Seussicality

How the years fly by.  Tonight we attended our third Middle School Musical.  This year the show was Seussical the Musical.

It was, as ever, an impressive production, albeit with a daft, not to say mystifying, plot (hardest for the Man to follow as he hasn't experienced very much Dr.Seuss).  The sets and costumes were excellent, and it was all performed with skill and gusto.

Our seats were just in front of a whole row of 8th Grade boys.  I can understand why the Girl finds most 8th Grade boys a waste of space (though to any reader who has one of their own at home, I'm sure yours is the exception, and delightful in every way).

Joint responsibility

I'm having a flare up of my old elbow problem so I'm resting my right arm and typing this with my left hand - and already running out of patience...  I hope to be in better form tomorrow.

Homework headaches

Just a short blog tonight.  School has upped the ante on the Girl when it comes to homework assignments, and she has been monopolizing the computer all evening trying to produce a book for English (before tonight she has spent three nights working on illustrations).  Week-nights after this will be devoted to projects for French and Social Studies... 

Everything is vastly complicated by the requirement to print stuff out - providing endless opportunities for computer and printer malfunctions and other such delightful frustrations.  What's wrong with exercise books, I ask you?  Or slate and chalk - even better.

Farewell to a folk legend

I had a long, cold day at home today while workmen toiled in the basement replacing some valves in our heating system.  When their labours ended and I was finally able to stop my teeth chattering by gritting them as I wrote a large cheque...

I did a lot of cooking to try and keep myself warm.  I had the radio to keep me company.  My usual favourite channel had turned for the day into Radio Pete - almost the entire schedule devoted to remembering the late Pete Seeger, who died last night at the age of 94.  Seeger - folk singer and activist - is an American legend, but is revered by many in this part of the States in particular as he lived in New York's Hudson Valley, and he spearheaded campaigns to clean-up the Hudson River. He dedicated his songs and life to social justice, global peace and environmental protection and was also, from all I can tell, rather modest and a thoroughly nice guy.

Recall Salvation

It's been a little while since I took the car in on a recall - so today I took it in for two at once.  While it was there it had a service.  And a repair to whatever it was that was making it go clunk every time we rounded a tight bend.

I was there a little over four hours in all, though I broke that up (as I usually do) with a trip across the road to the Salvation Army store.  No good jigsaws there today, but I did come home with two pairs of jeans (for the Girl - she likes to draw on them) and, for the knock-down bargain price of $1.99, a fun game with marbles called Pentago.

Cold Mountain Face

 Another Sunday, another ski day.  Unlike a couple of weeks ago, conditions on the slopes were great (I think they must have made some snow).  However, it was cruelly, face-hurtingly cold.

The Man, being manly, toughed it out without complaint. But the rest of us suffered, not necessarily in silence.  Indoor breaks were required, and a certain amount of huddling round the fire-pit.

I successfully got myself off the baby slope and managed to do some of the easier runs down the mountain. On the scale of this-is-fun to I'm-scared-rigid, alas I'm probably still closer to the latter. Plus, even with gloves and handwarmers, I felt like the tips of my fingers were being slowly chewed off by snow leopards. However, I'm pleased to have gained some altitude this week.

Out of Africa

It has been very cold here recently, and today was no different.  It snowed all day, though there's only an inch or so to show for it.  Among other small excursions, the Man and I made it down to Five Rivers, where we carefully negotiated a snow-covered icy trail, and didn't stay out too long. Like I say, it's cold.

So I was happy tonight to head over to join a gathering of neighbours up the road to see a slide show of the hosts' trip to Africa last summer.  Scenes from a safari, an ascent of Kilimanjaro and from a three-week volunteer stint at a Kenyan children's home - interesting, colourful and warming stuff on a snowy January evening.

Basket cases

Three times a year the local public radio station runs a fund-drive.   People call in or email to pledge donations to keep the station up and  running.  It usually lasts about a week and a half, and is generally unbearable to listen to as the presenters get more and more tired and crazed and desperate for it all to end.  However, apparently more people listen during the fund-drive than at any other time.  People are strange.

Sometimes incentives are offered to encourage listeners to pledge.  A couple of fund-drives ago a group I work with, Capital Region Fair Trade Coalition, donated some Fair Trade gift baskets for this purpose.  We’re doing the same again for the drive coming up next month.  Today I’ve been making the baskets (using craftily recycled orange boxes) and filling them with goodies donated by various members of the coalition.

They’re looking good, I think: 

No text please, we're British

When you are on a long journey, what do you stop for?  A cup of coffee?  "Comfort break"?

Or do you just have to stop and text?

Translation: f u nd 2 txt plz prk hre

Yoga mama

I went to another yoga class yesterday, led by a different teacher.  Early into the lesson she mentioned that the class is turning out to be so popular that the Y might have to start issuing tickets, to keep the numbers manageable.  "We're just so amazed..."  she said between stretches, "that so many of you want to come here...and do yoga...on a Tuesday...in the middle of the morning."

Was I the only one in the room hearing, "We're just so amazed...that so many of you have nothing else to do with yourselves...at this time in the morning...on a weekday." ?

Wet T-shirt experiment

I had a brief transatlantic correspondence with Insanely Livid today, in the course of which she mentioned that her tumble dryer had given up the ghost.

That got me thinking about how useful tumble dryers are, especially when it's too cold to hang the washing outside to dry.  Which made me wonder, like you do, what would happen if I did hang some wet clothing outside, it being one of those waaay-below-freezing kind of days.

So I soaked a T-shirt and hung it out on the porch.  An hour later I brought it in again and discovered that what happens is you win loads of cool points with your kids because you've frozen a t-shirt.

If it isn't cold enough where you live to do this at home...consider yourself lucky.

Icy Rivers

It has been a quiet day off for us all, with a chilly scamper round Five Rivers in the afternoon.

No-ski Sunday

It's a holiday weekend (Monday is Martin Luther King Day), so no skiing for us today as we are participating in a deal that doesn't include holidays.  So that was a shame, although we were happy enough to miss out on the journey there and back, after many hours in the car yesterday.

The Boy was out on a (no-)sleepover last night and came home a bit bleary-eyed this morning. However he rallied later and ended up running for more than a mile with his dad on the indoor track at the Y. They then went on to the shiny diner for "dunch", or was that "linner"?  Something between a late lunch and an early dinner, anyway.  A.k.a. "a side order of fries".

Classic skating

The Girl was not especially in the mood for a skating competition as we set out this morning on a two hour journey to the "Mohawk Valley Classic" in New Hartford (just outside Utica - about 100 miles from our house).

Luckily she got into the spirit of things when it came her turn to skate.  She tells us she wasn't at all nervous, mainly because she was so distracted (and impressed) by the fact that the kid (boy!) on before her had chosen to skate to music from Dr. Who.

She skated smoothly and strongly, but a little wobble in the middle caused her to forget one jump altogether.  Hmm.  Not so clever.  But, as I've noted before, there's no telling with skating judges.  They placed her third out of six - so she has another bronze to add to her medal collection.  Yay! And of course more invaluable competition experience.

Then it was time for the two hour drive home, snow falling lightly all the way. There was no time to stop and explore Utica -  a historic former industrial town on the Erie Canal now seeking revitalization through Nanotechnology.  Hopefully we'll go back another day.

iPod out-of-Touch

I had an email from school the other day announcing an upcoming "Apple Raffle".  "Ooh!" I said to myself, "That sounds nice.  I wouldn't have thought of raffling apples, and it doesn't seem quite the season, but I'd pay reasonable money to win a basket of honeycrisps..."

Then I read a bit further and realized it's a raffle of Apple products.  As in iPods and iPads.  Ahh. Silly me.

Speaking of geek-gear, the Girl has an English assignment: re-write a fairy tale for the modern age. She's working on Snow White and the Seven Nerds, a heartwarming tale in which Snow White becomes a computer programmer and finds love with a cos-play prince.  We don't know yet if an Apple will feature in the story...

Stretching myself

It's good to try new things.  Today I tried: yoga.

A friend invited me to join her in a class at the Y.  I joked with the Man that it sounded like just my kind of exercise - get dressed up in some gear and then, you know, spend some time sitting down...

Ooh, no.  Turns out it's not like that at all!  It's hard!  Slow movements, but really hard.  I was puffing by the end of the hour (even though I'd spent part of it rolled up in a ball on the floor because I couldn't keep up with all the stretching and balancing in circus-style poses).

However, I feel good having done it and I will return.  Especially because I've discovered that everyone I've ever met is also in that class.  OK, not everyone - but at least four people were there that I know quite well, and another was leaving the previous class.  Hm, so this is what they've been up to all these years - twisting and stretching themselves into pigeons and planks and downward-looking dogs. Who knew?

'Tis the season to be chilly, wet, warm...whatever

In a normal January, a walk into town to meet a friend would require much bundling up and for me, with famously frozen fingers, the need for woolly mittens.  Well, last week (which was beyond normally cold) that would certainly have been the case.  Today it was quite Spring-like, sunny and bright (after tipping rain all day yesterday), and I strolled along bare-handed.  This season is just all over the place.  The snow has almost completely gone.

So, coffee with J this morning.  We set the world to rights, as we like to do.  This afternoon, some Fair Tradey correspondence, organizing the latest project.  And this evening a Friends of Five Rivers meeting.

Ode to Joy

The radio doesn't often reduce me to tears...  (Actually, not true.  The radio quite often reduces me to tears.  Not usually while I'm driving, though.)  This evening I was on my way to collect the Man from work when there was a segment on NPR concerning a documentary about Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

The film-maker talked about the symphony's popularity in Japan, and how annually a choir of up to 10,000 Japanese singers assembles to sing the Ode to Joy, in German.  Cool!  And then we heard a clip of women singing that chorus, in Chile in the 1970s.  These women protesters used to gather outside buildings where they knew the Pinochet regime was torturing prisoners, and they would sing the Ode to Joy. That in itself was enough to start me crying, but then we heard a survivor of torture recalling hearing the song over the prison walls and how it felt "like a colourful butterfly" bringing hope...

I'm not entirely sure why this floored me.  Maybe it was the reminder that political gestures can really matter.  And I was moved by the juxtaposition - the worst of humanity, matched by the best.

Human courage can be simply astounding.

If you want to listen yourself, it's here.

Next day

Today has not been quite as exciting as yesterday - but then there's not too much call for rescue by the ski patrol in the rapidly melting snow of our suburb.  I visited my friends in Albany, helped them with some forms and got to hold a rather gorgeous Karen baby. And the rest of the day has been taken up with the usual sort of errands and tasks.

Tonight, for old times' sake, the Boy is doing a jigsaw to the sound of Harry Potter on CD.  HP fans, which is your favourite female character:  Hermione, Bellatrix or Luna Lovegood? Or any other?

Ice Rider

All that sogginess from yesterday had frozen solid on Jiminy Peak, making skiing conditions...hm, let's say, horrible today.  Even the gentle baby slope had nasty patches of ice on it.  So what made me think it would be fun to have a go higher up the mountain I really don't know.

I soon came a cropper - sliding down on the ice, leaving a ski behind.  I crawled back up to get that, tried to get my skis back on, fell over.  I decided to hold onto the skis and slide on my backside for a while, but guess what, snowpants offer no traction at all...it was terrifying, and I ended up in the woods. 

I tried walking down the slope for a bit, but that was miserable and I was at least a mile from base.  Tried putting the skis on again - and fell over.  So I did the only thing left that I could think of: I sat down at the edge of the slope and waited to see what would happen next.

"What are you doing?"  asked the ski patrol lady.  Not unkindly, more incredulous really.  I explained, noting that I wasn't hurt, that I just kept falling over.  "Would you like a ride down?" she asked.

I considered the shame that this would bring upon myself and my family.  And then I looked down the icy slope and said "Yes, yes I would!  I would like a ride down!  Thank you!"

She radioed for a sled.  It arrived.  Moments later, so did members of my family, out looking for me - but I was too busy with my new best friends to do more than give them a reassuring smile and a goofy thumbs-up.

Off we went (too quickly for the Man to snag much of a photo).  Yes, it was a total humiliation.  It was also...an AWESOME RIIIIIDE!!!!  Seriously, the most fun I have ever had in snow.  Didn't even have to break my leg - gosh, I love the ski patrol!

Post Vortex

It has been a foggy, soggy sort of day.  The polar vortex has well and truly left us, and today's temperatures got up into the 50sF.  The warm air hitting the melting snow caused mist to rise, which mingled with the falling rain to create every kind of damp.  The Man, crazy fellow that he is, went out for a run in it all and came back soaked to the skin.

Skating practice for the Girl was followed by a lunch out at Chipotle (industrial boiler room style Mexican), where we ran into friends from school, so that was fun.  And from then on the afternoon has just drifted by, and whaddya know, it's evening once more.

I'm reading Longbourn, by Jo Baker. Pride and Prejudice again, but from the servants' perspective. It's good.  You'll be wanting it for your book group.

One for the birds

I'm quite a fan of the Albany Visitor Center.  I popped in there today because I'd heard about a new exhibition on winter birds of New York State, so I thought I'd take a look.

It's quite a low-key thing, though there are some very nice close-up bird photos, and useful information from the Audubon Society about Important Bird Areas and on improving neighbourhood habitats to make them bird friendly.  I gathered up some literature to bring home, including a notice about a special event at the Center coming up soon, which will feature live birds and hands-on activities and sounds like it might be fun.

I also wandered round the main exhibition space again to remind myself of local history, and spent some time in the rather good gift shop, which is well-stocked with locally made crafts, souvenirs and New York State speciality foods.  I noted a few items for possible future purchase, but for today just came away with a map of the Capital District on a fridge magnet.

NERDS R THEM

The Girl had a triumph today, successfully co-leading this year's first (packed out!) meeting of her school's Anime Club.  Strictly speaking, it's the Anime, Manga, Video Game and Sci-Fi Club.  The supervising teacher has told her she needs to find an acronym for all that, and suggests she should rename it altogether to make it spell N.E.R.D.S.

For indeed it is a nerds' club. But these kids are out and proud in their nerdiness (the Girl was wearing her TARDIS T-shirt today, specially), and you've kinda gotta love 'em for it.

Iron lady

We're due to start spinning out of the Polar Vortex very soon, but today was still extremely cold and I spent it at home, indoors.  Among other chores, I managed to create a truly massive pile of ironing by doing laundry all day long.  Happily my labours were pleasantly interrupted by Exile #2, who came round for a coffee.

Tomorrow we'll enter another period of thaw.  Great.  Slushy footprints all over the kitchen floor, again...

A flavour of Karen New Year

Before skiing on Sunday, we had a New Year event to attend.  Not a belated celebration for the arrival of 2014, but the big Karen New Year bash for 2753.

As with the last time I attended, it was held at the Boys and Girls Club in Albany.  My mum came with me this time, and the Man - he and I were sporting traditional Karen tunics that my refugee friends had given us.

The sports hall was filling up with Karen families from all over upstate New York.  There was saluting of flags, then speeches, and music and dancing.  I learned that there are two completely different Karen languages, each one unintelligible to speakers of the other - so half the people in the room chatted amongst themselves through the speeches and songs in one language, and the other half chatted through the rest.

Because of our afternoon plans, we had to leave before the end, but we got a good taste of the festivities - literally, in fact, because as we were leaving kind people pushed food boxes into our hands to take away with us.

Vacation's end

Christmas has left the building.

Sadly, everyone else has, too.  The kids were back at school today, the Man returned to work, and, as I write, my parents are on their way home to the UK.  Their three week stay with us went by very quickly.

The house felt rather empty all day.

Peak practice

We have forsaken Willard.  This year we're skiing at Jiminy Peak.  We had our first go at it today.

I made the mistake of agreeing to go right up the mountain for my first ski of the season.  It wasn't a difficult slope, but very long (about 2 miles) and - completely out of practice - I found it rather daunting.  So after that I stuck to the not-daunting-at-all baby slope, while the Man and kids explored a whole lot of, I'm sure, much more interesting routes down.  I'll be braver next week, now that I feel more comfortable with what I'm doing.

Jiminy is a much larger resort than little Willard.  It was very busy today, with people making the most of the excellent snow. It should be a fun season.

X-country

It's now several years since my first cross country skiing experience.  It's also a while since I last did that kind of skiing, as for the past three years we've been concentrating on the downhill sort.

But today the Man and I returned to Pineridge, to take advantage the recently fallen snow at its very best.  Surprisingly, it wasn't too busy there.  Although we didn't have the woods entirely to ourselves, we were hardly battling with the crowds.

It was very beautiful skiing amongst all the snow-laden trees.  I struggled a bit with my over-long skis, but falling over was no real hardship because the landings were soft.  We were on the trails for nearly four hours (as my aching legs are reminding me this evening).

A good fun day.  But tomorrow, back to downhill...

Cold Mountain

It was still snowing this morning, though it soon tapered off and then came blue skies and sunshine. Everywhere looked beautiful, but it was hard to appreciate being out in it all as it was even colder today than yesterday.

We had a whole-family lunch outing.  The adults then spent a cheerful afternoon drinking tea and chatting at the home of our former neighbours.  The kids meanwhile sat on the couch at home watching videos and playing computer games (their default setting, pretty much) - but at least it left them with plenty of energy to be very loud and entertaining this evening over yet another game of Apples to Apples.

The Man adds...storm snow total was about 10 inches in the Capital District - one of the consequences was an impressive snow mountain in Price Chopper car park.

On with the snow!

We woke to snow, it snowed all day, and last time I looked it was snowing still.  It has also been bitterly cold - too cold to put a second coat on the red bookshelf out there in the frigid three seasons room.

I haven't ventured outside, but others have - though not too far.  The Man took the Girl to skate at the YMCA in the morning.  The Boy and his grandpa took a turn around the block.  One of the Girl's friends came round for the afternoon.  Kids played (briefly) outside.  The Man went running at the Y, then took the Boy to his drumming lesson.  So we haven't all been completely snowbound.

Indoors: computers have been busy.  There was a game of Dr Who Monopoly. My mum and I have done some sewing.  Whole books have been read.  Not such a bad day, really.  Tonight, with the temperature at -1F (about -18C) the Man has celebrated by throwing boiling water into the air and watching it turn into snow. Ah, brings back such happy memories.

First of the year

We were invited by some neighbours to their New Year('s) open house.  It was all very jolly - most of the guests were other neighbours, some of whom I know well, though there were others I somehow hadn't met before.  There was much chat of plans for the year ahead, and nibbling of treats, and a cosy fire to sit near.

If the forecast is to be believed, we'll be wishing we had our own cosy fire to huddle round in the next couple of days:  the first winter storm of 2014 is a-comin'.  We expect to be snowed in, and temperatures are set to plummet...