Sunday, October 28, 2007
Jamie's New Doggie
Jamie received a very sweet little dachsund stuffie from her Great Aunt Denise in the mail last week. It is now her favorite naptime companion.
Here we see Jamie settling down
for her nap at daycare.
for her nap at daycare.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Barn Dance!
Karl had his 4th grade barn dance today. Luckily I was in charge of Jamie and photos, so I got to skip the chicken dance and the macarena.
Elbow swing your partner... (whoosh!)
He doesn't look too sure...
Note the Naruto wristbands. No country swing dance outfit is complete without them.
Hey, that was fun!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Choirs and windows and furnaces
Woot! My pal Janice called me this afternoon with extra tickets to see Ensemble Amarcord, an a capella group from Leipzig, Germany (Old JS Bach's stomping grounds). We have a terrific chamber music series here, bringing world-class chamber ensembles 4 or 5 times a year. Amarcord currently has 5 voices, all men who were formerly in the boy's choir at Leipzig.
The purity of their tones was amazing, and watching their mouths form their vowels so carefully was almost excrutiating. At least during the first half of the performance, they stood very stiffly, belying the liveliness and interplay of their voices. It's obvious these guys have been trained in formal singing since the age of 7.
They covered a lot of territory. First came some Elizabethan English works, Byrd and Tallis and such. It was a little weird hearing ecclesiastical Latin with German pronunciations... they don't use the same standards for Latin vowels or some consonants that we do. Then came a set of Romantic era art songs from their hometown of Leipzig. Next was a modern setting of 6 poems (French, German, English, Italian) commisioned by and written for them, very complex interplay of close harmony, dissonance, and, um, phonemes. At times the sounds just rippled accross the stage from one voice to another. The second half of the concert grew progressively lighter, and included some pop standards (King's Singers arrangements, some of them) and jazz pieces. Their last piece was Billy Joel's "For The Longest Time."
Meanwhile back at the house we're about to get some windows put in. One will be a picture window in the dining nook to hang our wondrously spiffy Mosaic Glass window in front of. The others will be upstairs to replace the ridiculously leaky old monstrosities in our bedroom. And in a couple of weeks we're getting new high-efficiency gas stoves in our upstairs and in the basement apartment. Cozy warmness and light is on its way.
Mac Whacking update: not much unfortunately. I finally tried booting the two laptops. One makes a pathetic mechanical moan when I try to start it. The fan came on once, and the screen turns grey like it has power, but that's it. The other makes a happy Mac "voom" chord when I power it up, but the screen stays dark. So I'll be connecting an external monitor to that one and see what's on board. Maybe, just maybe the screen from Mac A can migrate to the body of Mac B.
The purity of their tones was amazing, and watching their mouths form their vowels so carefully was almost excrutiating. At least during the first half of the performance, they stood very stiffly, belying the liveliness and interplay of their voices. It's obvious these guys have been trained in formal singing since the age of 7.
They covered a lot of territory. First came some Elizabethan English works, Byrd and Tallis and such. It was a little weird hearing ecclesiastical Latin with German pronunciations... they don't use the same standards for Latin vowels or some consonants that we do. Then came a set of Romantic era art songs from their hometown of Leipzig. Next was a modern setting of 6 poems (French, German, English, Italian) commisioned by and written for them, very complex interplay of close harmony, dissonance, and, um, phonemes. At times the sounds just rippled accross the stage from one voice to another. The second half of the concert grew progressively lighter, and included some pop standards (King's Singers arrangements, some of them) and jazz pieces. Their last piece was Billy Joel's "For The Longest Time."
Meanwhile back at the house we're about to get some windows put in. One will be a picture window in the dining nook to hang our wondrously spiffy Mosaic Glass window in front of. The others will be upstairs to replace the ridiculously leaky old monstrosities in our bedroom. And in a couple of weeks we're getting new high-efficiency gas stoves in our upstairs and in the basement apartment. Cozy warmness and light is on its way.
Mac Whacking update: not much unfortunately. I finally tried booting the two laptops. One makes a pathetic mechanical moan when I try to start it. The fan came on once, and the screen turns grey like it has power, but that's it. The other makes a happy Mac "voom" chord when I power it up, but the screen stays dark. So I'll be connecting an external monitor to that one and see what's on board. Maybe, just maybe the screen from Mac A can migrate to the body of Mac B.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Pretty Window: or, My Wife the Fantastic and Meticulous Artist
We are in the middle of an Art Project here. KR is in charge of making the artwork, while the kids and I are in charge of Staying Out Of Mommy's Way. We're also working on keeping the house in something less than total chaos without the mommy to help much.
She's working on a paper mosaic window.
Let me elaborate on that. It all begins at city hall. The city hall here is the former post office, one of those 3-story brick edifices from the early 20th century. Quite a handsome building, really. It leads a shadowy second life as an art gallery, at least in its hallways, under the auspices of town arts commission. The third floor was recently remodelled and instead of dumping all the old windows they sold them as a fundraiser for $40 each to anyone who wanted them.
Why buy an old window, I hear you asking? So you can turn it into an objet d'art and display it in the upcoming art show in the aforementioned art gallery in the current city hall and erstwhile post office.
KR has spent many the hour over the last month painstakingly cutting out bits of colored tissue paper and gluing them down to the window. It's been fun to watch. She made a cartoon first – you know what a cartoon is, don't you? – to lay under the glass, and has been consuming paper and X-acto knives at a terrific rate. There are also bits of colored thread and bitsy little glass beads for texture. The windows are due tomorrow, and the show opens Friday 26th. KR's piece is quite stunning. I'll get a picture up shortly.
Meanwhile our kitchen faucet has turned leaky in a pesky way. The cheap-a## faucet installed by the previous owners ("it's only a rental", garrrr) wasn't up to the mechanical strains of a portable dishwasher hookup, so now it leaks a bucketful each time we run the dishwasher. Saturday the kids and I did an expedition to Lewiston (The city without a nose) (How does it smell? Horrible!) and picked up a very nice new kitchen faucet from Home Depot, and also Stayed Out Of Mommy's Way.
This evening I sang with Mac & Janice, and the kidlings tagged along. We killed two birds with one stone there, since in addition to singing and playing we Stayed Out Of Mommy's Way. Trillium (Mac & Janice & I) should be doing a gig soon. I'll keep ya' posted.
She's working on a paper mosaic window.
Let me elaborate on that. It all begins at city hall. The city hall here is the former post office, one of those 3-story brick edifices from the early 20th century. Quite a handsome building, really. It leads a shadowy second life as an art gallery, at least in its hallways, under the auspices of town arts commission. The third floor was recently remodelled and instead of dumping all the old windows they sold them as a fundraiser for $40 each to anyone who wanted them.
Why buy an old window, I hear you asking? So you can turn it into an objet d'art and display it in the upcoming art show in the aforementioned art gallery in the current city hall and erstwhile post office.
KR has spent many the hour over the last month painstakingly cutting out bits of colored tissue paper and gluing them down to the window. It's been fun to watch. She made a cartoon first – you know what a cartoon is, don't you? – to lay under the glass, and has been consuming paper and X-acto knives at a terrific rate. There are also bits of colored thread and bitsy little glass beads for texture. The windows are due tomorrow, and the show opens Friday 26th. KR's piece is quite stunning. I'll get a picture up shortly.
Meanwhile our kitchen faucet has turned leaky in a pesky way. The cheap-a## faucet installed by the previous owners ("it's only a rental", garrrr) wasn't up to the mechanical strains of a portable dishwasher hookup, so now it leaks a bucketful each time we run the dishwasher. Saturday the kids and I did an expedition to Lewiston (The city without a nose) (How does it smell? Horrible!) and picked up a very nice new kitchen faucet from Home Depot, and also Stayed Out Of Mommy's Way.
This evening I sang with Mac & Janice, and the kidlings tagged along. We killed two birds with one stone there, since in addition to singing and playing we Stayed Out Of Mommy's Way. Trillium (Mac & Janice & I) should be doing a gig soon. I'll keep ya' posted.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Old Friend-O-Rama
What a Rockin' Weekend!
2 sets of old friends emailed us last week to say "Hey, we're coming your way next weekend, can we get together?"
And how. Saturday we saw Randy and Martha and their two sons. Up until, oh, 9 or so years ago we sat down to dinner with them on a regular basis. Then they moved to the Puget Sound region and, well, we just didn't keep up. So we all sat down and had dinner at our new house, and we all stepped back right into where we'd been as friends. Oh things have changed of course. Now each family has 2 kidlings, and we had lots of catching up to do, but it felt all comfortable and right. Yep, still same people, still same friendship. As a bonus Randy is doing very similar work to mine (and got there by nearly as roundabout a route). Swapping stories and hints was very rewarding.
Sunday we saw Ariel and Jerry and their daughter and their bun-in-the-oven. They lived around here too and moved away about the same time as R&M. We've managed to see A&J a few more times since then, and now they live only 90 minutes away. But it's still a delight to see them whenever we can.
(Jerry's a techie too. Humm. I wonder how many other old-friends-who-are-now-techies might show up?)
We're all doing well, and our kids are well-adjusted and happy and learning and growing, and it's just great to have seen them all again. Not riveting blog material I suppose, but it's the best things in life and that's where my life is.
Jamie's asleep on the couch now – a big weekend of visiting for her. I'd better haul her upstairs and get the boy out of the tub and headed toward bed.
2 sets of old friends emailed us last week to say "Hey, we're coming your way next weekend, can we get together?"
And how. Saturday we saw Randy and Martha and their two sons. Up until, oh, 9 or so years ago we sat down to dinner with them on a regular basis. Then they moved to the Puget Sound region and, well, we just didn't keep up. So we all sat down and had dinner at our new house, and we all stepped back right into where we'd been as friends. Oh things have changed of course. Now each family has 2 kidlings, and we had lots of catching up to do, but it felt all comfortable and right. Yep, still same people, still same friendship. As a bonus Randy is doing very similar work to mine (and got there by nearly as roundabout a route). Swapping stories and hints was very rewarding.
Sunday we saw Ariel and Jerry and their daughter and their bun-in-the-oven. They lived around here too and moved away about the same time as R&M. We've managed to see A&J a few more times since then, and now they live only 90 minutes away. But it's still a delight to see them whenever we can.
(Jerry's a techie too. Humm. I wonder how many other old-friends-who-are-now-techies might show up?)
We're all doing well, and our kids are well-adjusted and happy and learning and growing, and it's just great to have seen them all again. Not riveting blog material I suppose, but it's the best things in life and that's where my life is.
Jamie's asleep on the couch now – a big weekend of visiting for her. I'd better haul her upstairs and get the boy out of the tub and headed toward bed.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Little Baby Snotty Nose
Once upon a time there was a sweet little girl who had a cold. Everyone loved her, but because she had a cold, they called her Little Baby Snotty Nose. When she woke up in the morning her face was all crusty and her eyes were goobered shut. Her mommy and her daddy would get a warm washcloth and clean her up, but a few minutes later her nose and her face would be snotty again. When they went downstairs for breakfast her face would be snotty, and they would clean her up. When she played with her toys her face would be snotty, and they would clean her up. When they took her to her daycare they worried that her nose would be too snotty, but the very nice daycare ladies never said a word. The daycare ladies must have cleaned her up too, because if they hadn't, Little Baby Snotty Nose surely would have been covered in snot from head to toe.
After a few days, Little Baby Snotty Nose would shout "DOE! Don't keen be up!" and run away whenever she saw a kleenex coming towards her face. A washcloth wasn't so bad but she still didn't like it. And after a week she slowly got better, and one morning Little Baby Snotty Nose wasn't Little Baby Snotty Nose any more. She was just little Jamie like before. And Mommy and Daddy were happy, but not as happy as they might have been because they had turned into Dreary Mommy Sinus Hurts and Big Daddy Coughsalot.
After a few days, Little Baby Snotty Nose would shout "DOE! Don't keen be up!" and run away whenever she saw a kleenex coming towards her face. A washcloth wasn't so bad but she still didn't like it. And after a week she slowly got better, and one morning Little Baby Snotty Nose wasn't Little Baby Snotty Nose any more. She was just little Jamie like before. And Mommy and Daddy were happy, but not as happy as they might have been because they had turned into Dreary Mommy Sinus Hurts and Big Daddy Coughsalot.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Mac Whacking
My pal Val had a great idea to help us keep singing while we is all other places than all the others is. Multitrack recording! It's, like, virtual ensemble work. I record a track, send it to you, you record a track to go with it, send it back to me.... I'd never contemplated doing that before with music.
I mean, I do that sort of thing regularly with text and other static works, but the idea of doing it with real-time music had simply never occurred to me. Now it's like, well, duh.
But I need the gear. Gotta be able to make those tracks in the first place. There's all sorts of digital-audio-studio-inna-box gadgets out there. But instead of getting a one-use gizmo I'm concentrating on getting a Mac iBook, which will do the audio thing fairly well (do a Google on GarageBand) and also do web browsing and play movies and make pretty pictures and be portable and make espresso with the optional USB-driven iCuppa attachment*.
I've always thought Macs were cool but never particularly wanted one until now. Back at Camp Singalot all the cool music nerds had 'em, and I could see they are much more handier for all-around music nerdiness than Windows machines are. And I want a laptop of my own that isn't 3 generations old anyhow. New Toy! Whee!
I'm still on a budget so I'll have to settle for an iBook of 1 or 2 generations ago. To that end my pal Nils here in Moscow has most generously availed me of two (count 'em, two!) sitting-on-the-shelf-gathering-dust iBooks he is no longer using on account of them being, like, not as new as the spiffy big fast ones he has now and they're also kind of broken. So maybe with some elbow grease and brain sweat I can fix one of these or even combine parts to make a working iBook and then I'll just need a decent microphone and a quiet room and then I'm going all Corsican and Shapenotey with Val and Megan and all. And I won't have to wait until the next Singalot. Whee! again.
They don't seem that hard to work with. Why, in a lull in the typing just now I took the keyboard off one of them just like this {pop oh shit oh shit there went the F12 key flying and I think it landed in the bin of the document shredder dang those things are small and it's the middle of the night and my glasses are upstairs where is it where is it aaaaagh! oh, found it whew}. Should be a fun project.
*Okay, not really. But you can get USB coffee-cup warmers.
I mean, I do that sort of thing regularly with text and other static works, but the idea of doing it with real-time music had simply never occurred to me. Now it's like, well, duh.
But I need the gear. Gotta be able to make those tracks in the first place. There's all sorts of digital-audio-studio-inna-box gadgets out there. But instead of getting a one-use gizmo I'm concentrating on getting a Mac iBook, which will do the audio thing fairly well (do a Google on GarageBand) and also do web browsing and play movies and make pretty pictures and be portable and make espresso with the optional USB-driven iCuppa attachment*.
I've always thought Macs were cool but never particularly wanted one until now. Back at Camp Singalot all the cool music nerds had 'em, and I could see they are much more handier for all-around music nerdiness than Windows machines are. And I want a laptop of my own that isn't 3 generations old anyhow. New Toy! Whee!
I'm still on a budget so I'll have to settle for an iBook of 1 or 2 generations ago. To that end my pal Nils here in Moscow has most generously availed me of two (count 'em, two!) sitting-on-the-shelf-gathering-dust iBooks he is no longer using on account of them being, like, not as new as the spiffy big fast ones he has now and they're also kind of broken. So maybe with some elbow grease and brain sweat I can fix one of these or even combine parts to make a working iBook and then I'll just need a decent microphone and a quiet room and then I'm going all Corsican and Shapenotey with Val and Megan and all. And I won't have to wait until the next Singalot. Whee! again.
They don't seem that hard to work with. Why, in a lull in the typing just now I took the keyboard off one of them just like this {pop oh shit oh shit there went the F12 key flying and I think it landed in the bin of the document shredder dang those things are small and it's the middle of the night and my glasses are upstairs where is it where is it aaaaagh! oh, found it whew}. Should be a fun project.
*Okay, not really. But you can get USB coffee-cup warmers.
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