Friday, November 24, 2006
Friday
Time goes so fast. I can't believe my birthday was almost a month ago, and just a little more than a month to go to Xmas.
We saw "Cabaret" on Wednesday night - a good production, with a good cast. A busy week extra-curricularly for us - out two nights! We don't really get out much anymore.
Was today "buy nothing" day? I think it might have been. I don't think we bought anything except for pizza - although we did buy the performance tickets.
That's it for now - sorry the blog is a kind of dull, I'll try to spice it up presently.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Tuesday
I've just realized a sort of running theme with the reading and the writing and also even my football watching this fall - for the first time I've found that I'm not really feeling all that engaged in the games either. They seem to go by so fast - and there so seldom seems to be real drama in them.
Finally, I wrote below (I thought it was above, but then I looked at the blog) that I want to become more socially aware/active. I'm not sure where this is going to lead, or exactly what form it's going to take. We spent a few weeks this fall trying to see if we could "buy nothing" except for food and absolute necessities. I spent about 25 cents in two weeks (I bought a gum at the Save Easy). But it got kind of boring after a while, so we stopped. But there are better ways to live for our environment/for other people/for our own family's health. It's hard not to be so caught up in the pace of day to day life that we don't consider these things. I'll try to make that one of the functions of the blog - to explore how to move forward to make things better.
That's it for now - we're off to see a play (Cabaret) which should be fun. I'll tell you how it was tomorrow.
Oh yes - the strange typos in yesterday's blog where caused by typing it in Word then pasting it in - I'll try to avoid doing that.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
A Little More Than a Week Later . . .
I wanted to comment a little bit on my "5 priorities" to borrow from Stephen Harper (I'm not a fan really, I just like that particular idea) and briefly update on us. Sorry, still no photos - I don't want to spend a lot of time on this tonight - but I'll try for soon!!
My "priorities" are as above, plus reading and trying to think/be more socially aware/active.
Gym has to do with gaining some weight and getting older (both of which I think I can reverse slightly) as well as feeling much better when I do it and realizing I need to take care of my health (I maybe should have included flossing - I'm almost perfect at that!!). One of my best friends died this past summer (Philip Iverson) - and it's very sad, and sobering. I'm still trying to process it I think. But I’m having trouble going – it’s hard to fit it into the day, and I have many busy evenings (with play stuff) so I try not to fill them up with other things. But I’ll keep trying.
Guitar I’m enjoying a fair bit. This is the third time I’ve tried to learn. I think I need to start a band or something – I find practicing very hard. If I was going to have to perform in front of someone – or if I had a partner. I’m seriously thinking about it.
Blogging I think I'm doing okay at - one a week. Partly what I like about it is I enjoy creative writing, but I find that when I do it lately I'm trapped by form. I think it's from having done so much theatre directing and having come to see so much of art through the director's lense - which has a lot to do with form/structure. It used to be that when I wrote a fictional story, I'd get carried away with the story and it would just sort of flow out of my head. Now I find myself thinking about plot and character and exposition and all sorts of other things that kind of bind my brain. I wrote some poetry last year which was fun, but it almost seems too easy. I enjoyed writing the first few, then I felt like I could keep spewing them out with no end in sight – and less and less connection to anything really inside me. Maybe I just needed to get those first few out then the pressure was gone. Maybe I’ll post one someday.
Okay, I’ve got to go now – I’m going to go have a drink of Whiskey that Peter bought me for my birthday. I’ll finish the other points next time. We’re all well, if a little tired as usual – Peter is really really cute and smart and developing like crazy.
More soon!!
Ron
Monday, November 13, 2006
Stay at home-ish Dad attempts blog
I've decided, since I turned 41 (October 30), that I'm going to try to do several (not all!) of the things that I've been thinking I ought to get at before - well, just before I put them off some more I guess. I'm sure there's a more profound reason . . .
Those things include going to the gym, playing guitar, and working on our blog. As Patricia is now excedingly busy, I'm going to try to take over for a while. I'm not strictly speaking really a "stay at home Dad" - I work three days a week for now, and I'll be going back full-time (running an arts festival) in December I think (if our funding all works out, which I think it will!). But I am very house connected - though not in the same way as Patricia.
It's funny, because we didn't intend it, and I certainly never thought it was in my nature, but we're fairly gender traditional when it comes to our domestic interests. I think (hope) that I do my fair share of work - it's just that my share tends to include mowing the lawn, maintaining the car, fixing the occasionally leaky basement - and other stuff like that. While you can see what Patricia's is from looking at the blog.
Another big difference is I probably won't write as much or as regularly as she did - and I'm not a very good speller (and she is!)
Other than that - no definite plans what I'll do with my time - except that I will get some photos up soon when I learn how to do it!
That's it - wish me luck!
Ron
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Starfish
Sunday, July 16, 2006
I guess I've missed my blog birthday
Friday, June 09, 2006
porch with red door
almost done
Still to do (me): This year, just wait for plants to grow. I planted old roses in the back bed (on the right) though they're not really visible here. This year, I planted two climbers against the porch, and put the wires up yesterday. The urn has lavender, mints, and sweetpeas, and that's lady's mantle, artemisia, more lavender, some irises, pansies and violas in the front bed. There are also two roses waiting to be planted, and I'm thinking of putting them in front, on the far right (not visible here) next to the neighbor's driveway.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
my favorite corner (and it's not the one on the right)
A thing I love today: vanilla sweetened chestnuts. I may love these even more than the pantry. Gratuitous recipe for chestnut mousse that will get you invited to parties. Don't tell anyone that it takes half an hour to make and is easier than Rice Krispie squares. Whip 500 ml of cream, fold in entire can of sweetened chestnut puree, pipe into Oreo crumb tart bases done in about 45 small muffin liners (1 cup of Oreo crumbs + 1/4 cup of melted butter, mix well). I place the liners on a tray and press the crumb base into them, no muffin tin needed. About a tablespoon per tart will do, pressed into a flat disk with a low side. Let them cool if you can before piping in the mousse, and then let the completed tarts sit somewhere cool for about an hour. I don't have this much room in the fridge, so I've put trays in the freezer and in the back porch (December). The recipe is a variation on something I half-remember from a French cookbook I had 18 years ago; in the original recipe, the mousse was served in champagne cups and garnished with chocolate curls. I do that sometimes, but honestly, I don't have that many (ok, any) champagne glasses. It's Thursday. See what everyone else loves today.