More house stuff

Several people have asked me "what's next for your house?" Too many things! Yesterday we went shopping and bought a duvet cover for the bed, but it doesn't quite fit (too big), and we decided that instead of painting the walls tan, we'll leave them light blue and accessorize with brown. So, I'm on the hunt for the duvet cover that Hal and I can agree on.

Yesterday we also rearranged the living room a bit. We moved the t.v. to the empty spot left by the piano. That required that Hal cut into the wall and put in an outlet, which he so very aptly did. The living room feels more spacious, but we need to find a love seat for the t.v. area of the room. Right now we brought down a chair from upstairs as a place holder.

I am also starting to think about the tiling projects - kitchen backsplash and fireplace. First I have to decide the colors/style/design, then buy the tiles and find a tiler.

I am also looking online for window treatments for our bedroom (based on the duvet cover we find), my study, my music room, the living room and the dining room.

All this would be so much easier if I knew exactly what I wanted!

Cubs

I was excited to find out that the Cubs were on tv this afternoon. I haven't seen them play too much since we moved back to Claremont. However, I was not too happy that they lost. Nonetheless, they still have the best record in baseball!

Last Chapter in the Piano Story

The piano we bought in Palo Alto in 1999, stripped of its white paint and refinished, is now in a new happy home in South Claremont. The p.s. to this story is that we have to think about rearranging our living room.

Hangin' out my shingle

Time to update my business card, so this is what I came up with this morning.

One of my favorite YouTube videos

Pachelbel Rant

Approaching School Year....

I met with Ley today and found out my schedule for the school year. I am pretty excited about how this is all playing out. I'll have 7 classes a week, no classes on Thursday. The piano in the music room will be tuned next week for the first time in who knows how long. I have the use of a projector for my laptop, so I don't have to make transparencies anymore! I just placed an order for new drums and curriculum. AND, I still have until Sept. 22 to get everything ready!

New Floor!

Ten years ago we remodeled our kitchen. Today we finally had
the kitchen floor replaced. Our guy finished it in one day, so we are up and running again in the home food cooking dept. We are most pleased with the outcome and wonder why we didn't do it sooner!

Quiet Sunday

It was hot today, so we did most of our stuff in the morning - early church, Starbucks, Farmer's Market. The best find at the Farmer's Market was the Asian stall which sells Chinese broccoli, lemongrass and other great stuff. If they sold noodles, we'd be all set!

Saturday project

I had one job in mind for today - to remove the vinyl flooring in the kitchen so that on Monday the flooring guy could come and put in our new vinyl. Well, Hal had the job done by 10:30 this morning, so we had to come up with additional Saturday jobs. Of course, it included a run to Target and Costco, and now Hal is working at school on the NMR which stopped working yesterday. I am cleaning my study. Woo hoo.

Music, Music

I can feel the beginning of the school year nipping at my heels. Last night my friend, Edris, brought me two xylophones and a metallophone that she can't use anymore, as well as a set of resonator bells. Today I ordered some replacement parts for the instruments so they will be almost new when I start using them with students next month.

Ley (my principal) called me last night to say that he found money to pay me for the whole year (!), and that I will start on Sept. 22 (so now I have a time frame with enough time to set up my room).

I also ordered a new set of strings for my violin.

Today I played my viola for Michael Lamkin (orchestra conductor), and I will now be an official member of the viola section. Orchestra starts on Sept. 8. I am also excited because practice time has shifted 1/2 hour earlier, so we will finish rehearsals at 9:30 instead of 10:00.

Now I just need to know more details about the string program, but that will have to wait a bit.

Oh, yes. I sold the piano last night and have a check in hand today! Now we can move forward with rearranging the living room!

A late August day

Slow day in Claremont:

Got up early to have blood work done before my check-up next week. Found out that the lab I've been using 1) changed its hours and I had to wait 2) discontinued my insurance, and told me to go elsewhere. I went elsewhere and finally, after 90 minutes, I went home.

Someone came to look at the piano and took measurements. Will hear from her tonight.

Anticipating Hal's Thai cooking and sharing it with our dear friends, the Clicks, tonight.

Score!

We found a market that sells our favorite Thai groceries, and it's only a few miles from home! Hoa Binh is a Vietnamese store in Pomona, but carries many Thai items. Hal and I restocked our kitchen with sauces, noodles, pastes, etc. The Clicks are coming to dinner tomorrow, so we're going to enjoy Hal's homemade treats. The lovely waitress at the new Thai restaurant in Claremont told us where this place is.

Paradise

It's hard to say everything about our 7 days in Paradise, so I'll hit the highlights. First of all, we found a section of the Tuolumne River that we had not seen before which is fairly isolated and absolutely stunning. We made several trips there to enjoy the scenery and solitude.

The most memorable part of the trip, though, was the 3-day family backpacking adventure. We covered over 20 miles, hiking from Tuolumne Meadows down to the Valley. The first day we hiked and hiked uphill, past the lovely Cathedral Lake and made it to this high point you see in the picture. The first night we spent in the Sunrise High Sierra Camp (the backpacker's section). Day two found us hiking downhill toward Half Dome. We reached our camp (just off the main trail) by 3:30, and Hal, Liesl and Claire decided to go the extra 4-mile roundtrip to summit Half Dome. That's two miles straight up, then two miles straight down. I stayed in the camp to protect our food from bears. I ended up protecting our gear from the small rain shower. They made it up and down in 3 1/2 hours - amazingly enough - after having hiked all day. Day Three brought us all the way down into the Valley via Nevada and Vernal Falls. I think the descending switchbacks between the two falls was just as dastardly as the hike up out of Tuolumne. My calves still ache!

I have put 28 pictures of the 250 we took on my Picasa Web Album. Take a look!

Back

We just got home from our trip to Yosemite - tired, happy and filthy!

Read another Book

The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander

This novel takes place in Buenos Aires in the 1970s during Argentina's "dirty war." While I thought that parts of the book were interesting, I felt that it was uneven and skimmed the parts that just went on and on about the same thing.

Hal made it home from the Gordon Conference (science camp) in Rhode Island last night, and today we are packing up the tent trailer for our summer pilgrimage to Mecca, i.e. Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite.

Pictures to follow upon our return!

Book Cover

My mom has been working on writing her autobiography, and I told her that I would design the cover for her. So this is it. These are three of the parsonages where she lived in Nebraska and Kansas. So, when you're done with this book, Mom, what will your next project be?

Rabbit and Rogue

Last night Claire and I went to Orange Co. with her friend Kelsey and Kelsey's mom to see the American Ballet Theater perform Twyla Tharp's Rabbit and Rogue, a new dance set to music by Danny Elfman. I was glad to know that the dance would be accompanied by a live orchestra (the Pacific Symphony) rather than pre-recorded music. I had to say that during Rabbit and Rogue I was distracted by listening to the music, trying to figure out what Elfman was up to.

Skyspace

JoAnn and I went over to Pomona College yesterday evening to watch the Turrell Skyspace change colors under the twilight sky. Today I made a little video of pictures I took as the colors morphed with music that I am working on. Then I created a youtube account and uploaded my first video to the web! Click here to watch the 25-second video.

Summertime fun

This morning I used Photoshop Elements to play with some melted crayon art I did years ago at family camp. Here's what I came up with:

Monday Night in the Park

I forgot to take my camera, but I went to the Concert in the Park tonight. You will just have to imagine it. The band playing was The Answer - a cover band for all the good old classic rock. It was pretty cool how they project music videos of various songs (from YMCA to Hard Day's Night and Sweet Home Alabama) and play along, sounding pretty much just like the original band. They also had some pyrotechnics.

I enjoyed the show with JoAnn and the Archibald-Woodwards. The people sitting in front of us did not enjoy us talking and gave us the evil eye, but I didn't notice them until they left and JoAnn made a comment. Hey, it's a concert in the park, and it's Claremont's social time!

Life in Claremont on an August Sunday

Sunday morning at the Farmer's Market. There was a hawk in my neighbor's yard, again. Big George is the new horse statue at Harrison and Indian Hill Blvd.

Off to Rhode Island

Here's Hal getting on MetroLink just 15 minutes ago. He's riding to downtown LA, then catching the FlyAway bus to LAX where he'll jump a red-eye to Chicago, change planes and land in Providence, RI. Claire and I sent him off to a Gordon Conference, kind of like camp for scientists. He'll be home on Friday night.

I'm getting hungry

Although I had a hard time with the beginning of the book and the parts of the book where Gilbert's drama queen of indecision dominates the prose, I did enjoy reading about Italy, India and Indonesia (especially the food). Also enjoyable were the nuggets of wisdom from the various people Gilbert encountered during her year of healing.