Just For Today...

Just for today... I solemnly pledge to do the following...hopefully...

...Cut down on my carb intake (Megs, you are a true inspiration here)
...Just don't swear at stupid drivers (is "stupid" a swear word? I thought not)...even, if only in my mind (I usually have kids in the car, so it is not often that I swear outloud)
...One glass of wine can be enough (unless it is really super good!)
...I can write for an hour a day (on my organzied weeks I do this)
...Feel good about myself when I walk by a mirror (OMG! where do the wrinkles come from and what is the deal with my midsection!)
...Use positive discipline techniques with my children (although I try and try yelling just doesn't work even though I did it just now. I have been up from the computer to run interference between my kids six times since I started writing this little post and I wonder why I can never get anything done!)
...Think more and talk less
...Go to bed when I am tired (hey! what a concept!)
...Learn how to do something new

Summer Reading

Lately I have been perusing blogs whereby the authors of said blogs are posting their summer reading lists. "I wish," I say to myself each time I run across one of these, "that I could be so organized." I mean, really, to actually know what I might want to read in advance! What a concept. I read all of the time. Really I do. More than once friends have asked (sometimes it is the same friend) "How do you find the time?" My question to myself is, "How do I not find the time?" Reading is a stress release for me. I can get lost in another world, other than my own. Maybe that is why I am so picky about it. I read based on feeling, "Let's see, what book in my numerous stacks by the bed and on the bookshelves, looks good today?" Then I pick it up and start it. I do this at the library as well. Last summer was a slew of surprises in reading, books that I never thought that I would pick up and good share of them out-of-print or hard to come by in this country to boot. I made my selections based primarily on how near they were to children's areas that my kids were perusing. How random is that? I would say it is fairly random, I broadened my literary scope greatly using this method I might add as well. Then there are the book clubs. Actually I should say book club. I used to belong to two, now Book Club Gone Bad appears to be on permanent hiatus so I am now down to one book club. I usually get around to reading the required reading. I usually get around to finishing it too, sometimes because I actually like the book, other times because I just can't stand to leave it unfinished unless it is really bad. I am thankful to say that no book club member has picked a really bad read yet, oh, yeah, there was one. It was so bad that I don't even remember the name, I struggled through that one, very poorly written. I can't stand it when something is poorly written. I would rather not understand what the hell the characters are doing half of the time than to read something poorly written. With that said, I will go forth and finish "The God of Small Things" which I have been meaning to read almost as long as it has been in print. Then it will be off of my "reading list," that would be the one that I will be developing as I go along. Happy summer reading.

Reality Television Gone Bad

I have been loosely following the debacle that is the John and Kate Plus 8 series lately. Why? I have to ask myself. I don't really watch television much at all anymore. The screenwriters strike last spring helped me to become unaddicted so to speak. I must admit, however, that the John and Kate Plus 8 series was one that I followed closely in earlier times. I am the mother of multiples and a singleton. While I have twins and the Gosselins have six plus twins, I still found that I was able to relate to many of the things featured when the series was still young. Also, I liked how Kate was more normal, organized, and realistic than some other moms of large families featured on reality T.V. With that said, I gave up the series some time ago when it was not longer reality T.V. I don't want to get caught up in the tabloid presentations of the current state of the family, but one could see where it was headed long before the Gosselins became tabloid headliners.

Subtle hints of things to come like Kate's persistent need to remain obsessive with eight young children at home, fairly consistent talk of needing things to be bigger and better, focusing on freebies and perks, involving more and more outsiders in the family, yada, yada, yada. These things started to turn me off from the series. I don't begrudge a family success, but when it starts to look like it is at the expense of their children, rather than for them I start to lose interest. I don't get too caught up in the fact that Kate appears selfish and overly concerned about her appearance. Most women who have had their heads down in dirty diapers, spit up, and bottles for years on end go through a period of selfishness while they try and re-find who they are. Most women don't go through this on live television. Will the show go on? I don't know. It seemed like a good thing...in the beginning...now it has all just become too Hollywood for me.

First Camping Trip 2009

We had our first camping trip this year at Birch Bay State Park up North, near the Canadian border. The kids like it because there is a really awesome water park, not very crowded and no long lines like other water parks in our area. I like it because of the beautiful beaches, great seafood, and wonderful company. We have been camping with members of this group that we went with this weekend on and off for over ten years now. This was a great start to summer and the weather was outstanding. I am so excited that it is finally warm.

Gifford-Hirlinger Winery

This is a small winery in the Walla Walla, Washington and I just don't have enough good things to say about their wine. I first visited this winery on a wine tasing weekend trip with some friends last fall. I had another chance to explore new flavors at a local wine tasting at which the owner of Gifford-Hirlinger was present. This is a small, family owned winery. I haven't had a bad vintage from them yet and thanks to addicted friends I have been able to sample more than just a few of their fantastic wines http://giffordhirlinger.com. I recommend the LV or Stateline red for starters. Good with food or just to sip at the end of a long (or short) day.

Ballets Russes in HD

Sometime back I read a biography of Coco Chanel. Now I don't consider myself to be a person who is hugely into fashion, I like clothes that are comfortable and that fit. If they look good, I consider that to be a bonus. Before I read the biography of Coco Chanel I was channel surfing one night and found myself watching the Lifetime movie about her life, the one with Shirley Mc Clain. This inspired me to learn more about the eccentric woman who changed the face of women's fashion forever. She was also a supporter of the Ballets Russes and Stravinsky. Now I have developed an interest in the Ballets Russes and Stravinsky as well. I watched a documentary about Ballets Russes and many of the members who danced in the 1930's-1950's were still living and were interviewed in this film, which was made in the year 2000. It was fascinating. Also, where Balanchine got his start, but that is another story.

Our wonderful SIFF Cinema here in Seattle showed an HD production of three Ballets Russes performances, Firebird, The Rite of Spring, and The Wedding. These were done by the Kirov Ballet and filmed in Russia in 2008. What awesome reproductions. Because of choreographers like Balanchine, ballets are no longer performed with quite that much going on in terms of sets and actions (unless it is the Nutcracker). Everything today is more specialized, we have ballet, drama, theater, modern dance, etc., etc. and they each occupy a niche, but do not often overlap. These three productions comprised all three and pretty much all at once and all to the dark swirling cacophonous overtones of Stravinsky's melodies. Beautiful.

The Rite of Spring started riots at its Paris debut in 1913. The theater was in such an uproar that the dancers were counting outloud on stage because they couldn't hear the music. People were upset because the music was not the sweet and peaceful kind usually paired with a ballet, the dance was decidedly modern (perhaps the first modern dance to ever be brought to stage), and the story was about sacrificing a virgin. I have to say, of the three, this was my least favorite. I am a sometime fan of modern dance, but I just like watching ballet more.

My favorite performance was Firebird. The woman who danced the part of the Firebird, well I could just sit and watch her dance all day. They say that arm movements are very important for Kirov dancers and her arm movements were just lovely. The stage was also fantastic, more like a theater or opera setting. I loved the mixed artistic pairings all the way around. I am so glad that I made time in my busy mid-week mothering and work schedule to see this.

Ah! The Hippo

We were at the zoo a couple of weekends ago. The hippos were quite frisky. There were three of them and they kept leaping from the water and wrangling with their jaws. A fair amount of water jumping and cavorting was also observed. In all of my visits to our local zoo I have never seen the hippos do anything but pose, half submerged in their pond. I also noticed the sign, the sign that said no rescue attempts would be made for persons falling into the hippo area. They are big, yes, jaws fierce, yes, they seem so docile, no. An adult hippo weighs approximately 7,000 pounds, the mother hippos often have to guard their young and keep them in the water because the fathers will not attempt to eat the young hippos when they are water bound, and a hippo can snap a full-grown crocodile in half with one bite of it's massive jaws. No wonder nobody would be willing to mount a rescue effort.