I’ve been dreaming of jazz singing. We had a guest soloist on Sunday who is a professional jazz singer. During all the choir pieces, she’d sing her solo and then tuck herself back into the choir just beside me and then sing the alto part with us! What a buzz! a joy! to sing next to a really great singer. Ahh, I can’t really even describe it. I’ll link to her web page. I’ve been listening to her singing on Spotify – so wonderful. The world is still full of beautiful things.
Jeremy’s been walking with Elka off leash in some of the woods behind the house these days. Yesterday, Elka found two bones! She’s such a sweetie, she’ll give them up if you ask her to. Deer? That’s what we came up with – not chicken, not bear, not a cow.
Jeremy managed to go on a bike ride this weekend. It was a nice, social weekend. Meghan (a colleague of Jeremy’s, not Edda’s teacher) came over on Saturday night. It was a really nice time – Jeremy made a delicious chicken meal from a childhood cookbook which had notations from his mother indicating that this particular recipe was delicious (and it was!). We discussed various political things (which did not send Jeremy in to a funk…I think it depends on the person he’s talking to) and also about home renovations and pets. I really love Mehgan’s energy, I’m always looking for good energy.
I had a really wonderful time singing this weekend at church and now I think, I’m pretty set as part of the financial committee, so I’m excited about it. I got to handle money that isn’t mine on Sunday, trying to learn the ins/out about a budget that is about 10x bigger than my own household budget. As far as I can tell, the books are great, the accounting is clean, lots of people are looking at it and it’s fun. And then you get to decide together how to spend the $. Also fun.
We went out to dinner with Megan at Main Street last night. It was winter Olympics themed. We showed up a bit late, so we sat a little bit on the side and participated less in the group activities, though we were very chatty with a few of the residents. Matthew sat with us for a bit, but then he moved to another spot and then Naomi came by and kept us company. It was boneless chicken wings from BWW. Sometimes the meals at friday vibes come up a little scant, so we had plans to have dessert afterwards. Shhhh.. Our goal tonight was to give out birthday invitations (which turn me a little shy, I get nervous inviting people to stuff… sherah, they are on the table in the photo and everyone admired them…oooohhh, ahhhhh….) and we did pass them out – though the first three were immediately turned down for the following reasons: 1. I will be in New Zealand 2. I will be working 3. I have horseback riding lessons.
And then we walked down the street to Ben and Jerry’s – just the four of us to have ice cream (well Megan had a hot chocolate).
So I really enjoy baking and trying new recipes, but it’s hard to have all the cookies and cakes around the house because you just want to eat them all. So I decided that I’ll try new recipes on the weeks I’m singing in the choir and then it’ll be a chance to share when I bring them to church.
I should flip this photo.
I made these oatmeal iced cookies. I added a bit of chopped cherries in them. I also used only 3/4 of the recited sugar as is my nature. (I’m turning into my parents – as one does when one grows older. My mom likes to cut the sugar in recipes too.) I sheepishly told Jeremy that I used only 75% of the sugar and he looked at me and was like – you totally couldn’t help yourself could you. And I said that I had to do it. Jeremy was like – make smaller cookies if you want the serving to have less sugar. And I was like – I don’t want to make smaller cookies! I know when I’m messing with the sugar, I am messing with texture vs crispness vs chewiness vs caramel-iness. Anyways, I am my mother’s daughter and the highest compliment a dessert can have it – it’s not too sweet! lol.
They are suppose to be all cracked and craggy looking with the icing not completely in the cracks. Felix wanted a few without cherries, so his are in the back with sprinkles the color of the swedish flag. Lets see if some of them make it to the service tomorrow.
Photographic evidence of Felix! I took him to an art store yesterday – a store I’ve never been to before, but only 10 minutes from the house. (There are lots of places I haven’t been to within 10 minutes of the house). He needed charcoal for art projects this week. It’s fun to watch him shop and deliberate about supporting small businesses vs spending his very limited money. I am completely sympathetic to these impulses and feelings and it’s all one big contradiction. I loved this little non-chain shop, so I bought a little dot grid notebook that I will use in the future (I use a paper notebook everyday).
My real errand wasn’t the art shop, rather it was the dog park. Elka waited patiently in the car during the shopping errand. Felix is a very good tennis ball thrower. It’s obvious that Elka has no idea what the word “ball” means.
Because of the desire of actually experiencing Korean BBQ for dinner, we all went out with my parents to a place 5 minutes from the house in a shopping center which had incredibly difficult parking at 6 pm on Thursday. We found a single spot, tucked in the back and we only lucked out because it was a handicapped spot. This was an incredible meat-filled meal. Felix, who lives in a mostly vegetarian household, was both a little taken aback and enchanted. It was delicious and satisfying. There were some veggies but the weight ratio meat:veggie was like 156:1, the volume ratio might have been slightly better. Felix lamented that all this protein was wasted on a rest day (from weightlifting) and thus muscle building. Fun.
I was late showing up to choir practice – but only by 5 minutes. I asked Jeremy to drop me off at church and that I would either walk home or bum a ride. So many people were there! I remember on practice where I was one of 4 altos, but tonight, there were easily 10 altos. I’m having a lot of fun singing. Arabic, Latin, english, – so many different styles. And my friend Claudinna gave me a ride home.
Spring is in the air. It got up to 65 yesterday and my spirits were lifted. The daffodils are coming out of the ground in the backyard. Last year, I planted a bunch more bulbs and crocuses in the front, we’ll see if anything happens. We are doing well on getting out of the house and being with other people even though it is 10,000x easier to stay at home. Jeremy made it to DC at least twice this week, once for an evening happy hour and today for coffee. I went to a finance committee meeting Tuesday night, volunteering at a photo shoot Wed morning at Main Street and then to vespers on Wed night. There are too many people now who know my name and I don’t know theirs because I don’t practice remembering names, but I will try.
Elka continues to brighten our day and takes us out for walks, which we all appreciate.
Sorry! I usually don’t take such a long blogging break, but I’ve been enjoying myself. Felix has been here and it’s been a bit trying to get him employed, health insurance, bank accounts, IDs, voter registration. He’s taking driver’s ed and hopefully by the end of this experience he’ll be licensed to drive in the US. He’s into weightlifting, so he’s been eating all the protein powder and creatine along with Jeremy and so.many.eggs. I think we need to buy 4 dozen a week, so that’s a lot of eggs. We’ve also been navigating stuff with our jobs (which seem to remain intact), but lots of things have changed and we needed to readjust. And Edda’s stuff is motoring and moving forward and quickly – lots of meetings and paperwork I’m wading through. And I’m rethinking about what I want to do for the next chunk of time – I’m exploring taking a part-time nursing gig again, maybe community nursing or hospice, or volunteering more for the unitarians, or.. who knows?
Kristen and I took last weekend and headed to Pennsylvania for a weekend yoga retreat. I’ve never been to a retreat like this before, so I just looked around the internet and found one last year and, as it turned out, we were the first ones to sign up last fall. About 20 women showed up at this retreat center. Kristen was nice enough to do the driving!
It was shared accomodations with about 12 “bunks” and 2 shared showers, but the bunks were as private as bunks could be. Kristen took the top bunk which had a skylight to the stars and because I have a rule now of no top bunks for Doris.
But I did crawl up to the top bunk to hang out sometimes. There’s a curtain to draw for privacy.
All the bunks were along one side, so when your curtain was open, you didn’t see anyone else and had a gorgeous view of the mountain. It was VERY COLD the first night, I think the heaters had a tough time keeping up and we all wore our sweatpants and sweatshirts to bed, but the 2nd night was perfect.
Four sessions of yoga, one friday night, one sat morning, one sat evening and one sun morning. The entire thing was nice, the food was good and filling. I was just a tad too old for this retreat. Or at least I felt old, everyone was very nice – no one made me feel old except for myself. Most of the women there had kids from about 1-12 and were hiding a bit from them. Haha, I remember that feeling. The women look so young! Was I that young when I had kids? I guess so. All worried about little things like missed tooth fairy visits to big things like how the hell to buy a house now that is not outrageously expensive, is not a dump and in a reasonable school district. I just want to give my 30-40 year old self a great big hug and all these women too!
There was an art session. I will leave it up to you to figure out which one is mine.
After the retreat was over at about 10 am on Sunday, Kristen took about an hour to walk around the property and talk.
There were so many interesting ice formations on the small creek which we spent some time throwing rocks at.
On Sunday, we drove to the MD/PA border to see a 100 acre plot of land that my parents own. It’s about 90 minutes from our house – it’s completely undeveloped – and we haven’t been in a while. My parents are going to have the trees harvested from the land in the next few years so it’s kind of nice to see it before that happens. I haven’t seen it in about 10 years. My parents have owned this for about 40 years. I remember coming up as a child and being pretty bored about the entire thing, but yesterday, I was a little enchanted by it. And realizing that 100 acres square is less than 1/4 mile on each side, so…not enormous. I could explore it pretty easily, running through it and the skills I have from orienteering would allow me to map it with landmarks.
I bought Elka this backseat car cover so it doesn’t get muddy after trips to the dog park. We are loving the public dog park. I’m starting to make friends at the public dog park – I tried to not be too friendly at the paid dog park…it’s complicated.
Jeremy’s out of town on Valentine’s Day, so we celebrated on Friday night the three of us. We had a *wonderful* dinner at this new Italian place I found in the neighborhood. Perfect, like not at all crowded when we sat down at 5:30, but by the time we left an hour later, it was bustling, but not so crowded that you’d have to wait in line forever. I try to not eat carbs and cheese in the house, so when I go out, I want pizza and pasta. Sooo yummy.
We had two desserts including this delicious pistachio ricotta cake. Yummy. Thank you for being my valentine.
I volunteered with Megan at Main Street at her creativity club event. We made resin coasters. Sometimes I think something will take 15 minutes and then we’ll be sitting around for 45 minutes with nothing to do, but this took the entire hour. This was a great craft and I’m looking forward to my own coaster which I’m going to use as a plant dish. I’ve watched these resin videos on youtube, but never had a chance to try it myself.
