Month: March 2012 (Page 2 of 3)

With another blurry mobile photo from the back row!

These kids are killing me with their adorableness.

I got off work an hour early and went straight to the school. It took 1 hr 20 min, but I'm really glad I was able to see tonight instead of tomorrow. Ill go saturday too. There's a buzz about opening and closing night. The kids are improving their performance each night. The audience was wonderfully receptive with hearty laughs in (mostly) right places. (why do they when dead gaston is carried away? They do every time and we don't know why.)

I'm having to fight hard not to tweak and fix and write notes for the cast. I want to redo the whole first half of Be Our Guest. Why does my brain wait until show time to create fantastic solutions for the sloppy parts?

It was funny I came straight to the show in my scrubs. I attended to a re-fractured toe and a minor head injury. There was a sprained ankle earlier this week. I worry something truly bad will happen. I hope amanda has a school first aid kit somewhere. Makes me want an old-fashioned doctor's bag to keep in my car.

I'm looking forward to my day off tomorrow. I didn't see Jack at all today 🙁 When this is done I have a list of fun things for us: picnic at the park, swim at the rec center, create a recipe for soft lemon cookies, blow bubbles on the porch, generally give Ben more personal time. . .

Good night!

Today I went up to Bailey to watch the first official performance of Beauty and the Beast.  They did an in-school show for the middle schoolers.  It’s amazing the leap in performance these kids take from dress rehearsal to actual show.  Something about doing it for an audience brings them to life.

The assistant director made this trailer for the show.  It’s footage from the Friday all day rehearsal, before sets and costumes were finished.  But I hope you’ll enjoy seeing a little of it.  Maybe I’ll have actual performance footage I can share later.

Stayed up too late finishing this because it felt too early to go to bed.

I spent all of today and half of yesterday up in Bailey for final rehearsals with the high schoolers. I have some crappy iphone photos to show for it. Hopefully I can post some nicer ones after the production next week. The kids are . . . getting there. This is always a difficult time when they are juggling costumes and sets. I wish they had more basic drama skills, like keeping your face to the audience and vocal projection. Maybe if Amanda has another 5 years with them.

My lunch and notes.  (Later I added carrot sticks, so you know, I stayed healthy).

Gaston Song

Human Again

The Mob Song

My parents are on a grand European adventure and Ben’s parents moved to Maine this year.  This post is a festival of grandchild love.  I fully expect them to be the only ones who watch all of the videos.

After work on Monday I put Fruit Ninja on my Fire.  Jack seems to be confused about Kinect control versus other devices.  Or he just prefers to flap maniacally.

Amanda brought us chocolate cake with Sherlock on Saturday.  We had leftovers the next night and Jack eagerly showed off his new word: cakecakecakecakecake….Here he is after getting what he wanted.

Lately he has been reading If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.  He has been asking for cookies – by word!, for the last couple days.  Ben promised him some and tonight we delivered.  Clearly I did not think through Jack’s task level thoroughly enough.  I don’t know why I picture him like a skilled four year old sometimes.  But he had a lot of fun and cookies were made.

While they baked he actually brought the book over to me (I was acting as oven sentry so he doesn’t burn himself).  Isn’t it funny how easily kids learn words for dessert?

Enjoying his results immensely.

A great repository for leftover bits from other recipes.  I make it a little different each time.  Makes great lunch leftovers.  I’m always blown away that Jack will eat it.  I do a little dance every time he eats green things!

Spinach Pie (Adapted from a recipe from Betty Mason)
I make this all in my food processor.  This is more of a narrative than a standard recipe. 

With the grater blade on, shred 1 cup cheddar cheese in the food processor.  Switch to the regular blade to blend with one cup flour and 1/2 cup butter (I was out today and used shortening).  Add seasoning – salt, Old Bay, dry mustard, whatever you have.  Drizzle in water while pulsing until the dough clumps together.  Press it into a pie pan and set aside.

With the same dirty food processor bowl and blade, chop up 1/2 of an onion.  Add 10 ounces chopped spinach that you already thawed from frozen and squeezed out the excess water.  Add any other vegetables you want – today it was the remains of a jar of roasted red peppers.  Pulse a few times.  Add one cup milk and three eggs, pulse that a few times.  Add your choice of seasoning and any other chopped bits you like, usually meat or cheese.  I love feta and ham.  Today it was leftover lil’ smokies from Edward’s Meats and some cubes of aged British sharp cheddar.  Just be careful not to over blend at this point because you don’t want to pulverize these last tasty add-ons. 

Pour the filling into the prepared crust, even out the liquidy and solid bits (it tends to clump in the middle with milk around the edges).  Bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes.  It will puff and get firm.  I like to aim for the point right before browning.  Let it cool quite a bit before serving. 

While I work on my sothia shawl, Jack constructs and deconstructs a train track.

He sizes up any two sticks and gives you the smaller one. He also insists on pulling it off a scabbard on his back before attacking.

(Whoops! sorry I hit the publish key well before this was ready)

Friday we had the pleasure of going out on another real date.  I’m trying to work more of these “date nights” thingyboos into our life.  They are fun and good for the whole family.  Mavi graciously watched Jack while us old parents had a night out!

Jack at lunch that day, not knowing we we be ditching him in a few hours.  Bwahahahaaa.

Listening to an old-fangled CD at the library.

This is just to show the jewelry tree I bought at Target.  I love it unreasonably.  Jack has been kept away thus far.

Behold my boots!

Ben bought me Frye boots for my birthday.  I KNOW.  I called them my Pirates of Penzance boots, because, well, isn’t it obvious?  They can be worn folded down, how I prefer them, or flipped up for Cat-like Tread high kicking.

My whole date outfit.  I’m pleased I can pull off the skinny jeans and boots thing still.  I keep trying to get a serious diet and exercise routine going.  But it keeps getting interrupted by sickness or travel or holidays.  Says everyone, right?

For dinner we ate at Simm’s Steakhouse.  It was 5280 Restaurant week so we picked a place we ordinarily wouldn’t afford to eat at.  They served amazing tenderloins without asking how we wanted them cooked.  They came out super rare, but we gobbled them down with relish.  They had tasty side dishes, I stole these photos from their website. 

We also had salad, a squash ravioli dish, and bread pudding dessert. 

After dinner we went to the 1 Up Bar in the city.  It’s similar to the Barcade that we went to in Williamsburg, but this one was much cooler.  Crowded though.  I wanted to stay long enough for Ben to set a high score on a game.  He only needed 50 cents to blast away the previous score on 1942.

Expensive night out, but very fun.  It was a nice splurge with my birthday money.  (In addition to the spinning wheel bobbins that I just received.  Plying is so much easier!) (The splurge date hurt a little after having to buy new tires the next day, but I’m still glad we did it.)  I intend to do more of these “date night” thingies.