Thursday night I went to see my little friend Minnie in Mary Poppins at the Wayzata Community Church. I’ve been to several of her performances in plays the past couple of years but this was the first one at this venue. Apparently they’ve been doing productions for 25 years. Who knew?
It was a quite a production with a cast of close to 40 with a huge stage (in the sanctuary) and a nice-sized band. (So, in addition to Minnie in the play, I got to enjoy her father playing the trombone as well!)
It was a little overblown (in my opinion). Every now and then the band’s background music drowned out the dialog but the biggest problem was really the size of the cast. Every big number had almost the entire cast on stage with all the “main stars” in the front; normally not a problem but a lot of the not-main cast were the younger actors/actresses so you really couldn’t see them easily. It was just kind of a mass of bodies. For those of us there to see a friend or family member (probably most of us in the sanctuary), it was difficult.
Minnie really shone in “Step in Time”, the number done by all the chimney sweeps. She was the youngest of the sweeps but she held her own. She knew the steps and kept up with the older/bigger dancers. She clearly knew all the words and she has a great smile.
Another great piece of the evening was sitting with Marie, Minnie’s little sister. Marie had a fabulous Mary Poppins dress and shoes, along with her Mary Poppins doll and umbrella. She looked so cute.
So it was a fun night. I get to see Marie in a “showcase” next week. I love being the neighborhood grandma!
What do you wear when you’re out for the evening?? Favorite musical?
My neighbor Don once asked me about how I keep up with supplies for my paper crafts. I think I snorted. I’m pretty certain that if I didn’t buy anything else ever (except for tape, which I go through at a prodigious rate), I could keep making cards until I’m 105.
You’d think that with stacks of paper, I wouldn’t be so stingy with it. I keep almost every scrap, unless it’s thinner than 1/2”. There are two plastic bins in my studio with paper scraps – one is for solid-colored cardstock and the other is for patterned paper. Both these bins are full and I spend a bit of time sifting through to see if there is something I can use rather than cut into a new piece of stock/paper. I try to keep it organized, but many days when I’m straightening up after I’ve crafted, I just toss the scraps into the bin willy nilly.
That means that a couple of times a year, it’s time to sort out the scraps. I go through each bins separately; solids get divided up into colors (blues, greens, purples, etc.) and patterns get laid out by pattern type and/or season (stripes, dots, floral, Halloween, etc.) At this point I usually jettison a lot of the smaller pieces, especially the patterned stuff. The header photo is what it looks like (this is the solids).
This whole process takes about an hour. It’s not hard by any means and I can’t say that I actually enjoy it but it does feel quite good when it’s done. And I don’t have to think about it for another six months or so!
Last Thursday night, YA and I headed over to the Minnesota Historical Center to see the Julia Child exhibit. It’s been there for a bit but we just got around to it… plus the free Thursday aren’t EVERY Thursday, so it does require a little pre-planning.
I’ve seen Julia Child’s actual kitchen at the Smithsonian, but this traveling exhibit if much more extensive, covering details of her childhood, how she met her husband Paul, their life in France and, of course, her culinary journey. There are quite a few fun bits in the exhibit:
Pots w/ smells. There were a few pots next to copies of her most famous recipes. When you lifted the lid, that recipe’s aroma wafted out of the pot. Ingenious. There was a mock-tv studio and if you stood in certain parts of the room, your image was filmed and showed up on three different screens. Another fabulous part of the exhibit was a 12-foot high copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking; the inside of the book was projected from two different screens and every minute or so, the “page” would turn, taking your to another recipe in the book. What a marvelous idea.
I guess I know more about Julia Child than I thought (couple of biographies); the exhibit didn’t have anything that was a surprise about her life but it was enjoyable nonetheless.
I had been surprised that YA had wanted to come along but she seemed to enjoy it. We then went on to see a couple of the other exhibits that are showing right now but she didn’t want to stay for the free concert that was going on that night. Oh well, I take what I can get!
What’s the last museum you’ve visited? Any good biographies lately?
The coyotes start howling at 4AM. That gets Bailey barking which gets Luna barking ad running around inside the house. Soon as we step outside Bailey runs over to us, like ‘The coyotes are out there!’ It sure does disturb our sleep.
I’m not gonna talk about the fact it’s almost March. I have had so much stuff going on lately I can’t remember when I get out if I’ve turned the car off. One day I restarted the car when I opened the door. The next day I got out while the car was still running.
Last Friday was a student potluck at the college for my boss, Jerry, who will be retiring in May. There were students from the last 20 years and it was really good to talk with them and see them again.
One traveled from New York, and one came in from South Korea.
She who traveled furthest.
Last Saturday I took a friend to Red Wing. I thought it was just gonna be a quick drop off and home again. Not so much. Too much to get into, but it took the whole day.
Sunday…I don’t even know what was Sunday. I guess I did some stuff.
Monday we had a touring show come through the college. A quick easy one woman show called ‘The Gun Show’. It was written in 2007 by E.M. Lewis and presented both sides of the gun debate. The character in the show grew up in Oregon, everybody hunted, her brothers were in the military. Then Her husband shot himself and the one line that sticks out, she says “I don’t want to take all your guns away. But I sure wish I would’ve taken his gun away.” Gut punch.
Tuesday morning the Rochester Symphony had two concerts at one of the local high schools. Fourth graders from all around the area attended. It was a great way to get the kids interested in classical music and they learned how different instruments work. Then the superintendent of the Rochester Schools narrated Peter and the Wolf. It was a nice event to work.
A few weeks ago, I mentioned a meeting that I had with Soil & Water and all the projects we were planning for the farm. Three of the technicians came out to the farm on Wednesday with their GPS survey stick and we looked at five different areas. The main project that started all this; filling in a gully in the pasture, involves a spring that tends to run all winter, and I wanted to make sure they had the right idea for that. And it was good to look at it because we changed it a few things. It was decided we need to add a tile for the springs to control that water while not holding back water that might come from further uphill as part of a different project.
We talked about adding grass headlands in two spots, filling in another gully that I hadn’t even thought about, and we talked about what shrubs to plant for a wind break. The dogs got a lot of exercise running all over the farm. Poor Humphrey was pooped out. He was ready to go home, and our last stop was only about 100 yards from the house and I figured they would go home. But of course, that’s when daughter left for her walk and the dogs all have FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out, so off they went. Eventually I went and picked them up on the road and brought them all home.
I offered daughter a ride but she insisted she was fine. Later, after she did get home, she was kind of wishing she had taken a ride. The wind was a bit cool.
A tree company was out on Wednesday and cut down the last of those dead ash trees.
It sure looks different down there.
Thursday night I had an event at the college for what’s called the P-Tech program. It’s for the public school kids in grade 8-12 to attend classes at the college. A cooperative program between public and private, IBM and Mayo Clinic also contribute. The classes focus on IT or healthcare. It gives the kids a good headstart on college.
Saturday this week is technical rehearsal for a show at the Rochester Repertory Theatre called “Perfect Arrangement“ by Topher Payne.
Set in the 1950s during the red scare, this is the lavender scare. I read the script several months ago and it’s so frustrating to think they thought none of this would matter in 20 years and here we are 70 years later still fighting about it.
It’s a good cast, and the director has a good handle on it. It’s staged like an old TV show from the ‘50s. Bright expressions and brightly lit and one character turns to the audience and says ‘I used Foster’s Furiture Creme. There’s no waxy residue!”. I expect to see a sparkle flash and hear a ‘TING’ as she says that. That show opens on March 5.
There’s an online auction of farm machinery starting on February 28 in Plainview. I saved a handful of items to watch. I’m sure I won’t be able to afford any of it and it’s always fun to window shop.
There’s a big parts sale at John Deere on March 4 and 5th. Certain things like digger shovels and tractor filters might be on sale throughout the whole month, but then everything else is on sale those two days.
I have a list for shopping.
Speaking of old TV, I heard on the 1940’s radio station, Count Basie’s version of the song, ‘Open the Door Richard’. Course, my first knowledge of that phrase is the Bugs Bunny cartoon with Bugs and Yosemite Sam on a high diving board. Bugs has a door up there and Sam pounds on it yelling “OPEN THAT DOOR!” then turns to the camera and says, “You notice I didn’t say, ‘Richard’?” (I just learned, Sam’s mouth moved from inside his beard to under his beard for easier animation).
I remember in the 1980’s and VCRs were just coming out and I’d stand up on the second floor of Dayton’s in Rochester and watch old cartoons on a TV / VCR with a bunch of little kids. I was 18.
I’m having fun churning through a bunch of “listicle” books in preparation for Blevins. Shipwrecks, Nellie Bly, plants, more plants and Phineas Fogg.
The latest is The History of the World in 100 Objects, which was a BBC radio show awhile back. I found the CDs through Interlibrary Loan and it’s prodigious – 20 discs! It comes with a pamphlet that have 100 teeny little black and white photos of the items. Luckily I was able to find a website that has nicer photos of the objects, so I’ve been keeping that open while I listen to the CDs.
It’s well done – not nearly as stuffy as I was expecting – and I’m enjoying it, although I’m having to keep at it since you can’t renew ILL items.
All the items are in the British Museum, including a statue of Chicomecoatl, the Aztec of Goddess of Maize and Sustenance. The narration starts out with an overview of food having a divine role throughout history and then moves on to the history of maize, the plant it derives from and where it grows (just about everywhere). Then came this funny bit:
“But crucially, maize is a rich carbohydrate that gives you a rapid energy hit. But it is, let’s face it, pretty stodgy, and so from very early on, farmers also cultivated an ingenious – and tasty – accompaniment, the indigenous chili. It has virtually no nutritional value but, as we all know, it’s uniquely able to liven up dull carbohydrates – and it shows that we’ve been foodies for as long as we’ve been farmers.”
I laughed out loud especially since I had just added a slug of frozen poblanos to a dish I had made about an hour before. Now I want to go to Penzey’s to see if they have any good chili mixtures.
After three months in our new home we finally found enough energy to hang pictures.
Our “Boommate” will be moving in with us in a couple of months and we needed to get the pictures out of her space downstairs where they are all stacked against a wall. Our new home is bigger than our old home, but has less wall space for picture display since there are many more windows. Part of the hanging process involved deciding which ones we will continue to store in the furnace room. Husband decided he didn’t want any of his old family pictures hung. That made things a lot easier, as some of them are pretty big.
For some reason I make Husband anxious by my picture hanging method, which involves careful measuring and centering. He worries that the pictures will fall off the walls because the nails and/or fasteners will rip out of the drywall, and wondered why we didn’t secure them in the wall studs. I explained that the hangers pictured in the header photo are very secure and that none of our pictures is so heavy as to require securing in a stud. I think he believes me, but still is anxious about the whole process.
In a tribute to our famous local photographer Jim Brandenburg, we hung all his nature photos in the dining room A large John Coltrane poster graces the area with the piano and Husband’s guitar and cello. The house is really feeling like home.
What are your picture hanging methods? What makes your abode feel like home?
We have a new baby in the neighborhood; they came home on Saturday. These are newish neighbors so I don’t know them super-well. With folks you don’t know, and young to boot, it’s hard to gauge what kind of gift to get. I wasn’t invited to any showers and these days new parents seem to want the types of stuff that I either have never heard of or is out of my price range. I need a small, casual gift. My go-to is the chunk journal.
This is a small photo album, just 4 x 4, with lots of pretty paper and embellishments. The front and back cover is made with corkboard – I get the 4 x 4 coasters online. It’s easy to make and I get to use up stuff from my way-too-big craft stash. Papers, ribbons, stickers, bling. The only problem with the chunk journal is the mess:
I don’t have a plan when I start a chunk journal except the number of pages (I usually do 24 pieces, so places for 48 photos. As I cut paper and take out various embellishments, I don’t put them back right away, as I may want to use them again on later pages. This means my desk is covered in all kinds of stuff that I’m not willing to return to its home until I’m all done with the journal. As I get closer and closer to the end, I get a little more ruffled about the mess. I start to put stuff away in my head. That means I get two endorphin kicks at the end. I’ve finished the gift and I get to start the clean-up. Unfortunately, this is the only time I get all excited about cleaning up in my studio. Rats.
Do you have any go-to gifts (any occasion)? Do you purchase gifts off folks’ registries?
I saw the sad news that Diane Ladd passed away yesterday – she was 89.
She began acting at the age of 18 and just retired 3 years ago; her last roles were in Gigi & Nate and Isle of Hope. When she first came to my attention was the year I graduated high school, when she appeared in Chinatown and then Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Both great performances and she was nominated for a Golden Globe, Academy Award and a BAFTA – winning the BAFTA.
One of my favorite of her performances was as Etta, the sister-in-law of Theresa Turner in Black Widow. It wasn’t a huge part but she really made her cool but nasty character sizzle on the screen. The header photo is the best one I can find of her in that role.
I also really liked Rambling Rose in which she plays a southern woman who battles to keep a younger teenager from going under the knife unnecessarily. Here’s a good clip from that:
I also remember a really nice part she played in a Columbo episode. She’s a wheelchair bound woman whose husband kills her mother. She wears pretty, diaphanous dresses and appears fragile, but turns out to be a strong and kind woman. It’s one of my favorite Columbo episodes.
Her part in Alice didn’t do much for me. Of course, the I didn’t care the the show BEFORE she stepped in, but trying to shoehorn her into the role that Flo had vacated didn’t seem to work all that well. But she was popular and did win a Golden Globe for her work.
Most of the news stories today have “mother of Laura Dern” in their titles. It’s a shame because I don’t think that’s her big claim to fame. She had a long, diverse and entertaining career; that’s what the headlines should be!
Have you seen Diane Ladd in anything? Do you have a favorite?
Did you ever watch a dog chasing a ball or a stick and watch them running and grabbing at it off the ground and think, doesn’t that hurt your lips scraping them across the gravel like that?
We pondered that playing with Luna the other day. It doesn’t seem to bother Luna.
Daughter came up with this Halloween costume all on her own:
Last week driving to Plainview there was a lot of corn still standing. This week a lot of corn has been harvested. Not mine, but all the corn around us. Several guys have finished. And now they’re hard into fall fertilizer and tillage. If any of you retired people want a job, I’m sure you could go to any of the larger farms in the area and get a job driving a tractor or truck for about 3 months. Depending on weather, it’s long days, lack of sleep, field meals, and, if you’re like my brother, “it’s just round and round- it’s boring!” But it’s big equipment and it can be fun. It wouldn’t work for me right now. I can’t get there until mid morning by the time I take daughter in. And I may have to leave mid-afternoon to pick her up. And I have a show this evening… Nope, I’m not the ideal candidate. YOU might be!
And the equipment sure is fun to see.
This week was all about getting the college show finished. We have our first show at 2:00 PM Saturday, the 1st. It will be ready, and ‘good enough’, but if I had more time, I’d tweak a little more.
It’s a good thing this set isn’t any bigger. I don’t know what happens to me that everything turns into a rush at the end, whether trying to get book work done to meet my accountant, or finish a set, or get the machine shed enclosed before cold weather comes, apparently I think I like the thrill of the rush of adrenaline and the whooshing sound the deadlines make as they go past.
Music lately has been some boogie woogie piano, my usual ‘All That Jazz’ movie soundtrack, and then playing a video of “The Gospel at Colonus”, from 1985. The full show is available on YouTube. I’ve had the CD for years, and we saw it at the Ordway maybe 10 years ago. This production has Morgan Freeman, Jevetta Steele, The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, and SO MUCH good gospel music. I was painting alone and singing and shouting along. HALLELUJAH! AMEN!
So. The lack of concrete. I mentioned on the blog one day that I didn’t feel good over the weekend and postponed the concrete.
Last Friday afternoon I rented a little machine called a plate compactor. It’s about the size of a small snowblower, I believe the plate measured 17“ x 20“ and its got a little Honda gas engine on it, and a long handle and when you rev it up it vibrates really fast and compacts whatever it is you’re trying to compact. In this case, about 8 inches of gravel as a sub-base for the concrete. It goes really good in one direction; pretty much drives itself. And it’s not too hard to go in circles, but if you drive it into a corner, you’re kind of stuck. The only instructions they gave me when I picked it up was how to start it. Later on I was on YouTube trying to find some instructions on running this thing, or if there was a certain amount of time you needed to compact material and the only videos I could find were how to start it. What somebody needs to make is a video that’s gonna tell you right up front, this thing’s gonna kick your ass. For the first half an hour. Because when you drive it into the corner the only way to get it back out is to use brute force and pull it back against the machine’s compaction motion. And eventually you’ll figure out you can flip the handle over and sort of steer it, almost one handed, but that doesn’t really help if you’re in a corner with a couple of walls. Anyway I learned a lot that first hour. And when I woke up Saturday morning, muscles I didn’t know I had hurt. And then my stomach started to hurt, then I got the chills, and I just didn’t feel that great. But, I had a lot of work to do.
WFriday evening I had finished compacting the sub base inside the shed, that 20′ x 20‘ area. Saturday morning I started putting gravel in. Kelly came and helped. That woman really is too good for me. She has an attention to detail that I don’t. She’ll spend hours working on something that I said was “good enough” long before. I was still feeling terrible and I finally had to go in the house and take a nap. Three hours later she was still adding a little gravel here, taking off a little there. She used those YouTube videos to learn how to start the machine and she was compacting gravel. We use one of those laser levels that sits on a tripod and puts out a green laser beam line. Then I have a stick with three marks on it: the height of the existing concrete, then a mark for the sub-base, and a mark for the Gravel.
Kelly is not afraid of hard work and she said she was enjoying it. I just wanted to move on because I’m always moving onto the next project.
Saturday night I came in the house and took a shower and then I soaked in the tub for half an hour and I went to bed.
Sunday morning we were back at it. All we had to do on Sunday was a little area 13‘ x 6‘ to be a walkway at the front door of the shop. I didn’t have much energy and if I had to get on the ground to do something, I tended to stay there for a while. Outside the shed, I cut a hole in the wall and shoved a piece of PVC pipe in for the drain, and then I laid in the dirt for a while. There was a thistle under my left shoulder. It hurt. Eventually I got up.
And by Monday, I knew I had to postpone the concrete. I needed to take that off my plate. A friend told me I don’t need a plate, I need a turkey platter. Yeah. That’s about right.
Almost ready!
Speaking of pondering, I read these two phrases in a new display at the college art gallery. :
Ouch. That seems kinda harsh.
This one reminds me of that quote: “In order to discover new lands, you must consent to lose site of the shore.”
The display is photographs by Ethan Aaro Jones, and is called “Unsearchable Distance”.
At the library last week I happened upon a little hardcover book called Pizzapedia by Dan Bransfield. It says on the inside flap that it’s a “biography of pizza”. I wouldn’t go quite that far but it is a charming piece filled with marvelous illustrations.
And some humor. I found this about ¾ of the way through, right after an illustration of a pizza-making robot and how it works:
Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Pizza Robotics
First Law. A pizza robot may not burn a pizza or, through inaction, allow a pizza to come to harm.
Second Law. A pizza robot must accept orders for pizzas except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third Law. A pizza robot must protect its own recipes as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
If you’re not a Sci/Fi fan, here is a copy of Issac Asimov’s original Law of Robotics.
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
These laws were first introduced in Asimov’s 1942 short story “Runaround,” which is part of the collection I, Robot. They were designed to create a framework for ethical behavior in robots, ensuring that they prioritize human safety and obedience while also allowing for self-preservation.
I’m pretty sure that any pizza-making robots out in the world aren’t too worried about having to pledge allegiance to Issac Asimov, but the author made me laugh and that’s always helpful these days!
What is your favorite? Thin crust, thick-crust, stuffed crust, deep-dish? Square cut or triangles?
And some humor. I found this about ¾ of the way through, right after an illustration of a pizza-making robot and how it works:
Trail Baboon 