Can I just say that the fact that the 20 pounds of tomatoes from last weeks' farm share gave me a paltry 4 quarts of canned tomatoes packed in water (and a quarter of each jar seems to be water) just is totally disproportionate to the amount of effort it took to process the aforementioned 20 pounds of tomatoes?
And Barbara Kingsolver wants me to provide all my family's food this way?
Really?
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Progress?
We delivered Rachel to camp last night - despite the fact that she had thrown up that morning, slept for 3 hours during the day, and looked pretty iffy in the car on the way down.
But as we were walking up to the office to check her in, one of the counselors saw her and said, "Rachel! I'm so glad you're here!" And the director took several minutes to chat with her on the porch of the office, and 2 of her cabin-mates came into the nurse's office while we were there and echoed the "glad you're here" sentiment. And on the way to her cabin, two or three more people said the same thing and clearly knew who she was.
Big grin on her face as we left, and she was putting a bandanna in the back of her shorts for the running game they were having that evening. Even though she claimed she wasn't going to run much.
So while I think there was some real stomach issue in the day or two before camp started, and definitely on Saturday, I wonder how much of Sunday and Monday's troubles were nerves layered on top of that?
Poor girl. I hope as she moves through her teenage years, her body disconnects that GI connection a bit. Because her "gut" instinct? Is to worry. And it makes me miserable to watch it make her miserable.
.....
Of course, if I find out she spent today and the next two days continuing to throw up, I'm going to feel like the worst parent in the world for sending her. Somehow, I think she comes by that worrying thing naturally.
But as we were walking up to the office to check her in, one of the counselors saw her and said, "Rachel! I'm so glad you're here!" And the director took several minutes to chat with her on the porch of the office, and 2 of her cabin-mates came into the nurse's office while we were there and echoed the "glad you're here" sentiment. And on the way to her cabin, two or three more people said the same thing and clearly knew who she was.
Big grin on her face as we left, and she was putting a bandanna in the back of her shorts for the running game they were having that evening. Even though she claimed she wasn't going to run much.
So while I think there was some real stomach issue in the day or two before camp started, and definitely on Saturday, I wonder how much of Sunday and Monday's troubles were nerves layered on top of that?
Poor girl. I hope as she moves through her teenage years, her body disconnects that GI connection a bit. Because her "gut" instinct? Is to worry. And it makes me miserable to watch it make her miserable.
.....
Of course, if I find out she spent today and the next two days continuing to throw up, I'm going to feel like the worst parent in the world for sending her. Somehow, I think she comes by that worrying thing naturally.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Best Laid Plans
We made it through the concert. I won't say that we were perfect (far from it!) but for a week's practice, I thought we did pretty darn well. There is a recording, and the director promised to make CD's for anyone who wants one - if that ever happens, maybe I'll put a bit on the blog.
So with all the expected craziness, it even got a little worse. Saturday morning, the kids are all packed for camp, I woke everybody up on time, we're getting ready to go...and Rachel threw up. Several times.
Ummmmm....now what?
We ended up putting her in the car (with bucket) along with everything and everyone else, and driving down to camp. We had to drop off William, after all, and after talking to the director, we brought Rachel back home with a plan to bring her down when she felt better. We even made up her bunk and left all her stuff. I had hoped she would feel better today, and she almost did - and then she threw up again. But she seemed to feel much better after that, and the plan is to take her down tomorrow.
Of course, John is flying out for business tomorrow morning, and JC has an SAT prep class at 9am, and I did have plans to go print - but I'm driving 1.5 hours (each way) tomorrow and getting back before JC's class ends at 4pm. Just when you think you have a plan, you have to come up with a new one.
We'll see if this one works.
So with all the expected craziness, it even got a little worse. Saturday morning, the kids are all packed for camp, I woke everybody up on time, we're getting ready to go...and Rachel threw up. Several times.
Ummmmm....now what?
We ended up putting her in the car (with bucket) along with everything and everyone else, and driving down to camp. We had to drop off William, after all, and after talking to the director, we brought Rachel back home with a plan to bring her down when she felt better. We even made up her bunk and left all her stuff. I had hoped she would feel better today, and she almost did - and then she threw up again. But she seemed to feel much better after that, and the plan is to take her down tomorrow.
Of course, John is flying out for business tomorrow morning, and JC has an SAT prep class at 9am, and I did have plans to go print - but I'm driving 1.5 hours (each way) tomorrow and getting back before JC's class ends at 4pm. Just when you think you have a plan, you have to come up with a new one.
We'll see if this one works.
Friday, August 5, 2011
It's Official
I have officially lost my mind. Let me tell you the sequence of events.
It's been a relatively quiet summer for us. All three kids have participated in summer activities (one week each), and the only conflict has been that William's got moved to the same week as Rachel's, and had the same starting time. Which turned out not to be a conflict because they were 5 minutes apart and I could drop one off a bit early and the other on time in one trip.
This week (tomorrow, to be exact), Rachel and William leave for 2 weeks at sleep-away camp. JC has an all-day SAT prep course all next week, but again, no conflict because the other two are away.
SO....I guess things were too quiet.
About 2-3 weeks ago, I got an email from the former choir director at our church. He's moved up to a larger church with bigger choirs, so we don't see him any more. But this summer, he's experimenting with a summer choir event - one week of practices, then a performance Saturday night. Would John and I be interested in singing with them? I checked the calendar of rehearsals, nothing jumped out at me, so ok! I love singing with J. W. He's (in my opinion) a fine teacher and a fun director that gets results. Sure!
First complication - we went camping for 5 days last weekend, and had to leave on the early side Sunday to make the first rehearsal. No big deal. Except that we're singing Vivaldi's "Gloria". All of it. All 12 (twelve) movements. Yes, some are solos and some are very short, but that's still a LOT of music to learn. In Latin. Monday rehearsal, no problem - until J. W. announced that he was adding a rehearsal on Thursday night. Um. John was already going to miss Wednesday, and we both had a conflict Thursday as well. Ohhhkaay. I actually left my other meeting early to catch most of rehearsal - this stuff is challenging! And I realized (after committing to the event) that we're dropping off Rachel and William for camp on Saturday. At 1pm. Saturday rehearsal starts at 3pm. These two locations are 1.5 hours apart.
Then, just to make it really fun, I spent all week procrastinating packing for camp. And then realized that my one and only black skirt doesn't really fit any more, and all my black pants are winter-weight. So add in shopping for a black skirt/pants and white top (I pretty much NEVER wear white). Not to mention William and Rachel just MIGHT need a few more socks and underwear to make it through 2 weeks of camp. And I didn't count until...yesterday.
Oh, and Rachel really wanted to tie-dye some items to bring to camp - so we did that, too.
Now, since I woke up this morning at 6am with my mind SPINNING from all that needs to get done today, remember that this whole choir thing was voluntary. Really! We're doing this for fun! And all the procrastinating was voluntary, too (including the time to type this. Where's my fabric marker? I have socks to label!)
Nevertheless, I have (mostly) complete confidence we'll pull this off. And if you like baroque choral music, and live somewhere near Central New Jersey, contact me and I'll let you know the details of the performance. Seriously, it's going to be fabulous.
It's been a relatively quiet summer for us. All three kids have participated in summer activities (one week each), and the only conflict has been that William's got moved to the same week as Rachel's, and had the same starting time. Which turned out not to be a conflict because they were 5 minutes apart and I could drop one off a bit early and the other on time in one trip.
This week (tomorrow, to be exact), Rachel and William leave for 2 weeks at sleep-away camp. JC has an all-day SAT prep course all next week, but again, no conflict because the other two are away.
SO....I guess things were too quiet.
About 2-3 weeks ago, I got an email from the former choir director at our church. He's moved up to a larger church with bigger choirs, so we don't see him any more. But this summer, he's experimenting with a summer choir event - one week of practices, then a performance Saturday night. Would John and I be interested in singing with them? I checked the calendar of rehearsals, nothing jumped out at me, so ok! I love singing with J. W. He's (in my opinion) a fine teacher and a fun director that gets results. Sure!
First complication - we went camping for 5 days last weekend, and had to leave on the early side Sunday to make the first rehearsal. No big deal. Except that we're singing Vivaldi's "Gloria". All of it. All 12 (twelve) movements. Yes, some are solos and some are very short, but that's still a LOT of music to learn. In Latin. Monday rehearsal, no problem - until J. W. announced that he was adding a rehearsal on Thursday night. Um. John was already going to miss Wednesday, and we both had a conflict Thursday as well. Ohhhkaay. I actually left my other meeting early to catch most of rehearsal - this stuff is challenging! And I realized (after committing to the event) that we're dropping off Rachel and William for camp on Saturday. At 1pm. Saturday rehearsal starts at 3pm. These two locations are 1.5 hours apart.
Then, just to make it really fun, I spent all week procrastinating packing for camp. And then realized that my one and only black skirt doesn't really fit any more, and all my black pants are winter-weight. So add in shopping for a black skirt/pants and white top (I pretty much NEVER wear white). Not to mention William and Rachel just MIGHT need a few more socks and underwear to make it through 2 weeks of camp. And I didn't count until...yesterday.
Oh, and Rachel really wanted to tie-dye some items to bring to camp - so we did that, too.
Now, since I woke up this morning at 6am with my mind SPINNING from all that needs to get done today, remember that this whole choir thing was voluntary. Really! We're doing this for fun! And all the procrastinating was voluntary, too (including the time to type this. Where's my fabric marker? I have socks to label!)
Nevertheless, I have (mostly) complete confidence we'll pull this off. And if you like baroque choral music, and live somewhere near Central New Jersey, contact me and I'll let you know the details of the performance. Seriously, it's going to be fabulous.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
It's Alive!
Thursday, my computer died. I had shut it down the night before, and starting up that morning it couldn't find the boot disc, did a couple of other strange things, then gave me the Blue Screen of Death.
Uh oh.
John, of course, was in Florida for business (where it happened to be significantly cooler than here, go figure). We did a little diagnostic over the phone, and he agreed that the best solution was to order a new computer and he'd take a look at the old one when he got home.
I ordered the new computer online (local stores didn't have the configuration that we were looking for) and saved enough on taxes that I sprang for overnight shipping. Goody! New toy on Friday!
Not so much. It didn't ship. Should arrive Monday.
John got home today, and almost immediately started checking out the dead one. Although I had told him on the phone that it didn't do ANYTHING, he was surprised that it really didn't do anything when you pushed the power button. Really. No fan, no nothing. It was a brick.
That, it turned out, was the key.
Clever bear that he is, he replaced the power supply. Voila! It lives! (cue maniacal laughter and lightning flash).
So I didn't lose anything (back up your computer! Now!) AND I get a new, spiffy computer. And the kids will get the old one, which will reduce bickering somewhat. Of course, we are spending money on a new computer, which we hadn't really planned on. And I just had to have the stove repaired and the Suburban needs new tires. But ... I'm really excited about getting a new computer.
Yay!
Uh oh.
John, of course, was in Florida for business (where it happened to be significantly cooler than here, go figure). We did a little diagnostic over the phone, and he agreed that the best solution was to order a new computer and he'd take a look at the old one when he got home.
I ordered the new computer online (local stores didn't have the configuration that we were looking for) and saved enough on taxes that I sprang for overnight shipping. Goody! New toy on Friday!
Not so much. It didn't ship. Should arrive Monday.
John got home today, and almost immediately started checking out the dead one. Although I had told him on the phone that it didn't do ANYTHING, he was surprised that it really didn't do anything when you pushed the power button. Really. No fan, no nothing. It was a brick.
That, it turned out, was the key.
Clever bear that he is, he replaced the power supply. Voila! It lives! (cue maniacal laughter and lightning flash).
So I didn't lose anything (back up your computer! Now!) AND I get a new, spiffy computer. And the kids will get the old one, which will reduce bickering somewhat. Of course, we are spending money on a new computer, which we hadn't really planned on. And I just had to have the stove repaired and the Suburban needs new tires. But ... I'm really excited about getting a new computer.
Yay!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Reductive Relief Printing Final
I am finally done (and contemplating the next one). It was really fun to learn a new technique, and I've decided there are things about the process and it's limitations that I actually enjoy. Having limits can actually help with the decision paralysis of wide open possibilities!
This is a 6 color print - white, red, yellow, black, blue, light blue. Ready? Here we go!
This is a 6 color print - white, red, yellow, black, blue, light blue. Ready? Here we go!
Red on top of white (paper)
Yellow on top of red
Black on top of yellow
Blue on top of black
Light blue on top of darker blue
The bottom one is the finished print. I ended up with an edition of 12 and a couple of proofs. Remember, the number of prints I did of the red is the maximum number I can end up with - every one I use as a proof or screw up is "gone" forever from the edition. I'm carving more away on the stamp for each color, so you can't print more of the previous color.
This is all that's left of the block (top is block, bottom is print).
So yes, I am thinking about my next one. And the studio is hosting a swap - send in 12 prints, get 10 different ones back. So I'm trying to figure out whether to do a relief carving (which I know how to do) or something else yet to be determined...
Lack of Talent
It seems that when I make an effort to post on Facebook and Twitter, I don't manage to post on my blog. I guess that's an indication that I'm old - I can't manage ALL the Social Medias all at the same time.
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