Take that ,Earthfare

I tried signing up for Earth Fare's cooking class this week but it was full. I was too slow but that is ok because they were making zucchini muffins and both John and I think they sound icky even though we have nothing to really base our opinion on. We were gong to try them anyway.

I like having plan B's...they make me happy. So plan B was to have our own cooking class. By the way, the chef's hat was all John's idea. We settled on chocolate chip cookies after watching a Food Network Challenge about cookies. John picked out his utensils from his play kitchen that were applicable to use (I washed them well) and we got started.

I had him read through the directions so he would know what we were doing. I then helped him mise en place. He read off the ingredients and amounts and I retrieved the correct measuring device and bowls. He measured things out (sometimes with a little assistance) and we had everything ready to go. He read the directions again and put everything in the mixer. He wanted to taste the brown sugar and the white sugar to see how they tasted on their own. He liked the white sugar best. He wanted to taste the vanilla and I said he could but warned him that he probably wouldn't like it straight. He chose to inhale deeply instead and said it smelled like how eating chocolate tastes. Interesting.

Everything in the bowl, mixed and ready for the cookie sheet. He had his special scoop which gave a great amount of dough for the perfect sized cookie but was a pain to use. Most cookies came from my little scooper that you squeeze the handle and the little scraper slides behind and pops out the dough. We made a lot of little cookies and gave about half to neighbors doing yard work that helped us out too.

John thought the whole process of baking was cool. I think he liked the taste testing of dough at the end best of all. I know I did.

Huh, what did you say? ...hearing aids

John received hearing aids about 3 weeks ago. They are great and he is great with them. He helped pick out the colors for all of the pieces and you can hardly tell they are there. When kids ask him about them he just states it like this... "Well, you know how people have glasses to help them see better? I have hearing aids to help me hear better. It is just the same." He took the hearing aids for share. Ok, so he was wearing the hearing aids anyway but he took the care kit and accessories for share. The kids in his class had all sorts of questions and the teacher was very impressed with both John and the kids. No one has teased him about it and I have been working with him on a "look" he can give kids if they start.

On the night he got the hearing aids we celebrated with a trip to McDonald's and a doughnut at Krispy Kreme. We went to the Krispy Kreme by my office where you can look in the window and watch them being made. It was his first time seeing the process and he was intrigued. We eventually went inside and ate one. He had one right off the line and thoroughly enjoyed it as you can see by the picture. If you look really close, you can see one of the hearing aids.

Mini Mental Vacation

This week I took a mini vacation. I rented a cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains and took my dog, alcohol and art supplies. I only took from Monday late afternoon to Thursday morning off but it was needed.

I ventured to Gatlinburg Tuesday morning for breakfast at The Pancake Pantry and to Pigeon Forge for dinner on Wednesday evening at The Old Mill. Both were excellent meals and had portions big enough to share if so desired. I had been to the Nashville Pancake Pantry forever ago with my friend LaDonna. I had been meaning to get to the one in Gatlinburg for a while but alas, no. The Carribean pancakes were my downfall in Nashville and so I had to indulge in the same this time. They were yummy and I couldn't even eat half of what they served me. Sad.

I did not get as much painting done as I had hoped but really I just needed some time away more than any real goal or accomplishment. I did manage to get one painting 98% complete. I needed a silver paint pen to finish it and I picked that up tonight. I managed to keep messing up the one painting I had sketched out before I went. It is now in a repaired state and should be complete before the weekend is over.

I had one painting that John commissioned from me. I can't say too much about it because I have already painted one for my friends, the Covert's (see KSO posting below). Let's just say that when I saw the painting subject, it has stuck with me for years and I "covertly" snuck a picture to paint by.

So, after the trip I feel mentally repaired although inexplicably exhausted. Maybe it was the hot tub, pool table, fireplace and jacuzzi tub distractions that made me so tired? I don't think it was just me either; Lucy seems equally worn out from the trip. Good thing there is Saturday to recuperate.

A Childhood Memory

I was trying to figure out recently where my "early bird" tendencies originated from and it sparked a memory from decades past to resurface. I remember waking up around the time my Mom would wake up. Most of the time she would beat me to waking but more often than not her moving around would wake me too. I remember she would get up between 5:30 and 6:00am to enjoy a cup (or two if she could sneak it in) of coffee before the rest of the house started stirring. She would sit in the dark, or near dark, and just relax and sip. Occasionally I would encroach on this solitude and sit in an adjacent chair and talk. I have no recollection of any of the specific conversations but the overall memory and mood are worth savoring.

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra - Shakespeare in Love

Due to lack of date and general moodiness I chose to pass along the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra tickets to Shakespeare in Love to my dear friends Todd and Donna Covert. Below is Todd's account of the performance.

Hippity hop, bippity bop, we’re off to see the show. Which show? Why Shakespeare with the KSO, don’t you know.

We were told to expect McDowell, but would it be Andie or Malcolm? Sadly, ‘twas a sesquicentennial of a composer unheard for 149 of those 150 years. Seems his specialty was music lacking tension or melody or interest. It was like being trapped in the world’s largest, slowest elevator. Perhaps in another 150 years, no one will still be listening to MacDowell.

The music improved when they whipped out the Tchaikovsky. The orchestra laid the wood(s) to that crazy jazz sound. Unlike MacDowell, who we shall call the Sleeping Composer, the big T actually had a great sense of dynamics, drama and purpose. It really was the highlight of the evening. The KSO sounded fantastic. Donna particularly loved the bass and double bass players. Several of them sat on stools in order to finger their instruments. Due to being perched high up, they were forced into frantic attacks on the pages of the score. Hop, grab, page, turn, leap, finger, bow, bow, bow!!! She was right. It was riveting. Ye gods! What if they missed the page? Or the stool? They were pros. Never once did they miss, not even a beat. But all things come to an end and Tchaikovsky’s music did as well.

At the intermission, we chatted with Frank and Jere Murphy. Frank has managed to regain three, possibly four pounds and no longer appears emaciated. Jere was as lovely as always. Donna and I looked around and were thrilled to be amongst the youngest in attendance. Then, the second act began and the actors made their appearance.

For reasons shrouded in the mists of theatre, it was decided to have be-tuxedoed actors read from A Midsummer Night’s Dream whilst the KSO played Mendelssohn’s music to accompany the play. The actors were seated facing the audience and with their backs to the KSO. This very confrontational arrangement distracted greatly from the music. Further, the readings themselves were odd as the actors played various characters from the play. It wasn’t exactly clear who was whom. And while they gave a game effort, the staging just did not work and wasn’t helped by the actors acting while seated and waiting to read.

The musicianship was excellent and Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky sounded fantastic. Hippity hop, bippity bop. We went to see the show. Shakespeare we love, MacDowell we dread. Home we went and so to bed.

Todd

The next big challenge

So I started this challenge a smidge over a week ago and am not through with it. I did want to do an intermediate post though because who knows when it will be complete. I decided to tackle THE OFFICE. First step was to move everything out of the office. This was no small feat since it was the room I moved everything into when I bought the house. I chose the adjacent dining/living room as the repository for office limbo as you can see here.

Next step was to attack the room and the hideous wallpaper border. Ok, I admit I have seen worse but there was no way this was staying. If I am remembering correctly, the previous homeowners just kept the room like it was from the people they bought the house from. I can't hate the previous homeowners then so I will have to hate the grand-previous homeowners. Get it? Grand-previous = Grandparent? Anyway, so here is what it looked like...
And what I found out is that I hate hate hate residential "paper" wallpaper. I am not sure if the wall was primed at all but what I am sure of is that the wallpaper took off a lot of the top layer of drywall. This next shot is an action "drying" shot of patching compound drying (goes from pinkish/purple to white). It took almost all day to just prep the room for painting.

After the great accomplishment of getting everything removed, patched, and sanded I was ready to paint. To those that have been around me for years you already know that I normally don't paint things white. It not only bores me but it is aggravating because white paint doesn't cover well in my experience. I had little choice though since I was working with a whole scheme in mind for the room. Let me set the scene...months ago while flipping through the Land of Nod catalog, I spied some super awesome wallpaper that was freehand looking drawings of picture frames so that you could color on the walls. I immediately logged that away in my little brain and knew that the office would be where I could pull something like that off. The dilemma was really about what accent color I wanted in the room and where. I have been liking the bright greens a lot lately and kept gravitating back to it. The next question was, what gets the green? Well another bit of inspiration hits me, this time on the internet with an RSS feed. They showed this white bedroom with a blue ceiling...that's it! So on the ceiling went the "lime green" paint. Here is an in progress shot which is the last I have for you right now.

There has been more progress on the room since this photo was taken. New bookcases were assembled (you can see them in boxes in the living room pictures) and added to my existing bookcases to make a wall of bookcases. I also made a stand up table in the middle of the room out of 3 small bookcases and custom cut, frosted and tempered piece of glass from clearview glass company. In addition, the ceiling fan was switched out to a less '80s style with help from a coworker. I moved my desk back in as well as all of the books. I need a file cabinet and something to put my printer and scanner on near my desk. These are the details that are slowing me down right now. I will try to wrap it all up this weekend and get a final photo on the blog. Until then you will have to use your superb imagery skills to imagine.

Feel free to stop by and draw on my walls any time you catch me home.

Bloggers In Love...

Ok so it isn't quite that but it does involve "bloggers" and it does involve "love" but it is the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra's performance of "Shakespeare in Love" on February 25th. They are giving/have given ...not quite sure of when the cut off is, tickets to bloggers that have blogged at least once a month. I found this out via my friend and neighbor Frank Murphy's blog/twitter announcement.

I actually qualified for tickets...yes I managed at least one posting a month. :) Now all I have to do is figure out someone to take with me!