I may need this...

Keyboard Cat T-shirt.

inside blogginess...

but it made me giggle. some of the comments are priceless. indeed, where is Dan Rather when you need him?

speaking of Roxie...

I managed to get out with her for a walk this evening. checked the local temp and it said it was 75 at the time, and it was rather cool, but the humidity had to have been 110%. We didn't get rained on, but we were both soaked by the time we got back to the house. oh and spots on my glasses kept fogging.

and now it's raining... again. I may go nuts by the end of the week. It's supposed to keep doing this, but be a little bit warmer. High was only 82 today.

nice picture of Roxie...

treats are magic!

drool

kitty treats!

Ahem, we sawz what you gave the puppy.

okay, Maggie first, cause she's polite.

I have finally figured out how to give Carlos treats and not bleed to death....


I make him get on the floor and I drop the treats, and usually he catches them, but I couldn't time my picture taking right.... yet.

fanks, uncle buttons!

Tahini report...

Last week, I had to go to a different grocery store to find tahini (to make hummus with) and I almost didn't find it because I never know where they'll put it. This was in the kosher food section and they only had the kind in a can..

What's inside?

ummm, it's separated. but the can is short so mixing it back up should be easy!


it looks better now, but it took some effort...


and I made a huge mess.

So, the other fun part was that my recipe calls for two 16oz. cans of chick peas. and the silly organic ones are only 15 oz. each, so I used a bit more tahini. Today, I was back at the store and the only other kind they had was the store brand and it comes in 15.5 oz cans.

What month is it?

Was thinking I wouldn't exercise today because I have a choreography rehearsal tonight, but then checked the temperature....


it would be a sin not to walk the dog.

Busted!

Watching Maytime. and she starts telling her story and how she hit the big time singing for Emperor Louis Napoleon. but she sang Les Filles de Cadix (which I sang in my junior recital) and I was thinking it was more recent than that. I was partly right, I couldn't remember the composer, Delibes. Anyhoo, if these people are correct it was first published in 1887. and according to Wikipedia, Napoleon III died in 1873.

So, here's a clip, they cut a verse which is fine since most people probably don't know what she's singing about anyway and won't be bothered that part of the story is missing.



update: Just finished it and damn. These people can act and sing. I'm loving Jeannette MacDonald the more I see and hear of her, but there isn't much available on DVD (Netflix doesn't have anything with her and Nelson Eddy)

NOOOOOOoooooooo!!!!!

Wienermobile Crashes Into Wisconsin Home

I wouldn't mind it crashing into my house if it meant free hotdogs for life. but that would take some effort to bend a few laws of physics, I think.

well played, maggie...

So we just heard the dog barking at whatever it is she's been obsessed with for weeks now. and then maggie is staring intently at the back door. I keep waiting for her to either get up or stop staring, but she doesn't. So, I cracked and turned around to see what she was staring at, and there's nothing there. Turn back around to see if she's still staring and she has this really please with herself look on her face. "made you look!"

We passed!

She's getting even better at "stay" since then. at least for me. heh.

w007! PARTY!!!

I can haz treet now?

Finally!

I really am exercising still...

sorta. It's just the widget has apparently died since they tweeked the site.

glad I had time for this one...

short rehearsal tonight, so I decided to watch Madama Butterfly and it rocked my world. another sparse set with mostly screens that slid across the stage and a steep rake at the back. The main characters had fairly traditional costumes, but the chorus and a few smaller rolls had very modern styled, kinda cartoony looking costumes. (there's a good picture here, as well as an interesting review and debate about live vs. HD broadcast. being a recluse, I love, love, love the broadcasts. seriously, I tried years ago to watch a few non-HD productions and no, they are not the same and never held my attention, no matter how much I liked the opera.) (oh and more good pictures here, with puppets!) It's probably just me, but I really respond to the colors they use for lighting.

aaaanyhoo, I'll be processing this one for a few days I think. This is the only youtube clip I could find with English subtitles...



it's the love duet at the end of the first act.

and here's a bit with no words and that appears to have been taped in a theater, I'm guessing in Japan since the subtitles appear to be in that language.



They're waiting for Pinkerton to arrive. The woman playing Suzuki tore my heart out in this part. you can't see it thanks to the quality but she's got tears running down her face before she conks out and she just acted the crap out of this role the whole show. (I know, I'm so articulate)

rehearsal moment...

girl sitting next to me: hey, what's an Oberon?

MK: it's the name of the character.

GSNTM: ooooh

MK: He's king of the fairies.

family heirloom....

RTO's grandmother finally decided to sell her house in Florida, and he asked for this...


and it was much larger than he remembered and this is the only place it will fit in our house, which is fine with me, really. according to RTO it's all made by hand.. and i think he and his brother helped with the installation in the house. (it was wedged up against the ceiling)

but the back of it was not meant to be seen so RTO is having fun altering it. or not. he's kinda torn about it.

In the mean time, I don't really have room for this thing anymore...




and I got this chair, but will have to wait to get a second one until the big green monster is gone.


and hopefully the kitties will not like it for a scratchy post.

grocery frustration

I may have to start going to a food only kind of place after tonight's visit to Target.

Frozen foods have changed a bit since I last purchased many of them a week. I found a few of my old favorites, but was annoyed that I couldn't find others, like Three Cheese Chicken and Archer Farms only makes foofy single serving pizzas now. or that's all the Target had. goat cheese and spinach? Margherita? blech. pizza should be pepperoni.

oh and they were out of Bush's Garbanzo beans so I got stupid "organic" ones. but then they didn't have tahini either, so it will be another day or two before I make hummus.

And no cheddar cheese cubes! I told RTO about this and he says I probably just missed them. uh, I don't think so. They only had colby jack.

So anyhoo, I picked up some other things to try for variety while RTO's at AT.

tonight I had a DiGiorno for one Pepperoni pizza with garlic crust (just ignore the nutritional info) and microwaved it and it was tasty.

more Dewey!

poking around reviews of Dewey, someone suggested searching on youtube to see videos of Dewey so, here are a couple. First a CBS Sunday Morning segment



and next a PBS "interview"

new kitten!

don't know how to spell his name, though.

aaaaugh!



hon-shoo

cupcakes do not like to travel.

I maded cupcakes for the 4th. took half to the office Thursday.


and took the other half to OKC...

: (

the leftover ones look even better after the trip back to TX. The bottom of the cake carrier is just a big pink, overflowing puddle.

the things I miss watching everything on tivo....

Bumpits...


MK: Oh my... big hair is coming back?



RTO: yeah, the democrats are back in power...

MK: but wait there's more!
MK: bwah ha ha haaaaaa.

the gallery photos look much better than the commercial models. no, really.

calendar alteration...

This time it's mine.



The kitten was putting the puppy to shame in the smile department, so I fixed him. WHO IS SOOO CUTE NOW?!?