Was quickly doing some dishes this morning; I'd cooked for the theatre Christmas potluck yesterday, and had a mixing bowl and a casserole and some serving stuff... And was musing about my dish washing liquid.
Odd, I'd grown up, as much as I can recall, with Sunlight in our kitchen. And probably carried that thought forward through much of my life. It's just what I bought. It worked, I liked it.
Somewhere during my married life, either paying attention to price, or because there actually were more options, I'd switched to the No Name version, and in Wareham, had been using the Our Compliments one for years and years.
Then I'd discovered that the PC No Name one had been reformulated, and its scent, while still citrus, had taken on a subtle grapefruit note, which I found very pleasant.
[I can only bear a citrus scent in my dish soap. Maybe it's because I grew up with that, or maybe it's just because I'm a bit twitchy about perfumes. But definitely my brain will accept a lemony smell in connections with clean dishes, where none of the other scent (or descriptions of scents) seem acceptable.]
Sadly, they reformulated again, and now I was finding it almost impossible to get the dishes rinsed adequately. Same with the Our Compliments version. The dishes still felt soapy and perfumey. I found I was rinsing things out of the cupboard before using, and suspiciously sniffing glassware. I was turning into a crazy old lady. [Editor's note. Crazier.]
For some reason, one day I tried using Palmolive. Now I have spent my life making fun of Palmolive. Not quite sure why, but definitely the old ads. Where Madge, the manicurist, would tell you "you're soaking in it!" Madge became a character in my life, for all situations. She became 'the other person' you could blame for things. (Well, Madge, and Beatrice the invisible seamstress.)
But I'm still currently using it, and finding it doesn't overpower me with scent, and it does seem to rinse off.
[I have tried the 'unscented' products, and found that to me they smelled 'chemical-y'. So much so, I couldn't breathe while doing dishes. I sometimes buy unscented laundry soap for the theatre laundry, but at least you can walk away from the washing machine...]
Incidently, I made the Champignons from Menagier for the potluck. That's a 14th century mushroom dish where the 'shrooms are tossed with olive oil and poudre fort, and cooked with brie and parmesan. I'd made a point of collecting a casserole dish and my spice powder from Wareham on my most recent packing trip. Pretty much a huge casserole's worth went away, except for a small bit at the bottom that I will repurpose into a pasta dish for supper tonight!
Showing posts with label Random Thought. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Random Thought. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 04, 2013
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Oh oh!
A little something I came across from the BBC website:
7 January 2011 Last updated at 05:35 ET
These were changed to green crosses after the British Red Cross informed the theatre it was breaking the law and could face prosecution.
Unauthorised use of the emblem violates the Geneva Conventions Act 1957.
The British Red Cross said it had contacted the Pavilion Theatre over the use of a red cross on a nurse's costume in the pantomime, The Magical Adventures of Robin Hood.
The previous Nurse Poltis costume violated the Geneva Convention
A spokesman for the humanitarian organisation said: "We have no desire to be the villains of the pantomime or to appear heavy handed, but we do have a very serious obligation to protect the Red Cross emblem.
"The emblem is a special sign of neutrality and protection recognised by all sides during armed conflicts.
"Misuse of that emblem - even when done in an innocent and light-hearted manner - has to be addressed. Repeated and widespread misuse of the Red Cross emblem could dilute its neutrality and its ability to protect.
"When we contacted the theatre management, they quickly changed the cross on the nurse's costume to green and we applaud them for that."
Does this mean I have to change the design for my 'naughty nurse' in Norm Foster's Skin Flick?Glasgow pantomime dress broke Geneva Convention
Dean Park who plays Nurse Poltis:"I can't believe it, I just can't believe it"
A Glasgow theatre has had to change a pantomime costume after being told it was breaking the Geneva Convention.
The dress worn by Nurse Poltis in the Pavilion Theatre production of Robin Hood originally had red crosses on the hat and tunic.These were changed to green crosses after the British Red Cross informed the theatre it was breaking the law and could face prosecution.
Unauthorised use of the emblem violates the Geneva Conventions Act 1957.
The British Red Cross said it had contacted the Pavilion Theatre over the use of a red cross on a nurse's costume in the pantomime, The Magical Adventures of Robin Hood.
The previous Nurse Poltis costume violated the Geneva Convention A spokesman for the humanitarian organisation said: "We have no desire to be the villains of the pantomime or to appear heavy handed, but we do have a very serious obligation to protect the Red Cross emblem.
"The emblem is a special sign of neutrality and protection recognised by all sides during armed conflicts.
"Misuse of that emblem - even when done in an innocent and light-hearted manner - has to be addressed. Repeated and widespread misuse of the Red Cross emblem could dilute its neutrality and its ability to protect.
"When we contacted the theatre management, they quickly changed the cross on the nurse's costume to green and we applaud them for that."
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Welcome to the Freakshow!
And I don't just mean Step Right Up! by Eric Woolfe...
No, this is more of a placeholder, so I can expound more thoroughly (at some point) on all the craziness that has been my life for the last few months.
There was Young Company and Just This Once Upon A Time. And I may actually have a picture or two, either somewhere on the computer, or still on the camera... (I think I uploaded them.)
Then a few seconds, it seemed, of going away for a weekend of historical re-enactment, except it involved remembering what gear we needed, and where it was, or even what it looked like, and food for people, not just us...
And rushing back to make a whole passle (passel?) of red satin shoe bows for The Rockettes.
And trying to design this new show, with four actors and twenty-two characters, and no-one ever leaving the stage...
And being reminded right now, by the sound of wagons rattling past, how we discovered last Sunday, when FORTY of them didn't even slow down at the stopsign at our crossroads, that apparently they're exempt from the Highways Safety Act, or whatever you call the laws about traffic and the rules of the road! So no, they're not required to stop at stop signs. (Gee, wish someone had mentioned that to me when they were explaining things...) I suppose this 'exemption' may also explain: no lights, no turn signals, using cellphones while driving, no underage limit on driving a vehicle, no 'your side, my side'... and a whole bunch of stuff I'm seeing more and more of as the density increases...
So, it was all craziness anyway. Rush, rush, rush, and trying to think even faster than that. And then we had a little too much 'smoke and mirrors', shall we say... so life is even a bit crazier.
Anyway, still alive.
But this was my two minute break, and now I'm back at it!
anti-v, still crazy after all these years.
No, this is more of a placeholder, so I can expound more thoroughly (at some point) on all the craziness that has been my life for the last few months.
There was Young Company and Just This Once Upon A Time. And I may actually have a picture or two, either somewhere on the computer, or still on the camera... (I think I uploaded them.)
Then a few seconds, it seemed, of going away for a weekend of historical re-enactment, except it involved remembering what gear we needed, and where it was, or even what it looked like, and food for people, not just us...
And rushing back to make a whole passle (passel?) of red satin shoe bows for The Rockettes.
And trying to design this new show, with four actors and twenty-two characters, and no-one ever leaving the stage...
And being reminded right now, by the sound of wagons rattling past, how we discovered last Sunday, when FORTY of them didn't even slow down at the stopsign at our crossroads, that apparently they're exempt from the Highways Safety Act, or whatever you call the laws about traffic and the rules of the road! So no, they're not required to stop at stop signs. (Gee, wish someone had mentioned that to me when they were explaining things...) I suppose this 'exemption' may also explain: no lights, no turn signals, using cellphones while driving, no underage limit on driving a vehicle, no 'your side, my side'... and a whole bunch of stuff I'm seeing more and more of as the density increases...
So, it was all craziness anyway. Rush, rush, rush, and trying to think even faster than that. And then we had a little too much 'smoke and mirrors', shall we say... so life is even a bit crazier.
Anyway, still alive.
But this was my two minute break, and now I'm back at it!
anti-v, still crazy after all these years.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Dancing
Thank you, Steve, for introducing me to this delightful video.
It's made me smile, and forget the things that are annoying me.
It's made me smile, and forget the things that are annoying me.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Black Flies, Back Spasms, and Home Invasions
Yes, real, and jumbled, random thoughts.
After complaining for a chunk o’ time that spring was really sucking, (we’d had a glorious start to it, then cold and drizzle and grey and rains and snow showers and frost and all growing things getting very confused), we were finally having some hints of springlike weather.
Which of course, just whupped the black flies into a real frenzy out there. Dang it all! It’s finally mild enough that I could –again- think about trying to do spring-like things in my poor neglected yard, not wrapped up in layers like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, and instead I need to be swathed in enough protective screening that I can’t actually see the yard!
(At least black flies are a temporary annoyance. It’s just that they take real chunks out of you. One bit me a week or so ago, on one of their other blossomings, and the spot is still swollen and itchy.)
What is weird is that we had lived here for about 5 or 6 years before I even met my first black fly, and discovered their ‘charms’, in New Brunswick. So, either we didn’t have them, or they were kinder and gentler.
Or maybe it’s like poison ivy? You’re fine till your first encounter, and then it’s toxic ever after?
Also coinciding, frustratingly, with these moments of thermometrically enhanced weather, I’ve had a sudden recurrence of the back problems that plagued me at the beginning of the century. (Doncha love being able to say that?)
Back in 2001, we’d been asked to do a demo at the Museum of Civilization, in conjunction with the Smithsonian exhibit, Vikings: North Atlantic Saga, and I had the misfortune to sleep on a mattress that just did not agree with my back, and instead of just being creaky the next day (and several days after), my back started to spasm and cramp up.
Unfortunately, this turned into a chronic problem for quite some time, no doubt encouraged by the too many years I’d spent commuting too many hours to and from Toronto, and sitting at a computer. (Yet another reason why I bid adieu to my real job in the city….)
But in the last couple of years, my back has been much more politely behaved, and if it acts out, I can usually point a finger at which stupid activity I participated in to set it off. (Like vacuuming without finding the pipey bits! Or playing too much Grim Reaper in the yard.)
This time, I don’t know. I don’t think I did any of my usual ‘bad’ things. But it’s hanging around enough that I’m either suffering from it, and in pain, or it’s lurking and I can just feel a bit of extra tension in all my abdominal and back muscles waiting for it to strike again.
And of course, this is the land of no doctors. When the one local one passed away, the single nurse practitioner was swamped with about 400+ patients. (I think a number of people had been hoping for any other doctor, and had been saving themselves. The recent doctor was not ‘sought after’. (He’s the one, when Darrell tried to saw his arm off and phoned to town, the receptionist said the doctor was about to go on lunch, could Darrell call back later?)
Essentially, when you live in the wilds of rural Ontario, you need to learn to fend for yourselves. (Never knew this was the ‘wilds’, did you? We didn’t either, when we moved up here!)
Speaking of the ‘wilds’… the other day there was some huge mayhem overhead. The up-till-now only thumpy raccoons suddenly had a street brawl. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and Darrell went up to have a word.
Well, it seemed that results of that ‘word’, was that the raccoons didn’t come home the next morning, so Darrell has taken advantage of their absence by essentially rebuilding the outer walls of the attic. And commenting that no doubt they’d be back to try and find another way in.
Little did we expect how soon that would be!
Saturday afternoon I was perched on the couch checking times for a movie we wanted to watch on TV that evening. For some reason, I turned my head to look at the deck door, and there coming through the cat portal at the bottom was a raccoon! 2 pm in the afternoon!
Well, I shrieked, and leapt at it yelling. (Stronger men have quailed before a Vandy incensed, let me tell you….) And Mr. Bumbly turned tail and trundled towards the deck stairs. Inopportunely, just as Bear came up them. This, of course, only increased the intensity of my shrieking and frothing. Bear went one way, Mr. Bumbly went another.
I grabbed the cat, and hustled him in, shutting doors after me.
By now all the shrieking had drawn cats from all corners, but at least they were all accounted for.
Mind you, the increased security precautions of locking the cats indoors during nice daytime weather, when we already cruelly force them to be in at night, hasn’t lasted long. Four cats who like the outdoors, beautiful sunny mild weather, closed doors? Not a recipe for peace in our time. No siree!
But it has made a bit of an impact on my peace of mind. Dammit.
After complaining for a chunk o’ time that spring was really sucking, (we’d had a glorious start to it, then cold and drizzle and grey and rains and snow showers and frost and all growing things getting very confused), we were finally having some hints of springlike weather.
Which of course, just whupped the black flies into a real frenzy out there. Dang it all! It’s finally mild enough that I could –again- think about trying to do spring-like things in my poor neglected yard, not wrapped up in layers like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, and instead I need to be swathed in enough protective screening that I can’t actually see the yard!
(At least black flies are a temporary annoyance. It’s just that they take real chunks out of you. One bit me a week or so ago, on one of their other blossomings, and the spot is still swollen and itchy.)
What is weird is that we had lived here for about 5 or 6 years before I even met my first black fly, and discovered their ‘charms’, in New Brunswick. So, either we didn’t have them, or they were kinder and gentler.
Or maybe it’s like poison ivy? You’re fine till your first encounter, and then it’s toxic ever after?
Also coinciding, frustratingly, with these moments of thermometrically enhanced weather, I’ve had a sudden recurrence of the back problems that plagued me at the beginning of the century. (Doncha love being able to say that?)
Back in 2001, we’d been asked to do a demo at the Museum of Civilization, in conjunction with the Smithsonian exhibit, Vikings: North Atlantic Saga, and I had the misfortune to sleep on a mattress that just did not agree with my back, and instead of just being creaky the next day (and several days after), my back started to spasm and cramp up.
Unfortunately, this turned into a chronic problem for quite some time, no doubt encouraged by the too many years I’d spent commuting too many hours to and from Toronto, and sitting at a computer. (Yet another reason why I bid adieu to my real job in the city….)
But in the last couple of years, my back has been much more politely behaved, and if it acts out, I can usually point a finger at which stupid activity I participated in to set it off. (Like vacuuming without finding the pipey bits! Or playing too much Grim Reaper in the yard.)
This time, I don’t know. I don’t think I did any of my usual ‘bad’ things. But it’s hanging around enough that I’m either suffering from it, and in pain, or it’s lurking and I can just feel a bit of extra tension in all my abdominal and back muscles waiting for it to strike again.
And of course, this is the land of no doctors. When the one local one passed away, the single nurse practitioner was swamped with about 400+ patients. (I think a number of people had been hoping for any other doctor, and had been saving themselves. The recent doctor was not ‘sought after’. (He’s the one, when Darrell tried to saw his arm off and phoned to town, the receptionist said the doctor was about to go on lunch, could Darrell call back later?)
Essentially, when you live in the wilds of rural Ontario, you need to learn to fend for yourselves. (Never knew this was the ‘wilds’, did you? We didn’t either, when we moved up here!)
Speaking of the ‘wilds’… the other day there was some huge mayhem overhead. The up-till-now only thumpy raccoons suddenly had a street brawl. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and Darrell went up to have a word.
Well, it seemed that results of that ‘word’, was that the raccoons didn’t come home the next morning, so Darrell has taken advantage of their absence by essentially rebuilding the outer walls of the attic. And commenting that no doubt they’d be back to try and find another way in.
Little did we expect how soon that would be!
Saturday afternoon I was perched on the couch checking times for a movie we wanted to watch on TV that evening. For some reason, I turned my head to look at the deck door, and there coming through the cat portal at the bottom was a raccoon! 2 pm in the afternoon!
Well, I shrieked, and leapt at it yelling. (Stronger men have quailed before a Vandy incensed, let me tell you….) And Mr. Bumbly turned tail and trundled towards the deck stairs. Inopportunely, just as Bear came up them. This, of course, only increased the intensity of my shrieking and frothing. Bear went one way, Mr. Bumbly went another.
I grabbed the cat, and hustled him in, shutting doors after me.
By now all the shrieking had drawn cats from all corners, but at least they were all accounted for.
Mind you, the increased security precautions of locking the cats indoors during nice daytime weather, when we already cruelly force them to be in at night, hasn’t lasted long. Four cats who like the outdoors, beautiful sunny mild weather, closed doors? Not a recipe for peace in our time. No siree!
But it has made a bit of an impact on my peace of mind. Dammit.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Fuddled by Facebook
Or frazzled? Flummoxed? Frelled? Flustered?
Yes, it *is* pre-coffee, so bear with me. I'll try to toss back a swallow or two as I go. Though I don't know that it will make me any more coherent...
So, Facebook was born. A long time ago, (well, okay some indeterminate long time ago in my memory) I even checked it out. A friend had mentioned they were on it. It had got some airtime on CBC. (So it must be real!) So I went to look it out.
I think it was a bit different early on, because I couldn't really figure it out. I couldn't seem to make it do much. And whatever ID I set up, I didn't write down. duh...
Anyway, at the beginning of this year, a dear friend asked me to check out her Facebook profile, so back I went. Yes, you have to be involved enough to set up an ID to even look at things you're invited to look at... So I set up an ID. (This time I wrote it down!) And looked at her profile. Noticed with amusement, how many mutual old friends had popped out of the woodwork. Poked her. (I love the "poke" function. It suits my sense of the absurd.) Sent a message or two.
But....and here's the first big but in all of this. It worked like sludge. Every action took forever. (And we've already switched to satellite, remember? Admittedly, it's pretty sad satellite, but we're paying through the nose for it, simply because our dial up barely supports phone conversations these days!) It took so long to sign in, or change screens that I was forever asking myself, did I hit enter?
And pretty much anything I went to do, required me to sign in and join up for whatever widget, and quite apart from the amount of time it was taking to even get to those screens, I'm sorry, I just wasn't interested in going that far. Sure, I'd love to know my friend's secret stripper name, or send her back a 'flower for her virtual garden', or see how she did in the movie trivia quiz, but I've no interest in adding these widgets to my Facebook page. I don't use my Facebook page as it is.
After four months I finally got as far as adding a picture, and mentioning the theatre, just so it didn't look totally question-mark-y. I don't have much else to say.
I can send email to my friends far more simply. I don't have to log in to do it. My email gets turned on at the beginning of the day. I click on their address, I type as long or as short a message as I want. And queue it. Whenever I want I can hit send, and my outmail goes, and my new inmail arrives. Ta da!
When I have random thoughts, I can come over and jot them down. Long or short, with pictures or without. And I can also make notes to myself here (like which cookbook that marvellous sesame and green bean dish was in, and when I should be heading off to check on wild leeks.) Actually, the picture posting aspect of blogs is far more useful and interesting. My useful herby friends can tell me it really is woad (when I'm too stupid to be sure.) I can lust after Grondzilla's irises. And admire Karen's new header image.
So, on wieldiness points alone, the 'blob' wins.
But the latest bizzarity with the Facebook phenomenon is that all of a sudden I have people asking me to be their friend. Sure, some of them are already friends in the greater scheme of things. We already chat to some degree. But then, there are other people. People I know only marginally. People I've barely shared a half dozen mini-conversations with in my life! People I might not even pick out of a crowd.
Now that's weird.
I understand the mechanic. Now that I've allowed myself to be 'friends' with a couple of other people, because it seemed harmless, if ineffective, there's a coagulation of 'people I know' and 'people they know'. So friends of friends can see my existence.
Sure, that works for me, too! I can look at someone's list of friends and say to myself, well lookee there! So and so has Facebook. Do I see any point of doing anything about it? Not really. I suppose it suggests to me who I might ask about email addresses, if and when I'm suddenly filled with the urge to get in contact...
But beyond that? Hence, it seems highly weird that these people now want to be my friends here, in the online world, when they might not know me from a hole in the ground in the real world. (Though another friend did suggest it's way to get to know me better in the 'safety' of Facebook... Actually, I'd say come read the 'blob', there's far more of the real me here!)
Sadly, maybe this is nature's way of pointing out to me that I'm finally achieving fuddy-duddiness. That I'm too old a dog to change spots. (Is that even the metaphor?)
Maybe it's telling me I'm too old to remember trite whatyamahusits that I can't even remember the word for... sigh.
Maybe life is telling me I need more coffee!
v
Yes, it *is* pre-coffee, so bear with me. I'll try to toss back a swallow or two as I go. Though I don't know that it will make me any more coherent...
So, Facebook was born. A long time ago, (well, okay some indeterminate long time ago in my memory) I even checked it out. A friend had mentioned they were on it. It had got some airtime on CBC. (So it must be real!) So I went to look it out.
I think it was a bit different early on, because I couldn't really figure it out. I couldn't seem to make it do much. And whatever ID I set up, I didn't write down. duh...
Anyway, at the beginning of this year, a dear friend asked me to check out her Facebook profile, so back I went. Yes, you have to be involved enough to set up an ID to even look at things you're invited to look at... So I set up an ID. (This time I wrote it down!) And looked at her profile. Noticed with amusement, how many mutual old friends had popped out of the woodwork. Poked her. (I love the "poke" function. It suits my sense of the absurd.) Sent a message or two.
But....and here's the first big but in all of this. It worked like sludge. Every action took forever. (And we've already switched to satellite, remember? Admittedly, it's pretty sad satellite, but we're paying through the nose for it, simply because our dial up barely supports phone conversations these days!) It took so long to sign in, or change screens that I was forever asking myself, did I hit enter?
And pretty much anything I went to do, required me to sign in and join up for whatever widget, and quite apart from the amount of time it was taking to even get to those screens, I'm sorry, I just wasn't interested in going that far. Sure, I'd love to know my friend's secret stripper name, or send her back a 'flower for her virtual garden', or see how she did in the movie trivia quiz, but I've no interest in adding these widgets to my Facebook page. I don't use my Facebook page as it is.
After four months I finally got as far as adding a picture, and mentioning the theatre, just so it didn't look totally question-mark-y. I don't have much else to say.
I can send email to my friends far more simply. I don't have to log in to do it. My email gets turned on at the beginning of the day. I click on their address, I type as long or as short a message as I want. And queue it. Whenever I want I can hit send, and my outmail goes, and my new inmail arrives. Ta da!
When I have random thoughts, I can come over and jot them down. Long or short, with pictures or without. And I can also make notes to myself here (like which cookbook that marvellous sesame and green bean dish was in, and when I should be heading off to check on wild leeks.) Actually, the picture posting aspect of blogs is far more useful and interesting. My useful herby friends can tell me it really is woad (when I'm too stupid to be sure.) I can lust after Grondzilla's irises. And admire Karen's new header image.
So, on wieldiness points alone, the 'blob' wins.
But the latest bizzarity with the Facebook phenomenon is that all of a sudden I have people asking me to be their friend. Sure, some of them are already friends in the greater scheme of things. We already chat to some degree. But then, there are other people. People I know only marginally. People I've barely shared a half dozen mini-conversations with in my life! People I might not even pick out of a crowd.
Now that's weird.
I understand the mechanic. Now that I've allowed myself to be 'friends' with a couple of other people, because it seemed harmless, if ineffective, there's a coagulation of 'people I know' and 'people they know'. So friends of friends can see my existence.
Sure, that works for me, too! I can look at someone's list of friends and say to myself, well lookee there! So and so has Facebook. Do I see any point of doing anything about it? Not really. I suppose it suggests to me who I might ask about email addresses, if and when I'm suddenly filled with the urge to get in contact...
But beyond that? Hence, it seems highly weird that these people now want to be my friends here, in the online world, when they might not know me from a hole in the ground in the real world. (Though another friend did suggest it's way to get to know me better in the 'safety' of Facebook... Actually, I'd say come read the 'blob', there's far more of the real me here!)
Sadly, maybe this is nature's way of pointing out to me that I'm finally achieving fuddy-duddiness. That I'm too old a dog to change spots. (Is that even the metaphor?)
Maybe it's telling me I'm too old to remember trite whatyamahusits that I can't even remember the word for... sigh.
Maybe life is telling me I need more coffee!
v
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Road Trip!
Yup, in case all five of you wondered what had happened to me....
I was away for some of March, ten days down to Virginia, and when I got back I was immediately deep into production for the last show of the 2007/2008 season, Mesa, about a drive from Calgary, Alberta to Mesa, Arizona.
And I just wasn't ending up with the time to formulate stuff for the blog. Sorry. Mind you, I took about 150 pictures while I was gone, (and that was only when I'd suddenly think to do it), and there may be random pictures, and certainly comments, about the show. So now to get off my expansive butt and do something about it!
Of course, in the brain dead aftermath of opening the show, I'm not even quite certain where to start.
I'd taken a bunch of photos in Virginia, of spring. Because it does exist, and it was there while we were. Then we suddenly were having spring up here, and I thought oh well, I've been scooped!
But last night it snowed. (Blame Steve-o. He shaved his beard off. This exact same thing happened last year when he did that...)
It does mean that my 'spring' pics are still valid, though. Mind you, I think pics of spring are ALWAYS valid!
Anyway, in the spirit of true Random Thinking, let's just leap in and see where we go.
I'd noticed this morning as I was logging in to Google, that they were muttering about some new features they're developing, including 'post-dated blogs' of some sort, and thought it would be a handy thing. But then it occurred to me that I can even just write much of this up as drafts, and dole them out in doses, as opposed to swamping you all at once. It might also give me the chance to reread and edit and add to further stuff as I go, on the very slight off-hand chance of making sense. (Or would that just warp the universe for everyone?)
Besides, as I go, I need to organize the photos into some kind of coherent order, which is not the way I took them.
But let's start with a quick shot of something. (Photowise. Sun's not over the yardarm here yet...) Here's a picture of the view across the valley, probably from the living room of the house we were staying at. I never did fully master depth of field, with such an expanse to photograph!
I was away for some of March, ten days down to Virginia, and when I got back I was immediately deep into production for the last show of the 2007/2008 season, Mesa, about a drive from Calgary, Alberta to Mesa, Arizona.
And I just wasn't ending up with the time to formulate stuff for the blog. Sorry. Mind you, I took about 150 pictures while I was gone, (and that was only when I'd suddenly think to do it), and there may be random pictures, and certainly comments, about the show. So now to get off my expansive butt and do something about it!
Of course, in the brain dead aftermath of opening the show, I'm not even quite certain where to start.
I'd taken a bunch of photos in Virginia, of spring. Because it does exist, and it was there while we were. Then we suddenly were having spring up here, and I thought oh well, I've been scooped!
But last night it snowed. (Blame Steve-o. He shaved his beard off. This exact same thing happened last year when he did that...)
It does mean that my 'spring' pics are still valid, though. Mind you, I think pics of spring are ALWAYS valid!
Anyway, in the spirit of true Random Thinking, let's just leap in and see where we go.
I'd noticed this morning as I was logging in to Google, that they were muttering about some new features they're developing, including 'post-dated blogs' of some sort, and thought it would be a handy thing. But then it occurred to me that I can even just write much of this up as drafts, and dole them out in doses, as opposed to swamping you all at once. It might also give me the chance to reread and edit and add to further stuff as I go, on the very slight off-hand chance of making sense. (Or would that just warp the universe for everyone?)
Besides, as I go, I need to organize the photos into some kind of coherent order, which is not the way I took them.
But let's start with a quick shot of something. (Photowise. Sun's not over the yardarm here yet...) Here's a picture of the view across the valley, probably from the living room of the house we were staying at. I never did fully master depth of field, with such an expanse to photograph!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
The Rumours Are True!
He's leaving me.
The rat-bastard has got himself invited to an iron symposium in DENMARK! of all places, and yes, he's going.
(Not that I fault him for this.) And he did ask if I wanted to come along. But leading the financially-challenged, though creatively- [occasionally] rewarding life as a very occasional costume designer and props maker for a little theatre, does not translate into tripping to Denmark.
Sigh.
I did tell him he'd have to bring me a nice gift...
v
The rat-bastard has got himself invited to an iron symposium in DENMARK! of all places, and yes, he's going.
(Not that I fault him for this.) And he did ask if I wanted to come along. But leading the financially-challenged, though creatively- [occasionally] rewarding life as a very occasional costume designer and props maker for a little theatre, does not translate into tripping to Denmark.
Sigh.
I did tell him he'd have to bring me a nice gift...
v
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
New Beginnings
Yah, like Winter has started all over again! Sigh…
And I’m about to start a new production at the theatre, so I’m really really trying to find my studio under all the accumulated stuff that really needs to go back to prop and wardrobe storage.
But I’m also starting a new blog. Yup, another. (Sheesh! She can’t keep current content on this one and she wants another?) I know, it’s a foolish pipe dream. But I thought I’d like to make a more focused one.
The idea sort of had its beginnings this summer, as I was reading what was, then, a small collection of blogs, called The Daring Bakers. (They’ve now grown from a finite and readable little collective, into the population of a small nation!) Even then, when they were small, I was only reading a few of them. But the point was that they were doing something intriguing.
They were mostly all people who already had food blogs, and wrote about whatever varied aspects of food intrigued each of them. But once a month, they came together and all blogged about a food challenge they had undertaken that month. One person picked some baking challenge, and a recipe, and then everyone set off to try it and compare the results and their experiences and write about it.
Quite fascinating!
And one of my continuing regrets about living out here in the hinterland, on the edge of the world (not quite there, but you can see it from here!) is that thus far, I, and others, have never yet found a way to recreate the culinary guild experience we’d once had when a group of us all lived in Toronto.
Back then we’d all get together once a month and bring some medieval recipe we’d made, and try it, and evaluate it, determine what worked, what didn’t, whether it would work for a feast, how many it would serve… things like that.
(Yes, I’m into historical food. Did I mention that?)
Thanks to the internet, we’ve now got a mailing list, but pretty much no activity on it, and still we’ve never really managed that shared food conversation that I miss.
So, I started to wonder….
And already I was thinking I’d like to have somewhere to talk about food more regularly. Historic food. But not specifically just one kind, or one time period. Somewhere I might not bore my Beloved Readers who only come for the photos of my deck. Or to hear about the trials of regional theatre. Or to see pictures of my cats. (Say, I've finally managed a good shot that shows off Coco's marvellous paws!)
And I wondered about the possibilities of a virtual culinary guild get-together.
However, it all needed a jumping off point. And I figured that point was a new blog, just about food. And ingredients. And technology. And archaeology. And discussion of sources and books and who knows what all!
So, I’ve taken that first step, and have started building the blog.
So far, pretty much no content. I’m not THAT fast! But a framework. An address. No really clear ideas where I’m going to go with this. We’ll all have to wait and see.
So, wait for the drum roll…
Anti-V
And I’m about to start a new production at the theatre, so I’m really really trying to find my studio under all the accumulated stuff that really needs to go back to prop and wardrobe storage.
But I’m also starting a new blog. Yup, another. (Sheesh! She can’t keep current content on this one and she wants another?) I know, it’s a foolish pipe dream. But I thought I’d like to make a more focused one.
The idea sort of had its beginnings this summer, as I was reading what was, then, a small collection of blogs, called The Daring Bakers. (They’ve now grown from a finite and readable little collective, into the population of a small nation!) Even then, when they were small, I was only reading a few of them. But the point was that they were doing something intriguing.
They were mostly all people who already had food blogs, and wrote about whatever varied aspects of food intrigued each of them. But once a month, they came together and all blogged about a food challenge they had undertaken that month. One person picked some baking challenge, and a recipe, and then everyone set off to try it and compare the results and their experiences and write about it.
Quite fascinating!
And one of my continuing regrets about living out here in the hinterland, on the edge of the world (not quite there, but you can see it from here!) is that thus far, I, and others, have never yet found a way to recreate the culinary guild experience we’d once had when a group of us all lived in Toronto.
Back then we’d all get together once a month and bring some medieval recipe we’d made, and try it, and evaluate it, determine what worked, what didn’t, whether it would work for a feast, how many it would serve… things like that.
(Yes, I’m into historical food. Did I mention that?)
Thanks to the internet, we’ve now got a mailing list, but pretty much no activity on it, and still we’ve never really managed that shared food conversation that I miss.
So, I started to wonder….
And already I was thinking I’d like to have somewhere to talk about food more regularly. Historic food. But not specifically just one kind, or one time period. Somewhere I might not bore my Beloved Readers who only come for the photos of my deck. Or to hear about the trials of regional theatre. Or to see pictures of my cats. (Say, I've finally managed a good shot that shows off Coco's marvellous paws!)
And I wondered about the possibilities of a virtual culinary guild get-together.
However, it all needed a jumping off point. And I figured that point was a new blog, just about food. And ingredients. And technology. And archaeology. And discussion of sources and books and who knows what all!
So, I’ve taken that first step, and have started building the blog.
So far, pretty much no content. I’m not THAT fast! But a framework. An address. No really clear ideas where I’m going to go with this. We’ll all have to wait and see.
So, wait for the drum roll…
Anti-V
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Resolutions
Not that I'm really one for New Year's Resolutions, and I don't know that I specifically decided to do it in this past year, but since everytime I see that ad for whatever the Reality TV show is about bungee jumping out of planes and wrestling with snakes (or whatever) about No Lost Opportunities or No Wasted Moments, or something... I always figure that I have more interesting things I haven't done, and have been putting off.....
So:
This year I finally made polenta! In fact, I did it twice, and one time for guests!
Ever since I first discovered that there was such a thing as polenta, I've had a bit of a fear of it. My first experience was when my father decided to experiment (both parents are gourmet cooks and experimenters, I come by it honestly!) Dad's experiment was one that went a bit strange. Or maybe it was because the whole meal, or maybe just the new bits in it, didn't quite come out as expected.
There were the braised leeks he'd cut lengthwise. So they were a lot of work to try and eat. And the polenta really seemed reminiscent of wallpaper paste.
But I always knew I'd have to revisit polenta. And truth be told, it *IS* a lot like wallpaper paste. It just tastes better! If only we'd realized way back then...
So, I don't know what leap of faith I'm going to make this year... I have one idea. Let's see!
anti-v
So:
This year I finally made polenta! In fact, I did it twice, and one time for guests!
Ever since I first discovered that there was such a thing as polenta, I've had a bit of a fear of it. My first experience was when my father decided to experiment (both parents are gourmet cooks and experimenters, I come by it honestly!) Dad's experiment was one that went a bit strange. Or maybe it was because the whole meal, or maybe just the new bits in it, didn't quite come out as expected.
There were the braised leeks he'd cut lengthwise. So they were a lot of work to try and eat. And the polenta really seemed reminiscent of wallpaper paste.
But I always knew I'd have to revisit polenta. And truth be told, it *IS* a lot like wallpaper paste. It just tastes better! If only we'd realized way back then...
So, I don't know what leap of faith I'm going to make this year... I have one idea. Let's see!
anti-v
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Blogger Blockage
Or, if you will, a 'communications constipation'.
Yes, this summer has been a bit end-to-end. There was a leisurely start to Alice in Wonderland for the Young Company. The official job dates were late July to late August. In fact, we started way back in June with some production meetings, and get- togethers to muck about with mask-making techniques. (There are pictures, but having just been moving from one HD to another, I'm not sure if I resized anything, or labelled it so I'd know what it was....)
The mask-making turned into a fairly constant project, and then once the program actually started, things got very crazy. 40 masks we ended up needing, and being a fantasy, a lot of the costuming had to be created.
Essentially things just started going faster and faster and faster!
When that was done, I theoretically had some of the next week to start clean up and laundry, as well as prepare for a shortened and lighter version of our very favourite re-enactor's event, up at Bonfield. Consequently, neither of us were quite sure what we needed to take, or what we did take, but still it was a lovely trip.
Then the very day afterwards, I started the opening show of the 2007/2008 season, a brand new Norm Foster musical, One Moment. That seemed like it might be straightforward, at first glance. Six people. Two days in their lives. Twelve costumes. Except for one character who goes home at lunch to change for a date. Still, thirteen costumes. How tricky can that be?
yah. You're right. Never fails, things get a bit insane. Towards the end, I'd have what looked like a little list. Hours later I'd still be flailing away trying to get done.
And in the midst of all this, we made the jump to light speed. Well, we finally gave up on dratted sad dial up, which barely works for phone service, and invested large sums of money in satellite internet. And I couldn't make it work!!! Even with two techno-gurus trying to advise me, it just wasn't doing what it was supposed to. So, finally I grabbed a Sunday when I could have, should have been working, and cleared my second HD, and loaded Win2000, (which I'd been planning to get around to for ages) and at least I have a connection. Somewhat fragile. Perhaps the cable needs replacing....
Of course, I still have to finish reloading all my programs and figuring out where all my life is scattered...
But I'm on the wee break between shows. Next round is props.
So maybe I'll find all my backed up blog thoughts, and spill a few of them this way!
anti-v
Yes, this summer has been a bit end-to-end. There was a leisurely start to Alice in Wonderland for the Young Company. The official job dates were late July to late August. In fact, we started way back in June with some production meetings, and get- togethers to muck about with mask-making techniques. (There are pictures, but having just been moving from one HD to another, I'm not sure if I resized anything, or labelled it so I'd know what it was....)
The mask-making turned into a fairly constant project, and then once the program actually started, things got very crazy. 40 masks we ended up needing, and being a fantasy, a lot of the costuming had to be created.
Essentially things just started going faster and faster and faster!
When that was done, I theoretically had some of the next week to start clean up and laundry, as well as prepare for a shortened and lighter version of our very favourite re-enactor's event, up at Bonfield. Consequently, neither of us were quite sure what we needed to take, or what we did take, but still it was a lovely trip.
Then the very day afterwards, I started the opening show of the 2007/2008 season, a brand new Norm Foster musical, One Moment. That seemed like it might be straightforward, at first glance. Six people. Two days in their lives. Twelve costumes. Except for one character who goes home at lunch to change for a date. Still, thirteen costumes. How tricky can that be?
yah. You're right. Never fails, things get a bit insane. Towards the end, I'd have what looked like a little list. Hours later I'd still be flailing away trying to get done.
And in the midst of all this, we made the jump to light speed. Well, we finally gave up on dratted sad dial up, which barely works for phone service, and invested large sums of money in satellite internet. And I couldn't make it work!!! Even with two techno-gurus trying to advise me, it just wasn't doing what it was supposed to. So, finally I grabbed a Sunday when I could have, should have been working, and cleared my second HD, and loaded Win2000, (which I'd been planning to get around to for ages) and at least I have a connection. Somewhat fragile. Perhaps the cable needs replacing....
Of course, I still have to finish reloading all my programs and figuring out where all my life is scattered...
But I'm on the wee break between shows. Next round is props.
So maybe I'll find all my backed up blog thoughts, and spill a few of them this way!
anti-v
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Sort of a silly quiz....
and I rarely bother with these, but it seemed more appropriate than some...
Which Norse God or Goddess Are You Most Like?
 |
Which Norse God or Goddess Are You Most Like?
Friday, December 22, 2006
Ghost of Christmas....?
The phone rang yesterday evening.
When I answered it a small voice said "Hi, Mom...."
Of course, I promptly replied "I think you have the wrong number", and they
just as promptly hung up.
nah, I'd have noticed something like that along the way...
anti-v
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Wisdom from the Dead Dog Cafe
"It is the wise man who knows the difference between a peach
and an opinion."
Jasper Friendly-Bear
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
The Joys of Translation Software...
I was having a little roundabout poke on the web, looking for something I hadn’t yet found in the library downstairs, and as usual finding something else, and heading off on yet another tangent….
Well, eventually found my way to an old webbed recipe for SKYR, in Swedish. But amusingly, with the translation software, imperfect at best, it goes from:
Riktig skir ska tillverkas av opastöriserad sur mjölk. När mjölken pastöriserats så ruttnar den istället för att surna, så som
surrogat får vi använda filmjölk. Resultatet blir inte riktigt detsamma, men lika gott. Låt den sura mjölken (eller filmjölken) rinna
av i ett durkslag med en handduk i. Vasslan kan du behålla och använda istället för vatten till brödbak. Skiren kan användas
direkt när den runnit av till lämplig bredbar konsistens. Den kan också kryddas med t ex vitlök, gräslök eller kummin. Skiren
håller inte länge men kan torkas för att sedan användas i grytor.
To:
Right sheer ska produce of opastöriserad sour milk. When milk pastöriserats so rots the istället for that surna , as makeshift sheep wes uses filmjölk. Accomplishment am not becoming really detsamma , but equal gott. Tune the sura milk ( ors filmjölken ) stream of in one durkslag with a towel in. Sharp tin you retain and uses istället for water to breadboard. Sheer able uses direct when the runnit of to appropriation broad consistency. The able also spice with transfer ex garlic , chives ors caraway. Sheer am not holding long but able dries for that sedan uses in casseroles.
There! So, of course, now I can make skyr for Ragnarr and his crew!
Hmmm….maybe not quite yet…
Well, eventually found my way to an old webbed recipe for SKYR, in Swedish. But amusingly, with the translation software, imperfect at best, it goes from:
Riktig skir ska tillverkas av opastöriserad sur mjölk. När mjölken pastöriserats så ruttnar den istället för att surna, så som
surrogat får vi använda filmjölk. Resultatet blir inte riktigt detsamma, men lika gott. Låt den sura mjölken (eller filmjölken) rinna
av i ett durkslag med en handduk i. Vasslan kan du behålla och använda istället för vatten till brödbak. Skiren kan användas
direkt när den runnit av till lämplig bredbar konsistens. Den kan också kryddas med t ex vitlök, gräslök eller kummin. Skiren
håller inte länge men kan torkas för att sedan användas i grytor.
To:
Right sheer ska produce of opastöriserad sour milk. When milk pastöriserats so rots the istället for that surna , as makeshift sheep wes uses filmjölk. Accomplishment am not becoming really detsamma , but equal gott. Tune the sura milk ( ors filmjölken ) stream of in one durkslag with a towel in. Sharp tin you retain and uses istället for water to breadboard. Sheer able uses direct when the runnit of to appropriation broad consistency. The able also spice with transfer ex garlic , chives ors caraway. Sheer am not holding long but able dries for that sedan uses in casseroles.
There! So, of course, now I can make skyr for Ragnarr and his crew!
Hmmm….maybe not quite yet…
Sunday, January 22, 2006
plastic cling wrap
why does plastic wrap never seem to cling to itself like it does in the commercials? Unless you're in the car driving home after a long day at the theatre, and are suddenly wanting to finally get in at that sandwich you've been carrying around all day and never geting a chance to eat.... THEN it clings so well that the sandwich could be considered hermetically sealed!
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
the philosophy of blogging
I’m being nagged, ever so nicely, by my audience of one, that I’m not really yet getting into the spirit of blogging.
I replied that I haven’t yet wrapped my head around the idea of something which may or may not be read, depending on who I tell about it, and the ever-present concerns about being boring or tedious or whiny (how DO you spell that?), not to mention trying to remember WHO I give this address to, supposing I do, and not to say anything I will regret…
I never was a diarist in my life. It was a great idea, but between having nothing much to say, and being lousy at sticking to deadlines or schedules….
Occasionally I have concepts or ideas or theories, or experiments that it would be nice to set down somewhere, even if no-one reads them. But they don’t happen in any kind of predictable fashion.
Maybe I can just wax poetic about the inability to think of things to say?
Mind you, out of this exercise, I have at least figured out how to FTP things with the programs I currently have, so that’s a kind of achievement, isn’t it?
I replied that I haven’t yet wrapped my head around the idea of something which may or may not be read, depending on who I tell about it, and the ever-present concerns about being boring or tedious or whiny (how DO you spell that?), not to mention trying to remember WHO I give this address to, supposing I do, and not to say anything I will regret…
I never was a diarist in my life. It was a great idea, but between having nothing much to say, and being lousy at sticking to deadlines or schedules….
Occasionally I have concepts or ideas or theories, or experiments that it would be nice to set down somewhere, even if no-one reads them. But they don’t happen in any kind of predictable fashion.
Maybe I can just wax poetic about the inability to think of things to say?
Mind you, out of this exercise, I have at least figured out how to FTP things with the programs I currently have, so that’s a kind of achievement, isn’t it?
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