no Klingons

Everything changes and sometimes it's great. Like my best friend just bought a new peridot green bike and I foresee many rides together in 2012. Yeah!

But I want this blog to be authentic and some things suck.

Sometimes change is not great at all. Go ahead click on the link, it's a short notice. Did you see the relevant [to me] part?

The 2011 production marks the 6th time the show has been put up, and the 2nd time in the Windy City.

There are no other productions in 2011.

No Klingon Xmas Carol in Minneapolis this year. [you know it's hard to type when you have a fist in your mouth to hold back the sobbing]

Seriously, really I couldn't be happier for you all in Chicago. They are introducing a new score this year and everything. Wonderful. Look at all those showings through the end of the month. You should totally go and tell me about it. I want them to do well, really. I mean it.

Yeah. Enjoy. sniff

cherries are coming

The cherry harvest has started. It seems late but July is a traditional time for cherries after all. The weather is being sweet for a couple of days, low dew points, lower temps and now I have a reason to turn on my oven...Clafoutis! This year my goddaughter will be around to try it so that means I'll be pitting my cherries.

We have also been scurrying around in the garden getting ready for my wife's party and taking advantage of the cooler temps we have right now. The paths in the new herb garden are all done. The flowers, vegetables and weeds are all growing like weeds. The food thanks to our favorite restaurant and my two sisters in law is all planned. The cakes are ordered. Hopefully the waterfall can be fixed by the party, though I wonder if anyone will brave the heat to go look at it.

Tomorrow we may get flooding rains and then the tropics come back so we are firmly living in the moment!

I hope you can find something sweet about July to help increase your joy. Peace out.

pirates are just fun

We celebrated one of my favorite spring traditions last night. This year the opera was The Pirates of Penzance. The cast did a superb job, the chorus was rousing and our seats were very good. I really enjoyed the voices of all the female leads, I don' t know that I can pick a favorite. Really the entire cast was wonderful.

We started the evening with a lovely dinner at Christos. It took awhile but I did manage to finally choose an appetizer, hummus this time. They are just all so good. I had the Kota Zakinthos which is a favorite entree, but this time the use of the sun dried tomatoes was a bit overwhelming but it was still a delightful meal. Lots of leftovers as usual. Post play two of us went to spyhouse for drinks and cream puffs. This are rich and not very sweet and I enjoyed my rare dessert out immensely. I wonder if they come from Patesserie Margo. Margo made our wedding cake so no wonder I love the cream puffs. The group was slightly smaller than some years but that didn't seem to decrease our enjoyment. I'm a bit sad that it's over for another year. Next year they are doing "Patience" which I have never seen. So I am already looking forward to it.

Unfortunately although the run for the operetta has just started they are entirely sold out. I really thought this year you would have a chance to buy tickets for something I was praising. Perhaps you can try your luck for unclaimed tickets before the show? Less than 24 hours until Spring.

near perfect cookies, phones and trees

I am not fond of the word perfect. I don't use it, I don't even believe in it's existence. Is it possible to be a word-atheist, a 'watheist'? But it's ok that others do, we all have our things after all. This weekend I made a version of my Rustic Salted Pecan Cookies. They were deemed perfect by the people I live with, 'damn fine' even with the nuts by my favorite nut avoider, and excellent by two other testers. So I figured I should share my recipe. I had thought that I had shared an earlier version but hell if I can find it.

EB's Rustic Salted Pecan Cookies

sift together:
1 c whole wheat pastry flour
1 c unbleached all purpose flour
1 t baking soda

cream together:
3/4 c butter
1 c palm sugar

Add to the butter-sugar mixture:
2 eggs, room temperature
1 t vanilla

Stir in by hand sifted dry ingredients and
1 t sea salt [I used a vanilla infused sea salt with added to the yummy I think]
1 c crushed pecans

chill and bake rounded teaspoonfuls of dough for 9 minutes at 350 degrees,
remove and cool on rack.
If anyone tries them please let me know how they turn out for you.

In other news I think I may have killed my phone, it's sitting on the buffet drying out and it doesn't look good. *sob*

On the brighter side we got our tree today at the fabulous Mother Earth. The night air was brisk, there was a little snow drifting down, the women there were fabulous as well as my friends, the shop cat friendly and now my home smells like a forest in heaven. Add to this a great writing session with my partner, and a few more cards getting sent out and it was mostly a grand Monday.

Here's too a good rest of the week for us all!

at least there were klingons

The past 2 days were just one big work suck. The kind of suck that makes you think 'really being laid off is sounding better and better'. Usually followed by crashing guilt because hey I still have a job.

I hate that feeling, being overwhelmed by judgment and aversion. And the overwhelm makes it harder for me to bring a friendly eye and curiosity to it. It's hard to find any distance from it. To be kind to myself and just have sucky feelings. Of course the migraine that I woke up with this morning didn't help. It just seems evil to wake up with a headache.

However last night was the Klingon Christmas Carol. This did not suck, it was delightful. There were 5 of us and 4 who had seen it last year. It is in the more spacious hall in the Landmark Center over in St Paul. Very well heated by the way compared to Mixed Blood. We had phenomenal luck parking thanks to the sharp eyes of one of my passengers. All in all a delight.

It is a work in progress, there were differences from last year. I thought the first act could use a little tightening up. The tone seemed slightly more somber this year as well. But I enjoyed it immensely and between my shopping trip and now this I feel that the holiday season has been well and truly kicked off.

I have a spacious weekend opening up in front of me. I can't imagine I will get everything done but it may be fun to try. Almost certainly more fun than work.

nanowrimo ends and winter holiday season begins

December is here, Nanowrimo is officially done for another year. This means that the winter holiday season has begun. And my brain is regaining a bit of lost ground.

I hit the ground running Monday morning less than 12 hours after I won nanowrimo. My dear friend and I had our annual "shopping--spend time together" trip.

It was a rainy warm day and we got quite a bit accomplished. It was really helpful for me, I had tried to think of gifts for people beforehand but I was just feeling stuck. The act of shopping, having someone to exchange views and ideas with was so helpful. It all seems doable now.

Also it was just plain old fun. We had a long a fabulous lunch and did our best to catch up on each other. That didn't happen fully but at least we made a start. We made plans for other holiday gatherings and learned something new about ourselves; we are open to bribery. [at least it was new to me] My wife treated us all to take out so that she didn't need to cook that night. We quickly caved in to her bribe/suggestion.

I returned home exhausted and satisfied about 12 hours after I had left that morning. Truly one of my favorite things this tradition. I am so grateful there are no health issues this year to interfere with it. Now onto addressing those holiday cards. I just can't help it, I love them. Call me a kook.

xmas 2009

Was really rather jolly. We are in the midst of our yuletide traditions. Let's see depending on how you count it it's the 6th day of Yule. So at the halfway mark. We are opening gifts every day or so, I cooked my families' traditional xmas eve meal for the first time ever. My part was all very fishy and well received by the 10 or so gathered. Everyone brought something to add to the meal. And of course since I have been online last I have shoveled and shoveled and shoveled. No complaints from me this year about living in MN and not having a white winter solstice. The neighbors have an awesome igloo going up.

My holiday wish is that I find out about an awesome 12th night celebration to attend this year, perhaps with some mumming.

And now some downloads I thought were rather cool for those who enjoy xmas music, I particularly enjoyed 'hungover boxing day':
http://christmascandy.bandcamp.com/album/christmas-candy-from-the-netherlands

I have some quiet time before the party tonight so I am off to write down the story scenes that have been rattling around in my head. And more self care, must do more of that! I hope everyone is enjoying some downtime, except those workng in retail, you have my deepest sympathies--hang in there!

fullness and cycles

It's been a very full weekend. I guess a lot of people have traditions at this time of the year. I really enjoy creating personal traditions and yearly or seasonal landmarks, it seems to fit nicely with my pagan-ness.

One December tradition is the Ellis food shelf concert at Gingkos with my dear friend. It was an excellent evening, the only 2 downsides was that the bag of stuff I had ready for the food shelf drive decided to hide itself just as I was trying to leave the house [plenty more opportunities to donate though] and the 3 women who apparently came to the show to chat with each other not listen to the music that were sitting in front of us. *sigh* Yes you did make it really hard for some of us to hear the show. And there are hundreds of other places you could have gone if chatting was your goal for the evening.

On the other hand no blood was shed and I officially forgive them in the true al-anon style--meaning I just don't want to hold on to the resentment. Also when you don't hear someone play live for a year you are delighted with a ton of new material, it was great.

I had a blast at our dinner party last night, I hope all the guests did as well.
Plans are being made for xmas eve, at long last by the christians in our family, and today is the annual [early this year] solstice celebration at my church.

I had some great downtime this morning and my headache did not turn into a migraine. I have the day off tomorrow and will have time for writing - yeah! It has been a full weekend already. Pretty typical for this time of year, I wish for all to be full of love, food and gratitude. Happy mother night! The sun is coming back.