A bright new visitor!

The Huz and I love "our" birds. We have a big line of feeders outside (hence the regular visits from squirrels, and black bears in non-hibernating seasons -- see pictures here and here and here and here).

All the usual suspects come to the feeders daily (chickadees, titmice, goldfinches, nuthatches) and others a bit more sporadically (pine siskins, purple finches, sparrows, cardinals). In spring and fall we often get extended visits from rose-breasted grosbeaks, one of my favorite birds with their tuxedo plumage and red "bow tie". Other birds that come rarely and don't stay nearly long enough for our taste are evening grosbeaks and orioles.

But in the 15 years we've lived here, we've never seen a pine grosbeak before! The Huz spotted a couple of males, brightly noticeable against the white snow, under the feeders. While I was running for the Audubon bird identifying book, he called out that a female had landed. By the time I got to the window, seven or eight birds were there on the ground. Very exciting.

So of course I ran for my camera, but as soon as I stuck my head around the edge of a ground-floor window to take the picture, they all startled and took flight. And they didn't just fly to the trees at the edge of our yard. They completely disappeared! I am so bummed!

Here's hoping the lure of the seeds is stronger than the fear of the camera. We would love to have them stay for a season.

By the way, many of the links on this page go to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The articles there have pictures, and, even better, you can listen to recordings of the birdsong. Very cool.

Amazing, scrumptious, sensuous, delicious -- have I convinced you yet?

The Huz's doctor recently recommended that he try to get more fiber in his diet. Now, we pretty much eat only whole wheat pasta and whole grain breads (and, incidentally, avoid high fructose corn syrup which is a whole 'nother rant) and I've been trying the new white whole wheat flour from King Arthur flour in some of my baking, too. We're fairly conscious of what we eat without being fanatics about it. But the Huz has always had stomach issues, so his doc wants to try a diet change before going to stronger meds. And we're all good widdat!

So I've been making granola and bran muffins, and we picked up some fruit for snacks today, and we've always done fairly well with veggies except on pizza nights, so we're on our way to a fiber-licious diet.

Everybody knows that legumes are an excellent source of fiber. What you may not know is that they're packed with minerals, and their skins contain flavonoids, which are powerful antioxidants. Researchers are even suggesting saving the water you soak dried beans in and using it in soup, because soaking leaches the flavonoids out of the skins but doesn't destroy them.

OK, you may have noticed that we're three paragraphs into the post and I haven't mentioned what the recipe is yet. That's because I know as soon as I say the name of it I'm going to lose some of you. But here's where I advise you NOT TO STOP READING ONCE YOU SEE THE TITLE. Because this recipe is so amazingly tasty, even if you don't like the ingredients separately, I really, really recommend that you just try it once. The combination of ordinary ingredients somehow lifts everything to the level of sublime. It is scrumptious, amazing, sensuous, delicious, [your adjective goes here]. Seriously. Would I lie to you?

AND you can use canned beans, and do a lot of the prep ahead of time (not that it takes a lot of prep) so the recipe can come together pretty much at the last minute, making it ideal for a weeknight meal or a meal with friends. Please try it and let me know how you liked it!

Roasted garbanzo beans and garlic with swiss chard

From Bon Appetit, with my comments added

Garbanzo beans

2 15.5 ounce cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained (about 3 cups)
10 garlic cloves, peeled (this is part of why it's so yummy; I'm going to use more next time)
2 large shallots, quartered (I used onions and thought it was great)
2 small bay leaves, preferably fresh
1 tsp fennel seeds (didn't have this, omitted it without apparent harm to the results)
salt and pepper to taste
1¼ cups extra virgin olive oil (don't let this scare you, it doesn't all end up in the dish)

Chard

2 T extra virgin olive oil (can use some from the beans)
6 garlic cloves, peeled, crushed
3 small bay leaves, preferably fresh
2 shallots, sliced (I used some chopped scallions & onions, worked fine)
2 bunches Swiss chard, center stems cut out, leaves coarsely torn (save the stems for baking with butter & parmesan cheese, also a winning recipe that I'll try to post later)
2 c low-salt chicken broth

Beans:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine first 5 ingredients (through fennel seeds) in 8 x 8 x 2 glass baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour oil over; cover dish with foil. Roast until garlic is tender (important! taste it. If it still has any bite to it, roast it some more. It should be sweet and mild), about 45 minutes. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool, cover, and chill.)

Chard:
Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add garlic, bay leaves, and shallots. Cover; cook until shallots are tender, about 2 minutes. Uncover; add half of chard. Toss until chard wilts and volume is reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add remaining chard. Toss until chard wilts, about 2 minutes. Add broth. Cover and cook until chard is tender, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Season chard with salt and pepper. Transfer mixture to a large sieve set over bowl and drain. (Can be prepared 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.)

Drain garbanzos, reserving oil; discard bay leaves. Combine garbanzos and chard in large skillet. Add 2 T oil reserved from garbanzos. Toss over medium heat until warmed through, moistening with more oil by tablespoonfuls if needed, about 5 minutes. Season with salt & pepper, remove bay leaves, and serve.

This is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this weekend at Anna's Cool Finds. If you have a recipe for a yummy dish that has herbs, veggies, flowers, or other plants, then it qualifies for Weekend Herb Blogging, and you might want to send annalou (at) ix (dot) netcom (dot) com an email about your post. Or maybe you're just interested in creative delicious food that also delivers a vitamin, mineral and fiber blast of health to your bod ... then just drop by Anna's Cool Finds this weekend to see what your fellow bloggers have dreamt up!

[1/27: the recipe for baked chard stems]

audition update

Yep, I was offered a part. One for sure. May be contacted for more later this week. More details later.

I'm all Sally Fields at the Oscars: "you like me, right now, you like me!"

Theater news

Oh, boy, I haven't blogged in a while and now that I've started I can't seem to stop. Lots of pent-up blogging demand in me, I guess!

[Warning: loooonnggggg post]

I'm happy to report that my theater life has been busy. I just can't seem to get enough, at least not so far, although I'm beginning to be able to imagine that a time could come when I won't feel such a driving desire to keep doing show after show. Anyhoo, a while ago I mentioned that I had gotten a part in a show with a local director whose work I admired. It went live in November for three weeks, and overall the experience was a good one, albeit a bit stressful for a variety of reasons. I learned a lot about how to act in a farce:

1. Don't try to get a laugh. These people are deadly serious about their lives. Let the material get the laugh for you.
2. Talk faster than you normally would, especially if you're playing an intense person or it's a tense situation.
3. Keep the pace up. With very few exceptions, the dialogue has to be rapid-fire. If there's dead air, the humor will be lost. Serious plays have quiet spots. Farces have lots of noise and action.

My part was a relatively small one, and she was not a pleasant person. Some adjectives you might use would be "cold, bitchy, demanding, self-absorbed, vain." It was definitely casting me against type since up till now people have wanted to use me for the pleasant girlfriend/wife parts. So I very much appreciated the opportunity as a somewhat green actress, although it did contribute to the stress because I'd yet to discover whether I was up to it or not! I think I carried it off OK, although I wasn't sure at first. When you have a small part, people don't necessarily direct a lot of compliments your way because naturally they're focused on how well the leads did. It wasn't until the last weekend that someone I knew took me aside and more or less raved about how I'd done. That was a huge relief to me. The last thing you want to do is be an dead weight in a good production, and until she'd done that, I couldn't be sure I wasn't. Of course the Huz told me I was good, but he would, wouldn't he? :o) And others had made some general comments about "You guys were wonderful!," which frankly means nothing to an actor.

So, if you ever have a friend in theater and go to see their show, if you really think they did well, say something specific so they know you're not just blowing sunshine at them, OK? We really don't know if we're doing well. We rely on you to help us know. If all we get is general comments, we're liable to conclude that we're not doing all that well. Of course, if you think they stink, just try to slink out the back door without saying anything so you don't have to compromise your ethics!

The director took some black & white still pictures & promised to share them with us. If he does I'll try to post some later.

So, what's coming up next? Next week I start rehearsals for another murder mystery weekend, or what the Huz calls "a life-sized game of Clue", to be produced the weekend of February 29. Our cast of 13 (ooo! unlucky! for the murdered one(s), that is, heh, heh) will be in character all weekend long, as murder(s) occur(s) and the guests at the resort attempt to discover who dunnit. You may recall I did one of these last year.

Here's the blurb from the resort's website

---

Join Hector MacLean and his wife Gillian (that's me!), along with a clan of MacKenzies who have come to the resort for a family reunion. Little do they know that the Cameron family has the same idea. These two families have a long history of feuding. It's a situation ripe for murder. It falls to Detective-Sergeant Malcolm Hardasche of the Vermont State Police to unravel the tangled tartan of grudge, deceit, betrayal and Scottish passion that play out like an unmentionable drama in "MacDeath."

	2-Night Package
Main House	$206
Terrace Wing / Suite	$249
Avery Suite	$407

2-Night Minimum Stay required. Package includes 2 dinners, 2 breakfasts, 2 nights lodging and amenities.

---

Isn't that amazingly inexpensive? This is a pretty nice resort. $206 per person includes all meals except one lunch, Friday dinner through Sunday breakfast. And this is no diner food, folks. The food is excellent.

Anyway ... this time I believe the director wants to do more improvisation and fewer scripted scenes, which is making me a little nervous! When you do improv, you're basically writing the scenes as you go along. It's not that you just show up the day of the show and spontaneously pull something together. It's that you rehearse and rehearse, try this, try that, and when you finally get it the way everyone thinks works well, then you have to keep trying to reproduce that or something close to it at subsequent rehearsals and on the day of the show. I'm much more comfortable with scripts!

And with a full-immersion show like this, you have to also get your back story figured out, because you never know what the guests are going to ask you, and if they ask you a question and you give one answer, and then they ask someone else the same question and get another, they might think that's a clue and not just that you've bungled the answer, and that's not fair to them. So we have to be fairly thorough about inventing our back story, too. Add to that the need to learn to speak with a Scottish accent, and that I'll be a character very different from myself (this one stern, dismissive, bossy ... OK, OK, I have a hint of bossiness in me :o) .. it's going to be a challenge. But that's why they call it acting! And one definite blessing is that I don't have to weep my way through the entire weekend this time. That got to be a bit of a downer last year!

(I also have to learn a Scottish accent for this MMW. The last 3 shows I've done have required foreign accents --Russian, British, and now Scottish. I have vowed that the next thing I do is going to be plain old American.)

Sunday I'm planning to audition for a 10-minute play festival, with another new director/producer in town who's done work in Hollywood and New York, and is sure to be a mover & shaker in the theater world hereabouts. He grew up in the area, graduated high school here, and then went on to be a professional. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing maybe he's moved back here to raise his family in a healthier environment.

Anyway, he recently produced & starred in a wonderful production of a little-known Arthur Miller play, "A View From The Bridge", and now he's producing these 10-minute plays, each of which has a different director. The festival is happening for two weekends in February, so if I'm offered a role I'll have to consider carefully whether I can do both this and the MMW. If I weren't working, too, I'm sure I could handle both, but I am, so we'll see. Wish me luck! Better to be offered a part and turn it down than to not be offered anything at all!

My sis says to me when she hears all this, "You're so funny." "Funny, or crazy?" I IM back. "Whichever suits you." she says. Yep. Whichever suits me.

P.S. Any new passions in your life?

Some Christmas photos

For those very few of you out there who still are paying attention whenever I share a brief moment from my life (and thank you!) here are a few pictures of loved ones from Christmas, a time of amazingly wonderful relaxation and very pleasant times with family. We were able to leave work entirely behind us and just enjoy being with the Huz's family. The little girls, of course, made the visit exceptionally fun, and as usual his sister and her husband were consummate hosts. Simple foods, no pressure to do things, and lots of time with the kids for us. We were able to spend 4 days with them, while other family members zipped in for a shorter period. Simba was a perfect little gentleman, I'm proud to say, so well behaved that he earned an invitation to stay with them for three weeks in April if the Huz and I do what we're thinking of doing and head off for a train trip all around the country!

So I'll start with my peaceful little doggie, asleep in my arms. Aww!


Listening intently ... (nope, this isn't the Huz)


A peacock on Christmas?? Yup, visiting from the neighbor's. He was skittish as heck, had a hard time getting good shots, but this one shows off his roadrunner style nicely!


A perfect little princess with a brand new tiara


Hair straightened (as best curly hair can be) and brand new sparkly shoes on. Life is good.


Happy, silly twins

final harvest --- in November!

We've had such a warm autumn that we had to delay harvesting our beets until this past weekend. Beets want a good hard frost to drive more sugar down into the roots, making them, um, sweeter. We kept watching for a frost ... "the frost is on the pumpkin" seeming to say October would be a reasonable time, not to mention past history, but we never got one till Friday night, November 2nd. Everything else in the garden was dead, dead, dead from the cold nights we've had ... once it even went below freezing but without a frost. Maybe that would have been good enough, maybe it's not literally a frost that's needed, but the beets came through those cold nights with very perky foliage so we knew we weren't doing them any harm by waiting a little longer.

Anyway, Saturday I pulled that perky foliage with gorgeous orange roots attached right out of the ground, laid them out to cure for a few hours, lopped off their ears, rinsed off their dirt, and popped them in the fridge. Now every time I open the fridge, I stand over them like Midas, rubbing my hands and dreaming about having yummy roasted golden beets for free for months to come. Sweet. Very sweet.

What's your favorite roasted beet recipe?

super easy caramel 'n' chocolate pecan bars

This recipe got raves at a party last night, and it was so simple to make that I just had to share it with you. I got the recipe out of a magazine insert from Land O' Lakes butter. If every person in the country makes this butter-loaded recipe just once, the CEO of Land O' Lakes will be able to retire.

It's a simplified recipe for pecan bars, with no precooking of the crust nor caramelizing of any sugar. It takes at most 20 minutes to get the bars into the pan, and only another 20-30 minutes to bake. The only time component to take into consideration is cooling time. Once it's cooled down a bit, pop it into the refrigerator to speed the solidifying of the topping. But beware ... if it gets completely cold, it will be really hard to cut. Either cut about an hour after it goes into the fridge, or bring it to room temp before cutting.

Crust
2 c all purpose flour (I used 1 c King Arthur Flour white whole wheat, 1 c KAF all purpose unbleached)
1 c firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 c salted butter
1 c pecan halves (didn't have any, used sliced almonds, very good!)

Topping
2/3 c salted butter
1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar
1 c semi sweet chocolate chips

• Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Combine all crust ingredients except nuts in bowl (of mixer or food processor)
  
• Beat at medium speed until mixture resembles fine crumbs (it will look dry)
  
• Press onto bottom of ungreased 13 x 9 baking pan
• Spread nuts evenly over unbaked crust
• combine 2/3 c butter and 1/2 c brown sugar in 1 quart saucepan
• Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until entire surface of mixture begins to boil. Boil, stirring constantly, 1 minute.
• Pour mixture evenly over nuts and crust.
• Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until entire caramel layer is bubbly, rotating pan halfway through. Do not overbake.
• Remove from oven. Immediately sprinkle with chips; allow to melt slightly. Swirl melted chips over bars, leaving some whole for marbled effect.
• Cool completely. Cut into triangles or squares.

Makes 36 bars

hi, guys!

My friends, I'm gradually coming to the realization that I'm just going to be a blogging dilettante for the nonce. Life is happening! And it's all good, I'm a happy summer-into-fall camper, but I just have to live it and not worry about blogging it, you know? The briefest of summaries in classic IT project manager bullet points below are:

• I did get a part in the show with the director! But not the first show of his season, his second, which begins rehearsals mid-October with shows the weekends of November 30 and the 2 weeks following.
  
• It's a new, startup theater and I offered to create him a website. It's in the infancy stages, but I think it's going to be just about the nicest site I've ever done, which makes me think it's time to hang out my own web-related business shingle (I mean site) one day soon. Anyway, I'll try to remember to post a link to the Shaker Bridge Theater site when it goes live. [See it here.]
  
• Am also building a site for a friend who's a physical therapist, and doggone if that doesn't look pretty nice, too. Ditto re: the link. [here]
  
• My real work (IT project management) continues to be busy and gratifying.
• Simba is doing well!
• So is The Huz!
• Got to do some travelling for a couple of weeks in August. I'm not an Orlando fan, but I was down there for a conference and I'm still raving about the hotel there. See previous post. After that the Huz and I went to a nice Christian camp called Camp of the Woods with some friends who go there every summer. It was great!
• Next weekend we leave for a few days to visit my sis in Seattle for her [cough]ty-eighth birthday, looking forward to fresh seafood and lots of family time and perhaps, perhaps, even a few games of pinochle with her pals!
• Pal Robin and I are continuing to work our way through every doggone season of Buffy & The Vampire Slayer sequentially, a show that I missed entirely (purposely) during its run and which I've surprised myself by enjoying lots!
  

And I guess that's about it for now. Life is good here in the soon-to-be-golden Northeast. I hope you're feeling similarly blessed.

cloudy monday #16

My cloudy Monday posts have been few & far between of late (as have all my posts). Maybe you haven't missed them, but I have! This shot was taken across a vacant lot at the top of our hill on a stormy day late in spring. I got a series of shots that I'm ready to show you, Monday by Monday. This one is, I have to say, my favorite. Love the way the light comes from the top right across the clouds.

I'm at a conference in Orlando, staying at a really amazing resort called Universal Portofino Bay. It's modeled after a village on the Italian Riviera and it is possibly the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at. Not that I'm a frequenter of Ritz-y hotels, but back in my consulting days I did get to stay at some nice places. But this one takes the cake. The website doesn't do it justice.

There's a side of me that winces a little ... I can't help but think of the poverty I've seen in Haiti, India, Mexico, the Philippines ... but it's also certainly a pleasure to experience such comfort and attentive service.

Simba 'n' Me

Some of you have kindly asked how Simba's doing. Progress report: great! It's been nine months now since his accident, and the vet said that based on his injury and the amount of his spine that was below the injury (about 8 inches) it would be about 8 months before we'd know the full extent of his recovery. So this is probably going to be as good as it gets, and people, neither one of us is complaining. If you didn't live with him, you'd never guess he'd ever been injured. Sure, he slips a little more on the wooden floors, he doesn't jump as well as he used to, and -- I think he would complain about this if he had words -- he can't use his right hind leg to scratch himself. That's about the extent of his limitations. (He's so cute in a frustrated sort of way when he needs to scratch himself. He'll pick up his foot as best he can and then turn around and look at it, sort of sigh, and then give his head a good shake. When I see him do that I try to scratch his head & side as best I can, not knowing exactly where the itch is.)

Did you know that small dogs are prone to back injuries? The hypothesis is that over a lifetime of jumping onto very high objects (relative to their height) like beds and couches, they stress their spines. Now I pick Simba up onto things and don't let him jump off our very high bed by himself. If I ever have a little dog again I'll start these practices when s/he's young.

This pictures were taken under the dining room table, which despite appearances seems to be a very comfy bed for him. The pillow somewhat lacks, in my opinion, but it's his opinion that counts!


I was moved to post this because I'm going to be away off & on for nearly the next two weeks, and I'm missing him already! I can talk to The Huz on the phone, but Simba's only a face-to-face (or hand-to-tummy) relationship. I have a couple of posts queued up, by the way, so you may be hearing from me a little bit during my travels. The first week I'll be in Orlando for a conference (in August! hard on us pasty white Northerners), then back for a long weekend away at a camp with The Huz, then back for a day and off to a cooking gig. So the only options for posting will be from Orlando, the first week.

So, see ya later, and thanks for commenting!

moaning meme

Given that I've been so absent from blogging lately, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that the lovely and loving Eva risked one of her tags on me, of all people. How could she possibly have known I was about to re-enter the brave world of blogging? Never mind, whatever the case, I was tickled pink! And lavender! And ... and then I had to sit and think of answers to all these questions ... oy, vey! So, I wasn't annoyed, exactly. More like vexed. At my own dullness of brain matter. But even dull brain matter produces results eventually, albeit sluggishly. So no more moaning about dullness of brain, Pat!

5 people who will be annoyed that I tagged them:

• Barbara (I don't think I've ever seen her do a meme, so this is bound to annoy her)
• Lynne (ditto, plus I know she's straight-out busy these days)
• Jerry (who, if he does it, will be the funniest of us all, and I know whereof I speak)
• Ilsa (because it's Time for you to start your own Blog, girlfriend!)
• Rick (who, if he ever starts his own blog, will give Jerry a run for his money)
  

4 things that should go into Room 101 to be banished from the earth forever:

• mosquitoes and all other biting bugs that keep me indoors during the nice weather months
  
• high fructose corn syrup
  
• greed
• dishonesty
  

3 things people do that make you want to shake them violently:

• tailgate or cut in too closely in front of you (1 car length for every 10mph, people!)
• find something negative about every situation, and feel compelled to verbalize it
  
• say they believe in tolerance but don't practice it
  

2 things you find yourself moaning about:

• being too busy
  
• being so far away from my bro & sis
  

1 thing the above answers tell you about yourself:

• that I'm well-intentioned but still complain too much, and not nearly grateful enough for all the good stuff.
  

bitten bad

As a wee person, I decided I would be a famous actress when I grew up, kind of like Marilyn Monroe but without the funny eyebrows. Life has no limits when you're wee. Of *course* I will be prettier than Miss M! At least if sheer determination could make it so. And I knew one thing for sure: I totally did not want to be a housewife.

Fast forward lo! these ahem many years, past careers and moves and more years supporting myself than would ever allow any theatrical endeavors, and here I am, married, no kids, and finally, finally allowing myself to indulge those theatrical inclinations. (Parenthetically, but with parentheses --- I heard a young woman today lovingly describe her mother as "drama-free" --- and wondering where she herself came from, as being decidedly not drama-free. Isn't that a wonderful turn of phrase? Drama-free. I'm of the "decidedly not" variety.)

I started out in the spring of 2006 with a murder mystery benefiting a friend's non-profit organization. That summer I auditioned for and got a chorus a/k/a "extra" part in large community theater organization's production of Singin' In The Rain, complete with rain. That was a great learning experience and the source of a couple of new friends. Later that summer, I acted in a Neil Simon comedy in a small community theater in a nearby town, and then followed that up with another murder mystery that was staged in February at a resort for an entire weekend, the mystery stretching across several days. And that murder mystery was subsequently turned into a regular one-night play and produced at another local community theater's playhouse over a couple of weekends in early June, with the same cast. I really grew to love those guys, it was a really wonderful experience made more so by the opportunity to stretch it out a little longer than usual. (There are rumors we may re-unite for a second production, of a new mystery, at the same resort this winter.) Finally, I had a good-sized role in a reading of Samantha's Stars in July.

April 2006.
July 2006.
October 2006.
February 2007.
June 2007.
July 2007.

Not bad for the first year or so! In all that time, I got a part in every play I auditioned for, leading me to have great confidence in my auditioning ability and, in fact, to really just relax and have fun auditioning.

Does one hear a bit of hubris in that statement? A touch of braggadocio? One hopes not. But ...

After the Neil Simon show, one of the board members for the community theater mentioned another play to me: Painting Churches. It's a fabulous script written by a woman named Tina Howe, and I just fell in love with it. Have had it in the back of my mind all year long, knowing that I would love to act in such a quality play, loving both the female lead roles. I talked about it, off & on, all year long. And encouraged my friends to try out for it too, reasoning that it was such a great play, it deserved to have the very best actors in it, even if it's not me.

So friend Robin decided to audition for it with me, but on the 40-minute drive to the theater she said she didn't want to do it if we didn't both get parts. Her main motivation was so we could hang out together, on the drives & otherwise. I appreciated it, but made sure she understood that I was making no such offer. I'd had my heart set on this play for far too long.

After the audition, on the ride home, friend Robin began waffling. Who could blame her? It's really THAT GOOD a script. The audition was a blast.

She got a part.

Guess who didn't. Yep, Miss Hubris herself.

Waaaaa!

Turns out, I was in that awkward in-between age. Not old enough for the retirement-age mother, not young enough for the daughter. Although I do believe I could have acted either role!

The woman who got the mother part did a wonderful job with it, but I can honestly say my friend Robin was the best actor up there. I was doggone proud of her. And by then, the sting had pretty much gone out of not getting a part, so I could just sit there and enjoy the wonderful, wonderful play. That was just this last weekend.

Which brings me to tonight. Auditions. For a play I'd dearly love to be in, with someone who has a reputation as a really good director. Can it be that I'm jinxed when it's something I really, really want? Will you keep your fingers crossed for me?

friends

It's nice to have friends, isn't it? It was nice to hear from Barbara, most forgiving AND prompt of blogging friends, who saw my post yesterday and immediately dropped me a quick comment letting me know she's still there. Hi, Barbara, and thanks for the idea to put up some pics of Simba. He's lookin' good, isn't he?

It was good to hang out with friend R after church this morning for a half an hour or more, catching up on her news and sharing mine.

And it was nice to have friends over for dinner tonight for the first time in ages, F & J, parents of the late Zeke and new parents of zany Zane, who came along for dinner but didn't eat much. At least not much of what I cooked, which was (for the foodies amongst us) organic spring greens w/ tomatoes & celery and a mix of some very garlicky leftover homemade caesar dressing and a vinaigrette; roasted veggies (golden beets, fingerling potatoes, mushrooms, sweet potatoes seasoned with cinnamon, cumin, and sweet paprika, and spicy cauliflower), seared shrimp with a balsamic-brown sugar reduction, rice, and for dessert some vanilla Haagen Daz with cubed mangoes and optional chocolate sauce. A bit of wine, a bit of sun tea, and a good time was had by all. Most especially BY me, because I got to hang out with friends, the Huz, Simba, and a sweet-tempered baby boy. It was so relaxing, with good conversation ranging over acting, travels, work, family, and a tiny bit of current events. They stuck around till little Zany just really needed his own bed, and afterward my very best friend of all and I washed dishes & cleaned up the kitchen together and talked about the upcoming week. It was all so blessedly NORMAL!

photo shoot (for barbara)

I'm going to pretend I don't see that camera. I'm just not interested. Really. I'm not.

Does she still have it glued to her face? Dang, still there.

I hate to look, but I just gotta know ... is the flash up?

Oo, oo, quick, close your eyes!

Ah, come on, enough with the torture already!

more pictures of Simba

hello? hello?

No, it's not a cloudy Monday, but this photo is appropriate because I feel like one of those really lame fair-weather friends, you know the ones, they love to hang out with you when there's nothing more interesting going on in their lives, but the minute there's any other possibility zoom! they're gone in a cloud of dust as you raise your hand to say, "Hey! Wait a minute! What about me?" You know? One of those kinds of friends. I have been missing in action, remiss, misappropriated, misplaced, Miss Where Are You for just ages!

But I'm not one of those kinds of friends, really I'm not. My life just got a teensy little bit out of control and I've been buried under a veritable landslide of two things: work (and the heading says "not very much about work" and I promise I'm going to spare you the details) and acting. All of it good stuff, but truly without enough time to even get the bare essentials done, never mind the things I love to do that unfortunately don't help pay the mortgage. The phrase I've been using with my local pals is that I've been setting a "personal best" for busyness. Not that it's good, but it's definitely been extreme, even for me.

But all that is behind me now, and I'm back, and I'm so glad to see you, and how have you been? Let's settle down here on the couch with some frosty mugs of diet root beer because we are that fabulicious and sensible all at the same time and get all caught up with the goings-on, and did you really? and no way! and gosh it's been a long time, I've really missed you and the laughter and the tears and let's not ever let it be this long again OK?

So I'm back, with a stack of digital photos (didn't know you could stack them, did you?) and some stories to tell, and I'm not going to start right this minute but I really think I'm back, so please stay tuned, and oh yes! My friend ... have you forgiven me enough to leave a little comment to let me know you've dropped by?