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
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
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!
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
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
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
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).
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).
Sunday, February 15, 2009
"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.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
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!
Monday, February 09, 2009
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?
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?
Sunday, February 08, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, February 07, 2009
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
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
Thursday, February 05, 2009
"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...?
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...?
Monday, February 02, 2009
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
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...
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...
Monday, January 26, 2009
"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.
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.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
"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.
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.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
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.
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!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
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.
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!
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!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
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...
Saturday, January 10, 2009
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.
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