Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Boing!

March 9, 2011:

The Magnolia bush is covered in white!

March 20, 2012:

The Magnolia bush is covered in white!
Spring sprung really early this year. With temps in the 70's and 80's for the last two weeks, everything is sprouting and/or flowering before it usually does! As much as I love winter, I'm always glad to see it go, and welcome in the green grass, flowers, and warm evenings on the patio. All of which, I have already done this year.

Happy Spring.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

An Evening at the Opera.... House

  Last Friday, we visited the "Crown Jewel" of Stoughton. We saw a show at the Opera House. It's over 110 years old, and is really a beautiful theater. You can read about it's history here. The opera house hosts some relatively big acts for a small town: Esperenza Spalding (she won a grammy last year), Suzanne Vega, Willy Porter, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the list goes on. It also hosts smaller local performances such as children's theater groups and Stoughton City Band.
  We were lucky to get seats for Jake Shimabukuro, an artist we'd never heard of before, but who's music intrigued us. We literally got the last three seats together, in the second to the last row. It was a sold out show. We got there with plenty of time to spare, so we settled in to our seats and waited for the show to start. Karl sat on the end so he could have a little leg room, I was comfy, but poor Katrina couldn't see anything but the person's head in front of her. The seats are the original, hardwood, but relatively comfortable. A lot of the regular patrons bring seat cushions. About 15 minutes before the show was to start, the theater manager stopped next to us and asked if we'd like the box seats. Umm, YEAH! 
  So, he escorted us to the very front. The seats I refer to as the "Abe Lincoln Seats." 
 Soft, comfy chairs, plenty of legroom, and you can't get any closer to the stage than that. In fact, the stage made a wonderful footrest.
Katrina reprimanded me for having my feet on the stage.

  The show was fantastic, it made me want to learn to play the ukelele. But then I remembered what happened when I was a kid, and it made me think again (plus I'd NEVER be as good as Jake). What happened, you ask? Let me take you back to that fateful day.

I was about 6 or 7 years old, and I had been playing with my Barbies in the living room. As usual, I left them there and went outside to play.  I decided Barbie needed to come out too, so I ran in to get her. In my haste, I didn't turn on the light, so I didn't see Mom's ukelele on the floor, and put my foot right through it. IT was a beautiful Baritone uke, and she had even taught me to play a song (I think it was "Patch the Pony" - Neigh, neigh from strangers, stay away!). To this day, I still feel terrible about smashing that instrument.

  Maybe with therapy would get rid of the guilt and go on to be a concert ukelele player. But for now, I'll stick with the trumpet.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

I am thankful

Today I am thankful that my 11 year old child is almost as tall as I am.

Last fall, Karl stole the rear wheel off of my mountain bike because his was wonky. I enjoy riding my mountain bike because it's more comfortable than my "comfort" bike. It's good for riding in less-than-perfect conditions. But, it's really difficult to ride when it only has one wheel.

Today is going to be a relatively nice day. It's already 35° and it's going to be sunny this afternoon. I am itching to ride outside. I email Karl "How hard is it to put my wheel back on my mountain bike?" He replies "For the MTB wheel, which is on Katrina’s bike, you’d need to change the cassette to have it work on yours." Great, I'll have to take they hybrid off the trainer and lug it upstairs if I want to ride. But, then I read the next sentence "You could always ride Katrina’s bike. I’m pretty sure her seat is quick adjust.

See ya, I'm going for a ride! 

ETA - Why are my good intentions always struck down? I went out to the garage, and the bike is hanging from the ceiling. Much too high for me to get down! No ride today :(