bookkisser

serious milestone

2010-03-03T05:54:00.000-08:00

Adelaide Metro has this thing called Roam Zone. After scheduled bus service ends (which, in our suburb, is seven-freaking-thirty p.m.) the RZ buses go off-route and will take you to any marked stop in your district -- and possibly some unmarked ones, too, if you ask nicely.

Tonight our RZ driver misunderstood YK's directions (twice) so we got to ride all alone in a city bus while he did a zippy 360 on a roundabout and then flipped a U-turn on a city street.

Good times.

Aside: earlier in the day, I'd had to purchase a stupid-expensive single ticket, and I announced that I felt like I should joyride just to take full advantage of the fare. Apparently I get what I want. Anybody have any requests?

milestone

2010-03-02T03:28:00.000-08:00

I just bought darker face powder, and a string bikini.

what you need

2010-02-23T17:43:00.000-08:00

With a show as physical as this one, in a climate this hot, YK and I have taken to measuring the length of trips not in [days] but in [units of dry underpants].

Locomoting

2010-02-21T06:28:00.000-08:00

I pow!'ed too soon.

YK and I have managed to get home to our appointed stop on our appointed bus route exactly once in three weeks -- although we have figured out how to walk home from the interchange, how to hail a special secret bus (and that they won't stop at your stop unless you yell over their shoulder, no matter how many times you say "#44" as you're boarding), and that you can walk through a bottle-o (drive-through liquor stores) at 10:30 p.m. We've also made a few buddies, including the bottle-o guy and a dude from Queensland who moved to Adelaide for a girl before "things went ass up."

Pretty glad about that secret bus, though. On one of our late-night slogs home, some yabbo in a ute honked at us and YK snarled, "You could offer us a ride, douchebag."

I love a parade

2010-02-19T07:50:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the Fringe! Roller Derby Girls, parade staging, headless moppets, vain lilies, giant astronauts, new tattoos. Play hard and go home tired!

in heaven there is no beer

2010-02-08T06:10:00.001-08:00

Man, the Aussies sure like their jugs of Cooper's.

Pow!

2010-02-05T06:58:00.001-08:00

I got you, Adelaide Metro!

I made it into the city by myself, and am I ever chuffed about it! The driver was a bit surly when I handed him a $20 bill, but he sighed and fished a wad of bills out of his pocket (!) to make change. I took the O-Bahn. I got off at the wrong stop (Adelaide Metro's trip planner is worse than useless). I made it to the Gardens on time.

To all of the relatives I've forced onto transit in the past few years: I'm so, so sorry. I forget how totally non-intuitive and scary buses are in an unfamiliar city. You all survived, but: yeah. This is confusing stuff.

reach for the sun

2010-02-05T06:31:00.000-08:00

YK took me out for a jog today. It was a quiet early weekday morning, sunny and just slightly brisk, and we jogged through the park and along the creek. As we were walking briskly away from our billet the first song up on my iPod was Polyphonic Spree's Light and Day and I have to say: breaking into a run during those opening swells of music -- in Australia! -- is now pretty high up there on my personal list of Great Moments In My Life.

(Cockatiels! We saw cockatiels!)

Barossa scouting, day #2

2010-02-04T06:42:00.000-08:00

Scouting locations.

Trooping up to Richmond Grove.

Pavilion at Langmeil.

Langmeil shiraz.

knitting circle

2010-01-19T22:32:00.000-08:00

me: I just bought my dream yarn!

Mr. Banjo: I know what all of those words mean individually...

me: Look! It's dyed in these long color runs, so the color changes as you knit--

Mr. Banjo: Is it supposed to look like lady parts?

me: ...

me: Well, no, this is just one colorway--

Mr. Banjo: 'cause it does.

me: ... Uh, well, yes. It certainly does.

And p.s. the pattern for which I bought the yarn has a French name that I always get confused with the word for a rustic French cherry tart. Zesty!

how about now?

2009-12-30T15:59:00.000-08:00

The worst thing -- well, not the worst, but probably the most annoying -- about losing something important (say, hypothetically, an annual transit card with five months remaining in the annum) is that my Golden Retriever brain will not stop looking for it in any place I have ever seen it.

Is it in my coat pocket? No? How about now?

I had it on a bus yesterday! Say, maybe it's wedged into the seat of this completely different bus on a completely different route. No? Shucks.

I usually keep it in the outside pocket of my bag. Is it there? No? It wasn't there the last four times I checked, but maybe I just overlooked it -- I should check again! Maybe it's behind that pen? No? Well, maybe it will show up this time I rummage through the 4x5x2 pocket...

what neglect!

2009-12-29T11:53:00.000-08:00

Oh, hello. Mite dusty around here, isn't it?

I'm attempting to renew the blog habit before I leave the country in (gulp) five weeks. To that end, I'll try to clean up the numerous posts loitering in the draft file from last summer, and I'm posting a random daily life factoid:

My housemates are pitching a New Year's shindig, so I cleaned the bathroom last night. I spent over an hour scrubbing the floor and sink and tub (not mopping, scrubbing -- like, using a brush and bucket and rag) with cleanser and mildrew remover, and you can barely tell. Sheesh.

hello goodbye

2009-08-22T14:23:00.000-07:00

I feel like I've finally gotten my sea legs, and the Fringe ends tomorrow. I found the Farmers Market (not that it was hard to find), the grocery store, the library, and the best internet cafes*. We made an outing to the Edmonton Mall and a random dance club, and I even picked up a schedule for the local Bikram studio (...but 8 a.m. yoga is like 4 a.m. in Fringe Time)

We've been flyering our little butts off, and (*fingers crossed*) should make our audience goal for the final show. Nobody likes handing out fliers, but I have to say that it's much easier while wearing a giant buttercup costume. (The Reindeer helmet + sporty shades works well, too.)

Postcards! I finally got 'em mailed! Love to y'all, and I'm looking forward to being home soon. xoxo.

*Canadians serve up some pretty decent espresso, but they make iced coffee by pouring hot brewed coffee over ice cubes. So wrong.

green onion pancakes

2009-08-20T11:22:00.000-07:00

I just found them on the fairway. If I have to be rolled home next week, that'd be why.

Edmonton ho!

2009-08-16T15:15:00.000-07:00

OK, I've got like 11 minutes of internet time, so here goes:

Hey, cats, I'm in Edmonton! The Fringe is a freaking ZOO, with literally thousands of people mobbing the street fair and thousands more queuing for tickets, fourteen hours a day. We're in a glorious 300 seat venue with a Korean children's troupe (omfg, you have never seen anything cuter than 8-years-olds in traditional dress flyering in broken English -- "We play today of 4pm you come?") and a zombie musical. We've been eating fairway samosas, farmers market plums, potluck sandwiches, and drinking a lot of Grasshopper ale after shows. I've seen some freaking amazing shows (how have I never seen Dawson Nichols before?!), our Seattle peeps rock, and YK plastered our shows' temporary tattoos on the forearms of a totally hot reviewer. (Heh.)

And, kittens, I'm in a four-star show: check it, yo.

Oh, and p.s. -- GlobalTV says FIVE STARS, baby. (Look for Fringe Reviews, 8/19.)

We like to move it move it

2009-07-23T16:15:00.000-07:00

I'm moving! (which is great. more later.)

love, love, love / we've got it in slopbuckets

2009-06-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

I just saw the all-out big-top Circus Contraption show for the first and last time. My brain is full and my heart hurts just a little. It's been good to know ya, kids.

lights still blazing post-show

dinner with friends

2009-06-05T17:44:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday we had a light supper and put the baby to bed and then drank wine on the roof and talked until it was too dark to see each others' faces. This is the good stuff.

(And, hello, summer!)

you always remember your first time

2009-05-15T18:07:00.000-07:00

I was searching for something else in my inbox and found this in a message I wrote to Ida four years ago:

Last night there was a terrible accident with buttercream.
Which also means I made some, for the first time ever, and it's wicked awesome. When I started beating in the butter it got grainy, and then smoothed out nicely... and then dissolved into this spongey mush of buttered sugar floating in slimy eggwhite: So. Totally. Gross. I vaguely remembered a recipe that said "Keep beating! It'll smooth out!" and of course I thought that I'd be the one exception and it would never ever work for me, but the clouds parted and all of a sudden it emulsified (emulsed?) into a perfectly smooth cream in this amazing moment of culinary drama. I recommend it.

I tried to figure out how many pounds of buttercream I've made since then but when it comes to butter I go all Watership Down and can't count past four (which happens to be the number of different flavors of leftover buttercream in my freezer right now).

yikes! April?

2009-04-21T16:19:00.001-07:00

I'm swamped at work.

Still.

My office window faces west, and some afternoons I want to shove the poor plants onto the floor and take a nap on the sill.

My bangs are growing.

I read a lot. I finished Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility. Savage Inequalites got a little heavy so I picked up Emma; she's kind of a pain in the ass but I have to stick it out until she gets her comeuppance.

I just got the big green book and I read it more than I cook from it.

I got bonked on the head by a falling worklight last night but my pupils are still MER (thanks John Galt).

There are some blog posts buried in the draft folder and I swear I'll totally finish them like any day now.

Uh, that's about it.

Thanks for checking in.

xo.

Rumpus

2009-03-10T20:24:00.000-07:00

Rumpie likes to play fetch the lizard.

photo essay in Ioway

2009-03-09T15:21:00.001-07:00

This morning Brynn and I attended John's Art of Theater class to critique his students' acting scene presentations. John introduced Brynn as a fellow member of the theater faculty (such subterfuge!) and me as a "guest artist from Seattle." It wasn't until then that I noticed all of the girls were wearing pink and turquoise and high heels and eyeliner, and I had on a tweedy orange wool cardigan and -- yes -- a thermal undershirt.

my barista/musician boyfriend totally bought

this sweater at the Chicken Soup Brigade

It's a little scary to walk into a strange classroom and start giving feedback. Will they listen? Will it be helpful? Do I actually have anything intelligent to say?

It's a class for non-majors, so the scenes ran a predictable gamut of quality and believability, but there were some surprisingly present and engaged performances and every single one of John's students was attentive and appreciative in the critiques. Way to go, Prof. Kaufmann!

lost on the sidewalk outside the Theater portables

Afterward, Brynn really wanted me to see Kalona and the Amish Hardware Store. Most of the stores in Kalona were closed, but we bought a rhubarb pie at the bakery and then headed out past the Cheese Shop and the Grocery Outlet, down roads lined with clotheslines full of blue jeans and aprons and ever-diminishing numbers of power lines.

There was a horse & buggy tethered in front of the hardware store and an SUV in the lot. We wandered around marveling quietly at the astoundingly economical and comprehensive selection (bulk beans! kitten notebooks! giant underpants! tiny work gloves!) and eavesdropping on the Amish women behind the sewing counter. They were speaking a mind-boggling pidgin of English and German -- I understand enough German to pick out phrases, but some of the vocabulary was clearly both and neither. I bought a canning jar lifter and a gorgeously sharp steel paring knife ($3.39!) (how am I going to get it back to Seattle?) and a chicken handkerchief.

cluck

And then we saved a horse!

The buggy horse had wrenched the hitching rail and the posts had given way, so the poor guy was trapped in the buggy traces with a steel rail and three fence posts dangling from his bridle. He was reasonably calm but rapidly getting less so. Brynn stayed outside trying to calm the horse without getting close enough to spook him, and I ran back inside and alerted the owner -- she ran out, untied him while we held the rail (the rope was tied without a quick release; Brynn was appalled), and then retied him on the remaining rail and trotted back in before we made it out of the lot. Not much sentiment wasted on working animals here.

We had waffles and wi-fi for lunch. Potato & dill for Brynn and sweet corn/apple/flax for me; grading papers and editing play post-mortem notes, respectively. We boggled together at a coed with a wildly mussed hair, a misbuttoned coat, and jeans that were slipping well into her hinterlands. She seemed sweet and unself-conscious and really enjoyed her French toast, though, so wherever she was coming from, we hope she enjoyed it.

look how fast her pen is moving!

Brynn's at the gym and I'm playing fetch with Rumpie. Broccoli soup and rhubarb pie for dinner, fingernail polish and a movie later, and an oncology appointment in the morning. Hard to believe this trip is passing so quickly.

Yay!

2009-03-07T21:47:00.000-08:00

Brynn and Rumpus in the dining room

is this for real?

2009-03-04T15:17:00.000-08:00

I just got this audition announcement for an "alternative beverage" via a generally non-corporate-stooge listserv.

What's it going for here? Obama's coattails? Trust fund activists? Chinese dissident poverty chic? Is it a parody? I can't tell.

CHARACTER BREAKDOWN / PROJECT NEEDS:
Project Concept: Looking for performers that can show the juxtaposition of self-importance to sacrifice, self indulgence to poverty, and societal disconnect from the world. The concept will show that the key to cutting through the fog of greed and corporate lust that have orphaned the world’s invisible, is to opening people up to the alternative beverage Tibet@n Tea and the freedom that change unleashes.

Pavlov's breakroom

2009-02-18T17:42:00.000-08:00

As I walked down the hall toward the office kitchen and the box of Danish halves left over from this morning's meeting, I caught myself murmuring snack snack snack snack, snack snack snack snack...

I fear I have been in Cubicle-land too long. (The horror! The horror!)

In other news, I now have three Gmail addresses: public, anonymous, and Facebook. Oh, yes I did.

Happy-Presidents'-Day scones

2009-02-08T17:45:00.000-08:00

They're a little late to be end-of-holidays baking, but here's what I did with the ingredients left over from a dessert auction recipe plus some other stuff (can't remember what I bought the cream for...):

Orange-Almond-Cranberry Cream Scones

1-1/2 c. flour
1/2 almond meal
1/4 c. sugar
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt

1/2 c. orange-flavored dried cranberries*
minced zest of 1 orange

1-1/4 c. heavy cream

2 T. oat germ

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Sift together dry ingredients. Stir in cranberries & zest, making sure they're unclumped and coated with flour. Stir in cream until just combined -- do not overmix (dough will be wet).

Scoop into 1/4 c. balls; place on an ungreased baking sheet and flatten slightly. Smear tops with a little more cream, and sprinkle with oat germ and a little more sugar. (Raw/turbinado is best, but white sugar is just fine.) Bake 12-15 minutes.

Eat. And eat and eat and eat.

*I didn't intend to buy the orange-flavored but their label looked the same as the regular. At any rate, Trader Joe's orangey berries don't have creepy chemicals and they worked really well in this recipe.

guess they ate too many m&ms

2009-02-03T19:32:00.000-08:00

I don't know how this company became the market leader it is today with employees who can't even commit to finishing a damn doughnut.

melts in your mouth

2009-01-29T18:00:00.000-08:00

This is my office-mate's drawer:

And -- seriously -- this needs to stop. My insulin levels spike every time she opens that drawer. I've certainly eaten my fair share, and I purchased one of those green bags. But I draw the line. No more, m&m, no more. I quit you. We are done.

future yesterday comes too soon

2009-01-09T19:55:00.000-08:00

Craig Ferguson got married.

And David Letterman resolves to stop eating roadkill in 2009.

I know because I've been up until 1am (or, um, later...) every night this week painting "newsprint" and sewing pinafores for this amazing little show. The newsprint fabric is going to be made into high-fashion accessories for teeny tiny people. The pinafores are going to have ruffles. It will all be marvelous.

It's pretty fun, although I have begun to dread the 12:40am knell of that fucking monkey puppet.

Please to note: the enormous expanse of hand-lettering was dashed off in, like, an hour by the amazing CCS -- I'm just filling it in. I only dropped the brush and stupidly splattered paint once! (I blame the monkey, not the whiskey.)

rabbit rabbit pony

2009-01-04T15:19:00.000-08:00

Did the deed! Proof:

Damn, that's a lot of hair, yo.

should auld acquaintance be forgot

2008-12-31T18:34:00.000-08:00

Pals, I've only cut my hair twice this year. It's crazy-long. Why? Well, I'm lazy as hell, and also I think... I dunno, I think on some level I was growing hair for Brynn. I'm pretty ambivalent about my stupid thick hair and would have shaved it off in a heartbeat if it meant she could keep hers. But I couldn't. And she couldn't. So that was nice but dumb.

So now I have an appointment to lop it off on Friday. (just like RaeJ!) (thanks, Sibyl!)

Old year, old hair. A lot of stuff happened while I had this hair. I'm so so so ready to let it go, but I also feel a little sad for the work and grief and loss and joy that it got mixed up in. (And sad for the hair. Like it should have a last walk or a last meal or one final up-do.) (Uh, yeah, I tend to anthropomorphize. A bit.)

So, anyway. Out with the old, and in with a bright shiny new year of new hair and new art and new life and good health and hair of Brynn's very own.

Happy New Year!

headdeskheaddeskheaddesk

2008-12-24T18:34:00.000-08:00

oh.
my.
god.
y'all.

Can somebody please reassure me that MS Outlook's "recall message" function might actually work? 'cause I just emailed a tax organizer with my name, date of birth, SSN, bank account number, and last year's gross salary to a client instead of to our receptionist.

new normal

2008-12-23T09:48:00.000-08:00

My dad called to find out if we "got snow out there."

I've been walking everywhere for the last week, but I caught a bus down from Denny this morning. The streets leading into downtown are so rutted that the front and back ends of the bus were bobbing independantly. It was like riding in a covered wagon. Also, my bus driver had a full white beard and mustache and was wearing a Santa Claus hat.

I have industrious neighbors:

Snow Day #5

2008-12-22T13:55:00.000-08:00

Snowy walk to work, Monday a.m.:

wonderland

2008-12-22T11:07:00.000-08:00

At the top of every steep hill there's a pile of abandoned cardboard sheets, plastic box lids, and stolen condo signs. People are sledding day and night, and they're usually willing to loan their inner tubes and woks (the woks are the best) to passersby for a quick downhill run. Half the dumpsters on Capitol Hill must be missing their lids now, as resourceful scavengers quickly discovered that they make excellent two- and three-man toboggans.

Last Thursday's snow (I have been informed) was the kind that's "good for biking" but not much is moving on two wheels right now.

Apparently my neighbors have all the snacks, whiskey, and DVDs they need. There wasn't a single footprint on these stairs when I got home.

I remain very happy about these boots:

Still!

2008-12-19T19:07:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was telling my coworker that I actually kind of like seeing the city shut down like this.

I grew up in Alaska; my childhood reading was To Build a Fire and Tisha and Mrs. Mike *, and you kept a down sleeping bag in the trunk of the car as soon as winter hit and were constantly drilled to keep your feet dry and always stop for stranded strangers. It wasn't just an aphorism, it was something you could feel bone-deep: if you are not vigilant, the environment will kill you.

In a more temperate climate, there just isn't the same danger. (It's possible to freeze to death here but you'd have to work at it.) So it's almost reassuring to me when a winter storm like this one gobsmacks the tenderfeet with my earliest lessons. Respect nature. We are small and fragile and no match for what it can throw at us.

And then people who didn't learn the value of caution and fear nearly drove two charter buses full of students over a twenty food drop, and my sanctimony felt a lot less fun. Jesus. My condolences to all who will spend the next weeks and months dealing with the physical and emotional fallout of a wrong turn.

* This maybe says a lot about me, but I was surprised to see Mrs. Mike reviewed as a romance. What I remembered from my pre-teen reading was frozen feet and babies dying of diphtheria and malaria and charred bodies in the wells after wildfires. Did I miss a whole bunch of smooching?

Snow!

2008-12-14T11:40:00.000-08:00

Snow! We've got snow!

Icicles! We've got icicles!

Cold! It's freaking cold!

I've been searching Ravelry for earflap hat patterns. Will post pictures when (if) I finish one.

iVoted! didYou?

2008-11-04T12:31:00.001-08:00

For the first (and, apparently, last) time, they were handing out the stickers at my polling place, and I got my damn sticker. I've been coveting one for years; you'd better believe I'm wearing it.

I also took a picture of my hand inking the circle on my ballot for my presidential choice, and I got a little emotional about it. And then the picture somehow didn't get saved (damn digitals!), and I got a little emotional about that. No permanent record of my tiny fist making its mark in this historic election, but there will be a new president-elect twelve hours from now -- god willing, the right one.

Happy Election Day, America!

Consider yourself warned.

2008-10-29T13:58:00.001-07:00

You didn't know it had been published, did you?

My dentist gave me this awesome pamphlet, which is second in hilarity only to my booklet about gynecological surgery. Unfortunately, my dentist gave me this awesome pamphlet because he cracked my molar one freaking year ago and has just gotten around to diagnosing it. I'm not laughing. (Dear all of the people to whom I've recommended my fantastic dentist: this is a new dentist. Tear up that recommendation.)

You know how they fix a cracked tooth?

They don't. They grind it off and attach a crown.

Like I said, not laughing. Thinking about violating the integrity of someone else's dental enamel. Do you think I should hand over the pamphlet first, or just start cracking?

spit & polish

2008-10-11T18:20:00.000-07:00

I'm not terribly amused when people make jokes about me being obsessive/compulsive -- I don't think I'm particularly extreme, and I prefer to think of it as detail-oriented, with esoteric interests -- but I did just dye & polish the entire cast's combat boots. And the managing director's boots. And the stage manager's clogs.

I just used up an entire bottle* of Lincoln Leather Dressing.

*Even worse, I thought, "Oh, that's OK, I didn't use up my good stuff."

uphill/downhill

2008-10-10T12:25:00.000-07:00

Last night I dreamed that each bus stop on my route had a dedicated internet message board. I kept up-to-date on the Bellevue & Denny board, but frequently checked the one for 13th & John because its members were wittier and more articulate.

I'm not usually this kind of girl

2008-10-08T16:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know how this looks, and I'm sorry. I've never been one of those people who's just ga-ga over babies, so I'm as surprised as you are by the apparently inexorable aww-factor of this sort of thing. (It gets you when you least expect it.)

Good thing there's a website I can turn to when the illicit craving hits...

inner space

2008-10-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of my left eye.

The pattern on the right side of the image is called a starburst, and I don't have one in my right eye. (It's not a photographic blemish; it showed up last year, too, along with the wispy clouds around the iris. Neither affects my vision.) My opthamologist is curious to see whether similar patterns are visible in photos of my siblings' eyes.

Is it weird that I think it's pretty?

how to frame a populist argument

2008-09-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

Step 1: Call Chris Rock.

It's not like the camel was all that sturdy to begin with.

2008-09-24T17:22:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why McCain's debate cancellation/campaign suspension/VP debate postponement is the thing that finally tipped me into insanity -- frankly, I should have had money riding on something like this -- but I've been checking newsfeeds every twenty minutes all day. I'm constructing rebuttals for something nobody's even willing to argue. This situation is so wackaloon we're all just sitting around rocking and hissing.

Somebody better win this damn election soon or I'm going to lose my job.

You're what?

2008-09-10T15:35:00.000-07:00

I showed up for my first day of blocking rehearsals for my upcoming show -- one week after the first full-cast read-through -- and one of the other actors is already off-book. Dude, way to throw down the gauntlet!

as good as it gets

2008-08-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

For my birthday, I got:

- a brief cloudburst and glorious rainbow

- fireworks! (thanks, mysterious Bellevue celebrants!)

- a tap dance performed by this dog
- smooches from (or on) 3 babies & 4 kids

- seven birthday cakes and pies
- bourbon, bourbon, and more bourbon

- an all-day party hosted by two darlings: grilled food, tasty baked goods, limey drinks, and so very very many lovely and charming and amazing and talented people

May such good fortune continue for all of us in the upcoming year!

(pics from CCS and CComte. Thanks, buddies!)

my other new favorite thing

2008-08-01T17:39:00.000-07:00

The inimitable RKatz offhandedly asked if I listened to the American Theatre Wing's "Downstage Center" podcasts. I do now, and you should, too. I'm very proud of what I do as a fringe theater actor in the Northwest, but the opportunity to listen to real, live career artists ("What are those, Mommy?") discuss the craft is not to be missed.

Of particular note: James Earl Jones on the value of education, the "delusion" of race, not being an activist, and how annoying it is that film actors play entire roles off-voice for effect. (Of a talented actor playing an American president on TV, "He whispers. Too. Fucking. Much.")

eat it, Sallie

2008-07-15T17:26:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen! today, July 15th, over nine years after my college graduation, I have hit 'send' on the final payment of my student loan.

(One of my two student loans.)
(The smaller one, incidentally.)
(Whatever, lemme enjoy this moment, OK?)

Feels like freedom, friends.

for spacious skies

2008-07-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

Basil just introduced me to my new favorite thing.

I got the Hem album "Funnel Cloud" last night and listened to it on repeat for four hours. (I'm sure my neighbors enjoyed it as much as I did.) It's sort of bluesy alt-country via Tin Pan Alley -- Rodgers & Hart clearly gave Great American Houses of New York and Almost Home a little smooch -- and it's the sweetest little slice of Americana I've ever heard. In celebration of this great nation, I plan on acquiring and devouring the rest of the discography as soon as possible.

(Thanks, Bas!)

Rabbit, rabbit

2008-07-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

My Mid-Year's Resolution (don't you make those?) is more dinner parties. I intend to start immediately with grilled tofu, asparagus, and carrots, and a cocktail that we accidentally invented last weekend. Hooray, summer!

It's official...

2008-06-25T19:08:00.000-07:00

... and I couldn't be happier. Beautiful!

photo by Ella Blue.

summer in Seattle

2008-06-14T20:22:00.000-07:00

Man, I've had a great day.

The weather is beautiful, I managed to drag my butt out of bed in time for a 10 a.m. yoga class, had a glass of wine with B. Hambly on her roof, bought some gorgeous beets and two balls of yarn, ate some delicious fried zucchini, and found a dress for B.'s wedding in the costume closet.

Almost makes winter seem worth it, doesn't it?

Show your work!

2008-06-12T13:05:00.000-07:00

Problem in grade school arithmetic, problem today: I suck at describing my processes.

It’s partly sheer laziness. I raced ahead to the exciting part (answers! yay!), and now I have to go back and do some boring housekeeping to tell you how I did it?

Partly forgetfulness, too. I don’t have a good system for cataloging finished crafts, so I never remember that I need images to catalogue.

So in the last three months I have delivered the following, entirely undocumented:

12-inch cake with a hand-piped ‘Fighting A’
birthday cake covered in ganache and a sunburst of realistic chocolate leaves
towering German Chocolate cake (my second stab at homemade caramel)
2 pairs pajamas, altered with optical illusion sleeves
1 pair sock garters
2 prosthetic hands with “gripping” snaps and dangling gore
1940s vamp costume for a lady coyote
six gold-tasseled pasties and a merkin for a coyote striptease

Seriously. Awesomeness, every bit of it. You’d be totally impressed if I had a single picture with which to impress you.

...if it wasn't attached.

2008-05-29T18:11:00.000-07:00

Last week my coworker needed something from a box of client files that had been sitting in the workroom for about a month. I went to retrieve the box.

It wasn’t there.

So I ransacked the workroom and the file room and other people's offices, sweating, panicking, heart in my throat, trying to figure out what on earth could have happened to this entire box of very very important client financial data...

... and I found the files on the shelf next to my desk. Two feet from my left knee, as a matter of fact. Where I had carefully stacked them after removing them from their cardboard box -- because clearly a cardboard box in the workroom is not a safe place for them -- where I’d carefully stacked and completely forgotten about them.

I need a vacation.

May Day, May Day

2008-05-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

Rabbit, rabbit.

I was going to post something yesterday just to have tagged April, but then more important stuff intervened and now I can't even remember what I thought was so interesting yesterday.

Love and luck and health (and so much more love and health) to those who need it.

xxxooo,
Mol

The first step is admitting you have a problem.

2008-03-26T19:16:00.000-07:00

I just bought something called a "cake humidor."

what you have

2008-03-08T15:42:00.000-08:00

"you spend all your time thinking about what you still want, but don't forget that what you have is what you used to spend your time wanting"

"Please do not touch"

2008-03-01T16:03:00.000-08:00

Last night I licked a $5,400 sculpture (red enameled metal; enzyme-resistant).

Earlier, he said "You remind me of every revolutionary I've ever known."

(Whatever, dude.)

greatness awash in a sea of trivialities, blah blah blah

2008-02-15T14:54:00.001-08:00

I know this adds nothing to the discussion, but may I just say that I'm so bored with the AP Official Presidential Candidate format? I can't remember the last time I saw a New York Times photo of a candidate in which they weren't looking thoughtful, squeezed into the corner of the frame, and dwarfed by an oppressive blur of lights, signs, normal people, etc. It was evocative the first time I saw it (Hillary Clinton, head bowed, facing out of frame in a field of blue bunting) but now it's getting tired.

Step up, AP; tell me something I don't already know:

and elevenses and tea...

2008-02-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

Acting is, first and foremost, thinky work so I always forget how physically demanding mental exertion can be. True, I'm in an unusually athletic show, but it's disconcerting to catch myself mapping out meal plans with an almost primal attention to nutrition density and calorie input/output ratios divided by rehearsal hours. I've begun using the phrase "second breakfast" completely un-ironically.

tech notes

2008-02-05T17:03:00.000-08:00

- My skin hates makeup. The situation is not improving as I get older. However,

- Head-to-Toe baby wash is an excellent makeup remover, particularly for waterproof mascara! Yay, babies!

- Note to self: yes, you're biking way more than usual, but you still don't get to eat candy all freaking night. Stop with the M&Ms already. Really.

- If you're going to be dancing in high-heeled tap shoes (two sizes too large), it really helps if you practice the routine in said high-heeled tap shoes (two sizes too large). Yeah, it's a little different than dancing in sneakers, isn't it?

- Tasks and assignments are great ways to tackle confusing spots in the text, but you actually have to, uh, do the tasks and assignments. Derr.

- Stretch your hamstrings after exertion, doofus, or you are going be a crippled old lady much sooner than you anticipate.

- No matter how it seems, we're all in this together. Really.

food chain

2008-01-25T09:43:00.000-08:00

"The whole of nature, as has been said, is a conjugation of the verb to eat, in the active and passive."

- William Ralph Inge

via.

did you forget the...

2008-01-24T16:21:00.000-08:00

I leave my house for work at 8:45 a.m. and return to it after rehearsal 14 hours later. Every morning feels like I’m packing for a little camping trip. I make lists like this one:

tap shoes
toe shoes
white peignoir
romper that kind of looks like old-timey bathing suit
unitard
curry, bread for lunch
bag spinach for dinner
water bottle, e-mer-gen-C
vitamins
power bars

ProSys tax webinar (10am-1pm)
SEP/IRA adjustment form
get new bus pass

p/u library holds (accordion sheet music!)

don’t forget to buy cat food! (chicken/lamb OK, not salmon)

it all depends on where you're standing

2008-01-14T00:55:00.000-08:00

"You may not be Tolstoy, but Tolstoy wasn't Sendak, either. You have a vast and beautiful genius."

- Ursula Nordstrom to Maurice Sendak,

Dear Genius

baked goods

2008-01-12T00:20:00.000-08:00

Last week I made a batch of end-of-the-holidays cookies: cocoa, bittersweet chips, ginger, cinnamon, coconut, salted brown butter... basically, everything that was left in my pantry after holiday baking, minus the acorn squash.

If you can believe it, they taste even better straight from the freezer a week later. I may have a new tradition.

So long, 2007. You were sweet and weird and you look best in the soft glow of hindsight. I'm ready to re-stock.

hello, again.

2008-01-04T19:30:00.000-08:00

I've slapped up another blog after a long hiatus, and am back on Blogspot after years writing in MT. I keep coming to look at this page (because it's new; because it's daunting; because I like the colors; because I'm kind of in love with the title*) and am genuinely surprised each time that it isn't updating itself with new content the way all the other Blogspot blogs do. Heh.

* Thanks, Sherman Alexie!

rabbit, rabbit, rabbit.

2008-01-01T14:11:00.001-08:00

forgive, love, offer more, ask for more. (a work in progress)