Category Archives: Diary

Joy!

Hullo world; just a brief drop-in to say that we have our new-to-us stove, and indeed had it in place and functional by ten-fifteen this morning. It is shiny and hot and boils water in no time flat, as well as crisping a pan of granola bars rather quicker than I expected. When I saw the words ‘Self-Cleaning’ before some fine print on the manual (the sellers had kept it, bless them, and also passed along all the pans that had come with it) my heart leapt, but alas, this is a basic model and it does not have the option. Still, it is very impressive. Our old stove was whisked off the curb before we blinked.

And here is a heads-up for anyone local looking for a lute: I was skimming the local Craigslist and found this ad. So if you’ve ever dreamed of becoming a lutenist but despaired at the thought of ever finding an instrument, now’s your chance. (Me? I have more than enough instruments, thanks.)

Back into the cheerful fray of Saturday.

Icon Memeage

Bodhifox threw an icon-themed meme out to readers, and as I need to clear my brain of the first complete run-through of the page proofs before going back to them, but I won’t have the time to get myself into the proper headspace to do something like work on the hearthcraft book, I’m doing this instead to give my brain a break.

The meme:

1) Reply to this post, and I will pick six of your icons. [ED: Not really. You can ask if you like, but it’s not required if you comment.]
2) Make a post in your journal and talk about the icons I chose.
3) Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4) This will create a never-ending cycle of icon squee.

Bodhi said:

Glad to help you avoid work. How about the cello one you used here, the HRH one, the static Random Colour (gods, you people and your superfluous letter useage) icon, argh, the Gould and the muses?

This journal doesn’t have an icon field or an automatic icon assigned to each post as LiveJournal does or other blogging software/sites can have. I began inserting an icon for each post to add some visual interest to the blocks of text, and to provide a sort of instant preview of the subject or emotional tone of the post. I also did it to use the masses of icons I had hoarded, because there are some really lovely ones out there, and my hoard of shinies wasn’t seeing any practical application in a folder on my hard drive.

This is the icon I’m currently using as my default on LiveJournal. (No, I don’t post there, I have an account that enables me to read other journals and make comments.) It’s a crop of a much larger picture of several people, making it a close-up of my hands and the cello from last year’s gig. I like it a lot because it forces the viewer to look at the instrument, rather than my face. The bow hold is dreadful in this photo, but it was the closing song of the set and we’d done some pretty strenuous work leading up to this particular moment so my hand was shot. I also like the light and shadow happening in it. The cord is from a mic, and while I initially wasn’t thrilled it was there I’ve since seen that it adds an interesting movement to the picture. I still don’t have a really good picture of me playing the cello.

This is an HRH original, the story of which I’ll just reproduce here from the text on his portfolio web site (‘cos I wrote it anyway): In the late 1990s I had the fortune to work with a local theatre company as they mounted various productions of Savoy operas. This is a picture of my favourite leading lady as she might have appeared in the 1880s, taking her curtain call after a performance. The original art is approximately 11 x 14 inches, and was done in lead pencil and blue Col-erase pencil on acid-free paper. The final line work was done in black ink. The faint shading was done with light blue Col-erase pencil. The work was never developed further because I liked the sketch quality of it. The original artwork was framed and now hangs in a private home in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Ironically, I have no idea what show I was doing when he sketched this. Possibly The Mikado. I use this icon for some of my thank you posts, and my ‘celebrate/congratulate me!’ posts.

Heh. I so adore this picture. It’s by Karine, an incredibly talented artist and good friend, who also happens to be the lead singer in the band. The series of sketches (one per band member) was done before we actually assembled and began working on music, based solely on the colours each of us had picked as identifiers and amusing alter-ego names. The name I picked was Midnight Sienna, so my icon/outfit was themed in browns and blacks. I am so kick-ass in this picture, and it makes me grin every time I see it. I never got around to making the whole outfit, but I did make the black corset for performance and have the boots, too.

This icon encompasses both my recognition of the mistakes I’ve made, as well as the general “you have got to be kidding”-ness of so many things I see and read. Alice in Wonderland is far from my favourite Disney film — far, far, far from it — and pink’s not one of my favourite colours either, but somehow this icon grabbed me when I saw it. I think it may be the sentiment expressed in the text, which is something that never clearly appears in the original book but that I think must have run through Alice’s mind at some (or many) points: Stupid rabbit. Stupid flowers. This is beyond dealing with. I’m going home. There is so much to “argh” about in life, after all.

Ah, Glenn Gould. I wrote half an MA thesis on him before my thesis advisor vanished into the underworld, taking his promise of a co-heard defense handled by both the music and Eng.Lit. departments with him, and it scarred poor shy agonized little me so badly I couldn’t even consider picking it up again with someone else two years later, even if anyone in the department had been willing to take it on. I love Gould’s quirks, his depth of union with the music he plays, and his clean crisp separation of musical lines. I also deeply enjoy his writings, get a kick out of his wacky sense of humour, and find his personality fascinating.

This is a relatively recent icon, and I love the colours and layout. The text, of course, is absolutely perfect: it’s polite, has that ring of sincerity, and yet encapsulates the stereotypical ‘your call is important to us’ canned recording. All in all, it evokes the feeling of frustration one feels when on hold and also staring at writer’s block. It’s particularly appropriate for me, as I’ve been experiencing a lot of challenges with this current book. Overall, it soothes and amuses, both things I need when I’m growling at writing.

Gratuitous Kitten Photos And News

Because what you all need is a dose of Vitamin Ktn on a spring Friday, I am sure.

I am forever shoving him out of the way so I can see the monitor and my work, or picking him up and dropping him onto the floor. When it gets excessively repetitive I throw him out of the office and close the door. If he’s in here and feels Kitten Narcolepsy coming on, he stumbles to my writing desk and passes out for an hour and a half.

Gryffindor exists in full-fledged Happy Battle Kitten mode pretty much all of the time. Got feet? I will chase them! Got a long sweater on? I will stalk it! Is that a bit of fluff? I will attack it! Are you breathing under that quilt? The movement must be caused by a Mystery Rodent! Is that a carpet? I will subdue it! Is that a rogue Cheerio or Rice Krispie? Nom nom nom.

He is fine with all the other cats, but Cricket still has issues with him and they scrap at least once a day. Gryff hides behind my cello in the corner if Cricket walks into the office. This is somewhat cute but mostly nerve-wracking, as a sudden move by either of them could topple the instrument. Two weeks ago I caught him happily leaping and scaling the soft case it was in. He hasn’t done that again. Ahem.

He is enthusiastically curious about everything, and insanely interested in water. He jumps into both the kitchen and the bathroom sinks when we’re using them. Gryff also perches on the edge of the full bathtub and inches his paws down the side to touch the surface. Splashing him with water doesn’t scare him off, either. He looks up with delight as if to say, “More! More! Splash me again!” I was brushing my teeth Tuesday morning when suddenly there was a kitten standing in the sink on his hind legs with one paw on my chest, the other darting into my mouth to catch the toothbrush.

Liam has appointed himself the Gryff Police. If the kitten jumps up onto a counter or the dinner table, or starts playing with a plant, the boy says, “I will stop him!” and runs at the cat, shaking a finger and saying, “No, Gryff, down from there!” A week or so ago he very seriously said to the kitten as it was being deposited onto the floor after an ill-timed leap onto the table during a meal, “No, Gryff, not when food is on the table.” Gryff has taken to Liam to such an extent that he tries to hide under the boy’s covers or bed when it’s bedtime. And when Liam has gone to sleep, the kitten sleeps outside his door.

And that is your Kitten Update. Would you like some coffee with all that sugar?

Yay!

I’m feeling excellent. Last night’s orchestra rehearsal was terrific (the shifting/intonation issues I’m having in the Faure aside). I woke up in a good mood this morning, and Sparky didn’t dawdle as much as usual getting out of the house. The sun has come/is coming out (between snow squalls, but they’re brief and not sticking, thank goodness). I picked up a warm loaf of bakery bread, along with some delicious roast beef and Swiss cheese, and have now had not one but two sandwiches of the awesome category.

But the best thing so far today is that I finally got my hair cut. Three inches gone, baby! Yes! My hair is swingy and barely brushes my shoulders. I love it. I’ve worked up (down?) to this by degrees. Last year was a couple of inches off the mid-back cascade of tresses to a mid/low shoulder blade length, and just a hint of layers. Today started out as two and a half inches, then after studying it we took an extra half inch off, and made the layers a bit more pronounced.

I am feeling really fabulous. It’s a nice change.

Now I’m going to go make myself a caramel latte (don’t get excited, it’s from a packet), handle some correspondence, and then attack those proofs!

Sparky: Now With Wheels!

There were lots of fun things that happened this weekend, like trips to the farm, maple sugar, the boy’s very first Easter egg hunt, playing with his cousin, dinner out in a grown-up restaurant featuring a decadent plate of ice cream with real whipped cream and gourmet chocolate sauce… but I think one of the most exciting things that happened this weekend (certainly for HRH and I) was the triumphant acquisition of Sparky’s very first tricycle.

He wasn’t as enthusiastic about riding it as he was about petting it and taking it for walks and showing it off to people.

There’s a second-hand shop in the next town that I always hit for new coats, pants, shirts, and whatever else may be lacking in the boy’s ever-being-outgrown wardrobe. This time we got a new light spring jacket (not that he needed one; he has a raincoat and a perfectly good light spring coat, but this one had Dash and Mr. Incredible on it. Come on! How could I pass that up?), lined splash pants, and the tricycle. The trike was fifteen dollars. We were very impressed with ourselves. (Do you have any idea how expensive new tricycles are? It’s ridiculous.) Now we don’t have to introduce emotional stress into our godsdaughter’s life by asking her if she would be willing to pass along her old tricycle.

When we went downstairs to the garage to do laundry yesterday, he found the trike and wrestled it from the storage side to the laundry side. He wanted to bring it upstairs with us, and was very upset when I informed him that tricycles are not played with indoors. If things keep melting the way they’re doing out there, and the weather warms up just a bit more, then we can try the riding to the corner thing. Although I’m willing to bet that he’ll ride for a few feet then walk it along the rest of the way there and back.

Random Stuff

So I am not at the salon, and my hair is not being cut. There was a death in the family and my stylist is understandably unavailable. We’ve rescheduled for next week.

I still wish my hair was going to be cut before we go down to see my parents.

In other news, my extended extension was no only accepted, my editor told me to take two extra weeks, which was lovely of her. It also confirms my suspicion that she may have been laughing at my original request for three extra days. So now I can go back and forth between the pregnancy page proofs and finishing up the hearthcraft book with no feelings of impending doom or crazed and obsessive calendar-checking. I can also sleep. Which is a good thing.

And in yet more unrelated news, cellists may have an edge when playing Guitar Hero:

On the whole, a musical background seems to help Guitar Hero players. Zach Whitsell’s mother, Betty Whitsell, said her son has played violin, cello and saxophone in the past.

Ming Cheng, a 17-year cello player, said he was able to play the game on the medium level in the store before purchasing the game. He placed fourth in the 16-and-up age bracket on Saturday.

Cello players might have an advantage in the game, Cheng said. He explained that the spacing between the buttons on the controller is almost identical to the spacing between fingers on the strings of a cello.

“It keeps my fingers in shape for cello,” Cheng said. “I don’t have to practice as much.”

Except:

[Guitar player] Bloomfield is able to strum the notes up and down, which helps boost speed, Cheng said.

“I normally only strum down,” he said. “It’s more accurate, but I get tired faster.”

Which is a problem I have encountered myself. So when I saw this really interesting video called ‘Taking Trips to America’ promoting the album Block Ice and Propane by cellist jazz alternative musician composer-type person Erik Friedlander yesterday, I was fascinated. Don’t miss the video of Erik performing ‘Yakima’ at the bottom of the page.