Frazz for geeks, costumers, knitters, punsters...

I do love me some Frazz!

Did anyone notice I was quiet?

I finally wrapped up about 3 months of what felt like nonstop travel for work. Couldn't get a very good wifi signal much of the time so e-mail was about the only thing I could do consistently. But it's over now - I'm back to sleeping in my own bed, cooking my own food, reminding the Chief what I look like, and next week I'm going to my first audition in a year!

That wasn't so bad

This afternoon I had my first voice lesson since my teacher's recital the first weekend in June! (She takes the summer off, then schedules conflicted, then I was traveling A LOT for work.) While I was vocally flabby and had backslid a bit, it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. My breath support got lazy during the hiatus and a few other betes noires had crept back into my technique, but I could still produce a sound that wouldn't send my voice teacher's dog fleeing (in fact, the wee beastie slept thru my lesson) and my diction was still decent.

I'll get in one more lesson before my next audition - my first since last spring! Between now and then I've got a good bit of work to do to get my voice and my audition piece whipped into shape. I just hope the audition panel is as enthusiastic about casting me as Golde as my voice teacher is. ("You'd be a perfect Golde - you look like her, you sound like her!")

Just in time for Ash Wednesday

Found this on someone's Facebook page. If you need ideas for a more meaningful Lent, this is a great source of good ideas: http://www.nicksenger.com/csc/101-practical-fasting-ideas-for-lent

Still not clear on the concept

I was getting worried there - we had NO trick-or-treaters for the longest time! We finally got our first bunch around 8:15! On the whole, they've been minding their manners and most had costumes. A few are obviously new at this, though. How can we tell?

1. They yell "trick or treat!" at the closed door, then knock (probably when mom or dad tells them to).
2. They get scared and cling to Mom or Dad when you try to give them candy.
3. They try to walk into the house.
4. They hold up their bucket or bag with one hand and hold out their other hand for more.
   
5. They wish you "Happy Thanksgiving!" (I teased that one, maybe middle-school age, about planning ahead.)
   

Susie Homemaker strikes again

Really went to town in the kitchen this weekend:

• made a big pot (10 c.) of butternut squash soup, packed it up for the freezer;
• cut & peeled 7 or 8 apples for some home-made applesauce;
• cut up a bunch of celery and bagged it for the freezer for future use in soups;
• baked a batch of oatmeal "granola" bars, this time with raisins (the Chief's preference) instead of the chocolate chips the recipe calls for; and
  
• baked a batch of chocolate-pumpkin bars. The combination sounds weird, I know, but the pumpkin makes them so moist and chewy!

Most of this was how I spent my Sunday. That, and I fixed dinner. By then I was sick of food, but BOY did the house smell good!

"Who are you?!?"

The Chief took me to a Moroccan restaurant Saturday night for my birthday. We both enjoy Moroccan food, we got a table right next to the dance floor (do you see where this is going?) and we got to see not just one but two dancers! And the best part was that the first dancer got me up on the floor with her so I got to "play"! Got a chuckle from the audience when I stopped at one point to remove my heels, which I was wearing for the first time.

As we were getting ready to leave, I stopped by the table where the dancers were sitting to tell them how much I'd enjoyed the show. The first one, who'd gotten me up to dance, commented that I obviously knew what I was doing; "Who are you?!?" In other words, how is it you can dance like that and we've never seen you before? :D

As always, the evening had me thinking I need to get back to dancing - love the music, the "toys" (finger cymbals, veils, canes...), costumes - great excuse to wear some really over-the-top jewelry and other bling - what's not to love!

Cinderella and Long Island Cheese

No, not a Disney film (or parody thereof), but two pumpkin varieties I've bought samples of for baking. Now that we have a freezer, I'll have room for the gallon or two of pumpkin I anticipate getting from these 2 rather sizable specimens of cucurbita. Pies, breads, cookies, muffins, soup - I love me some winter squash cooking!

But you already knew this

I'm really getting to hate the very word "cancer". I just e-mailed the couple who were the life's blood of the folk dance performing troupe I used to dance with. She e-mailed me back with an answer to my question, and with the news that her husband died of cancer back in June! He was barely in his 50s, had been healthy as any horse (they ate right, danced, worked out, ran - you name it). He was a vibrant personality, patient teacher, a wonderful dancer - hard to believe he's gone!

The Chief's cousin seems to be failing fast with her cancer too. He talked to one of their cousins the other night, who said M never got on the phone any more and cited some other things that just aren't like her. Sounds like we may need to make sure our funeral clothes are ready to go.

Another culinary experiment that's a keeper

Busy day in the kitchen today - made a pot of mushroom soup from scratch from an online recipe. I want to play with it a bit (e.g., I think it would have thickened if I'd used 1% milk instead of skim and low-fat sour cream instead of fat-free) but it's definitely one I'll make again. Served it with bread & salad - very good and very healthy. I used "baby bella" mushrooms, so even the virtually fat-free version tasted rich and indulgent. I always ask the Chief's opinion on my experiments; he's not a big soup fan, but when asked my usual "should I make this again?", he answered "definitely!"

We're doing pretty well with our decision to try to eat better. I've done a lot of experimenting with lower-fat versions of standards (found a good baked eggplant parmagiana recipe I'm still tweaking), tried some new things. We haven't been nearly as good about eating more meatless meals. The baked eggplant recipe is the only meatless entree added to the repertory. I've asked the Chief to look for meatless entrees he'd like to try but he can't really look at a recipe and decide if it sounds good; to him it's just a list of ingredients. Guess I'll have to pull out our one vegetarian cookbook and take another look at the things I'd marked to try first.

I saw another mushroom recipe that calls for 3 kinds of mushrooms but it's meant as a side; I'd have to play with it to see if I can figure out how to work in some protein to make it an entree. Any ideas, anyone?

Look, up in the sky!

The sun! We finally got a sunny day yesterday, for the first time in a week. High humidity but no rain, so I actually got out and took a quick walk before dinner. Wanted to do that today, but didn't get out before it clouded up and threatened yet another storm. We didn't get any rain, but I was reluctant to go out and find myself blocks from home if the heavens decided to open up.

Any mourners for the deceased?

The Chief found a corpse the other day! He was up in the attic measuring for insulation when he spotted a little mouse carcass. He has since moved a few traps up there, in case the mice are hanging out up there now that the weather isn't so hot. I just hope we can get rid of the vermin before the cold weather gets here, or we'll be stuck with them all winter, chewing on things and making a mess.

Such a crazy week!

Last week was one for the record books. Storms Sunday night that spawned a few tornados (no major damage, thank God), the East Coast's first significant earthquake in not nearly enough years on Tuesday, then Hurricane Irene Saturday, which tried to obliterate poor Vermont and from which some people in this area are still out of power!

The earthquake was my first. I was in a class for work that day, had felt the occasional rumble or vibration earlier in the day, but then the projector images started bobbing up & down while the screens swayed and the floor kinda rolled - very weird! They ended up sending us home early (along with practically everyone else in town), and several buildings were closed the next day while structural damage was assessed, but most places seemed to escape with little or no damage.

The hurricane was another disaster that wasn't as bad as it could have been. The power outages persist, but they weren't quite as widespread as from Isabel, and at least in our area, there wasn't as much damage from downed trees. That was my biggest fear, given that it rained and rained and rained, for close to 24 hours straight! The chief & I lost power for 23 hours, but the weather wasn't blistering or freezing, we have a gas stove and plenty of non-perishables, and we're not on a well, so we had water. Could have been much worse, although trying to shower & shave by flashlight was an experience we'd prefer not to repeat.

Tomatoes!

We ended up coming home from the fair with about 13 LBS. of beefsteak tomatoes! In my innocence, I decided to make marinara sauce. Note to self: beefsteak tomatoes do NOT make good sauce - much too watery! Much basil, rosemary, oregano, and tomato paste and 8 or so hours later, we ended up with 18 cups of sauce. I gave away at least half of it, used another 1 1/2 c. in a baked eggplant recipe I found online, but we still have tons of the stuff left. We may be eating a lot of pasta this weekend, or maybe it'd be good over, say, a baked potato...