Wow! It's been a while

Well, here's an update or part of of an update—

We finally finished the remodel of the house. Well we aren't 100% finished, border and quarter round needed in the master bedroom, quarter round in part of the living room, and the walls of the media room are plain white still. But, and this is important, there is no more drywall dust and we have closets again—no more living out of totes.

In this process we whittled clothes down—I donated 33 garbage bags (the 8 gallon ones) of clothes to DI (Deseret Industries, like the Salvation Army, but through the LDS church).

The whole family has lost weight—combined is over 100 pounds!

Deirdre graduated from eighth grade and is now a freshman at Manti High School. She has a heavy load with English 9 Honors, Geometry Honors, Orchestra, Biology, Architectural Drafting (which is a concurrent enrollment class as a junior she can get college credit for the class), World Geography, and Spanish 1. However, even with this load she rarely has homework and still has a 4.0.

I have taken the year off from the U. I will return for the summer term and then at least one more semester after that. This has been a good thing as the high school is starting the accreditation process again and I have been assigned to help our provisional teachers (those who are in their first three years of teaching) get their portfolios in place so that they may earn their Level 2 license.

Jeff has been busy teaching and writing php code for people all over the world.

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"Yet another one bites the dust"

How sad Lynn Redgrave has died. She was only 67 and had, unbeknownst to me, been battling breast cancer for seven years. A write-up can be found here. There is a great quote in the article, "It was always, 'Corin's the brain, Vanessa the shining star, oh, and then there's Lynn." I'm sure that wasn't the case, well I'm not sure since I didn't know her or the family, but… probably not the case really.

Probably awful of me to use that title, but those lyrics just popped into my head and off I went.


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Hannah's List

When I'm in the right mood, I really enjoy Debbie Macomber's books. She writes contemporary romances with little to no sex and more on the light-hearted side. The Romance Dish blog has a give-away going on right now, well until May 9, for a free copy of Macomber's latest hardcover Hannah's List. The contest can be found here.

Set in Seattle, like so many of her other books, Macomber revisits some of her previous characters from Summer on Blossom Street, Twenty Wishes, Back on Blossom Street, and other Blossom Street books, in this book about widower Michael Everett. The reviews of this book have been mixed. The majority of reviewers like the book, but have questioned some of the sub-plots and the quick wrap up of them. I guess I'll have to read it for myself and find out if they are right. Here's hoping I win a copy from The Romance Dish.

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New SU information

I have just posted on my craft site some great new information about Stampin' Up's changes. You can access that post here.


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Family

I have family visiting, which is either good or bad. My niece and her husband are here for tonight and tomorrow from Colorado. My parents are also here, but until Monday morning. We are probably headed up to Hogle Zoo tomorrow. We have never been although D and I pass the turn off every time we go to gymnastics at the U. The zoo has a baby elephant, so I'm sort of excited.

My house is semi-clean. I have two bathrooms that are okay and part of the living room is actually walkable. I'll see how much more I can get done tomorrow morning.

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The ABC's of me

I saw this on Southern Belle Mama's blog and I'm stealing it for today's post. Here's a bit about me:

The ABCs of ME!

A. AGE: old (44)
B. BED SIZE: queen...used to have a king, but it fell apart
C. CHORE YOU HATE: Cleaning, all of it, bathrooms especially
D. DOG'S NAME: no dog never ever
E. ESSENTIAL "START THE DAY!" ITEM: A shower and coffee!
F. FAVORITE COLOR: Purple...and green.
G. GOLD OR SILVER: Silver
H. HEIGHT: 5' 6
I. INSTRUMENTS YOU PLAY: Nope nothing, recorder in seventh and eighth grade
J. JOB TITLE: English teacher, full-time graduate student, Girl Scout leader/Service Unit Director, wife, mother
K. KIDS: Un— Deirdre
L. LIVING ARRANGEMENTS: We live in the house we built 15 1/2 years ago. They started digging the foundation the Friday before Memorial Day weekend of 1994.
M. MOM'S NAME: Caroline
N. NICKNAME: Kate
O. OVERNIGHT HOSPITAL STAY: 3 April 1973 for Rhy's Syndrome (nearly died), Dec. 1996 (D was born), and June 2001 (Pneumonia) I think that's it
P. PET PEEVES: People who can't DRIVE!!!!
Q. QUOTE FROM A MOVIE: "I'll be back!" in Arnold's voice of course
R. RIGHTY OR LEFTY?: Right, but except for writing, pretty much ambidextrous
S. SIBLINGS: Older sister
T. TIME YOU WAKE UP: 5:45 A.M.
U. UNDERWEAR: TMI. I'll just say yes.
V. VEGGIE YOU DISLIKE: CELERY!
W. WAY/ REASONS YOU ARE LATE: I am always trying to do too much
X. XRAYS YOU'VE HAD: Really? Too many—both ankles many times, knees, hips, left shoulder/collarbone, ribs, teeth, whole head, left wrist (not at the same time as the left shoulder/collarbone), right index finger
Y. YUMMY FOOD YOU MAKE: Lemon bars, turta (cheesy pasta dish that we all call turtle), banana nut bread
Z. ZOO ANIMALS YOU LIKE: Elephants, cat family

Now you know just a bit more randomness about me! Happy Thursday!

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Musings on deer

Yesterday morning on the way to work I spotted a deer sitting in the barrow pit to the east of highway 89. It was looking around watching birds flitting and cars driving. I thought it was sort of odd to just be sitting there and I did wonder if it had been injured or had the wind knocked out it.

This morning as I drove near the same spot, there was the deer. Unfortunately it had died. Unlike the majority of dead deer on the side of the road that stare at you accusingly, this one had put its head down as though to take a nap. Only one ear stuck up. At first glance I did think that it was asleep, but something in the way the body looked suggested that it was dead. I was certainly not going to stop and check on it.

For some reason this deer's death made me sad. I mean I'm sort of sad when they get hit by cars or trucks, but for the most part I realize that fast moving objects that weigh a lot are going to win when it comes to a car/truck and deer show-down. This deer's death reminded me of two deer from several years ago. In about the same place, there were two deer curled up in the barrow pit. One was clearly guarding the other one. Neither one was small, so it probably wasn't a mother/fawn situation. The next day though they were both gone. I assumed that one had been hit but not badly injured or just had the air knocked out it.

I think that looking at deer is quite nice. I'm not fond of all the hunting that takes place around here in the fall, but have grown used to the idea. I hate the deer though that decide to run in front of my car when driving. I can't remember exactly where yesterday on I-15 (up north in Utah Valley, I think) there was a dead deer on the road between the highway and an on ramp. It was in a fairly populated area, so I am sure that both the deer and the driver were quite surprised when they encountered each other.

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Pictures of The Nutty Nutcracker

I asked Mark Goldweber for permission to put a couple of pictures from The Nutty Nutcracker on my blog. I took two because they represent probably my favorite parts.

Jason Linsley as Dr. "Disco" Drosselmeyer and his Disco Nephew (I don't have my cast list with me for his name) in Act I. Jason was screamingly funny (see here)

This scene was one of D's and mine favorite. Christopher Ruud and Christinia Bennett as the Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier are in the background. Rex Tilton as the Mouse King and Alexander MacFarlan as an unconscious Nutcracker in the foreground, while the ladies-in-waiting with their Groucho Marx masks look on.

All of the pictures were taken by Mark Goldweber. The costumes and scenary are property of Ballet West. These pictures originated at "West Point" Ballet West's blog.

The Nutty Nutcracker

Last year (2008), Ballet West started a new tradition of showing The Nutty Nutcracker . This performance has all of the traditional dancing, with a few tweaks here and there, but the largest fun is all the large changes that are made. H mm let me see what were some of those many changes—

Prologue and Act I:

• Jason Linsley as Disco Drosselmeyer. Yes that's right, a huge afro, in-line skates for the transformation scene and a rubber chicken were just a few of the changes that Jason made.
• The party girls received horns for Christmas and the party boys dolls. Yes, they were quite confused, but it all worked out in the end.
• No formal waltzing in this Nutcracker, instead it was boogie down the line with a disco ball twirling overhead.
• How can I forget Kate Crews Linsley and Christopher Anderson with their darling "daughter" as an 80's ski couple who invade Victorian England.
• John Frazer as the grandfather who walks through the beginnings of the snow scene for that last cup of eggnog (the alcoholic kind) that he had been denied during the party scene.
• Or the bear who curls up with his teddy bear at the edge of the stage for the entire snow scene.
• Snowflakes with jingle bells, that jingled in time to the music no less, and reindeer antlers. The snow cavalier with a top hat and cane.

Act II:

• All of the ladies-in-waiting had Groucho Marx masks on.
• The very best was Chris Ruud and Christina Bennett texting and doing nails while the Nutcracker Prince told the story of the first act. It must be so hard to not want to do that during regular performances.
• No cakes with a dancer on the top in this production—cheese for the Mouse King, popcorn for Clara, and pizza for Chris R.
  
• The Mouse King and Nutcracker Prince and their on-going fight. Rex Tilton as the Mouse King was fantastic. "I'll be back" "I told you I'd be back" and the white flag of truce.
  
• Chris Sellars, again as the lead Russian, this time an over-weighted lead Russian. He runs on stage jumps up in the air, and lands, but wait…he is exhausted and the music must wait for him to catch his breath. Later in the finale he has to be helped off stage. Too too funny
• Not one, but three Sugar Plum Fairies and their cavaliers (Chris R. and Christiana, Tom and Annie, and Elizabeth and Chris A.). Well choreographed changes were done to accommodate the three sets of dancers.
• Alison DeBona as a bumble bee flitting through the Waltz of the Flowers was fantastic.
• Tyler Gum as Waldo who appeared through-out the entire production was great. Seeing him do Russian in blue-jeans was marvelous too.

Of course there was beautiful dancing done by all. And lovely music conducted by Terence Kern. Can't wait for next year and those changes.

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