The Roast Beast

OK, I may be dating myself terribly but I had an experience on Xmas Eve that was so reminiscent of Alexander King's story of the kittens from "And Mine Enemy Grows Older".

Don't know the story? Never heard of Alexander King? Do yourself a favor and read "May This House Be Safe from Tigers" or "As Mine Enemy Grows Older". The guy is hilarious.

Next time you see me, ask me about it.

Calvin Strikes Again

We are on a Calvin and Hobbes kick in our house. Combine that with a lot of snow the past few days and what do you get? Snowballs for all those would-be Suzies.

Of course you need a supply ready at hand to get the drop on the neighborhood kids. So what to do? You store them in the milk-box, natch.

Happy Merry

Well, one family down yesterday (on the Eve) and one to go today. Everything yesterday was fine, nice dinner and everyone was in a good mood.

Today's festivities started before dawn but we made him wait until we had some coffee. Here he with his "big" gift.



Yes, it is a drum set (thank you once again Craig's List!) and it's not that loud.

Today's Youth? Or is it "Yoots" to You?

OK, this AM I went shopping at the MALL (god, how I HATE the Palisades Center Mall). Unfortunately, they have the only H & M within 15 miles of me and I do love H & M.

So I was looking for a cute top hat that was on their website, it looked a lot like this:



Now, how obscure is a TOP HAT for pete's sake? And it's part of their INVENTORY. Obviously rather extremely obscure, since none of the sales clerks knew what a top hat was! I said, Top Hat? Fred Astaire?



Nope, they never heard of him either.

Sad, just sad.

Turkey Trot

The photos from the 2008 Rockland Road Runners are out. You can see Max and I here.

OK, so I'm not about to run any marathons, but, I finished 5 miles at 1,554 out of almost 2,000 entrants. Not first, but not last either!

Hope your Thanksgiving was as much fun!

Don't let the economy separate you from your lipstick

Have I raved enough about E.L.F.? This company sells most of their stuff at ONE DOLLAR. And yes, the stuff is pretty darn good. Here's what I got recently for $14.95 (inc. shipping!). Two liquid lipsticks (my favorites), a lip gloss, a nail polish, nail file set, a sheer foundation and two eyeshadow quads. Now here are the caveats: You must use the clear polish with the colored polish, otherwise it chips like crazy. The liquid lipstick are wonderful but pass on the mineral lipsticks, they break. The first time I went to put it on, I ended up with the lipstick in my lap. Not good.

Further, after trying the foundation it would be best for gals who didn't need too much coverage. Its quite sheer so I have to layer it on slowly. Not as good as Maybelline's Dream Mousse but excellent for the price. They also have a glimmer/shimmer foundation that would be good for evening.

Sign up for their newsletter which come almost everyday BUT you do get notified when they have sales. At a buck, if you don't like something you can toss it guilt free.

You can get them at ELF.

It's a Screech Owl

While I try and think up witty things to post, here's a local friend Bruce found yesterday.



Also, check out a new blog find (link at right) "Cake Wrecks", and be prepared to get cramps from laughing too hard.

What the...?

My husband called me earlier, he found gas that $2.15 a gallon. Hello?? Four months ago it was $4.79.

Ugh????

Parade

Today was Nyack's Annual Halloween Parade. I am told its the largest outside Greenwich Village and I can personnally attest that its pretty darn large. Max's circus troupe participates (The Amazing Grace Circus) and they were first in line for the parade (a prime spot I must say!) no doubt due to the work of Carlo and Janet, the seemingly inexhaustible two people who manage the group.

Here's the group just before we began the parade -

There were lots of terrific costumes. Here's my choice for first place, although they didn't win I thought they were totally fabulous. And let me emphasize when you look at this, these costumes were totally handmade! It's Jack and Sally from "The Nightmare Before Christmas".

And finally, here's Max and I -
Fun, but I was glad to get home and take off my shoes!

Mmm, new rug?

This is why you don't go to dinner with the dogs loose and a full trash can in the bathroom.

Don't Get Jarred!

So the other night Bruce brought in all the equipment he needed to collect a frame's worth of honey. This is about 5 or 6 hanging frames in one level of his bee apartment building. Here is a photo of what the frame looks like filled with capped honeycomb.Of course the honeycomb is capped so the honey stays fresh. It amazed me that the frame sat in the den for several days without leaking honey on anything. When you examine the honeycomb in detail you can see that, in each frame, the comb is tilted slightly up as it is built. This prevents the honey from flowing out before the bees can cap it (duh!)

The next step is to break off the caps so the honey can come out (this is prior to placing it in the extractor.) The low-tech method here is just dragging a pointy multi-prong fork across the caps to break them up.

Bruce actually got around 30 lbs of honey from one frame. By breaking the caps and extracting he can place the frame (with the comb intact) back into the hive. This way the bees can refill it without expending the energy to make new comb.

And this completes our Christmas shopping! I hope everyone likes honey!

A Fair Day

Yesterday was the Annual Fall Fair at our school. Wow, what a gorgeous day. Our class handmade caramel apples, half from homemade caramel and half from purchased (we couldn't make enough). If you've never made caramel, I recommend it, your house will smell amazingly good.

We sold 96 pounds of caramel on about 525 apples. And with all that we still sold out at 3:30 in the afternoon, we probably could have sold about 120 lbs. Maybe next year!

Here are some of the helpers at our tent -

A Bee in His Bonnet - Reprise

Just to update the bee sitch - Bruce has managed to borrow an extractor, which is now in our den (along with 18 gallons of fermenting grape juice. More on that later).

Here's a pix of the gizmo, it's HUGE. It belongs in "The Secret Life of Bees".

Dr Atomic

I got the opportuniy to watch the final dress of Dr. Atomic last week at the Met. This is an important show, you need to see it.

This is what the Times had to say about it.

Found Object Art / Steampunk

So, I have been doing a lot of reading, looking and googling lately on the Gothic subcultures that are cropping up. Absolutely love Victorian Goth. I'd love the wardrobe of Helena Bonham Carter in "Sweeney Todd". Of course, being in Manhattan ever day means I get to see a lot of variation (although not nearly enough, wake up people!)

The latest one that is getting a bit more widely recognized is Steampunk, which I find combines the ingenuity of found object art, the fun of clothing as theater and the humanization of technology. It has spurred me to re-visit some found object art/altered art that I have been learning/doing. Look for some pieces in the future on Etsy.

Read about the movement in the Times:here

Here's a modded computer done in steampunk style! Wow!

Cape Cod

Spent a long weekend in Cape Cod, Eastham to be exact (or East-um as the locals say). All day Saturday in Ptown where we climbed the Pilgrim's Momument, tallest all granite structure in the US. Here's a shot looking up thru the middle of the structure.

And here's someone having fun with Mom's cellphone camera -

Too Busy!

OK, we have been so busy I have no time to talk about life - too busy doing it! So here's a quickie picture of my son. Last week he participated in a demonstration with the Young Circus Troupe he's joining. They demo'ed at the Nyack Street Fair, in the heat, right after Hurricane Hanna (or Henry or Henrietta or whatever) blew thru. My weekend RenFair was cancelled, so I got to see him at his fair.


Here he is trying to teach a younger child how do use the diablo, Max's specialty.

Tomorrow I'll try and post some photos from the RenFair I was at all this weekend, and a video of my favorite new band, Poets of the Fall.

A Year of Acheron

Had serious fun last night at the talk and book signing by Sherrilyn Kenyon , author of the Dark Hunter series of paranormal romances. I absolutely love the books, second only to my all time fav, The Black Dagger Brotherhood by JR Ward. Although I missed part of the talk, Sherrilyn is obviously very gracious and a totally upbeat, fun gal.

Part of the fun was that while we all waited (and waited, and waited, and waited...) for the book signing, they were having a continuous raffle with prizes given out by the "Dark Hunter". Here he is... I got very rowdy with my line-mates who, when our numbers were called, would begin whooping and howling, stealing Dark Hunter and making him take photos with everyone on line, including the terribly tired looking bleached blonde (who is she?). What can I say? It was Friday night after a long week at work.


It got to be so late that I was afraid I would miss the last bus back to Rockland County (Thank YOU Coach USA!) so I spoke to the tour manager (who came with Sherrilyn) and she jumped me to the front of the line. Totally unexpected, I thought perhaps I could just leave my book and pick it up Monday signed or something, but she said things like this happen all the time, don't sweat it.
Got the new book, got posters and buttons and all sorts of tchotchkes. Also, was the only person who dressed as a character (Tabitha from" Seize the Night"). Next time I'll go as Simi!

Maroon 5

Several of you know that Maroon 5 is one of my favorite bands. They have some fabulous videos out (Like "Wake Up Call") and I love the pop sensibility of it all. I got a chance to see them live the other day at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. I highly recommed Bethel for a show, although you need to plan for a 20 minute hike to and from the car, this is a serious large place in the middle of friggin' no-where-ville.



A 10 mile drive through the back country, past a resort spot for orthodox (be careful with your driving!) and then a number of topless bars. The bars included "Johnies" which boasted SPORTS TV AND TOPLESS, so it must be male heaven or something. Here's the band doing "She will be Loved" which Adam Levine dedicated to all the women in the audience (no big surprise there Adam).

Be aware there really is an "unofficial" dress code (really a dress-down code). Not only was I the ONLY woman wearing a skirt (of approx 5,000 people) but I was in high heeled booties and burnt out velvet to boot. One of the young guys working there complimented me on my look and told me I was the image of a "caberet performer". Mmmmm. What can you do when you stick out like the sore thumb? Hold your head up and sashay that ass like you mean it!

A Boy and His Dog

Too Much

OK, many of you know we almost bought a new house and moved 2 years ago (just before the market crashed). Thank god the deal fell through. Anyway, here's an WONDERFUL blog of some of those incredible real estate listings we have all seen. I think my favorite so far is the toilet (what does this say about me?)

We were way out there:

Here's the view from our seats at the stadium, the view was better than this photos shows but this was probably the furtherst from the stage I have ever been to see the boss.

They had two LED screens you can see here that were a godsend since otherwise Bruce looked about 4 inches tall. My husband, bless him, pointed out that the LEDs weren't as big as the one the Met used for my event.

The LEDs were actually two screens each with a smaller one centered atop a larger one. They could do a letterbox style image on the large LED and then follow with the smaller one on top to do a "standing" image by using all the the top screen and the center "half" of the lower screen. A little difficult to explain but it worked.

The Morning After

Well, Bruce was amazing! Over 3 hours of music, non stop, with the incrediable guitar work of Nils Lofgren. Here's the playlist:

Out In The Street
Radio Nowhere
No Surrender
Two Hearts
The Promised Land
Hungry Heart
Summertime Blues
Tunnel Of Love
Held Up Without A Gun
It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City
Sherry Darling
Waitin' On A Sunny Day
Because The Night
She's The One
Livin' In The Future
Mary's Place
Drive All Night
The Rising
Last To Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands

Girls In Their Summer Clothes
Thunder Road
Detroit Medley
Born To Run
Glory Days
American Land
Twist And Shout

They also played an irish style jig as the last piece and the encores just never seemed to end.

Unfortunately, the Meadowlands is a PITA to see a show at - too much construction, not enough staff giving directions, too few roads out of the area. Ugh.

Bruce! Bruce! Bruce!

Tonight we go to see Springsteen at Giants Stadium (amazingly, it is still CALLED Giants Stadium and not "Mega Mall Merchandizing" or something).

Here's the play list from last night's show:

July 27, 2008
East Rutherford, New Jersey
Giants Stadium

Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
Adam Raised A Cain
Spirit In The Night
Summertime Blues
Brilliant Disguise
Atlantic City
Growin' Up
Janey Don't You Lose Heart
I'll Work For Your Love
Youngstown
Murder Incorporated
The Promised Land
Livin' In The Future
Mary's Place
Working On The Highway
Tunnel Of Love
The Rising
Last To Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands

Girls In Their Summer Clothes
Jungleland
Born To Run
Bobby Jean
Dancing In The Dark
American Land
Rosalita

I love a lot of the "newer" stuff like, I'll work for your Love, and Atlantic City. Can't wait for the show!!

All the latest can be read at brucepsringsteen.net.

Dance Away

A mini-post about a video I saw recently. It's Matt and I found him thru a write up in the NY Times. We loved it. Enjoy!

Hot, Hot, Hot

Wow, it is quite warm these past few days. We are packing the bunny cage with blue ice and the bees are going crazy fanning the hive. They are also doing this weird thing of hanging out, literally, in a ball below the opening. Bruce is getting another hive, they are reproduced so rapidly he's concerned they are going to swarm.

Here's the ball thing - they actually make a bridge with their bodies and just keep piling on until its this large mass. The bee verizon of a mosh pit I suppose. Amazing.

It's way too hot to go running outside so I'm about to hop onto the treadmill. Thank heavens for Craigs List!

There are actually a couple of $10 a month gyms in Rockland County and I'm going to check them out this week while I have time. One of them was named one of the best in the county and the price is certainly right. No classes, but I can go and lift weights.

Bruce was finally able to hook up my Carlisle Mini CC and oxycon the other day and I was able to sit down and do a few beads. After two, between the kiln and the torch, the temp got to be about 100 degrees in the studio. So it's either have the AC on all the time or do the beads at night. I have to build up my inventory, the LI show is only about 5 weeks away. No way am I doing the same schedule as last year, it was way too crazy. The show schedule will be on the bead site at www. gracefulfire.com.

Here's an image I'll leave everyone with:

The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd

OK, I finished my 5K this morning. I did a bit better than last time. April 13, my time was 39:53 and today, July 12, my time was 38:28. I could have done better but my costocondritis has really kicked in and I was having a lot of trouble getting my breath. Guess I need to revisit the doc. Ugh.

Max has completed his 2 weeks of Amazing Grace Circus camp and had a ball. He has improved his juggling, is now juggling clubs, and does some pretty impressive diablo routines.

He has, however, decided that riding a unicycle is impossible unless you are 5 years old. We'll have to work on that. Here he is in his classic whiteface clown makeup.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Lifted some photos off work's photo archive (with permission of course!). Here's one of the full stage during the rehearsal on Friday. You can see folks already setting up to claim their spots, the regulars were out by 10 am (late by Central Park standards!) including our beloved favorite guy, bikini man (don't ask!). Everyone was in a good mood and hopeful that the weather gods would be kind to us (they were).

This was probably the last big project I'll be doing with my very long time boss since he's retiring as of September 1. It's been 23 years that I've been in the office working directly for the guy (although he's not always around since he spends a lot of each day on stage). My ex-boss is here on the left and my yet-to-be boss is on the right.

My "xb" is going to Germany for a break and I'm sure it will be very different from being on stage very day. So much less stress and a much altered pace. This photo sort of sums up a lot, one guy being very focused and totally in the middle of everything, the other, while aware of what's up around him, much more casual.

So its goodbye to the stage, goodbye to NYC and goodbye yellow brick road.

The Run Around

Finally getting a bit of my life back after the concert, so I've been running the past few days. I have a 5K on July 12 and need to get back to my workouts.

Here's the world record holder, Tirunesh Dibaba, who on June 6, 2008, set a new record of 14 mins 11 sec for the women's 5K. My first 5K was 39 mins. Ouch! So I have a ways to go even to be good in my age category in Rockland County.

I am totally gun-ho on the iPod for running. Here are a few of my recent downloads I'm running to:

Cornershop - Brimful of Asha
Aimee Mann - Freeway
O.A.R. - Love and Memories
R.E.M. - The One I Love
G. Love and Special Sauce - Peace, Love and Happiness
Iggy Pop - Real Wild Child
Coldplay - Viva la Vida

Lots of great infomation on exercise in the Times, I personally like the "Well" column. For a fountain of youth, put on some sneakers. You can read about it here and here.

Veni, vidi, vici

Well, the concert is now in history and what a week! I never left the park from Monday morning until my first night home Saturday evening, the day after. It was quite a haul. Never having done such a large event (even for Domingo!) it was a stretch of my abilities and sanity. But something to put on a resume, fer sure!

Here are the riggers, 18 of them the first day assembling one of the large LED support structures. The guys (and one woman!) were awesome and rigging gear is way cool. They climbed and hauled in the sun and got that thing up. The tower was about 30' or 35' tall with a 18' by 24' LED screen hanging on it. It also contained our speaker array for the front of the field.

Here's one of the scaffold structures with our green banner on the left side and a bit of the enormous LED screen on the right. You can see the speaker array hanging behind the green banner. There was a second array hanging to the right of the LED to fill the area on either side of the stage with sound. However, if you happen to walk around the stage from backstage to front, the fill was so powerful your ears were ringing.

I had over 100 people on site working for me on Monday and the coffee break bills will prove it. We needed a u-haul to get the Boxes O'Joe back from Dunkin' donuts. Next year we have to look into a craft service to provide everything, but, the cost of the service is quite high. However, I practically needed to hire a PA just to run back and forth to the food store so it would be worth the expense.

We had over 50,000 people at the event. The program, a mixed bill of opera highlights, was so incredible everyone enjoyed the beautiful music and singing.

Our stars were amazing. Not only did they sing the night away but then hung out backstage to sign autographs and speak to every single person that waited. And I mean every single person. Angela looked incrediable in her gowns (she did a costume change half way through the event and then changed again after the concert). And Roberto is such a European charmer. I couldn't believe the patience they both displayed speaking to everyone to came. I just have no idea how all those people got backstage!

The Long Meadow of Prospect Park is a jewel in Brooklyn. It is a buccolic expanse that rolls along as if you are in Cotswold or some other verdent English valley. You can not see any buildings from the field. The field LED's didn't look large on the plan and I was uncertain how the image would appear to the patrons. My uncertainities were ungrounded when, during the show, I walked the length of Long Meadow and saw the crystal clarity of each screen. Once out of the main length of the ballfield area, each screen had it own pod of people, watching as raptly as if in their own living rooms. Amazing.

This photo doesn't really show you each screen, although perhaps if you can imagine that the teeny dot in the middle is the stage, you can see how far out the audience progressed down the length of the field, about 3/4 of a mile. This shows 2 of the four screens that we installed. Once past this point the stage was not visible but this didn't deter a large number of people who extended past the "picnic house".

Now all I have left to do is the paperwork, which I'm sure will take me into the next few weeks. And then VACATION!!!

To read the NY Times article about the show, click on this link, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/arts/music/20oper.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1, the results of my interview are on the 2nd page.

I won't be posting for a bit, tomorrow begins the load in of the Met to Prospect Park for the concert June 20. While the event will be great, I can't say I relish getting to work at 4:30 am!

For information about what's going on, visit www.metopera.org

Party Hearty

I went to the MOST fun party recently. A part of the NYC 'urbs to which I had never visited. Dancing, singing, partying with lots of various folks that made the best mix. Still waiting for some of the photos although they may have been seized in customs. It was that kind of party.

A Bee in His Bonnet

As proof that my husband is either a future visionary or has totally lost his mind, we now have bees. Approximately 15,000 bees. Saturday, Bruce and his friend Jack drove to New Paltz to pick up Bruce's nuc from Chris Harp, bee master extraordinaire.

Here Bruce is transferring the frames (full of bees) from the nuc to the hive. He has dosed them with what I would consider a minuscule amount of smoke but both he and Jack assured me that it was sufficient. Need I say I took this with a telephoto lens?

Meanwhile back in #32 I was inoculating my Cabernet Sauvignon grape juice that I had picked up that morning. So as the bees buzz happily about the yard we have 6 gallons of fermenting juice in our kitchen. This is thanks to the inspiration (although unwitting inspiration) of my brother-in-law Greg, who recently has been producing his own, rather good, beer. While I may not be a microbiologist like Greg, I can follow directions. And the gentleman at the store assured me that it is actually rather difficult to produce wine vinegar. (Of course, that doesn't explain why he was giggling as I walked out).

The bees are buzzing, the yeast is bubbling and it was a gorgeous Sunday. Ahh.

Friends

Saw and heard from a number of friends this week. One friend lost her Mom a little unexpectedly. Very hard to deal with for any of us and to have a loved one abruptly taken is really tough.

Another friend was visiting from out of town, with a sib that's even further out of town. They did the Broadway weekend, Gypsy, Curtains and Candide in 3 days plus museums and...you name it. Whew! Fun but it makes me happy I don't have to do that; its all in my backyard. And I love that these two sisters made time for each other (and me!)

My son has already worn a hole in the socks I knit him recently. Had to explain the importance of washing to him. Jeez. Washable wool is great but they can be so cozy the kids don't want to take the socks off! Next time, double strands, and double heels.

What a week!

We all have those weeks. The ones that never seem to settle, the ones where we struggle to keep a toe hold on our sanity. Folks say "welcome to my life", but really, honey, every one's life is like that!

Finally finished the Omnivore's Dilemma, which was good since the library was emailing me telling me to return it. Someone else was waiting in the queue for it apparently. Wow, can't recommend it enough and it will, hopefully, make you more conscious of your food choices and the impact it has an you, the earth and your immediate society. And the library was having a sale on books so got 17 books for a whopping $9.00! Gave them a tenner and keep the change, thanks!

Finally got to torch today and work with some of the new CIM (Messy) colors. The transparents are very taffy-like and I was struggling to encase with them. Perhaps tomorrow will be able to play with some palladium. Woo hoo!

Put up 10 items for sale on Etsy so check it out in my links section.

Tomorrow is the Hook Mountain Half Marathon and Fun Run. I will once again be at the chip table and may participate in the Fun Run, just for fun.

Get out. Run around. Decompress.

Matchbox Twenty. Absolutely one of my new favorite bands. I came to them lately after skipping over about 10 years of the music industry. Luckily we never spent money on CD's, we went directly from audio cassettes to digital. Having a baby will do that.

I saw MB20 at the Garden and didn't intend to go alone, but, I did. Actually, I'm glad it worked out that way. I don't know many people who are interested in standing, dancing for a two hour concert. How anyone can sit while Rob Thomas is jumping around singing is beyond my ken.

And why music and glass? Because everyone needs a muse to create and keep them energized, particularly those us of who perhaps are cube farm folks. Some lampworkers watch TV or video, I listen to rock and roll.