Pumpkin vegetable soup

Yesterday I was roasting some pumpkin and decided I didn't have enough for soup so I pulled a second container from the freezer.  Puréed everything, added some veggie broth, then poured into the soup pot in which I'd sautéed onions and garlic in olive oil.  (Because isn't that how so many of the best things start - with sautéed onions & garlic?) We had some old veggies on hand, so those went into the pot too - few potatoes that had started to sprout, a zucchini and a yellow squash that were starting to shrivel, some leftover carrots.  Added some barley because soup is so much better with some sort of grain, whether barley, rice or noodles.

Are you getting hungry yet? ;) TW decided he liked it better without all the extras, but I think it's pretty darn good, especially for a spur-of-the-moment thing.  With any luck, it'll freeze well, too.

Learning a new "language"

I arranged for some dialect coaching, since the director wants Dame Carruthers to sound English and I know I need "professional help" to pull that off convincingly.  Fortunately, I know a professional actor through church who, conveniently enough, is not only English herself but has taught dialect classes.  She gave me several very useful "substitutions", as she called them, that will get me a long way toward my goal of sounding authentically English.  I think the various "o" sounds will present the biggest challenge, but I've got time to get this down.  She's even offered to listen to how I sound once we get into the theater, when the acoustics will change dramatically and affect how I need to produce my sound.

As I told her, all those years I spent sitting in foreign language classes, trying to master the pronunciation so I don't sound so American, are continuing to pay off.

Notes on a first blocking rehearsal

[A little background:  I first worked with this company 20 years ago, but this is the first time I've had anything other than an ensemble part (not counting a "named ensemble member" with a handful of spoken and sung lines).  In other words, with this company, I'm used to being blocked with the rest of the ensemble 99.9% of the time.]

We had our first blocking rehearsal the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Not nearly as painful as such rehearsals so often are, which was nice.  The chorus number we started with went pretty smoothly - not complicated, but enough staggered entrances that it should look animated and not very "director told me to enter when ..."  Sgt. Meryll and I have a tiny bit of business that we may need to get more specific with, but for a first rehearsal, it all went quite smoothly.

The following number is Dame Carruthers with the yeomen.  That was a little weird - me and most of the men's chorus (some of them are "townies").  The director has me blocked downstage for most of it, with the yeomen upstage, and not where I can see them most of the time, which is a strange feeling for someone used to being part of the ensemble, not downstage from them.  As I told the yeomen at yesterday's music rehearsal when we finished rehearsing this number, "I'm not used to having back-up singers!" :D

Maiden attempt at quinoa

Finally got around to making quinoa tonight, using some tri-color quinoa I bought at the "organic" market a week or so ago.  Very pretty stuff - ivory, nearly black, and a sort of reddish-brown.  It smelled for all the world like peanut butter while it was cooking, though of course it didn't taste like it.  I think I either toasted it too long at the beginning or needed to add more water than the instructions recommended, because it was a bit dry and tasted a little scorched.  I may have to try it a few times to get the hang of this.

Unwanted excitement

The Chief and I spent Veterans Day weekend at the cabin.  When we arrived, we started the usual cold-weather opening routine: bring in the groceries, turn on the water and heat.  The propane heater gave him some trouble; first the pilot didn't want to light, then the blower didn't want to start, etc.  The capper was when smoke suddenly started billowing up from the back of the thing, and it's mounted on a wood-paneled wall!  That's when things really started getting exciting - the smoke alarms started going off, as did the alarm system, then the phone rang - the security company checking on us - while the Chief called the gas company to get some "immediate" help.  After we opened all the windows, it took several ear-splitting minutes to dissipate enough smoke for the bells, whistles and sirens to quit, and now it's only 54 degrees in the great room.  Brrr!  Me, I retired to the bedroom, where the baseboard heater slowly warmied the room (64 degrees sure beats 54!) while the Chief showed the gas company guy where everything is.

Turned out the problem was the new siding, or rather, its installation.  The installers didn't account for the additional thickness, so the heater vent no longer fit properly, causing all the problems.  The gas company ordered & installed a new vent pipe, the siding company redid the siding around the vent (it started to melt in one place!), and now we're keeping an eagle eye on that heater when we use it!

Good thing we like turkey!

We got a 10-lb turkey for Thanksgiving, which TW and I shared with a friend from church who had to cancel his travel plans.  We sent him home with leftovers, of course, but still had plenty of turkey for us.  Friday night's dinner was Thanksgiving leftovers (yum!).  Saturday we dined on turkey & dumplings.  Last night?  Home-made turkey soup.  (I love home-made soup!)  Turkey & dumplings again tonight, & tomorrow, too, with enough in the big freezer for 2 more meals at some later date.  Ditto a container of turkey soup.  Yes, it's a good thing we like turkey, given how much of it we have on hand!  After we finish this container of turkey & dumplings, though, I think we'll go for something a little different - fish, or pork chops, or maybe eggplant parmagiana...

Just bought my first leek

I seem to be developing a King Arthur Flour (KAF) company addiction.  Ever since I liked them on Facebook, I keep seeing all these great recipes I want to try.  The latest is for turkey and dumplings, to use up post-Thanksgiving turkey.  Sounded delicious, so that's what's on tonight's dinner menu.

The recipes calls for frozen mixed vegetables, but suggests using "leftover odds and ends" if you like.  One of the veggies they suggest throwing in is leeks.  When I went to the grocery early this morning to pick up a few things, I added a leek to my purchases.  Only problem is, I've seen 'em but never cooked with them.  Thank goodness for the Internet, where I can learn which part to use (the pale part), how to cut them up, and so on.

Between KAF and the Internet, I find I've become a somewhat more adventurous cook.  Doesn't matter if I don't know the first thing about making this recipe or using that ingredient - between the Internet and KAF's wonderful baking hotline, expert instruction is readily available.

Now to clean and prep that leek...

Santa, if you're listening...

I've become a wee bit addicted to King Arthur Flour's sites.  Lotsa recipes to try, but also learning of new kitchen toys, er, tools that I need.  The latest - a bench knife, and a couple of donut pans so I can make their pumpkin doughnuts.  In the meantime, maybe I'll use my mini-bundt pan or a muffin tin until I can get donut pans.

No more squash

I checked my little squash when I got home from work on Friday and was disappointed to see it on the ground; it had fallen or gotten knocked off the vine. :(  I brought it inside, but threw it out yesterday afternoon when I saw it was starting to turn brown.  So much for any hope of getting anything from that attempt at growing my own squash.  It remains to be seen whether I try again next year.

Branching out on the tech side

I've auditioned for lotsa shows since "Daddy's Dyin'" closed in January.  Got a few callbacks, which is always gratifying even though I wasn't cast.  I volunteered to do hair & make-up for one of those shows; set in 1943, I had visions of victory rolls.  That didn't pan out, but I'm still getting a few of the women in period hair, which is fine.  

Today was the first dress rehearsal.  As I told the women I was helping with their hair, today was a "first draft," to learn the specifics of achieving their look, testing it with costume changes and seeing how the colors read under the lights.  There's still some tweaking to do, but the director was happy with how everyone looks, so I'm claiming "victory" in this, my first attempt to do hair or make-up for someone besides myself.

Comments heard upon wearing a dirndl to work on Halloween

I used Halloween as an excuse to wear my dirndl to work today, complete with "ethnographically correct" shoes & socks (which you can't see in the photo).  It was interesting to hear some of the comments:

• "Are you Anne of Green Gables?"  (My hair is neither red nor long.)
• "I'm getting a Little House on the Prairie" vibe".  (Dress isn't ankle length.)
• Coworker 1: "You look like Alice in Wonderland."  Coworker 2:  "No, that's a blue dress." Me: "Only in the Disney version." And coworker 1: "No, it was black-and-white."  (Obviously someone familiar with the wonderful Tenniel illustrations.)
• "You look absolutely precious!"
• "You look like Little Bo Peep."

Judge for yourself:

I called that wrong!

Had my audition Friday night, thought it went pretty well - if nothing else, I managed to make the director laugh a coupla times.  I had fun with the little piece I read (they had a selection of readings for us to choose from) and really enjoyed the dance combo.  That was set to the end of the Pirates of Penzance overture, so the choreographer had us finish with "random swordfighting".  There were 4 of us in my dance group, so we paired ourselves off.  My partner "killed" me, so I had fun dying big; ended up on my back on the floor, legs in the air, which came crashing down on the last chord of the music - hit the "button", so to speak.  Yep, great fun. :D

I was delighted to get an email the next morning inviting me to callbacks for Dame Carruthers Sunday night!  The email directed us to follow the link to the sides & music for the role, and I have a copy of Yeomen, so I loaded Carruthers' music onto my iPod and wore it out.  There were 3 of us being called back for Dame Carruthers, one of whom was a lot younger than I would have expected them to consider.  We all read the side a little differently, and I thought any of the readings could be valid; no clues there.  When we got to the music, I ended up singing first, followed by the other two, both of whom sang quite well.  The director then asked me to start the audition chunk again (though she ended up letting me sing the whole bit), which had me wondering how I'd screwed up the first time. :p

Monday was a long day, trying not to think about the waiting to hear.  Checked my email as soon as I got home - nothing.  The afternoon wore on, still nothing, so I started wondering which of the other two "contestants" had gotten the role.  After all, they always contact the "yes"es first.  I finally got an email shortly before 6 that began like every other "Thanks but no thanks" email I've ever gotten:  "Thank you for auditioning for..."  I skimmed over it - general rehearsal schedule, uh huh; dues, OK; first read-thru Sunday, got it.  Then I looked again - they were offering me the role!

At long last I've ended this year's string of auditions with callbacks but no roles!  What's even better is that it's the biggest company I've worked with to date in terms of the size of the stage.  Not as big a role as Sara Lee, but I'll get a solo (with chorus back-up), a yummy quartet and a duet to sing.  The solo goes pretty low - a G below middle C, I think - so I'll definitely need to work to learn to project those low notes over the orchestra.  Can't wait to start! :)

Yes,definitely squash!

Checked my tiny little incipient butternut squash again this afternoon.  It hasn't gotten appreciably bigger, but it's now yellow.  I wonder if I'm gonna end up with the world's tiniest ripe squash...

Another audition

Got another audition tomorrow night, for some G&S for a welcome change.  I haven't been working on my audition piece as I should so I'll probably end up in the ensemble, but that's OK.  I haven't been on stage since January and I'm going through withdrawal! :D

Squash?

I checked my squash plants again the other day and was surprised and delighted to see that my latest blossom has a little green nubbin at its base which, while barely an inch long and quite green, is exactly the shape of a butternut squash!  I've got my fingers crossed that I may actually get at least one squash from this plant after all.

"Actual size"

Passed a Mini Cooper in the parking lot at work yesterday.  I noticed it had one of those clings in a rear window which read "actual size".  It would have been even funnier on a Smart car...

Another callback

Monday's audition obviously went well, since I was called back for tonight.  I'll be interested to see how many of us are in the running for the 2 grandmothers.  

If I'm not cast, I'll probably offer to help with some aspect of tech, just because the director is such a great guy.

This feels weird

Being furloughed is a very strange feeling.  I have a job and yet:

- I'm not allowed to report for work. At least my inbox won't explode while I'm gone, because almost everyone who'd send me email is in the same boat.

- I don't know when I'll get my next paycheck, or how much it will be.  Thank God I did get one last week, so the mortgage is paid for October.

- I'm eligible for unemployment benefits!  That's the weirdest thing of all.

Goldilocks weather

In other words, just right!  One advantage to being furloughed is that I've been able to take advantage of the gorgeous weather 2 days running so far and take a nice, long walk through the neighborhood.  Yesterday it was at home, today at the cabin.  Saw a lot of deer, or at least a lot of tails as they took off upon hearing us approach.  We did see one 4-point buck with a small entourage of 5 or 6, but they headed into the trees as we got closer.

Observations on my very first 5K

Walked in my first 5K today.  It was a beautiful day for it - a bit chilly when I checked in shortly after 8, but quite comfortable by the end, and sunny with just the tiniest breeze.

• I was surprised by how many people showed up with their dogs - big dogs, little ones, puppies and adults. The organizers were ready, though - they had bandannas for them in the same day-glow green as the race T-shirts.
• This was a fundraiser for cancer research and prevention, so there were several teams with matching shirts.
• Part of the route ran along a river, where I spotted a few common loons.  I didn't realize we had them around here!  I also saw some egrets or herons; they were too far away for me to tell for sure.  (can you tell I'm no birder?)
• Lots of people participated with their children; the youngest one I spotted was only 8 or 10 months old.  Several of the kids were having a great time racing with their parents, playing with the dogs or each other, throwing sticks into the water - the usual kid stuff.
• Starting at a ballpark meant real restrooms, not the portapotties I'd expected.  That's a good thing!
• I was disappointed that one hip decided to start bothering me as soon as we left the starting point.  Fortunately, it didn't hurt constantly, so while I did limp rather a lot, I still managed to finish in under an hour.
• I was surprised by how hungry I've been since I got home!  Yes, that was a lot more walking than I usually do, but I was walking, not running, and I didn't feel I was pushing myself all that hard.
• Being new to this 5K business, I had no idea what to do with my stuff (keys, wallet, etc.) during the race so I wore cargo pants and loaded up the pockets.  I had wanted to take a book to read on the subway but it would have been too uncomfortable so I left it at home.  Instead, I snoozed on the train and people-watched once I got checked in.  That was certainly entertaining.
• They played an instrumental recording of the national anthem shortly before the starting horn.  Yes, of course I sang along. :)  I don't know what key it was in, but it was a little higher than I would have picked, especially at 8:45 a.m.  I still managed to sing it all, and the highest note actually felt pretty good, so that was a nice little surprise.

I'm already signed up for another 5K.  This one's at work, the day after Halloween, so they call it a "monster dash", complete with costume contest.  Now to decide how to dress up for the occasion.  It needs to be comfortable for walking and not too bulky, since I'll be bringing it to work in a gym bag along with towel and toiletries so I can shower afterwards.  Any ideas? :)