...

A colleague & I actually made it to the gym yesterday. We each grabbed a treadmill and he ran, while I walked. My asthma kept my speed to 3 mph, but I did put in 1.5 miles. It's back to the gym tomorrow, but Friday I've got meetings at another building and Monday we're off for the MLK holiday. Here's hoping that doesn't kill my momentum before I've got any...

More sleepwear to sew!

TW's flannel pj's are starting to show their age and he hasn't been crazy about what he found in the stores, so he took me up on my offer to make him a pair. The one catch was that he'd have to accompany me to a fabric store! horrors! to pick out a flannel print. I eased him into fabric shopping: first we looked through Wal-Mart's limited selection (though I did get the pattern there). Then we visited a craft store with huge selections of fleece and flannel, where he settled on a print of duckies on a blue background. I guess he really likes the print - he keeps saying we need to go back and get more for a nightshirt for me.

Costume/sewing geeks having fun

Went to a friend's house a few nights ago to help her with a project. She's been working on a reproduction of a Tudor-era "french gown", accurate down to the underpinnings. This girl's so committed to accuracy, she sewed the stays herself from the general directions in The Tudor Tailor. She's already finished the chemise and kirtle (like a sleeveless underdress; this is the piece that has the stays in it) and I was helping her fit the torso mock-up for the gown. She showed me the gorgeous brocade she ordered on line for the gown; I can't wait to see the finished product, especially how all that fabric moves!

Naturally, we also spent a good bit of time catching up (we hadn't seen each other since Pirates) and talking costuming in general. I got to meet her cat (who didn't like it when the project got more of our attention than he did) & snake, see her brother again (another Pirates alum), and generally had a lovely evening. It's just a shame that I had to leave earlier than I would have liked so I'd get at least some sleep before work the next morning.

Another sign of colds in the household

In pulling a load of laundry out of the dryer tonight, I found the shredded remains of 2 or maybe even 3 tissues. Wonder which of us was guilty of leaving 'em in our pockets? (I blame TW; he's gotten so good about emptying his pockets that I've largely quit checking pockets before throwing things in the wash.)

Resolutions?

I've generally been opposed on principle to New Year's resolutions (it's just an "odometer phenomenon" - nothing special to get worked up about), but I'm toying in a very general, very UNcommitted way to maybe possibly thinking about trying this. More a "N things I'd like to accomplish this year" than "N things I MUST accomplish this year".

So, now that I've caveated this 20 ways to Sunday, here's a preliminary list of things I think I'd like to have done by, say, Christmas 2009:

• hang some pictures at the cabin;
• hang some pictures in the living room at the house;
• expand my crockpot repertoire (this one won't be tough - I have exactly one recipe in that repertory at the moment);
• start dancing again, at least a little bit;
• maybe start using the gym at my new building (this one's heavily dependent on finding someone who can show me how to use the equipment without doing myself an injury)
• expand my musical/theatrical horizons, perhaps by attending something new, auditioning for something I think I might not like, or learning a new tech skill.

Now to see whether I remember to check back on this during the year, especially come December.

New phase of life for a new year

The Chief retired (again - this time as a civilian) as of 31 December. He spent a fair amount of time this weekend doing his "I'm retired!!!" dance and gloating in song about no longer needing to iron shirts, lay out his things the night before, or get up by 5 a.m. to go to work. I'm sympathetic - I may well have my own happy dance when I can retire - but given that I do have to lay out my things tonight and set my alarm for 0530 and go back to racing rats tomorrow, I'm finding that ongoing celebration is starting to wear just a teensy bit thin... ;-)

Another believer

The Chief had his first massage over the weekend (he'd been complaining of neck problems so long that he actually acquiesced when I urged him to try a massage). The therapist I recommended has worked with an orthopedist for years, which I think reassured him that this wasn't some New Age, hippie-dippie pseudo-therapy. He now understands why I try to get a massage whenever I can (which unfortunately is rarely more than a few times a year) - he's still marveling at how much looser his neck feels, and has already booked his next massage. Yes, I'd say he's been convinced.

Happy New Year!

Don't worry - I'm not one to wax philosophical, or at least not at length. I just hope that all 2 or 3 of my loyal readers have a good new year. May you weather life's trials, may at least one dream come to fruition, and let us know when you can join us at the cabin! :D

We wish you a Merry Christmas...

Spent Christmas w/ the family and it was good. We got in late Christmas Eve, so getting up for 7:30 mass the next morning was tough, but it was worth it. I joined Mom (organist), K and her family (3 of them playing brass for prelude carols, one son singing bass) to provide the music and it was great. Best of all was closing with Joy to the World. Mom always - always - modulates to a higher key for the last verse, which I absolutely love because it adds to the joyfulness of the music. I'd been looking forward to it, and was already happy to be singing with family. K's voice & mine blend well together anyway ("that genetic thing", as another sister quipped), and her son, well, same genetic compatibility, which added to it. By the time we got to Joy to the World and that long-awaited final verse, I was singing away with tears running down my face - glorious!

The rest of Christmas Day was a bit crazed, partly because I still had to wrap all the presents we'd mailed ahead to avoid the baggage fee for the extra suitcase they'd've needed. H and her family arrived for the weekend that day, and the boys were SO full of energy after being cooped up in the car. And of course there was all the cooking and last-minute prep that needed doing for dinner for 26, since there's only so much you can do ahead. But it was fun, everyone was healthy, my nieces' nightgowns were big hits (though the younger one's was so big it dragged on the floor), and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Friday was only slightly less quiet, partly because we were having dinner at Mom & Dad's again, this time including J's in-laws, who got into town that day. Dinner was mostly leftovers, which was just fine - I happen to love left-over turkey and the carbs that usually accompany it.

I also managed to squeeze in a visit with a friend I've known since grade school, the Chief & I treated ourselves to a coupla goodies at Williams-Sonoma, and we even got a little quiet time with my aunt & uncle (who were putting us up in their guest room) despite spending a LOT of time at Mom & Dad's cooking & cleaning up afterwards. Our last day, though, as I was helping Mom assemble dinner, she commented that she'd miss her "kitchen buddy" when we left. I gotta admit, it was fun sharing a kitchen with her.

The only down side was the "plague" - my oldest niece was the first one to come down with a virulent stomach virus that also attacked both her brothers and one of my brothers-in-law, and which hit the Chief the night before we were supposed to come home. Fortunately, it didn't hit him very hard - he was able to get a halfway decent night's sleep, and it abated enough that he was able to get through the flight home without incident. (Thank God it was a non-stop!) He then went to bed almost as soon as we got home - slept nearly 6 hours over the course of the afternoon and evening.

He also came home with a cold, which I'm now getting. Bleah! I've already sent our regrets to the hosts of the New Year's Eve parties we had planned to attend, and it looks like our weekend at the cabin will be spent blowing noses, coughing, and dining on chicken soup. Good thing we have plenty of nice, cozy throws out there, as well as a decent stash of firewood

"Then shall the lame man leap as an hart..." *

Mom was telling me about a Christmas party they went to last week, which boasted a small combo playing music for dancing. My father, who has been so crippled up by repeated major back surgeries and several joint replacements over the past several years that he still uses a cane most of the time, actually managed to DANCE a little!!! Mom admitted he was a bit wobbly, but given that at one point the doctors weren't entirely sure he'd be able to walk again, this is wonderful news!

* Recitative #19, Handel's The Messiah, quoting Isaiah, IIRC (I don't have my score handy).

Singing Messiah and getting paid for the privilege!

When my voice teacher asked if I'd be interested in helping swell the numbers of her church choir when they sang pt. 1 of "The Messiah" for the 4th Sunday in Advent, I agreed almost before she'd finished telling me any details. I haven't sung any Messiah in years and jumped at the chance; and she was going to let me sing a solo too? Where do I sign! Then came the kicker - she planned to pay me for something I'd happily do for free. After all, while I know plenty of people with paying church jobs, I'm not one of them. In fact, the running joke in my church choir when someone is late to practice or makes a mistake is to threaten to dock their salary (of $0).

Yesterday was our Sitzprobe, if you will - our sole rehearsal with the full complement of instrumentalists (violins 1&2, a viola, and a cello in addition to the organ). We'd been rehearsing with the organ all along, and the 1st violin (the organist's husband) had joined us Thursday, but having all 4 strings really made a difference! And it was SO cool to stand up there and sing "He shall feed His flock" with them right off my left hip (it's a very small chancel)!

I found the service a little disorienting. It's a Methodist church (I'm Catholic), and this was a special service, I was sightreading 2 of the 3 non-Messiah hymns, and I was relieved when they put me at the end of the processional line. Not a problem - I knew it would be unfamiliar, so I just watched everyone else - but as I joked with Mom later on the phone, it can't have been hard for the congregation to figure out that I was a visitor. The Messiah, however, generally went quite well. The first soloist had to clear his throat a few bars into his first solo but recovered nicely and sounded quite good thereafter. The first chorus got a little off track when one section made an entrance in the wrong place, but we recovered within a few bars and after that, the choruses were probably the best I'd heard us do. I felt good about how my solo went, got some nice compliments on it, and was able to sincerely compliment the others. It felt a little weird to go to someone else's denomination of a Sunday morning, but somehow I don't think God will mind overmuch if my prayers occasionally emanate from a church with a different "brand" out front. ;-)

Party, party, party!

You can tell it's December - I attended 3 parties in as many days!

Thursday was the big day at my new office, and what a partying bunch! Secret Santa drawing, and the white elephant ("Yankee swap", present-stealing) game, a door-decorating contest, a most-festive-attire contest, and a vast potluck spread with beer & wine among the beverages.

Friday was the Chief's office party which they also made his retirement party. There were the usual serious presentations (including a certificate and poinsettia for me), as well as some pretty good friendly ("beers of the world") and gag gifts. They obviously have some bakers in the group, as the potluck included homemade fudge and Christmas cookies. They also played the gift-stealing game; I suspect my husband didn't know he had been included, judging from the look on his face when they called his name as the next to open or steal a gift. After the party, we then proceeded to prep for the next one, going out to pick up the ducks we'd ordered, then going home to continue cleaning, polish silver, start getting the table ready, etc.

And Saturday was our dinner party. The table looked lovely, the food was OK (how do I keep it from getting cold so fast even when I warm the serving dishes?!?), and the company was great. We had rather more glitches than usual (e.g., put the jellied cranberry and the Chief's homemade cranberry sauces in their dish, which we left in the fridge; loaded up the CD player then forgot to turn it on), but nothing major. It was lovely to be able to sit and talk uninterrupted for hours; if we succeed in getting them out to the cabin, we'll be able to look forward to more of the same.

Whew; chance to catch my breath.

My, but we've been busy the past week or two! I got my nieces' nightgowns finished Tuesday and all but a few presents boxed up & mailed by Wednesday. We've been cleaning and decluttering and even decorating a little for a small dinner party last night, I've had rehearsals for my voice teacher's Messiah this morning, a Merry Widow rehearsal or two, an audition (not cast but I may well tech), saw a friend's show last weekend, made a dent in our Christmas shopping, and the usual grocery shopping, cooking, laundry, etc.

Friday & yesterday were particularly busy, with all the last-minute prep for the party, complicated by a migraine-inducing front that chose this weekend to visit. (Not that there's ever a good time to get a migraine, but still...) But we still managed to clear the worst of the clutter, shoo away the dust zoo (forget dust bunnies; we were finding rhinos, hippos, giraffes and I forget what-all else!), polish silver and get the food cooked. Today we were too tired to do much more than finish the dishes and read the paper.

The party went well, for all that it was much more intimate than originally planned. Between scheduling and family emergencies, we ended up with only 2 guests. However, as we hadn't seen them in months and months, it was nice to have them all to ourselves.

Already checked out on Snopes.com.....it's for REAL! Doesn't take but a couple minutes, please send one! This is a wonderful site. Just takes a minute and well worth it!! XEROX IS DOING SOMETHING COOL

If you go here, you can pick out a thank-you card, Xerox will print it, and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq. You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed services. How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!! It is FREE and it only takes a second. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the soldiers received a bunch of these? Whether you are for or against the war, our soldiers over there need to know we are behind them. This takes just 10 seconds and it's a wonderful way to say thank you. Please take the time and please take the time to pass it on for others to do. We can never say enough thank you's. Thanks for taking to time to support our military!

More waiting

Another audition last night, for a company I'd love to work with. I auditioned for them once before, but this time I was able to say I'd take ensemble. (Ensemble in Thoroughly Modern Millie was out because my knees won't stand the punishment of tapdancing.) My singing wasn't great - tone not my best, though I thought my diction was good even at the brisk tempo I requested. The dance audition wasn't bad, though there was a novelty: when my group went in to learn the dance combination, the choreographer told us that it was 6 sets of 8 counts, but she'd been instructed to advise us that "anyone over 40" was not required to do the last set of 8! None of us opted out, though one of the men in my group did inquire jokingly a couple of times about an "over 48" option. I dropped or added a step at the end the 2nd time we did it for the panel so that I didn't finish in the right place, but on the whole I don't think I did badly.

Callbacks are tomorrow & Saturday; I haven't heard anything, so obviously I'm not called back. Not a surprise - I figure they had 80 or 90 people show up, so if I get ensemble I'll be pleased. And if I don't, then it's back to searching the audition notices. TW keeps urging me to audition for a straight play; that's definitely an option.

What do I want for Christmas? an extra week or so

Though I'd settle for a day or two. I think the problem is that, for the first time in years, I've got a show in rehearsal in December. And I'm learning one of the Messiah arias, and I'm making those gift nightgowns, and we're giving a dinner party next weekend and therefore have to clean, declutter and decorate. And for all that we really need to get the Christmas presents in the mail if we want them to arrive before New Year's, only about half of them are bought. Oh, and there's all those records I have to dig out for my new office. (Sure hope those last couple of things are in the safe deposit box, 'cause I can't find 'em around the house.) In addition to the usual laundry, grocery shopping, bill paying, cooking & cleaning that never go away, no matter how much I might wish it.

So, yeah, if you have a spare hour or two you can send my way, I won't even ask you to giftwrap it.

Nightgowns, nightgowns, nightgowns

This seems to be a nightgown year for me. First I had to make a nightshirt for my Modern Major General and a nightgown & mobcap for his 6' daughter back in May. Now I'm working on the first of 2 flannel nightgowns for my 2 youngest nieces. They'll be very cute - the nearby fabric store had some lovely flannel prints. I just hope they aren't too huge - I'm making them one size larger so they can grow into rather than out of them.

Balsammm!

TW decided we should have a small dinner party in a few weeks, which means that not only do we have to do the usual cleaning and decluttering, but we'll decorate for Christmas, including a tree. (Since we nearly always spend Christmas out of town, with my family, we don't get a tree. Most years we don't decorate at all.) So we spent perhaps an hour this afternoon shopping for a Christmas tree. There's a tiny patch of parking lot between two mom-and-pop establishments near us where an enterprising soul is selling a small number of Christmas trees which he told us he gets from a farmer in the next state over. Unlike so many such lots, where the trees were cut a week or more ago, his trees are quite fresh - the needles on all the trees we looked at were soft and green, and there were very few needles on the ground. They were obviously freshly cut, and smelled soooo good! We settled on a nice little balsam fir, which is now sitting out on the back deck. We'll probably bring it in and put it in the stand tonight, and may decorate tomorrow.

That high-priced organic pumpkin

In case you were curious, the pumpkin pie turned out very well indeed - the pumpkin filling barely separated at all. (Separating is an unavoidable problem with custard-type desserts.) The finished texture was every bit as smooth and even as the pumpkin puree, the top didn't get overbrowned - definitely one of my better efforts. Not sure whether I'd go out of my way to go organic again next year, but I did save some of the seeds. If they end up germinating and the critters leave them alone, next fall I may have all the pumpkins I could possibly want right in my own backyard. Not that I'd want all 10 seeds to "take" - I'd have way too many pumpkins then! On the other hand, maybe I could sell them at the local farmer's market and make a few bucks for the half-and-half and other pie ingredients. ;-)

Architecture and religious outlook?

While spending the holidays with the Chief's family, we took a day trip to West Point. Beautiful day for it - mild for late November, and not a cloud in the sky, which made for some very impressive views of the Hudson. We also stopped inside the Catholic and Cadets chapels. The Catholic chapel is rather small - seats maybe 150 or 200? The interior is wider than it is tall, with ornamented wooden beams, and an architectural style common in the late 19th century. The interior is painted white or cream, and they've got lots of traditional stained-glass windows (mostly saints, dedicated to the memory of this or that alumnus). The overall effect was of an airy, fairly bright, cozy sanctuary.

The Cadets Chapel is much larger - probably has room to accommodate a congregation of several hundreds. It's modeled on Europe's 14th-century gothic cathedrals, with the stained-glass windows in the upper half of the walls and done in a preponderance of deep blues and dark reds. The layout is more what I associate with Episcopal churches, with a railed-off, slightly elevated altar area, where you also find the organ and seating for the choir. The whole building is in local stone, of a fairly dark gray. Between that and the dark colors in the stained glass, the sanctuary was quite dark, almost gloomy (though the sun had started playing hide-and-seek by then; might be different in full sun). The Chief pointed out how precisely the Bibles and hymnals were arranged at each place. Wonder if the cadets leave 'em that way or if someone goes down each row straightening them after each service?

After seeing the Catholic chapel, we were both struck by the contrast between the two - the Catholic chapel well-lit and almost intimate, the Cadets chapel huge, dark and imposing. Made us wonder if they were designed to reflect a loving, personal (New Testament) God and a stern, Old Testament view of God.

The Cadets' organ was something amazing - the organist was working on something from Handel's Messiah, maybe setting stops. The console had a good 6 rows (that I could see) of organ stops, and there were ranks and ranks of pipes in the front section, with more down the sides and in the rear of the church. I really enjoyed hearing it in action, though I couldn't get any pictures of the console for Mom, as I didn't want to disturb the organist while he was so obviously hard at work. The Catholics, on the other hand, have a much smaller, more modest organ, almost entirely contained in the organ/choir loft. Probably perfectly suited to the smaller space. Pity that chapel was empty - I'd've liked to hear the organ in action.

Pumpkin, take 2

The Chief, knowing how I feel about canned vs. "real" pumpkin, drove me to that fancy-schmancy grocery store to get a pie pumpkin yesterday. The fool thing cost $1.49 a pound! So it's organic; so what. That was a $10 pumpkin! More, when you add in the cost of the gas to get there, and maybe even the $2 I spent on the first one. And yet... When I cut it open, it was a lovely dark orange color, with nice, meaty sides. When I cooked & pureed it, I got lovely, thick, smooth pumpkin puree - if it tastes half as good as it looks, it'll make wonderful pie for Thursday, and pies, cakes and bread until I've used it all up. I even ended up saving several of the seeds to try to grow next year. I have no clue what I'll do with more than one pumpkin - this one alone yielded nearly 1/2 gallon of pumpkin! - but I'm sure I'll come up with something.

And that's tonight's agenda - making a pumpkin and an apple pie to take to Thanksgiving dinner.

So much for the pumpkin

For all that I know better, I still bought a rather yellowish, jack-o-lantern pumpkin for my baking. Mistake! Afer baking it the other night, then nuking it some more tonight, I realized that nothing was going to make it moister or a richer color. (The redder the meat of the pumpkin, the better the flavor.) It was still going to be pale & dry - good for wine but bad for pumpkin pie. I ended up throwing the whole mess in the trash. >:-(

I may break down and trek over to the fancy-schmancy grocery store where I know they have pie pumpkins, just so I don't have to resort to the canned stuff. Or I may be lazy and use the canned pumpkin I keep on hand for emergencies. I mean, do I really want to make an extra trip to a grocery store this close to Thanksgiving, and for just one item, if it's not absolutely necessary?

Thank a veteran!

I'm married to a veteran, I'm the daughter, niece and granddaughter of veterans, I work alongside them, I see them all over town whether I know it or not - people who signed on the dotted line and gave their country 4 or more years of their lives. Thank you, ladies & gentlemen!

Two down, one to go.

We're now 2/3 of the way through our run; our 2nd weekend went well too. We had very full houses both Friday & Saturday, and Saturday's house included friends & family of 4 of our von Trapp children. Our Friedrich's dad is also in the show (Baron Elberfeld in the party scene, and one of the Nazis) and comes out w/ the other 2 Nazis for the first bow. We knew his family were in the audience that night because that's the only night the Nazis got cheers for their bow! :D

We actually had a fully sold house for the matinee! In fact, the box office even sold "seats" that didn't exist - they sold a couple of patrons tickets for the wheelchair spaces! Did they think they were working for an airline? There were other seating "issues" at the matinee too; so many that we started at least 20 minutes late while our overworked producer and her husband got things sorted out. The audience seemed to forgive us, though, as they were very receptive, and remarkably lively for a matinee audience.

This weekend the applause increased for the nuns every time we took our bows. I'm sure that's due at least in part to the fact that we're on stage for the final "Climb Every Mountain", which is quite stirring, but it's still hugely gratifying to be in such an anonymous chorus (not all choruses are dressed identically, after all) and still get that appreciation.

We learned at the pick-up rehearsal that our costumer had suffered a heart attack earlier in the week, so we were all surprised & pleased to see him at the matinee and cast party. I've got a couple of costume repairs that I'd offered to do for Liesl and Luisa before we knew our costumer was back on his feet, which I still plan to do. He needs to get himself mended before he worries about a ripped seam or a hem that's coming out.

More apples, and a pumpkin

Yesterday we swung by one of the local orchards out near the cabin. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they still had several varieties of apples, so I bought 1/2 peck each of Yorks and Jonathans - more apple pies & cakes are in our future. However, TW also lobbied for us to buy one of their pies, so he wouldn't have to wait for me to bake. Buying from an orchard, we knew they'd use fresh apples, not that canned pie-filling glop. The orchard bakery's recipe is a bit heavy on the nutmeg and doesn't include any ground cloves, but it's otherwise pretty good.

I also bought a pumpkin, larger than I really wanted but one of the smallest they had, for my almost-annual pumpkin "rendering". Possibly as soon as this weekend, I'll bake the thing down, run the "meat" through the blender, and freeze it in one-cup units for future pies and cakes. Pumpkin pie really does taste better with fresh stuff, not canned.

It's really a pretty straightforward process - I pick the reddest-orange pumpkin I can find (the darker the color, the better the taste), cut it across its "equator" and scrape out the seeds, place it on a baking sheet (cut side down) with a rim on it, then bake it for an hour or so at... hmm; I think my Joy of Cooking said 325 degrees? Anyway, I scrape out the meat of it and buzz that and the pumpkin juice in the blender until it looks like orange applesauce. I may not even freeze all of it, as I'm completely out of pumpkin (the 2 cans in the cabinet don't count) and I'd like to make some more pumpkin bread for closing night.

Sneak attack

I do hate it when the weather sucker-punches us. Friday was gorgeous, and the highs got up into the 70s! I actually opened up the front & back doors (which still have the screens in) by afternoon to take advantage of the unseasonably mild weather. Saturday & Sunday were a bit cooler, but still nice. Yesterday, however, November made it clear that it had arrived - the high was only in the 40s and a brisk, chill wind was blowing pretty steadily all day. Today's no warmer; TW actually pulled out his down coat (couldn't find his winter jacket) when we went to dinner this evening. Even though the high was close to 50, it felt colder because we've had so much mild weather lately. This is the sort of quick change that makes me wonder if we're gonna get clobbered by a heavy snowfall. As long as it waits until I can stock the larder, I won't mind a snow day or two.

Warning to diabetics - read no further!

TW just left for the cabin about half an hour ago; I'll join him there Sunday night, after the matinee. He just called from the road "to say 'I love you'." His next words were more prosaic: "Now I gotta get off the phone and drive." :D

Shortly after we got married, one of my friends asked me what it was that drew me to him, since he freely admits he doesn't sing, dance or play an instrument and he has no particular affinity for languages. It's his heart - he's emotionally generous to a fault, and not stingy, either. (He routinely buys a cartload of stuff for our parish's annual "baby shower," has been known to pick up the check for servicemembers in uniform dining at the next table, and is a sucker for any children's charity.) He's not much into this whole theater business, but he tolerates my running off to rehearsals and shows, and occasionally helps out with the tech side for my sake. Yes, it would be nice to have a husband who dances, but it's far more important to have one who treats me like an unexpected treasure. Even though we're not technically newlyweds anymore, we still feel that way much of the time. It's wonderful!

God help the Obama administration...

...because he got one helluva mess dumped into his lap Tuesday night. I just hope & pray that people can let go of the "my point of view on subject X is the only right one" that is so easy to fall into when one gets carried away by the campaign process and instead get down to the herculean tasks Obama's got to deal with. Actually, that's not a bad analogy - Hercules had 12 impossible jobs to tackle - those stables to clean out, the Hydra to subdue, and 10 other dangerous tasks that had killed or maddened others. For the country's sake, let's hope Obama is able to make some headway with the problems he's been set.

More wonderful music

Just got the e-mail offering me chorus in The Merry Widow. You bet I'll take it - I love that music! And since I've learned that the 3 embassy wives will be cast from the chorus, I still hold out hope that I'll get that little bit more to do. But even if I don't get Olga, Praskowia or Sylviane, I'm looking forward to spending the next few months with Lehar. I even ordered a CD of Lehar waltzes, which came on Friday.

Oo, oo, oo - ballgowns and opera gloves and jewelry and wonderful, lush, extravagantly romantic music - can't wait!

That's one weekend down, two to go.

Opening night went remarkably well - one or two small problems with lines, and a set piece that went out backwards, but scene & costume changes (and Maria & the kids have some very tight changes!) went smoothly; one patron commented that she "didn't notice" the changes. Hurray!

It's always something of a relief to get past opening night. As I told one friend, hearing applause from total strangers, rather than the friends, family or between-duties crew who sometimes sit in the house during Tech Week, lets you know you really are doing a good job. They're not just being polite because they have to go home with you afterwards. :D

Yes, it's a feel-good show, but the stage version is pretty different from the movie most of our patrons are so familiar with, and of course no one is Julie Andrews, so staging Sound of Music immediately puts you up against certain expectations. However, I heard some good, complimentary comments on the music, the costumes, the sets (our designer accomplished some great feats of engineering!), which is always gratifying. Last night, when the line of nuns stepped forward to take our bow, the applause actually intensified, which almost never happens for the chorus.

We've got our set & costume change routines down pretty well now, which is pretty amazing given how very many tight costume changes and intricate scene changes there are. Those will only get better; by the end of the run, we may have our running time under 2:30 just due to that. For me, the offstage piece is the challenging one. As a nun or party guest, I walk on, sing or deliver a single line, then walk off. That's it - no choreography, no props to fiddle with, none of that. As crew, however... I set and strike pieces for at least 4 scenes, assist a couple others, have one tight change of my own (from party guest to nun), help Liesl with 2 of hers, and generally pitch in collecting props, clearing the way for moving set pieces, and so on. Feels like I'm making a larger contribution off stage than on.

I'm just as glad there's no matinee this weekend; gives me a chance to chip away at the backlog of housework. First order of business? Grocery shopping! The fridge has looked more & more like Mother Hubbard's cupboard the past few days...

Sisters, sisters...

The nuns in this show have come together remarkably well and have made this production a lot more fun. We've also been a supportive bunch; one of our sisters lost a grandparent while we were in rehearsal and had to miss a few rehearsals to go to the funeral. Various of us have been late because of work or family things that had to be taken care of, or missed rehearsals for illness. The late or absent nun always got a "how are you? are you OK?" when she arrived. Last night, two of our number were quite late; one because of a work emergency, the other because she had spent the day with friends in from out of town to attend a memorial service for a close friend of all of them. Each arrived frazzled and upset and immediately was surrounded by a flock of mother hens, offering hugs and "Hey, it's a rehearsal, not a performance. You'll be fine."

It's also been fun to see how our Maria and von Trapp kids have bonded. Our Maria really does mother them, they get along like siblings, our Liesl also mothers the rest of the kids - I think it's contributed a lot to how well they do on stage that they get along so well off stage.

These friendships sometimes continue, if only on a back burner, long after a show has closed. For example, the Albert Peterson to my Mae Peterson in Bye Bye Birdie over a year ago still calls me Mamma when we see each other.

This sort of thing puts the "community" in community theater. It doesn't happen with every cast, but I've seen it happen often enough that it not only doesn't surprise me, but I probably secretly hope for another such experience with each new cast.

Busy week

Of course it's a busy week - it's Tech Week! In addition to daily rehearsals since Saturday, I also managed to squeeze in an audition Sunday night for a production of The Merry Widow. Requested one of the embassy wives or Njegus (they're casting it as a mezzo, not the usual baritone); wasn't called back and haven't heard anything, so I'm guessing that means I'll be in the chorus.

Doing very little tech week sewing for this show. All I have to do is adjust the fastening for my nun's collar and sew myself a new coif because the one I was issued is too short to stay tucked into the wimple. I bought a pattern & fabric yesterday, so today I sew. That means I'll only get one rehearsal with it before Sound of Music opens tomorrow night, but that shouldn't be a problem. My other costume prep is similarly minimal - starch the wimple in hopes of getting it to lie flat and press the habit & scapular.

Had one little "incident" last night. Two of us nuns are responsible for setting and striking the table for the scenes on the von Trapp terrace (Baroness von Schraeder, Max and the Capt). Last night we were striking it after the first terrace scene and had a few difficulties: no one was holding back the curtain leg we needed to get past, people were standing in the space the table needed to go into, and a huge "wall" was much too close. I learned of the wall's position the hard way, when we swung the table to avoid hitting people and my hand (the dominant one, natch!) suddenly ended up between the table and the corner of the "wall". Ouch! Tonight I'm posting a sign asking people to leave the table space clear.

Don't give 'em any ideas!

If you've flown recently, or even priced fares, you can relate. I just hope this doesn't give the airlines any ideas...

Um, yeah, it's been a while, hasn't it?

Lots of little things conspiring against me lately - TW installed the newest version of Internet Explorer on our computer, which promptly wreaked all kindsa havoc. The computer is mostly working again, but some things still work either s-l-o-w-l-y or not at all, and that only after TW spent 2 or 3 days trying various fixes.

Last weekend a cousin (well, actually, a parental cousin, but never mind) was in town because she had written 3 piano vignettes for a program in a series for the Lincoln bicentennial. We went to the program Saturday night, then met her for brunch on Sunday and had a nice, long visit - just great!

With Opening Night fast approaching, we started running full acts a week or so ago and did our first full run Wednesday night. Monday night we loaded the set into the theater, today was the Sitzprobe (first run-through w/ orchestra), tomorrow is our first rehearsal on the set, Monday will be our first full dress rehearsal, and we open this coming Friday.

TW's car has been headed for a new transmission for a while now, but this past week it started leaking fluids. He'd been hoping to get another 6 months to a year out of it, but after learning that even a rebuilt transmission would cost almost as much as the car is worth, he decided to bite the bullet and replace it now. He spent a few nights researching cars on line, following up on what he'd learned when I was going through this exercise. Last night we did some carshopping and he ended up buying himself a nice, new Matrix.

Today TW stopped first at the bank to move some money around to cover the check we wrote last night for the down payment, then to the dealership to sell them his Saturn, and from there he went to the cabin to drain the pipes (they've had overnight freezes out there at least 3 nights out of the past 4 or 5) and check on a few other things. His first drive in his new car and with his new cruise control.

zzzzzzz

Won't be long now... My back started spasming right after dinner, to the point where I realized even Rx-strength motrin wasn't gonna do it. I broke down and took a muscle relaxant, called to say I wouldn't be at rehearsal tonight after all because the pill would knock me out. "My brain is going, Dave; I can feel it, Dave..."

Too many apples?

No, but getting close. The peck of Jonagold apples my sister & I bought 2 weeks ago have gotten too soft to bake (one cake only used 4 apples), so they're now simmering in my 8-qt soup pot - applesauce in the making.

I stopped at the same orchard Saturday on my way to the cabin. The Yorks are in now, so I picked up 1/2 a peck. Yesterday TW and I went to a local apple butter festival, where one of the apple vendors actually had Jonathans! They used to be common as Romes or Macintosh and always came into season just in time for my birthday, but the past few years I've been unable to find any at all, so I bought 1/2 peck of them.

For those of you keeping track, that's one peck of apples bought in a single weekend, when I hadn't finished the first peck. Two pecks = 1/2 bushel, in case you were wondering; methinks I overbought just a bit. So yesterday I borrowed a pie plate from our cabin neighbors and returned it w/ a pie in it; that took care of half the Yorks. Today when we got home, I first cut up the Jonagolds for applesauce, then the rest of the Yorks for a pie. Not only does the house smell wonderful, but because we've got the doors & windows open (turned out to be another gorgeous day), we're sharing the olfactory wealth with the neighbors.

That still leaves the Jonathans, but because we've already started snacking on them, I imagine I'll only need to bake once or twice more to finish them off.

Worth every penny!

TW was saying the other night that we'd "lost money" on the cabin because what we'd have made on a sale since all the work we had done on it wasn't as much as what we'd've made if we hadn't done anything but upgrade the kitchen (which desperately needed it!) and replace the roof. But he readily agreed with me when I pointed out that we were enjoying the cabin and not exactly planning to sell anytime soon.

Then this morning he called from out there (I'll join him after rehearsal today), talking 20 words to the dozen about how gorgeous it is, he'd already taken a long walk and seen 15 or 20 deer, including a young buck, he'd opened up all the blinds and had the sun pouring in... On and on and on. I mentioned bringing stuff out to make an apple pie; "No, I don't want you working out here; just come and relax and enjoy." (He, on the other hand, was about to start sanding the deck some more. He does enjoy working on the place.)

His enthusiasm was enough to make me wish I could skip rehearsal. It was so good to hear him so upbeat, since work has been getting him down lately.

No, the cabin is not an investment property, unless you stretch the definition to include investing in one's own mental health. A shrink might be cheaper (we've spent a lot on repairs and improvements since we bought the place), but this will last more than 50 minutes a week.

How to make your house smell wonderful

Baked an apple cake after dinner tonight. Only used 4 Jonagolds, but they were big - nearly softball-sized! The recipe only calls for cinnamon, but I added dashes of nutmeg, clove, allspice, even a sprinkle of ginger. The house smells so good now!

Some of this will go across the street to our neighbor, whose birthday is tomorrow and who loves this particular cake, even though it's not frosted. TW joked as usual about keeping the whole cake for himself, but it's all in good fun. Depending on how the weekend goes, though, I may well end up making either another cake or an apple pie. (I bought a lot of apples last weekend when my sister & I stopped by the family-run orchard near the cabin. I gotta use 'em up before they go bad.)

It's a wonder I don't rattle.

Just when I thought I was over my cold, the cough started reasserting itself last week; not just refusing to go away, but getting worse. The after-hours doc diagnosed bronchitis, so now I'm on both anti-inflammatory steroids and an antibiotic so I don't pick up any secondary infections.

The ironic thing is that a friend & I sang for our parish's monthly healing mass this afternoon. He'd just spent 2 hours at his son's soccer game, inhaling allergens, so between his allergies and my cruddy lungs... Let's just say it's a good thing there were 2 of us, so one could keep things going while the other coughed or cleared a throat.

Dinner tonight? That chicken soup I made for my ailing hubby earlier today - lovely comfort food.

Escape artist

Just call that pup Houdini...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-3EyMPzMoo

"Jewish penicillin"

Poor TW's down with the cold I'm finally getting rid of and right now is at the worst part of it - head stuffed solid, coughing, and not sleeping well because of it. He eagerly took me up on my offer to make what he refers to as "Jewish penicillin" - chicken soup. Easy enough to do, as we still had most of a chicken left from dinner the other night, as well as the basics - celery, onion, carrots. When I asked whether he'd like rice, barley, or noodles in it as well, he said "Yes!" In other words, throw in a little of each. We'll see how that combination turns out, but at least it smells good.