Mishaps and other haps

Wow, it has been a nice, full Saturday and I am feeling pretty good!

We slept until 8:30ish this morning.  We got up, made coffee, and poked the computers and cats for a while.

I made pancakes (with some assistance from Michael) while we waited for Joe to get home.

The three of us went downtown and walked around the Farmer’s Market.  I picked up kettle corn and green onions.

We stopped at Althea and Bryan’s, gave Becky her graduation card, and visited for a few minutes and saw the kids.

We went to Hilldale and stopped in the new David Bacco shop (high-end chocolates).  Michael and I sampled a few of the chocolates.

We shopped at Sentry since it was closer than Woodman’s.  Bought a lot of food for next week.

After putting away the food we brought home, I went outside and started tilling earth and planting things.  Alice came out and did some tilling and we expanded the garden just enough from last year to slip in the last three tomato plants.

I brought in the tools, washed up my dirty hands, put lotion on my sunburned face, and launched into making burgers.  Onion chives from the garden were thrown into the batch of meat, along with minced garlic, some of the green onions (chopped) from the Farmer’s Market, Sunny Spain seasoning (a lemon-pepper blend from Penzey’s), & sea salt.  I turned up the temperature and cooked the meat quickly so that Joe could carry a burger out with him to Becky’s graduation.  Yay, dinner for 4!

Since then, I have been lounging about, reading blogs and watching recorded TV, trying to decide whether it would be fun to see the new Indiana Jones movie later tonight.  I ended up getting a little more sun than I wanted while I was gardening, so I have a slight headache at the moment and my skin is a little burnt (I am sure the lotion I used will clear up most of it).

Michael is listening to the Penny Arcade podcast about D&D 4th edition, which comes out this week.  I think we will end up investing in the books.  There is some initiative to start a 4th edition game at our house.

I am also thinking about the Wii Fit.  The commercials and trailers I have seen are very alluring.

EDIT 1:  Alice starts her new job this week, so that’s exciting!  Good luck, Alice!

EDIT 2:  I took a *few* photos at the wedding last weekend– mostly just our table and the bride and groom.  There have been much better collections posted elsewhere (see last week’s wedding post for links), but if you want to see what I uploaded to the web, it’s here.

Today we replaced the Black and Decker coffee maker that took approximately an hour (if we were lucky) to make a 10-cup pot of coffee with a 12-cup Mr. Coffee that makes a pot in ten or fifteen minutes.  Big Mr. Coffee joins an older 4-cup Small Mr. Coffee in our kitchen.

Long live the new Big Mr. Coffee!

It has been a very long and busy weekend, following a very long and busy week.

Work was busy enough in itself.  I had two interviews this past week for a job I am interested in.  The bulk of the work on a new project came in and I started working on that.  A colleague and I started planning some meetings to discuss the work I will be doing with Business Systems (assuming that I stay in my current position).  My co-worker left for an early weekend, so I took over most of her work on Thursday and Friday.  I actually managed to eke out an early exit on Friday– I needed some time to just unwind at home before the wedding rehearsal and dinner that night.

The highlight of Friday evening was watching a video collage of pictures and words that Althea had put together celebrating the Bride and Groom.  It was really well done and enjoyable and I know she spent a lot of time going through the photos and putting the production together so that it could be played for the family that night and during the reception on Saturday.

Maretta’s (Michael’s younger sister’s) wedding on Saturday went wonderfully!  Everything was so beautiful– the Bride, her Attendees, the Church (Bethel Lutheran near the Capitol Square), and the lavish Reception over at Nakoma Country Club (a stone’s throw from where we live, actually).  A string quartet played while everyone ate lunch and photos were taken outside with the lovely green setting of the country club as the backdrop.  Just yards away people were playing golf and using the outdoor pool while the photographer and guests took photos– the setup kept the club’s members’ activities separate from the wedding, so the club didn’t have to turn away their members in order to make the day a success for the wedding.

The Best Man drove the Bride and Groom away as guests blew bubbles in their direction.  What a great end to the ceremonies!  Althea has written up more here and here about the wedding day, including links to photos!

On Sunday morning Joe and I went over to Terry’s to join the family, the Maid of Honor, and the Best Man in watching the Bride and Groom open their gifts.  They received a lot of thoughtful presents to start their new life together, including quite a few art pieces that were made by the giver or locally made (a framed picture painted by one relative, a large decorative piece of pottery commemorating the occasion, a ceramic serving dish made by a long-time friend of the family, votives painted by a friend, and more).

Back at home on Sunday afternoon, we spent the afternoon grilling out, enjoying food with friends, and playing our Sunday game.  It had been quite a week and Michael and I were pretty worn out by Sunday evening**.

Today he (and Joe, I think) have gone off to Chicago to return Matt to his home.  He has been our houseguest since Friday night and has a new computer to take back with him to replace his recently-defunct laptop.

I slept in for HOURS after the guys left and have just a few errands to run in a very leisurely fashion before they return.  Hey, I may even work on the garden!  I’m very glad to have this extra day of weekend before launching back into work mode.

** I think we were still dragging from staying up later than we intended on Friday night.  We had just gone to bed when we found out that some criminal activities had been perpetuated on Michael’s World of Warcraft account (I was very thankful it was not his bank account) and we both stayed up later than expected because he wanted to get the ball going on resolving the problem.

Oh, I and a few other people were wondering why our tax stimulus checks were not electronically deposited a week or so ago, since we had filed electronically months ago and had our refunds deposited electronically.

I finally received an email from TurboTax (a little late in my opinion) and was also directed to a statement on the IRS’s website.  There were apparently a few glitches in the whole stimulus disbursement project.  One of them was that if you elected to have your online filing fees deducted from your return (rather than paid by credit card, etc.), your stimulus check will be coming through the mail, late, as a check.

I didn’t really make soup this past winter.  Granted, I think I made a batch of chicken noodle when Michael was sick a few months back, but that’s just about the only soup-making incident I can remember instigating at all.

Many years, it has been a staple for me during the winter.  Soup is one of the few categories of food that is generally as-good or better leftover, so I feel good about investing the time to produce something that makes several cheap, nutritious meals.  It tastes better than canned and is better for you than canned.  As long as it doesn’t have potatoes, I can stick soup in the freezer and haul it to work for warm work lunches on snowy winter days.

Most often, I make chili or vegetable soup.  These are the types of homemade soups my mom and grandmother made when I was growing up and the way I make them is based on their improvised recipes.

I have also added chicken noodle, black bean soup, and a couple of butternut squash/pumpkin soup recipes to my repertoire.  In the past, I have made potato soup, but like I said it doesn’t freeze well … and the type I made had a lot of fat and less nutritional value than the other types of soup I make.  I don’t think I have made potato soup at all since I broke up with my old boyfriend … so it’s been six years, probably …

I think vegetable soup is my all-time favorite.  Or, I can eat more vegetable soup than any other variety.  When my mom or grandmother made it, I always had to have a second bowl, maybe a third occasionally.  It’s never exactly the same each time I make it.  I’ve made it with meat or vegetarian.  While my versions are usually satisfying, they’re never quite like the soups my mom and grandmother each make.

I decided to make a big batch of vegetable soup yesterday.  I have a cold, so soup was appealing, but the thought of eating canned soup for several meals was not.

My family always makes vegetable soup with a tomato base (although a chicken or beef stock soup base would produce a different and interesting veggie soup, as well).  A huge can of organic, no-salt crushed tomatoes was sitting in the pantry, so I used that.  At some point I want to try using tomatoes grown in the garden for soup, but as tomatoes are not in season yet (and I didn’t want to buy greenhouse or shipped tomatoes), part of my homemade soup had to come from a can.

I boiled lean beef chunks in water and then sauteed them with an onion, plus salt and pepper, while I added chopped basil and minced garlic to the crushed tomato in the soup pot.  I added the water that the beef cooked in, plus few cups of extra water to the pot.  Browned beef and onion were added next, then frozen mixed vegetables (fresh would be nice if you don’t have a cold and feel like doing the extra prep work of chopping multiple vegetables).  I tossed in some beans from the fridge that were leftover from the work week.  Simmered for a bit and corrected seasonings.

It’s good for breakfast, too.

I have been a little out of it this week.  I’ve had a cold.  I am feeling better, but was still sniffly enough tonight to run out for a new bottle of Nyquil and a pack of Dayquil.  I really want to get over this in the next day or so since we are going to Minneapolis this weekend for Maretta’s graduation.

In other news, I almost finished a character tonight for the game Michael will be running this summer.  I have been working on (and thinking about) some financial things this week.  Otherwise, it has not been a terribly productive week (apart from work).

The Nyquil is kicking in and I think I am going to keel over soon.

Michael and I slept late this morning.  Then we went to brunch with Terry at the Edgewater (which was very crowded because it was Mother’s Day) and saw Madison Opera’s production of Lucia di Lamermoor.  It was my very first opera.  Michael is an opera veteran.  He has been going for years with Terry, but he had never seen this particular opera.  Here are some thoughts I had as an opera newbie:

1)  I appreciated the English subtitles and I don’t think the screen that is used at the Overture Center is invasive to enjoyment of the opera.  I basically knew the plot of the opera before the performance, but I think that certain scenes were much clearer to me (as a person who does not know Italian) with subtitles.  Not every line was translated, so it didn’t distract too heavily from the performance.

2) Acting in an opera is much different from acting in a play or in a musical.  I think it’s generally more subtle, unless someone collapses in pain or sorrow.  I will have to think more about this.

3) Seating can make a huge difference.  We were sitting in the first row of the first balcony, looking straight ahead at the stage.  We were close enough that we didn’t need binoculars and the uphill visual arrangement of the stage was perfect from our perspective.  During the first intermission, Michael and I went up to see what the view was like from the third balcony since I had been thinking about symphony tickets and wanted to see how terrible the vertigo would be from that height and angle.  A guy sitting in the top tier told us that the staging perspective didn’t work too well from where he was sitting.  Michael noted that it would also be difficult to see the top (rear) of the stage from the third balcony.  Here the binoculars might come in handy.

4) We were taken with the way the curtain seemed to melt seamlessly at the beginning of each act and layers of haze resolved into sharp focus as the action began.  This was a really neat effect that is apparently not a normal opera experience, but it certainly enhanced the performance.  The only ripple in this was when one screen got stuck to the main curtain (in the 3rd act, I think) and they did not evaporate quite as seamlessly as planned, but every other time it was almost like the staging was a projected hazy image that gradually became clear.

5) Different singing strengths were apparent.  Most of the mains could carry pretty well over the orchestra, but a few minor characters who had solos weren’t quite loud enough to carry.  It’s a little distracting when you have problems hearing the singer.  On the other hand, I remember from our high school musicals how hard it can be to balance orchestra sound and vocals.

I had a great time and I think Lucia di Lamermoor was a very good introduction to opera.  It was a wonderful, enjoyable production and the story was interesting and sad.  The staging and costuming were beautiful!

It has been a good week!  I’ve been a little brain-dead in the evenings and unwilling to sit in front of my computer long enough to write a post, but not in a bad way.  I spend a lot of time in front of computer screens every day at work and I’ve cut back quite a bit at home.

For one thing, I’ve unofficially ceased online gaming.  I still have an open WoW account and still play occasionally, but I’m enjoying other activities right now.

Michael and I have been walking more since the weather has warmed up.  We’ve also been watching a little more TV and more movies in the evenings.  I’d like to find some other activities to get us out of the house and away from various types of screens.  One idea that I keep thinking about is going camping/hiking.  Weekend trips/events are going to be our form of vacation this year, I think.

Our household has had a movie night during the work week for a few months now.  We invite friends and usually order pizza.  This has been a nice break in routine during the week and we’ve seen some of our friends that we don’t game with and don’t otherwise see too often.  We have a couple of weekly tabletop games going and will probably be adding one more to the lineup later this month.  Also, it sounds like Alice will be starting up a 4th ed. D&D game when the books are published (probably in June), so there will be a lot of gaming at our place this summer.

Work has taken some positive turns lately.  My department had a meeting this week about working with Business Systems and taking over some of their web admin responsibilities and software testing at some point, so that will be a significant development for me and my co-worker in terms of what we can add to our resumes (as well as networking, which is always practical).

The weekend is looking pretty full between shopping and gardening on Saturday and an opera on Sunday afternoon.  The next several weekends are going to be pretty busy.  It’s one of those months.

Jozer has been at our house since late yesterday evening. He and PhysOrg had a plan. The plan was to run Cat 6 through our house today. They have done that and the aftermath is heaps of wires, packaging, tools, bits and ends everywhere– post-hurricane debris of real male bonding action. I expect at least some of it will be cleaned up by the time people show up for our game tomorrow.

We also grilled out for the first time this year– burgers and brats in true Midwestern charcoal-y fashion. It was tasty and we ate on the deck, despite the fact that it’s a little chilly. I hope we grill a whole bunch this summer.