Category Archives: Weather, Seasons, & Celebrations

P-Day Minus One, And…

Oh my gods, I have never made buttercream icing that TASTES THIS GOOD.

I’m sure Liam’s guests will forgive me if I serve them plain, frosting-free cake.

(Who am I kidding? There’s five cups of the stuff.)

I get to be artistic later this evening with brushes and pots of tinted icing and sprinkles. However this cake ends up looking, I will have had fun. I will pour myself a glass of wine (Do we even have wine? Hmm. Wait, no, there is port!) and enjoy myself. I may even call HRH in to advise, but only if he is drinking too.

LATER: 10:30 and we are not only done icing the cake, but cupcakes for daycare, baking and icing the cookies, plus we’ve cleaned up and washed the dishes! I have a sugar burn in the middle of my tongue from sampling the icing and licking my fingers. I threw about three-quarters of a cup out in the end; I’m astonished because I usually run out of icing before the project is finished and have to make more.

The cake looks awesome; we had so much fun. Liam is going to flip.

The Guest List

ME: Liam, who is coming to your birthday party on Sunday?

LIAM: Heeeee. (Goofy grin.)

ME: Is…. Devon coming?

LIAM: (shouts) Devy!

ME: Is… Elspeth coming?

LIAM: (shouts) Elsie!

ME: Is Ainsley coming?

LIAM: (firmly) No.

ME: I think she is. Matthieu and Samuel?

LIAM: (firmly) No.

ME: Yes they are! Is…

LIAM (softly): Teeeeeeela. (Shy smile.)

ME: Yes!

LIAM (shouts): And AR-TUR!

[Liam rampages off.]

If we ask him who’s coming and he’s in the mood to answer right away, we get the “AR-TUR!” response and only that response before he runs off to rampage through the living room. We are amused.

Monday Miscellania

The aqueduc truck just went by sounding the water-off alarm. There’s roadwork happening the next street over. I wonder how often this will happen; it’s the second time in two weeks.

The interview I did last week is up. Gwinevere says of me that “She is totally wise to the Wiccan ways, and I loved reading her books!”, which is very sweet of her and made me feel all warm inside.

I’m back to sequential nights of poor sleep. Last night HRH woke me up by saying “What was that?” after a loud sound on the back steps around twelve-thirty, and that was it; I was up for the next four hours. I reread most of the first Harry Dresden book while awake in the wee smas of Saturday night, and last night I got a third of Busman’s Honeymoon read. (How on earth was this book ever done as a play?). I read Shannon Hale’s latest paperback Princess Academy last Friday and was mildly disappointed that it wasn’t as rich as her Bayern books; it felt less deep, and I wasn’t as drawn into the characters or the style of the storytelling. I’m less intrigued now about her newest books Book of a Thousand Days and Austenland.

We had a lovely visit with the ADZO household Saturday afternoon where Liam had his first experience with a wagon and adored it enthusiastically, as I suspected he would: he pushed it, pulled it, and talked about riding in it the whole time we pulled him along. Thumbs up, Self, for the suggestion of a wagon as birthday gift to the grandparent contingent. (Pats self on the back.) Sunday afternoon was coven, and we roughly outlined stuff we’d like to do over the next few months and how we’d like to approach it, as well as roughing out the Midsummer ritual at the end of the month. Unfortunately HRH scheduled the meeting to begin right at the end of Liam’s nap time, so he spent most of his time chasing after the boy. This is what frustrates me about daytime coven meets: we constantly lose one person to childcare. Fortunately as it is now summer we are shifting to Monday evening meetings, because so much happens over the weekends that it gets nigh-impossible to schedule everyone on a weekend afternoon, so the boy will be in bed. Much easier to have everyone participate when one of us isn’t fielding/entertaining a toddler.

I made brownies Saturday morning from a new UK recipe (Nigella, natch), which meant I got to use my little scale as well as my funky measuring glass with the different weight measurements for various ingredients on the side. I used dark Tolberone for the chocolate. Divine. Very buttery, though. Liam called them “magic”, which was hugely amusing.

Three-word sentences are becoming the norm where Sparky is concerned. It’s mildly astonishing every time he produces one.

The Jam Sessions release date seems to have been pushed back to September. I am irked. I played through the first chapter of Phoenix Wright last evening and enjoyed it immensely.

And now, I go to clean my office window. On grey days such as this, one needs to maximise the amount of light coming in at all costs. Also, where is the rain? We were promised a downpour. Perhaps HRH jinxed it by saying, “See you in a couple of hours!” as he pulled out of the driveway this morning. I was kind of looking forward to going to the party store later with him to look at candles and such for a certain birthday cake, and maybe a new large sheet cake tin and a cake board. (Things I will never do: make a 3D owl cake. Yikes. How do you serve something like that?)

Scratch Pad May 23

1:53:
I don’t know if there’s some sort of odd musical karma happening today, but when I set my entire mp3 collection to play at random while I work this afternoon I certainly didn’t expect to hear this much Random Colour from the April 2006 gig (AKA as the There Is No Fast show). Half an hour ago it was Hazy Shade of Winter; now it’s Insensitive. (Both of which were excellent, I must add.)

1:56:
Followed by the original Rock’n’Roll Radio. Heh. We play it faster. Also, we have a cello, which automatically makes it better.

2:45:
How is it that no matter how often I clean the bathroom, it’s dirty again a day later?

2:53:
And here’s Poor DeeDee from Invisible. Yes, this computer is currently plugged in to a giant music karma wave.

2:56:
Because the lilacs along our back fence were massacred in high summer, there are no blooms at all this year. I miss them terribly. However, every once in a while today, the wind drifts through the house and gifts me with the scent of someone’s sun-warmed lilacs down the street. It’s really lovely. I wandered all over the house tracking it down and opening windows as far as they would go to entice more of it in.

3:45:
And there’s ADE (Invisible’s version, that is). Something’s up, I tell you. I have over 20 GB of music (holy cats, when did THAT happen — I will have to weed it out, because I know there are doubles thanks to the odd crash last winter), over half of it classical and scores… and today I just keep hearing tracks from the April 2006 gig. In three hours I’ve had some solo cello, a track or two of string quartets, a symphony movement, some Enya, a handful of soundtrack pieces, three Rasputina songs, two Tori Amos, an Alice Cooper track, and five or six gig clips. It’s just eerie.

4:00:
Orchestra tonight!

(A Cello-Intensive) Weekend Roundup

Saturday:

Band practice: awesome, awesome, awesome. Then assorted errands.

Sunday:

Spring/Earth Day/various godfamily birthdays etc. celebrated by visiting the Butterflies Go Free exhibit at the Jardins Botaniques. I teared up as soon as we stepped into the greenhouse; there were that many tiny fragile beautiful creatures flying around or feeding or just perching on leaves. It was incredibly magical. Liam loved it.

Yesterday afternoon I practiced for a while, then picked up t! and Jan and my amp (who does not have an online journal), and went to test that electric cello. After taking about a half-hour to tune it and set it up properly (long story — suffice it to say I was moderately appalled) I played it for a while, trying out various themes and riffs from band stuff. Then I picked up my own cello to hear its sound again. And you know, I love my cello so much; I just need to be reminded of why every once in a while. The electric is missing the depth and richness of the acoustic. I’d be spending a lot of time trying to mess with amp settings to get it to sound like a traditional cello, and why do that when I already have one?

It was a valuable experience. It was interesting to feel the differences in playing, how the body of it felt in my hands and against my knees, particularly while playing. I’m not used to an absence of vibration felt in my body as I play. It wasn’t a bad instrument, although certainly not one I’d recommend for a beginner… but it wsn’t technically a cello, either. If I played a lot more than I do, and travelled, I might seriously consider it. But I don’t, and I don’t particularly want it. What I have is better in every way for what I need, and meets my desire for sound.

Heartfelt thanks go out to Jan and t! for their company and feedback (and navigation through the traffic-clogged streets of the east Plateau, despite my surprising sanguinity about it). I didn’t need to be talked out of a bad decision (be that leaving it or taking it home!), but it was good to have support with me and to hear their confirmation of my opinions.