More books completed for Adult Summer Read. I've decided to start working my way through the pile of scifi we set aside for a possible literary analysis course for Thalia this coming school year.
6. Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. I think I've read this before, but I've absolutely, utterly forgotten it, except for There Will Come Soft Rains which I've read in some anthology somewhere in the past year or two.
One of the first stories, Ylla, reminded me of Italo Calvino (some of whose books I love). But, alas, as I kept reading I became more and more disenchanted. By the end of the book I was recalling that the reason I haven't read anything by Bradbury for years and years is because I don't like reading things by Bradbury. Many of the stories have a 1960s sitcom vibe -- very embedded in the time in which they were written. But where, say, The Beverly Hillbillies had a certain affection for its country yokels, Bradbury seems to dislike his characters. By the end of the book I'm not so sure Bradbury doesn't dislike most of humanity, including me, the reader. So he and I are even, I guess.
I could enjoy these as short stories read over several months. Plowing through the entire book at once, though, was ... annoying.
7. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I've never read this before. Wow. I absolutely loved it. Could barely put it down. I found myself mentally comparing it to other books I've read this summer. For example, the climax didn't come as much of a surprise, yet it was still thrilling to read how Card portrayed it; contrast that to Demon's Lexicon where the climax wasn't particularly surprising OR interesting by the time we got to it.
I was tempted to run out and get all the other books from the series out of the library, but I'm worried I'd be disappointed. What I enjoyed about the book is how the writing style meshed so well with the subject; the same writing style would probably be inappropriate for the next segment, so, what then? What if I dislike it, and then the magic is gone?
As a side note, I had left these 2 books out on an end table in the family room during the cast party Saturday night, thus discovering that one of the other moms is an absolute scifi addict. What fun! Too bad I was so exhausted that my brain was practically nonfunctional -- she was flinging authors names around a mile a minute, and I was staring into space trying to remember what the heck those people had written that I'd read. Totally drawing a blank. I woke up the next day with an entire list in my head of books I wanted to discuss with her, but the moment had passed, alas.
So, 70 percent of the books read, approximately 50 percent of the time elapsed (I'm staring at the calendar coming up with this thing lasting 11 weeks instead of the 12 weeks they say it lasts -- where am I missing a week?). I've started Ursula LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness (I thought I'd read it before, but it's not seeming very familiar) and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (definitely never read before, and seems pretty necessary for a scifi course), but I'm not sure I'll finish either any time soon. I might need to find another quick read in the meantime, just to pad the list with quantity -- I can worry about quality some other time.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Shakespeare Family Festival 2011
Time once again for the Shakespeare Family Festival at Millenium Park in Creve Coeur. Last year the festival lasted two days. This year the Powers That Be decided to try having it all on one day.
It seemed to work pretty well, particularly since the weather was about 30 degrees cooler than last year.
So, we had many of the same entertainments as last year, such face painting, crafts, fencing demos, the Tower Grove singers performing music of the era, and people dressed as Shakespearean characters:
And at 11am we had a performance of Comedy of Errors:
Then an break for the early afternoon where the concession stands shut down and the various performers took some time off (many of the kids in the play went to someone's house for a swimming party, which I heard was fairly crazy).
Then the fair resumed at 6pm with Morris dancers, roving musicians:
the Classical Guitar Society
Only one clown this year, but he's very noticeable:
Then the mayor of Creve Coeur welcomed us all
And we had another performance of Comedy of Errors
After the bows
the kids struck the set and the concessions packed up. I got all the costumes (I have become Official Costume Transportation over the past couple of years), lightening and thunder started as they were loading the pieces of the set onto the truck, we packed kids into cars
and everyone came to our house for the cast party.
(very small sampling -- I think we had about 30 people running in and out, up and down the stairs)
Which was supposed to last until 11:30, but accidentally lasted until 1am.
What a day. Can't wait until next year! And if you live around here, you really should stop by next time. Free admission, and lots of fun.
It seemed to work pretty well, particularly since the weather was about 30 degrees cooler than last year.
So, we had many of the same entertainments as last year, such face painting, crafts, fencing demos, the Tower Grove singers performing music of the era, and people dressed as Shakespearean characters:
And at 11am we had a performance of Comedy of Errors:
Then an break for the early afternoon where the concession stands shut down and the various performers took some time off (many of the kids in the play went to someone's house for a swimming party, which I heard was fairly crazy).
Then the fair resumed at 6pm with Morris dancers, roving musicians:
the Classical Guitar Society
Only one clown this year, but he's very noticeable:
Then the mayor of Creve Coeur welcomed us all
And we had another performance of Comedy of Errors
After the bows
the kids struck the set and the concessions packed up. I got all the costumes (I have become Official Costume Transportation over the past couple of years), lightening and thunder started as they were loading the pieces of the set onto the truck, we packed kids into cars
and everyone came to our house for the cast party.
(very small sampling -- I think we had about 30 people running in and out, up and down the stairs)
Which was supposed to last until 11:30, but accidentally lasted until 1am.
What a day. Can't wait until next year! And if you live around here, you really should stop by next time. Free admission, and lots of fun.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
More Lunches
Okay, right now I'm peeved at an insurance company (Allstate), so I'm going to breathe slowly and think about something bland, like what we've packed in the bento boxes the past couple of days.
The kids were really impressed with the look of the Chicken Kijiyaki Bento in The Just Bento Cookbook, but I wasn't really inclined to actually MAKE Chicken Kijiyaki. We decided that it bore a strong visual resemblance to chicken drummies, so we decided to use the package of frozen crispy, spicy chicken wings we had from Trader Joe's (I don't recall the actual name of the wings and have thrown out the package).
Thalia also wanted the cucumber and turnip salad with yuza, except I've no clue where to find yuza around here and wasn't interested in running all over town looking, so I used lime instead since we usually have plenty of limes in the house. Also note that I figured the kids wouldn't want the sliced pan-steamed sweet potato, so I used the stash of mini-muffins. And for fruit we used raspberries and blueberries, mostly because they're in season.
For Annabeth I just chopped up baby cucumbers, since she thinks these salad-type things Thalia is trying are weird.
Then today was the quick-and-easy Orange Mandarin Chicken from Trader Joe's.
Sliced red peppers and chopped green onions for garnish on the chicken, rice, and some chopped up apple for a fruit.
Okay, I'm fairly sure my head isn't going to actually explode as long as no one says the word "Allstate", particularly if I can find something else to distract me, like, say, vigorous, vengeful housecleaning. Thus we move ahead through our days....
The kids were really impressed with the look of the Chicken Kijiyaki Bento in The Just Bento Cookbook, but I wasn't really inclined to actually MAKE Chicken Kijiyaki. We decided that it bore a strong visual resemblance to chicken drummies, so we decided to use the package of frozen crispy, spicy chicken wings we had from Trader Joe's (I don't recall the actual name of the wings and have thrown out the package).
Thalia also wanted the cucumber and turnip salad with yuza, except I've no clue where to find yuza around here and wasn't interested in running all over town looking, so I used lime instead since we usually have plenty of limes in the house. Also note that I figured the kids wouldn't want the sliced pan-steamed sweet potato, so I used the stash of mini-muffins. And for fruit we used raspberries and blueberries, mostly because they're in season.
For Annabeth I just chopped up baby cucumbers, since she thinks these salad-type things Thalia is trying are weird.
Then today was the quick-and-easy Orange Mandarin Chicken from Trader Joe's.
Sliced red peppers and chopped green onions for garnish on the chicken, rice, and some chopped up apple for a fruit.
Okay, I'm fairly sure my head isn't going to actually explode as long as no one says the word "Allstate", particularly if I can find something else to distract me, like, say, vigorous, vengeful housecleaning. Thus we move ahead through our days....
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Lunches
B: So, is your mom Japanese?
My kids: Uh, no ... and you've met our mom before, remember?
B: Well, she keeps making all these bentos, so I just wondered.
Monday the kids each took basically the same thing -- mini-burgers, cheese flowers, veggies, grapes plus blueberries (on sale for a really good price last week), rice.
The rice has a face because when I asked Thalia what she wanted in a bento (as opposed to a plain ol' sack lunch) she said, "food with faces on it." Which certainly wasn't the answer I was expecting.
The mini-burgers were based on the Idea from The Just Bento Cookbook by Makiko Itoh, which suggested that they be made more like little meatloafs, with bread crumbs and egg, since that way they wouldn't be so tough and dry when they were served room temperature. She also suggested that they could be wrapped in bacon and fried up that way, so we tried that for Annabeth's:
She said it was really sort of disturbing when it came time to eat them. But it was pretty easy to just take the bacon off and eat the burger plain. Both kids had a side container of Ranch dip.
On Tuesdays they are allowed to bring peanuts and tree nuts into the building (those are outlawed on MWF due to allergies of another student in the building those days). Annabeth wanted an almond-butter-and-jelly sandwich, so I made a couple out of thin sliced bread, then cut them into butterflies. Down below on the "ground" are tulips made out of hotdogs, skewered with cucumber leaves, and a couple of apple-slice bunnies nestled in lettuce leaves. Some grapes and grape tomatoes fill in some of the gaps. A garden theme.
Thalia wanted something more exotic, so she selected a box pretty much straight out of the Just Bento cookbook:
Soba noodles with nori strip garnish; also toasted sesame seeds and snipped green onion for garnish (I put these in Saran wrap because I didn't have any appropriate little containers). A hardboiled egg -- first time I tried cutting one so fancy, which was sort of fun (she was supposed to do it herself this morning, but by the time everyone got showered and dressed I'd already done it -- Annabeth was covered in paint from painting sets yesterday, and it's held up to repeated showers and scrubbing). Slaw of cabbage and crab. Grape tomatoes. An extra apple bunny (I wrapped this in Saran wrap also since I didn't trust the slaw to keep to itself during travel). A side container of dipping sauce made from dashi stock and kaeshi. THIS was the type of thing I expected her to ask for -- she's more adventurous about food than Annabeth. But they're both trying new things this week, so that's great.
My kids: Uh, no ... and you've met our mom before, remember?
B: Well, she keeps making all these bentos, so I just wondered.
Monday the kids each took basically the same thing -- mini-burgers, cheese flowers, veggies, grapes plus blueberries (on sale for a really good price last week), rice.
The rice has a face because when I asked Thalia what she wanted in a bento (as opposed to a plain ol' sack lunch) she said, "food with faces on it." Which certainly wasn't the answer I was expecting.
The mini-burgers were based on the Idea from The Just Bento Cookbook by Makiko Itoh, which suggested that they be made more like little meatloafs, with bread crumbs and egg, since that way they wouldn't be so tough and dry when they were served room temperature. She also suggested that they could be wrapped in bacon and fried up that way, so we tried that for Annabeth's:
She said it was really sort of disturbing when it came time to eat them. But it was pretty easy to just take the bacon off and eat the burger plain. Both kids had a side container of Ranch dip.
On Tuesdays they are allowed to bring peanuts and tree nuts into the building (those are outlawed on MWF due to allergies of another student in the building those days). Annabeth wanted an almond-butter-and-jelly sandwich, so I made a couple out of thin sliced bread, then cut them into butterflies. Down below on the "ground" are tulips made out of hotdogs, skewered with cucumber leaves, and a couple of apple-slice bunnies nestled in lettuce leaves. Some grapes and grape tomatoes fill in some of the gaps. A garden theme.
Thalia wanted something more exotic, so she selected a box pretty much straight out of the Just Bento cookbook:
Soba noodles with nori strip garnish; also toasted sesame seeds and snipped green onion for garnish (I put these in Saran wrap because I didn't have any appropriate little containers). A hardboiled egg -- first time I tried cutting one so fancy, which was sort of fun (she was supposed to do it herself this morning, but by the time everyone got showered and dressed I'd already done it -- Annabeth was covered in paint from painting sets yesterday, and it's held up to repeated showers and scrubbing). Slaw of cabbage and crab. Grape tomatoes. An extra apple bunny (I wrapped this in Saran wrap also since I didn't trust the slaw to keep to itself during travel). A side container of dipping sauce made from dashi stock and kaeshi. THIS was the type of thing I expected her to ask for -- she's more adventurous about food than Annabeth. But they're both trying new things this week, so that's great.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Weekend
Sleeping in to the decadently late time of 6:30am Saturday morning, I awoke with a start when Rick asked, "Is that the tornado siren?" I couldn't tell over the sound of the storm outside and the sound of the fan inside, so I went a window to listen. No siren. But I decided to check the weather maps since the tour bus was driving through the night to get home that morning, and I wondered if they were in the wicked weather. (Side note: they drove through the night partially in order to save money on a hotel stay, partially to get home earlier.)
Let's see, their estimated time of arrival is 10am, so they should be just east of Kansas City now ... the map shows KC is clear, so they must be on the west side of the storm ... the worst of it should be past us by the time they get here.
About 5 minutes later the phone rang. "Hey, Mom? We're passing the mall now, just to let you know. We'll need to unload stuff when we get to the church, though, so no big rush."
Apparently the tour leader likes to pad her trip estimates quite a bit (her daughter was chastising her about this, saying she does this every single time they drive home from Colorado. "But we had to change bus drivers this time, so I added more time." "Mom, it doesn't take 2 hours to change a bus driver!")
Anyway, the kids were all home safely. They had slept some on the bus overnight, so Thalia was reasonably coherent. And after she unpacked and we started laundry we took a trip to Animeggroll to get bento supplies. Thalia had been wanting to go there, and this was the only time we could go that they were actually open in about a 3 week span.
In addition to a beach towel from a favorite manga, she selected a bento set:
bento box, chopsticks, and bag. I know I've seen this one on Amazon.com because I remember the reviews commenting on the mysterious wording on the top:
Lube Sheep? Really? Boggles the mind.
And Annabeth got a new 2 tiered box that matches her old box and bag, plus we found the matching chopsticks:
which has the more sensible phrase of
on it. We also saw this one on Amazon.com, but would rather support a local merchant. Plus it was cheaper at Animeggroll, plus that instant gratification thing. So, a big win.
Then, having satisfied our bento "needs", the kids sort of hung around the rest of the day while we go usual Saturday stuff done, although no yardwork due to all the rain and storms.
That night I took Thalia, Annabeth, and a friend to the park in St. Charles to see Much Ado About Nothing.
Pretty good crowd, thousands upon thousands of mosquitoes, and, wow, it was insanely muddy -- standing water in spots. But we enjoyed the show. Dogberry and the watchmen were FANTASTIC -- definitely our favorites of the evening.
I'd forgotten how angsty the play gets in spots. Sheesh. Scene from Hero's wedding and supposed death:
The last time we saw this particular play was a high school dress rehearsal for a Shakespeare-in-a-week performance, and we were struck by the fact that 1. it's much more fun to watch when everyone remembers their lines, as they did this weekend (which I should've said more loudly in earshot of Antipholus of Syracuse, who was with us and will undoubtably forget his lines during Comedy of Errors next week), and 2. we actually thought the high school Benedick was better in the part, interestingly.
Then up the next morning for the final performance of the 2011 choir tour
which was also the final performance ever for this director, who is now moving on to other things. The performance was fantastic, reflecting that the kids had been on the road with it for a week -- it had that amazing energy you get at the end of a good run of a show. And was followed by a reception for the director.
Father's Day was spent relaxing, playing Stratego, and going to the pool. Good weekend overall, but many complaints of tiredness and sleepiness this Monday morning. Woops.
Let's see, their estimated time of arrival is 10am, so they should be just east of Kansas City now ... the map shows KC is clear, so they must be on the west side of the storm ... the worst of it should be past us by the time they get here.
About 5 minutes later the phone rang. "Hey, Mom? We're passing the mall now, just to let you know. We'll need to unload stuff when we get to the church, though, so no big rush."
Apparently the tour leader likes to pad her trip estimates quite a bit (her daughter was chastising her about this, saying she does this every single time they drive home from Colorado. "But we had to change bus drivers this time, so I added more time." "Mom, it doesn't take 2 hours to change a bus driver!")
Anyway, the kids were all home safely. They had slept some on the bus overnight, so Thalia was reasonably coherent. And after she unpacked and we started laundry we took a trip to Animeggroll to get bento supplies. Thalia had been wanting to go there, and this was the only time we could go that they were actually open in about a 3 week span.
In addition to a beach towel from a favorite manga, she selected a bento set:
bento box, chopsticks, and bag. I know I've seen this one on Amazon.com because I remember the reviews commenting on the mysterious wording on the top:
Lube Sheep? Really? Boggles the mind.
And Annabeth got a new 2 tiered box that matches her old box and bag, plus we found the matching chopsticks:
which has the more sensible phrase of
on it. We also saw this one on Amazon.com, but would rather support a local merchant. Plus it was cheaper at Animeggroll, plus that instant gratification thing. So, a big win.
Then, having satisfied our bento "needs", the kids sort of hung around the rest of the day while we go usual Saturday stuff done, although no yardwork due to all the rain and storms.
That night I took Thalia, Annabeth, and a friend to the park in St. Charles to see Much Ado About Nothing.
Pretty good crowd, thousands upon thousands of mosquitoes, and, wow, it was insanely muddy -- standing water in spots. But we enjoyed the show. Dogberry and the watchmen were FANTASTIC -- definitely our favorites of the evening.
I'd forgotten how angsty the play gets in spots. Sheesh. Scene from Hero's wedding and supposed death:
The last time we saw this particular play was a high school dress rehearsal for a Shakespeare-in-a-week performance, and we were struck by the fact that 1. it's much more fun to watch when everyone remembers their lines, as they did this weekend (which I should've said more loudly in earshot of Antipholus of Syracuse, who was with us and will undoubtably forget his lines during Comedy of Errors next week), and 2. we actually thought the high school Benedick was better in the part, interestingly.
Then up the next morning for the final performance of the 2011 choir tour
which was also the final performance ever for this director, who is now moving on to other things. The performance was fantastic, reflecting that the kids had been on the road with it for a week -- it had that amazing energy you get at the end of a good run of a show. And was followed by a reception for the director.
Father's Day was spent relaxing, playing Stratego, and going to the pool. Good weekend overall, but many complaints of tiredness and sleepiness this Monday morning. Woops.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Friday's Lunch
When we remodeled the kitchen a couple of years ago I streamlined what I put back insofar as gadgets, pots and pans were concerned. And I apparently got rid of the mini-muffin pans, little realizing that less than 2 years later I'd be baking batches of them while thinking about how much easier my life would be if I had a bunch of nori punches and silicon baran tucked away in the drawers. So much for streamlining.
But I found a fairly cheap new muffin pan at Walmart, and have moved ahead. Another of Annabeth's favorite foods is cornbread. So, why not tiny little corn muffins? And, while we're at it, why not some little banana mini-chocolate chip mini-muffins?
So today we have 2 of each kind of muffin -- the brighter yellow are the corn muffins, which have been carefully split and spread with butter, then reassembled (by Annabeth).
Also, celery sticks, a hotdog cut in half and made into 2 octopi (only eyes for a face per her request), grapes and blueberries, and a couple of monty jack stars. I offered a side container of dips -- ranch for the celery or ketchup/mustard for the hotdog -- but she declined.
I froze the muffins for use as the weather heats back up (that would be today and tomorrow) but she ate a ton of them anyway, giving them a quick thaw in the microwave. Wow, mini-muffins are so fun to eat. What was I thinking when I got rid of those pans?
But I found a fairly cheap new muffin pan at Walmart, and have moved ahead. Another of Annabeth's favorite foods is cornbread. So, why not tiny little corn muffins? And, while we're at it, why not some little banana mini-chocolate chip mini-muffins?
So today we have 2 of each kind of muffin -- the brighter yellow are the corn muffins, which have been carefully split and spread with butter, then reassembled (by Annabeth).
Also, celery sticks, a hotdog cut in half and made into 2 octopi (only eyes for a face per her request), grapes and blueberries, and a couple of monty jack stars. I offered a side container of dips -- ranch for the celery or ketchup/mustard for the hotdog -- but she declined.
I froze the muffins for use as the weather heats back up (that would be today and tomorrow) but she ate a ton of them anyway, giving them a quick thaw in the microwave. Wow, mini-muffins are so fun to eat. What was I thinking when I got rid of those pans?
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Prissy Food
We're now in the midst of Shakespeare camp, which meets all day MWF this week, then daily next week. This means the kids (or this week "the kid" since Thalia is currently in Denver where she sings somewhere at noon, then goes to Estes Park to perform tonight) need to pack a lunch, which is sort of a novelty for homeschoolers.
Another novelty this week -- cooler weather. We're talking a high of 78F, which is about 20 degrees cooler than last week. That means we can use the oven without worrying about how much we're heating up the house.
So I decided to prep some things for Annabeth's lunches this week. Given that her favorite foods are potatoes, cheese, and bacon, I had the inspiration to make some miniature twice baked potatoes out of size B red potatoes.
I based this loosely on the directions here except I didn't bother slicing anything off of the bottoms -- my potatoes were pretty flat. And I simply stuffed them with things I knew Annabeth would use on her own potatoes -- she prefers Monterey Jack, for example, and feels any sort of onion or chives are an abomination. Also, bacon makes everything better in our household. And all the proportions were eyeballed.
I didn't tell her about this until this morning when I packed it all up in the Bento box:
Also appearing with the 3 potato halves: blanched broccoli, stars cut out of Monterey Jack, and grapes (which are actually the most astounding part of the lunch considering the U.S. grapes aren't in the stores yet and I usually don't buy imported fruit).
She ate one of the potatoes for breakfast, and gave it a thumbs up, saying she couldn't wait until lunch. I'll freeze the rest of the potatoes for future lunches.
Coming up: whatever happened to those mini-muffin pans we used to have?
Another novelty this week -- cooler weather. We're talking a high of 78F, which is about 20 degrees cooler than last week. That means we can use the oven without worrying about how much we're heating up the house.
So I decided to prep some things for Annabeth's lunches this week. Given that her favorite foods are potatoes, cheese, and bacon, I had the inspiration to make some miniature twice baked potatoes out of size B red potatoes.
I based this loosely on the directions here except I didn't bother slicing anything off of the bottoms -- my potatoes were pretty flat. And I simply stuffed them with things I knew Annabeth would use on her own potatoes -- she prefers Monterey Jack, for example, and feels any sort of onion or chives are an abomination. Also, bacon makes everything better in our household. And all the proportions were eyeballed.
I didn't tell her about this until this morning when I packed it all up in the Bento box:
Also appearing with the 3 potato halves: blanched broccoli, stars cut out of Monterey Jack, and grapes (which are actually the most astounding part of the lunch considering the U.S. grapes aren't in the stores yet and I usually don't buy imported fruit).
She ate one of the potatoes for breakfast, and gave it a thumbs up, saying she couldn't wait until lunch. I'll freeze the rest of the potatoes for future lunches.
Coming up: whatever happened to those mini-muffin pans we used to have?
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