Deer in the Headlights

Yes, its ok to laugh at me...

Date Night(s) With The Cabinet

I have had a date scheduled for many years with the multiple boxes that contain nearly all the music I acquired while I was in school (the first time) as well as copies of some of the more technical symphonies I've played over the years. The boxes themselves started yelling at me from the inside of my closet declaring that they were cashing in my rainchecks about. Who am I to argue with the boxes that live in the same room as my underwear. They could have a field day if they ever decided to get even...

I made a trip to Target to buy a file cabinet and set to work. At first I was naive enough to think it would take only a couple evenings. I was wrong. It has been over a week and I'm still sorting. I would go so far as to say that I am only a little over half of the way through. And my living room is a mess of stacked piles.

The tough part is that most of the music is actually photocopies from my professor's files and therefore are just 8.5" X 11" sheets of paper with no titles. There are random sheets all over! Sorting them requires a quiet room so I can sing the tune to myself and then rack my brain as to the composer, piece and movement. (Having background music playing makes the process longer.) For example, I need to be able to look at a sheet and determing that its the 2nd page of Beethoven's 9 Symphony 4th movement unlabeled. Needless to say, its pretty time consuming.

The good news is that I will never have to do this again. And I'll be able to find everything quickly rather than searching through 3 boxes to find the last page of the last movement of that concerto I learned 7 years ago. It'll be great!

Unexpected Adventures

The other night I left my headlights on when I went into the gym. Two hours later when I came out, my car battery was completely dead. It was already an old battery prior to moving to AZ but it had also been baked in the Arizona sun for a year. It was so dead that jumping it didn't even work. That started the evening on a very long adventure. Let me explain...

My friend came to give me a jump start: it didn’t work. Neither of us had tools on hand so we figured we would go to the car parts store and pick up a battery. Then we would go to the church building where the singles were playing volleyball until all hours of the night. We went to the car parts store and they had NO idea which battery to get since I didn’t bring in my old one. So we went to another car parts store and successfully purchased one 5 minutes before closing (10pm). And then it was off to volleyball! We thought for sure that out of 35+ people someone would have tools on them. Not so! A girl said that she lived around the corner and that her dad had lots of tools which seemed like our best option. In the process of asking around for tools we had gathered quite a crowd that wanted to help/hang out. The total came to 7 people. We all tramped over to the house where her whole family came out to see who was there. 20-30 minutes later and after 2 or 3 family stories about dad and his tools we finally left to go back to the gym for my car. There, the boys seemed to think they could do a better job of replacing the battery then the engineer. Silly boys… tools are for girls! Once I took over, things went pretty smooth. But I didn’t get home until way after midnight. And on a night I was planning on going to the gym and going to bed early, that was significantly later then I wanted. Everything worked out in the end.

Except for the fact that the money I was planning on using for trapeze was eaten by a car battery.

Trapeze Show!

I was lucky enough to catch both my tricks at the show. I've got some great stuff in store for the next one but it might not be for a long while since my sister is coming home (to Colorado) from her mission on the date of the next show. Maybe if you're lucky you'll see some videos of practice instead.

Just as a side note, I had been Scuba diving all day out at the lake. So you can only imagine how exhausted I was. I slept well afterwards. :)

Enjoy!


Whip Catch - 26 June 2010


Split Catch - 26 June 2010

My New Hobby - Flying Trapeze!

A friend of mine from work has been taking a flying trapeze class for the last two months and has since convinced me to give it a try. And I sure am glad she did. I'm hooked! I went in for an intro course last Monday and have since decided to take the 8 week course myself.

Here is the rig on my first day. For scale, you can see one of the employees climbing up the ladder to get everything set for us.  I have to admit that when I pulled up in the parking lot the first day I was a little disappointed.  I had pictured it being a lot bigger.  But once I got up to the platform I realized that it was plenty big enough. 

 

The first 3/4 of the night they have you swing by yourself in a trick called the knee-hang then dismount in a backflip.  At first I thought, "I won't even do a back flip on a trampoline! How am I supposed to do one off a swinging bar?!?!" I asked all sorts of stupid questions.  And after I did it for the first time I realized that all my worry was completely unprecedented.  In any case, here is a video of my first time.  Unfortunately, my camera gal didn't quite catch the takeoff due to technical difficulties. 

Hmmm.  That didn't work.  Looks like it won't let me upload more than one video and the one below is way cooler than my first attempt so we'll stick with it...

Technically, you are supposed to start with one hand on the bar and then simultaneously jump off the platform while reaching your second hand from the platform cable to the bar.  I had some problems with that. Freud would probably have some interesting things to say about not trusting one's self or some jargon like that.  But my argument back is, how can you trust yourself to do something you've never done before?  Anyway, my inability to trust myself to get my other hand to the bar midflight is why they had me start with two hands on the bar for the video below.  When you do a catch, you have to have the timing right in order to successfully intercept eachother so if you hesitate you screw the whole trick up.
Below is my final swing of the night.  I was able to complete the catch but couldn't quite get back to the bar.

When I get better I'll put more videos up.  :) 

Have a great day!

doh!

This morning was a typical morning.  I rolled out of bed and wearily walked into my kitchen.  I quickly finished the dishes that I had left to soak over night and started the dishwasher.  Once that was underway, I turned around to gather the necessary components for my typical breakfast of champions: bowl, spoon, milk, cereal.  The first two were no problem.  But when I opened the fridge, my milk wasn't there.  I was completely confused!  I knew I wasn't out, for I had just had some the previous day and it was still half full.  I looked around on the counter tops looking to see if I had accidentally left it out.  I looked on my dining table, my desk, my coffee table...  it was nowhere!  I even wondered if I had had a neighbor come in and take my milk and nothing else.

Until I looked up.

That's right ladies and gentleman.  I had put the cereal in the fridge and the milk on the shelf.  Such is my life.

An Evening of Fun

'nuf said.

Experimenting in the Kitchen

Those of you who know me can attest to the fact that I've never been much of a cook or home-maker.  The latter is something that I, frankly, won't care about until I have someone to share my home with.  However, the former is something I'd like to get better at.  On the other hand, I'm an awesome baker!  Which happens to be a byproduct of having a sweet tooth.  But actual healthy food has been limited to chicken casseroles and scrambled eggs.

Lucky for me, I have recently bought a couple AWESOME books full of recipes that serve one person!  I especially recommend "Serves One" by Toni Lydecker.  Most of the recipes serve 1-2 people and are designed to be prepared in under 30 minutes.  Its perfect for those of us that live on our own.

(Side note.... Its raining outside!  It NEVER rains in Arizona!)

With this newly formed goal in mind, I have combined the kitchen essentials from all of the books I've purchased and my own limited experience and come up with a list of things that I think would be helpful to have laying around the kitchen for my cooking pleasure.  I have X'ed the things that I already have in my kitchen.  As you can see, I've got a long ways to go.  Feel free to use it as you see fit.  Or even suggest things you couldn't live without in your kitchen!  (Keep in mind, these should be things that keep well.)

I look forward to sharing my kitchen adventures with you in the future.

Asian seasonings

    Miso

X Soy sauce

    Teriyaki sauce

    Instant hon dashi

Condiments

X Mayonnaise

X Dijon

    Mango chutney

X Salsa

Fruits

X Lemon/Lime

   Cranberries, raisins (dried)

X Seasonal

Grains

X Rice (2 varieties)

    Couscous

X Oatmeal

X Cornmeal

Herbs and Spices

    Dried Oregano

X Parsley

    Thyme

X Rosemary

X Sage

   Italian Seasoning

X Basil, dill (fresh if possible)

X Salt (sea)

X Black peppercorns

    Bay leaves

X Cinnamon

    Cumin

    Ground and crushed red pepper

    Sesame seeds

X Seasoning blends

Hot Stuff

    Dried chiles

    Asian chili paste

X Tabasco sauce

   Ginger root (frozen)

Misc.

    Anchovies (canned in olive oil)

X Bacon

    Beans and legumes

X Mushrooms (fresh or dried and frozen)

    Pine nuts, Almonds, Cashews

X Onion family

X Pasta (one long, one short)

X Potatoes (red-skinned, Yukon)

X Olive oil

X Veggie oil

    Balsamic Vinegar

    Toasted sesame oil

X Tuna

X Salad Makings

X Corn (frozen)

X Honey

X Chocolate Syrup

X Breads

X Cheese (Parmigiano-reggiano and 2 other types)

X Eggs