Graceland

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Summer Family Theater

We had such a fun family party tonight. My amazing mom had Grandma Day once a week during the summer. Over the years, these have gotten harder for her to plan. How do you keep 2 year olds and 16 year olds entertained once a week. Grandma decided they would put on a play this summer. Tonight was the performance. It was a version of Little Red Riding Hood. Check out the photos.

It started with Mother (Kasey) sending Red (Krista) off to grandma's house, and warning her to stay on the path. Kasey sang, "Mother Knows Best". (note forest animals in the woods behind them)

Red got on the path and wondered why her mother didn't like the wolf when she thought he was kinda cute. She sang, "He's a Rebel"

Bears (Will, Isaac, Asher, Kane & Luke) came out of the woods on the way.

They sang, "Teddy Bear's Picnic"

Then they danced to "Bad to the Bone". It was so cute!

I need to bring a real camera to this kind of stuff.

They all had little solos.

Then a woodland fairy (Maya) came out and danced.

Some cute forest birds (Luke and Mason) came and sang, "Let's all Sing like the Birdies Sing." (We all got to sing along- just like in the Tiki Room)

They did the cutest dance to "I'm Like a Bird".

Here comes the wolf! (Zane). He sang the Gaston song from Beauty and the Beast, but substituted "wolf" for "Gaston" in the lyrics. He did great.

Krista and Kasey did back up.

The Woodsman (Isaac, Asher, Will & Kane) sang, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf"

Then Will did some break dancing to "Cooler than Me"

I didn't get the shutter time right for his back flip. (That kid is amazing)

Katie played Grandma (loved the costume). She cleaned the house to get ready for Red's visit and sang, "Happy Working Song"

The wolf chased her off and got in bed to wait for Red

"What big eyes you have"

The woodsmen saved the day and the wolf decided to be known as "the Big Good Wolf" (very Disney ending)

Everyone sang "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" as the finale.

All the kids with grandma after the show. I was so impressed. I thought it would be chaotic, but they all did so great. We have some talented kids- voices and dancing. It doesn't hurt to have a dance teacher/choreographer sister and the worlds best g-ma for a mom!

Monday, August 13, 2012

What I am not

I'll just say it, I'm not an athlete. I love to be out doors and active, therefore I bike, hike, walk, ski, and anything else that seems fun. This leads people to think that I am athletic. I am not.

I remember having a conversation with a friend I used to mountain bike with. She (cute little blond girl) said, "I hate that people think I'm prissy, because I'm not." I responded, "I know what you mean, people think I'm not prissy, but I am."

With all of my riding this summer, numerous people have asked me if I want to sign up for various century rides. At first, it seems intriguing. I'd like to be able to say that I've ridden 100 miles. The energy of everyone riding together with a single goal could be fun. But when it comes down to it, I never sign up. I really don't care, or at least I don't care enough.

I know some people are motivated by competition. I'm not one of those people. I don't need to be better than anyone. (And I don't mean that to put down anyone who enjoys competition- good for you, I will come and cheer you on.) While I can enjoy pushing myself to meet personal goals, just as often, I'm fine doing what feels right for my body that day.

I love biking to work, it's a great start to my day. I love weekend biking, it can be social and it feels great to be outdoors and active. I love biking adventures with my hubby, it's great to explore new places and spend time together. (I also enjoy many things besides biking and hopefully my feet will let me do them again soon.) Pushing myself to keep up with or beat a bunch of strangers, does not appeal to me. Also, I don't want to pay to ride my bike. I can go do the same ride the next week for free, you can keep your t-shirt. I'm not an overly-frugal person (my husband will attest to that), and I don't know why it bugs me, but it does, a little.

I'm an advocate of trying anything once. You never know if you like something unless you try, right? When I re-entered the biking world several years ago,a friend convinced me to do an organized ride, and it was horrible. Maybe that is what keeps me away from them now. I was terribly unprepared and we had bad weather, so I don't consider it something to judge all other rides by. (That can be another post.) Honestly, I just think I'm not the type of person who gets into that kind of thing. I am active, but it's not the same as being a competitor. I know I should try it again, just to see, but I don't seem motivated to do it.

I remember in college I would be the first one out on my bike in the Spring. I would ride for several weeks before any of my biking friends (the naturally athletic ones whom I really wanted to be like) would join me. When we finally went out together, I was the one pushing to keep up with them. I used to find it frustrating, but I'm OK with it now. I know my strengths, I know my weaknesses. I gave up long ago trying to be something I am not.

So this is me. Not athletic, not competitive, just happy to be healthy enough to enjoy this amazing world I live in.

Graffiti Wall

There is a wall across the street from my work that has been a graffiti wall for several years. A few months ago, I thought it would be fun to post the different artwork each time it changed; however, I haven't really liked what's been there since. Several different artists have worked together on the past several murals and it ended up looking more like graffiti all over a wall rather than something cohesive. Last week, a single artist worked on the wall a couple of mornings and created this...

Pretty cool, eh? There has been some amazing work over there. Hopefully, it will continue. I'll keep you posted.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

What's for Dinner

Easy meal tonight. We had Lemon Orange Shrimp and Rice.

I fried some rice with a little soy sauce. Put that in a bowl then cooked shrimp in the same pan. When the shrimp was pink I added orange marmalade and lemon zest. I then added the fried rice and snow peas and cooked 5-10 mins until the peas were at desired tenderness.

I was surprised how good it was. Rick stir fried some veggies in a ginger teriyaki sauce to go with it.

We are glad we have extra for lunch later in the week

Friday, August 3, 2012

Ride Report

We had an eventful ride in this morning. About 5 miles into the ride my back tire starting making a strange noise. As I began to slow down I heard a bang. The tire had blown and there was a large hole in the tube and a shredded hole in the tire.

We first tried the patch kit on the inside of the tire with a new tube. It was bulging a bit, but we thought we'd give it a try. Rick rode behind me to watch the tire. I made it about a mile before he told me to pull over. The tube was bulging out of the hole in the tire and ready to burst again.

Now's when I have to tell you that my husband is brilliant. He remembered a bag of energy beans in his riding pack. We dumped them out and he used the bag to line the inside of my tire. We put in our last spare tube, used the final shot of the CO2 cartridge and crossed our fingers. It worked! There is a slight bulge still, but probably just from the corners of the wrapper.

I made it into work without incident, however I rode a little more slowly than usual. My boss has been referring to Rick as MacGyver today.

My Movie Reviews

Quiet Earth. B-. Another SciFi recommended by Netflix, although this one was actually interesting and enjoyable. A guy wakes up and everyone is gone. Made in New Zealand, it claims to be one of the top ten movies in the US in the year it came out (sometime in the 1970s). After it was over, we agreed that it was good, but the ending was a little confusing, so we watched the ending again with the directors comments. Lame. Apparently the whole movie was supposed to have an anti-nuclear message and the director takes credit for his movie making New Zealand nuclear free. So.... pretend you don't know that and enjoy the movie.
Sunshine. C-. Netflix. That's it. We are not trusting Netflix's rating of sci-fi movies again. The sun is dying so a crew is going with a nuclear missle to "re-start" it. I kept hoping aliens would show up or at least something would happen to draw me in. A lot of things almost happened, but when they did, it did not make much sense.
Warm Bodies. B. Red Box. I was surprised by this movie. I'm a fan of a good zombie flick, but when I heard about the plot, it seemed a bit too much. It turned out to be very entertaining. I'd rate it pretty high on the must see zombie film list and very high on the cheesy teenage romance film list.
Wolverine. B. I'm a fan of the X-Men movies. I'm also a fan of Hugh Jackman. It was hard to go wrong going in with those two biases. The fighting sequences were too long, but that was expected. If you've like the X-Men movies, you should like this one too.
The East. B. I forget how much I love the indie flicks at the Broadway. This also had an environmentalist-based plot, but was written well and I liked how it ended. A women goes under cover in an environmental terrorist group. It goes with the obvious plot of her having sympathies for members of the group and trying to balance that with her personal beliefs. Worth seeing.
World War Z. B. I was in the middle of the book and didn't want to see the movie until I finish, but I couldn't help it and saw it opening weekend. Not a big deal as they are very different. This is a different kind of zombie movie. While most are horror flicks, this was more of a suspense movie. They cut out the gratutious gore associated with most zombie movies and gave it more of a plot. Fun for zombie fans and non-zombie fans.
Silent Running. D. Netflix. I have no idea why this is rated so well on Netflix. Sci-fi movie made in the sixties with blatant environmental message. Forests have died on the earth so they are growing them in a space station orbiting Saturn. Earth decides to abandon the project and for some reason that means they have to blow up the forests. One man understands the impact of losing all our forests so he kills everyone. My description made it seem way better than it is. At one point, he programs his robot helpers to play cards and you watch them play cards for about 10 minutes. Skip this one!

My Book Reviews

The Rent Collector. B. I loved this book while I was reading it. Then the author's comments on the back disappointed me. It was fiction! I was so inspired by the "true" story of this woman living at the dump in Cambodia and learning to read. The whole way through I thought it was true. I was mad when it wasn't. Although toward the end, it started getitng a little unbelievable. It was based on real people which bothers me wondering how much is true and how much is fiction. I still recommend the book, but know what you're getting into.
Divergent. B+. Fun, quick read. YA fiction. Your basic strong female in post-apocolypic world fighting to make change. Even though the story's been told over and over, this one was very engaging. I can't wait to read the next in the series!
World War Z. B+. For staters, this is very different from the movie. It's 10 years after we won the zombie war. The book is a series of interviews with survivors. I was hesitant about the way it was written and that I wouldn't stay involved without a central character. However, the book created a very real world. So much so that when I was getting off the freeway one morning and saw some homeless people waking up under a bridge, for just second, I thought they were zombies. I also wanted to bring it up in conversation. Like when someone was talking about North Korea, I wanted to say, "Did you hear how they handled the Zombie Apocalypse?' It was a fun book. I've never read a zombie book before and I may never again, but I'm glad I read this one. It also was welcome to read a book that isn't a strong female character overcoming incredible odds. I'm seriously weary of that plot line.
Waiting to be Heard. B+. I've followed the Amanda Knox case for several years. I thought, since I knew most details of the case, this might be boring. I was surprised at how engaging and well written it was. She is a quirky girl and, while the complete lack of physical evidence makes me sure she is innocent, I can see why people think she is hiding something. The book was haunting to think the someone who doesn't understand a culture coupled with a corrupt prosecutor could put an innocent person in jail for years.
Girl Gone. C-. Maybe it was called Gone Girl. I don't remember. Book club book. I've never gotten into mysteries. This one took a while to get into, then I couldn't put it down, then it ended and I wished I never picked it up. Ridiculous ending.
The Kitchen House. B-. I have no idea how to rate this book. It was slow to start. Once things started to happen (murder), I found myself sucked in and not wanting to put it down; however, once I did put it down, I didn't look forward to picking it up again. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's similar to a bunch of other books I've read. I'm just getting weary of the genre and need to mix it up a little. Overall, an interesting read. The story of a young white girl who is indentured when her family dies on the boat from Ireland to America. Her relationship with her new family (the slaves whom she is sent to live and work with) and how her life is different from them because of the color of her skin.
The Happiness Project. D. I'm reviewing the book, but I'm not going to finish it. I knew this wasn't my favorite genre, but it was the book club pick this month so I thought I'd give it a chance. I didn't see the point of reading someone's goals. I sometimes feel like these "self-help" books are an excuse for people to feel like they are doing something to be happier, when really they are an excuse to avoid working on yourself by living through someone else's experience. Instead of reading the book, how about spend that time working on your own "happiness project". As I read, I kept thinking it should have been a workbook for readers to complete their own project while reading hers. I'll be interested to hear how others in book club liked it.