Having my cake, and eating my words too

You know how in the opening sequence of the Simpsons, they always show Bart writing his daily transgressions on the chalkboard after school?  If I were Bart Simpson, my chalkboard would say:

“I will not tease ML for celebrating her birthday for 9 days. I will not tease ML for celebrating her birthday for 9 days.  I will not tease ML for celebrating her birthday for 9 days…”

My birthday was on the 12^th.  The DH and I went out on the 8^th to celebrate.  Today is the 27^th and I’m going out tonight with my MIL to celebrate again.  My parent brought my gift up this past weekend, I received a gift from a friend in the mail on Tuesday, and last night another friend brought me a cake and a gift to the hafla!  Yeah, I’d say I’m well past the 9 day mark…I’m going on 20 days.  Sorry, ML – I’ll kept my mouth shut from now on! ;)

Definitely not a feel-good flick...but why do we need to feel good?

ML and I walked up to Film Streams last night to meet the DH and his buddy Ron for the new documentary “No End in Sight.”  According to the Film Streams folks, it was “a jaw-dropping, insider’s account of how U.S. policy errors led to the insurgency and chaos that engulf Iraq today. Director Charles Ferguson’s illuminating NO END IN SIGHT provides a candid retelling of the events following the fall of Baghdad in 2003 by high-ranking U.S. officials, Iraqi civilians, American soldiers, and prominent analysts. One of the year's best-reviewed films.”  It was a very well-made and poignant film, but man, what a downer!  Not that I feel that the movie should have been more up-beat by any means, least of all for entertainment value; the point of the film was not to entertain but to educate and inform, and it served this purpose quite well.  Unfortunately, most Americans do not go to the movies to be informed or educated; they go to escape.  This was not escapist fare; this was an in-your-face something-is-very-wrong think piece.  I have a hunch this film will not be seen by a wide audience, at least not in the theaters.  Maybe if it gets picked up on cable…  And then again, I could be wrong.  I hope so.  Maybe the time has come when more Americans are willing to pull their heads out the sand and pay attention to what is really going on in the rest of the world…

Green Roofs in Omaha

There was an article in the Omaha World Herald today about the city’s first Green Roof.  It’s going to be installed at a local joint library-school building, Saddlebrook.  This project is being backed not only by advocates of the green roof movement, but also city and county officials, which is awesome because that’s the kind of support you need to really get a environmentally-friendly project like this off the ground (in more ways than one in this case!).  This green roof will serve as a learning tool to determine the feasibility of other green roofs in our climate, so this is very potentially the first of many such projects to come. 

The idea behind a green roof is that you replace traditional roofing materials with plants; in this case plants that require little to no maintenance.  The plants absorb heat, aiding temperature control and energy use reduction within the building.  They also absorb rainwater, lessening the amount of runoff that pollutes local water sources after storms.  You can visit Green Roofs for Healthy Cities for more info.  This group will be conducting a symposium in Omaha next month.

I’m really excited about this news – ML pointed out to me that that Omaha is becoming a Cool City.  Surely this will only make things better!

 

 

No longer an untitled project...

The DH’s band finally picked a name.  They are now Aurasing (pronounced aura-sing, not au-rasing, ML).  If you’re on MySpace, add them as one of your friends!  www.myspace.com/aurasingmusic.  

Loonnnggg weekend

After a not entirely pleasant weekend, I’m almost relieved to be back at work this morning. Almost…

It wasn’t a longer weekend than any other, but it sure felt like it. I started the weekend off fighting with traffic, running errands, and preparing our house for a visit from my family. My parents came up Friday night with their dog, picked up my nephew (5 months) on Saturday afternoon to stay with us, and my brother and his girlfriend visited for a while on Saturday night. Since it’s usually just one or two of us, plus one small dog, in the house at a time, it was feeling a bit crowded…

Saturday was definitely the busiest day we had. The DH rose at 4:30 to jog before we left for the NU/Ball State game. We met up with his friend Ron and Ron’s son at the governor’s mansion in Lincoln for a tailgate party. Free beer and politicians at 8:30 in the morning – can’t beat that!

The game started off great…but quickly went downhill. What should have been an easy win became a total cluster that came down to the last seconds. I’ve never heard the crowd boo like that at Memorial Stadium; it was so disheartening. The only thing that salvaged my spirits was the fact that we did end up winning – by 1 point. This was pure luck; we didn’t deserve to win. I’m a little afraid of next week’s contest against Iowa State… The only thing I’m sure of is that I WILL remember sunscreen on Saturday – I can barely move my arms.

After a long drive home, more errands, cooking dinner with the fam and visiting with my brother, the DH and I chugged some coffee and went out for the evening. We were invited to a birthday party at a couple of bars for the singer of the band’s wife. It was fun – I hadn’t met some of the new members yet, and one of their wives and I seem to get a long pretty well. Plus there was another b-day party at the second bar and I was able to talk my way into some cake. J Mmm….cake.

My dad ran the half at yesterday’s Omaha Marathon. He was out the door at 5:30, making me really happy that I signed up to help with chip stuffing instead of race day events! The DH and I are now somewhat considering running the half next year – we’ll see…

The rest of Sunday was filled with more family time, working on my dress for next weekend, and dance practice – Core (now code-named Salome) rehearsal, Angeli Tennanbrarum rehearsal, and some duet practice with ML.

Phew! I guess I’ll never get the hang of these lazy weekends…

Another football weekend

Here's a shot of Memorial Stadium last Saturday night, before half the fans left in disappointment.

This weekend we play Ball State, which hopefully will be an easy win. We need it! The DH and I will head down to Lincoln tomorrow with my folks, and then they will bring my nephew back to our place with them to spend the night. I'm not sure that my sister has let him spend the night away from her yet, so I'm curious as to how many times she calls to check on him. :)

Aside from the game and having family in town, I'll also be working on what will probably be my final Wardrobe Refashion for this pledge term. I'm really considering signing up again - there are still dozen of projects I haven't had time for in the past two months, and I really don't need to step foot in a mall any time soon. This weekend's project will be a dress for the JLO Toast to Omaha party that the DH and I are attending next weekend.

Throw in some dance practice and cheering for my dad at the Omaha Marathon, and it's another busy weekend.

The Hills are Alive...

ML and I were joined by our friend Amanda last night for the Joslyn Art After Dark screening of The Sound of Music.  It's been ages since I've seen this film, but I remembered all the words to the songs.  Unfortunately, I was in a crowd of people instead of alone in my car, so I couldn't sing along.  Plenty of other people did, though!  Being that it was a 3 hour movie that didn't start until the sun was down, I was out pretty late...  I'm tired this morning, but that doesn’t concern me as much as the fact that I can't get "Edelweiss" out of my head.  Small and white, clean and bright...  Argh!

The drummer missed the beet

Note to self:  should I in the future fail to finish a baked beet dinner, I should label the container before I put it in the fridge for lunch the next day.  The DH was poking around for a late-night snack, opened up my beets and nearly screamed.  He thought that the slightly shriveled purple veggie was old rotten summer sausage.  J  I’m like, “When was the last time we even had summer sausage???”  He said, “Exactly.”  Ew, ew, ew.  And for the record, I do clean out the fridge often enough that this would never happen!

 

 

Talk Like a Pirate and I'll Kick Your Arse

I actually quite enjoy Talk Like a Pirate Day, in theory and usually in practice. Hearty chuckles, throaty growls, and the occasional “shiver me timbers” are all fine with me. However, I have a co-worker whose voice makes the “This is Only a Test” squawk you hear on late-night TV sound melodious, and this individual announced with much glee this morning the commencement of this holiday. Arrrggg! Shut up!!! I wish I could make him walk the plank…or as another co-worker suggested, just beat him with the plank. J I’m not in the greatest mood to begin with today, so that’s definitely not helping!

The DH and I went to another movie at Film Streams last night. We saw “Ghosts of Cité Soleil”, a documentary about two brothers who were gang leaders in the ghetto of Port-au-Prince during the time of Haitian president Aristide’s ouster (2004-timeframe). It was magnificent. There are at a minimum 3 more movies I want to see there in the coming weeks, and that will just get us into October! I figure it will take 12.5 movie tickets to break even on the price of my membership ($50 membership, but as a member tickets are only $4 versus the regular admission price of $8), so I’m about a quarter of the way there already. If we see enough movies, I’m sure the DH won’t be opposed to a family membership next time around. I absolutely love this theater – have I mentioned that yet? Other than the slight mix-up before “Naked Lunch” last week (being sent to the wrong theater – but didn’t end up missing anything), it has been fabulous. And they even recycle! They have a bin for aluminum-plastic-paper right outside each theater. J

The movie, although brilliant and engrossing, was also very disturbing because it made you realize just how sheltered most Americans are from what happens in the rest of the world. I mean, Haiti is two hours from the tip of Florida and I know nothing about it. I doubt very many people would know what was happening in Iraq right now if it weren’t American soldiers over there fighting; we know so little about the wars of other countries. How many people really understand the crisis in Darfur, or could even point out the region on a map? (Of course, how many Americans can’t find the USA on a globe? Isn’t that right, Miss Teen South Carolina?) We spend more time checking up on the latest antics of Britney Spears and why OJ Simpson is in trouble this time than we do learning about the world outside our borders. It’s sad, and that’s not just the PMS talking.

Random Bits: 1-8

I suppose I have ML to think for this one. :P  (To ML:  I’ll get you back someday…I know where you live!!!)  But I’ll play along.  So, here are the rules to this little game, along with 8 things you may or may not know about me.  I’ve tagged 8 people – some that I know well, some that I just know from kicking it around the blogosphere, and some that I don’t know at all! J

 

1) Post these rules before you give your facts
2) List 8 random facts about yourself
3) At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them
4) Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they've been tagged.

 

1.  I hate secrets but I love surprises.  If you have a secret, don't even hint that fact to me.  It drives me NUTS to not know something.  BUT, I loved to be surprised...just so long as I don't know its coming - it's not a surprise if you tell me that I'm going to be surprised, people!

2.  I love reading chick lit and nonfiction, but could care less about mysteries.  I've never gotten into the whodunits, no matter how many my mother tries to pawn off on me.  I'd rather read a textbook. 

3.  I hate cars.  I don't like to drive, I don't like to be a passenger, I just hate being inside a car. I am fairly certain that I will die in a fiery crash, and I get motion sickness with the slightest swerve.  And yet I have a 30+ minute commute each day.  Tell me how THAT makes sense! :P

4.  I ONLY sing in my car.  Alone.  Don't try to get me up for karaoke, and don't expect much from me during a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday or the Star-Spangled Banner...more than likely I'm just mouthing the words.

5.  When I was 10, I won a 4-H purple ribbon in the State Fair for making strawberry jam.  It was horrible stuff - we'd doubled the recipe (a BIG no-no) and it was the consistency of thick glue and full of bubbles.  (Just to salvage my jelly-making image, I HAD previously made some quite tasty and high-quality jams and jellies, just not this particular instance).  I'm not sure why I won - I think the judges were just impressed that a 10-year-old could heat up sugar and fruit and seal it into a glass jar.  Go figure!

6.  I'm considering braces and jaw surgery.  Yes, technically I'm copying this random fact from Michelle, but it is true for me as well.  The DH and I are working out the financing so I can start next year.  I hate my teeth, and while I dread having an ugly metal mouth for the next couple of years, I think I'll be happier at the end of things.

7.  I didn't learn to ride a bike until I was, like, 7 years old.  I was scared for some reason, but too embarrassed to use training wheels.  The only reason I ever got the hang of it was because my grade-school crush rode by my house on his bike and I took off trying to impress him.  Ah, the things we do for cute boys.

8.  I hate milk.  I buy milk, true enough, (local milk of course), but you won't ever see me drinking it.  I don't think I've had more than 1/2 a glass of plain white milk since I was 6 or 7.  I'll put it in coffee, and on cereal, use it for recipes, etc, but by itself?  Never!

 

Tag, you’re it:

1 - Jon - A friend that just move far, far away.

2 - Rafal -   A friend I rarely see, even though he's still here in town.

3 - James - A friend from school and Rafal's roomie.

4 - Jen - One of Meghan's friends, but I found her blog. :)

5 - J. Morgetron - An Omaha teacher whose blog I sometimes read.

6 - P~ - An eco-blogger I keep up with...

7 - Nikki - the founder of the Wardrobe Refashion project that I'm signed up with at the moment.

8 - Aimee - A random Omaha stranger who happens to share this awesome name with me. :)

Shivering with Antici....

pation.  OK, maybe it was just the fact that it was 20 degrees cooler than we were used to. :)  ML and I started off my artificially long weekend by watching the merry freakshow that is any screening of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, this particular one being on the lawn of the Joslyn Art Museum.  Good times and just a few sweet transvestites, creations, and domestics.
My mental health day was not as productive as I'd liked but I did sort through my fabric collection (that took the bulk of the day) and cleaned up the house.  No gardening, no sewing. :(  I picked up my library books in the afternoon and sped downtown to catch the early screening of Naked Lunch at Film Streams.  I know that the theater is new and they are still working out the kinks, but it was kind of a cluster.  There were only 5 people in the theater - me and 2 elderly couples.  The movie was set to start at 4.  At 4:10, one of the older gentlemen went to ask IF they were going to start the movie any time soon...and we were told that they already had...on the other screen!  Fortunately, as we all rushed into the other theater, we had only missed the coming attractions and opening credits.  The movie began as soon as we were seated. 
Now I personally thought the movie was a riot, and I assumed that these two couples were familiar with Burroughs work and had seen the film before.  Guess not; as the final credits rolled, I heard one of the old women whisper: "That was the weirdest movie I've ever seen." :)

Putting the Happy in my Birthday

I am a very lucky girl.  I have people in my life that truly know me, or at least pretend to by paying attention to things I want. J  ML surprised me today with a wonderful gift – a Nebraska Food COOP membership!!! I’m so excited – it’ll be like having my own year-round farmer’s market.  Eggs, cheese, meat, frozen goods, etc, even in the dead of winter.  This membership is something we’ve discussed for quite a while now, but I’ve just never found the time or the extra cash to get one…but now that the farmer’s markets are closing down around town for the season, it will definitely come in handy to keep me on the local food wagon.  Thanks, ML!  J

Combined with my Film Streams membership from the DH, I’m going to be eating good and happily entertained for the next 12 months!

Tomorrow I’m taking a mental health day to take care of me and get my house in order.  It was a stressful and busy week, both at work and during extracurriculars.  I’m going to clean and organize at home, sew, maybe do some yard work, and then I’m thinking about taking myself to a movie at (where else?) Film Streams.  Naked Lunch is playing a late afternoon show – I’ve enjoyed the writings of William Burroughs, so it would be interesting to see how a director interprets them on film.  Hehe, that reminds me of the Simpson’s episode where Bart, Nelson, and Millhouse play hooky and see that movie.  To quote Nelson:  "I can think of at least two things wrong with that title”.  

Hopefully tomorrow will leave me a more rested little goddess…

Why do they have to market "real" food

Burger King announced that it was going to introduce some healthier fare for its kids’ menu, including flame-broiled chicken tenders and “apple fries” – apples cut to resemble thick-cut French fries.  While adding more “real” food to their menu is certainly admirable, the apple fries thing really irritates me.  For one thing, these fries can only be cut from the thickest part of the fruit, leaving quite a bit of waste.  Why waste all this perfectly good fruit?  Are kids that mesmerized by the shape of French fries that a plain ol’ apple slice won’t appeal to them?  This is simply a marketing tactic that would be unnecessary if these kids were getting enough healthy and wholesome foods at home – making fast food healthy is not the answer; eating less fast food period is.

 

You say it's your birthday...well, it's my birthday too!

Unlike some people I know who like to drag out their birthday celebrations… J  My birthday this year falls in the middle of the week, Wednesday to be exact, and both the DH and I are busy. So, we decided to celebrate early by going out Saturday night.  All-in-all I’d say that it was an excellent birthday weekend.  It was another overly-booked too-busy-to-play weekend, but I had fun.

Saturday morning was spent contemplating my life, or at least my life for the next year.  For the Jr. League Leadership Academy retreat, our LA instructors brought in a life coach.  Normally, I think this is all hooey, but despite several references to the Secret, I got quite a lot out of the exercises.  The life coach had us imagine what our best year would look like if the next year was it.  We had to list all the things we would have done.  Then we examined the past year’s successes and failures.  This was both uplifting and depressing!  There were several things I wish I had done but didn’t do for usually pretty sorry excuses.  L  A little unnerving was the partner conversations that followed these sections – sharing our list of hits and misses with another participant.  While it is fun to share the good things, it’s weird to opening discuss things you’ve done wrong; however we soon realized that we all make mistakes and no one is perfect, and that was rather comforting.  We also discussed our values and the various roles we play in our lives.  One of the most useful parts of the exercise was the concept of the Limited Paradigm – what perceptions we hold about ourselves that keep us from reaching our full potential.  We had to write out this limited paradigm, then develop a new Empowering Paradigm – a way of thinking about ourselves that will allow us to go out and succeed.  All of these exercises are based on a book called Your Best Year Yet; while I don’t normally go in for this kind of stuff, I’m seriously thinking about reserving this book at the library. J

After the retreat, I grabbed some lunch and took off for the Child Saving Institute’s Touch-A-Truck event.  Wow, what an event it was!  The basic concept was that the CSI Guild brought in various trucks (semis, ambulances, fire trucks, race cars, bobcats, dump trucks, tractors, etc.) and let little kids climb on them (supervised, of course) and see how they worked.  It was quite a success; for an inaugural event, they had over 2000 children attend.  This was my first event as a Guild member and I think I’m really going to like it! J

On to the birthday celebration.  The DH and I headed to Darwin’s Bistro, a new establishment that serves fancy and partially local cuisine.  The chicken is free-range and local, I know for sure.  Not so certain about the sea bass… J  I had duck, so I probably wasn’t dining locally at all, but it was delicious nonetheless.  After some bread and apple-cinnamon butter, we were presented with an amuse bouche of lamb tenderloin, juju fruit and spinach with a French vinaigrette.  Mmmm…. For appetizers, we chose the Tuna Rolls and Stuffed Shrimp.  DH wimped out on the new dining experience and picked the Caesar Salad for his entrée.  C’mon!  Be adventurous, honey!  I had the Crisp Duck, which was accompanied by sweet potato mash and bacon-sherry red cabbage.  So good!   

We didn’t stay for dessert, as we intended to try to catch Lady Chatterley at the Film Streams Theatre downtown.  This was the first movie we’ve attended there, and I must stay it is quite an impressive theatre.  The great thing about independent movies is that, barring a huge concert at Slowdown next door, we will never have an issue with parking.  We found a space just feet from the front door and headed to the ticket booth, where the DH requested “one adult and one member”.  Yea!  He bought me a Film Streams membership for my birthday present!  This was something I talked about getting as an anniversary gift (a dual membership that is), but he waited and got me a single.  

Now, as a movie, Lady Chatterley just kind of drug on.  I’m sure part of the problem is that we are just so accustomed to fast-paced action flicks, and seeing French literature “come alive” on screen is not just the thrill-ride one would expect. The movie was almost 3 hours long, and 90 minutes into the movie, just as Constance realizes she is pregnant by the gamekeeper, DH’s phone rang (on vibrate of course).  It was his mother and he went out to check the message, as she never calls past 7 p.m.  Turns out she’d taken his father to the ER.  So off we went to the hospital, leaving Lady Chatterley preparing to break the news to Sir Clifford.  I’ll probably have to rent the DVD someday to see the rest…  Fortunately my father-in-law was OK; it was serious, but not too-serious.

Sunday morning, I hopped out of bed to curl my hair.  After I spent the morning at the Jumble Shop, shifting the summer clothes out and the fall clothes on to the racks, we had Diva Soma troupe photos.  My hair seemed to hold up in the intervening 5 hours before the cameras started flashing.  We spend several hours scaring small children and old men in the park, climbing over rocks and the fountain in our gypsy costumes.

I must say again, it was definitely an excellent weekend…and a great start to my 29^th year.

Short weeks are always the longest

Why is that?  Why do 4 workdays always feel like 7?  Oh well.  It’s Friday morning, finally, and I’m ready for the weekend.  Hopefully I’ll remember more of it than last weekend!  I can’t post much about ML’s and my co-birthday celebration this past Sunday, because I had a little bit too much champagne.  Nothing like getting smashed on a Sunday afternoon!  But that’s what holiday weekend’s are for, right?

There were some memorable moment last weekend – the DH and I went to the first Husker football game of the season.  NU won, of course.  We got incredibly sun burnt, despite having sunscreen with us (I guess the key is to actually apply it to our skin, huh?)  My high school buddy Kendra stopped by with her new baby, her little sister, and her little sister’s new baby.  Kendra was in town visiting from her current home in Maryland.  We very rarely see each other – last time I saw her in person, she was pregnant with her second child (the new baby is #3).  Monday morning, I completed my Magnet series, although since I was incredibly hung over and had to walk the race, I feel like I’m cheating a bit counting this one.  Maybe I’ll do an extra run to ease my conscience.  Maybe… J

Wow, I guess I remember more than I thought!

On to this upcoming weekend.  Tonight should be pleasantly boring – house chores and maybe a bit of choreography on my new solo.  Tomorrow morning, I’ll get up bright and early for my Jr. League Leadership Academy Retreat.  After that, I’ll head out to the Child Saving Institute’s Touch-a-Truck event to help out.  This will be my first official event as a CSI Guild member, and I’m really excited.  No set plans for Saturday night for a change.  Since ML’s recent injury is keeping her sidelined, DH and I are not planning on driving to the roller derby bout in Des Moines.  L 

Sunday morning will be another early one – I’m helping with the seasonal change-over at the Jr. League’s thrift shop, the Jumble Shop.  Then I’ll slap on some makeup and gypsy gear for the Diva Soma troupe photo shoot.   This weekend is definitely shaping up to be more work than play!

A Tale of Two Veggies

On the local food front, my DH was sweet enough to suggest a trip to the Lincoln Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning before the season’s first Husker game.  We walked away with quite a haul: German plums, butternut and spaghetti squash, burpless cukes, peppers & onions, garlic, seedless watermelon, and cantaloupe.  Not bad!  Well, other than the walk to the car with all this stuff… J  After the game, my mom presented us with half a lug of fresh peaches, too.  Mmm…

After my glorious butternut squash experience last week, I wanted more veggie newness.  So, the next night I baked a beet.  This was no small beet like you’ll see pickled.  It was a big honkin’ potato-sized beet and I was instructed to cook it much like a potato – wrapped in foil and roasted in the oven for an hour.  I cut it apart, slathered on some butter and chowed down.  Wow!  If someone would have asked me to eat it, I would have said ‘no, thanks!’, but I’m really glad I did it on my own, ‘cause it was fantastic.  However, although I’d been warned, I was still surprised at the effects beets have on certain bodily functions.  Ahem.  Ew.

To follow this vegetarian success, this week I cooked up the spaghetti squash for me and the DH.  It’s low-carb enough that he could share it with me, unlike the butternut squash or beet.  I nuked it, then sautéed the “noodles” with some chicken (free-range & hormone-free, of course), pesto and mozzarella.  Ta-da – the DH’s new favorite meal. 

What to try next?