Claremont Ballroom Dance Company

Tonight we went to the dress rehearsal for the Claremont Ballroom Dance Company spring concert. Normally we would go to one of the actual performances, but this was the only one we could make. This photo is from intermission which stretched out into over 45 minutes while the crew worked on the lighting cues. The company decided to have a social dance time which looked like lots of fun.

Postmistress

The Postmistress, by Sarah Blake, received some buzz when it came out a few months ago, so I was eager to read it. Set during the early 1940s in England and Massachusetts, I found that the story tried to be too much, and therefore not enough. In fact, at the end the author devotes a few pages to describing how she came upon the ideas for her novel, and I think that if she had just stuck to one story, in depth, I would have enjoyed it more.

Tax Dollars at Work

Today the city had our sewer main repaired. Since I was teaching most of the day, I missed out on the water being turned off and most of the noise that accompanied this repair.

Incentive

There's nothing like having book club over to make sure the public areas of your house are clean. This involves moving furniture around and discovering what needs to be dusted and vacuumed!

Solstice Canyon

After Hal's umpire gig, we stayed the night in nearby Westlake Village, enjoying dinner at Pookie's Thai. In the morning we were primed for a hike in Solstice Canyon, near the coast in Malibu, just a short drive away. The destination of this hike is a destroyed ranch house and waterfall. Pictures of the 3.5 mile hike on my Picasa site. We had to say hello to the ocean, too, before we headed back inland after lunch at our favorite Senor Fish in Eagle Rock.

Last NCAA game of the season

Yesterday Hal took me along on his last Div 3 softball games of this season. We drove out to Thousand Oaks to California Lutheran University where the Regals hosted the Oxy Tigers. Here he is behind the plate, and you can see the lovely venue of rolling hills afforded to the spectators.

Stoplight on Indian Hill a Go

After a long time, the stoplight at Indian Hill Blvd. and 10th St. is now up and running. The scene of numerous accidents and near-misses, hopefully this corner will be much safer now. You can read about it in the Courier City Beat blog. The story about the Dutch Elm Tree affected by the construction of the lights is here.

More rug photos

I just saw another rug which I would like which is *only* $645 here. Same size, different pattern....

Here is one of the rips in the original carpet in the music room.

This photo shows that underneath the "curls" is a really ripped piece of rug. Kids love to pick at it....

Wish List

As a music teacher, I'm lucky. Actually, in many ways, but I was just thinking how great it is to have a dedicated music room. Most elementary teachers have to carve out a space in the multipurpose room, or put stuff on a cart and go room-to-room.

The music room is a leftover portable from our schoolwide renovation a number of years ago, and it has seen better days. You can't really tell from this photo, but the brown rug is pretty worn out (I've covered up the worst part with an old rug that my parents gave me years ago). Now this rug has been abused, seen better days. It is curling on two sides and shedding. (Perhaps I will take a better picture tomorrow and post it.)

I dream of this rug, or one like it - nice and big - but with the state of the economy in California, and teachers being pink-slipped, this one isn't in the budget now.

Snail Tracks

I thought I would take a picture of the snail tracks at the end of my block this morning rather than the dead squirrel on the corner.

Natalie Merchant

Every Sunday morning I read the NY Times with my laptop. I never know when I need to look up a book from the Book Review, or, even better, find a new composer/musician/album. Today I found Natalie Merchant whom I blogged about at Motifs in Music.

Banner Day

On my walk to the library this morning, I snapped some shots of the banners hanging on the lightposts and created the new montage for this blog's header. The background is a shot looking down Harvard Ave. above 8th St. The camphor trees spread over the street creating a canopy, or what my girls used to call a "tree tunnel."

New Electric Meter

Sometimes blog fodder rings your doorbell. On this unnoteworthy day (I'm home doing some music arranging and reading), a contractor with Edison came to let me know that he was installing the new smart meter and that my electricity would be off for about 30 seconds.

The little video at the website says that "these 'smart' meters will communicate frequent energy use information to customers through a secure wireless home area network and on the Web." It will be interesting to see what we learn about our own energy use.

Book about My Roots

Rhoda Janzen would be a Coffee Janzen. See, in my Mennonite background, when my ancestors lived in Russia (now the Ukraine) in colonies unto themselves, there were two families of Janzens. One family was spelled Jantzen (with the T), so they were the Tea Jantzens. The others, by default, were the Coffee Janzens. A little Mennonite humor for you.

Anyway, I digress before I start. Rhoda Janzen, like me, was born into a Mennonite family and lives outside of it while still feeling connected to it. After her divorce, she decides to stay with her parents for a few months to recover, and her musings during this time came out as Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home.

The parts of the book about Mennonite food, homesewn clothes (and other methods of thrift), uncool lunchboxes and such made me laugh out loud with some kind of recognition (although technically, I am one generation closer to living in the world than Janzen - my parents also live in the world). It also made me hungry for veriniki and cherry moos. I guess I'll just have to read the blog Mennonite Girls Can Cook.

Pepto Bismol Begone!

A number of years ago, this house in our neighborhood was painted what we lovingly called "Pepto Bismol Pink". As the years went on, it looked more peach-colored, but recently it had a wonderful facelift. Now it is this lovely green color.

A Page-Turner

NPR's Fresh Air says that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson is "a super-smart amalgam of the corporate corruption tale, legal thriller and dysfunctional-family psychological suspense story." And yup, I think that's a good description. I know I'm a little behind the times on this one - the movie is out (in Swedish with subtitles), the second book (The Girl Who Played with Fire) is already in paperback, and the third book is coming out in May - but now I don't have to wait too long between reading each book.

It's such an intriguing story that I finished the last 250 pages yesterday alone.

Hope Springs Eternal?

It's the beginning of April, it's the beginning of Baseball Season! I hold very little hope for my first favorite team, the Dodgers, this year (they've started the season at 1-3), but to have the baseball sounds on tv again is quite comforting.

Spring Break Field Trip

Thanks to the Los Angeles Foothill Philharmonic Committee, our district orchestra students were given tickets and bus transportation to Disney Concert Hall to attend this season's final Toyota Symphonies for Youth concert.

Upon arriving, the students were able to play drums and other percussion instruments in a drum circle for 1/2 hour. They also had a chance to make puppets to the theme of the Americas since that was the musical theme.

On the program was Copland's Rodeo and Ginastera's Estancia Dances. Enhancing the music were peformances of four dancers from the Luminario Ballet of Los Angeles. The show was so well done, all the kids in the audience sat still and enchanted for 50 minutes.

After the concert, we ate our lunch in the little amphitheater and were treated to an informal talk by one of the cellists who talked about working hard and practicing, and then the dancers and conductor came out and took questions.

All that, and we made it back to Claremont by 1:35.

Garden Walk

On our daily stroll through our yard / garden to see what is flowering, we found this mushroom.

More Food in Fort Collins

Today's eating extravaganza in Fort Collins started with coffee at Starry Night coffee shop where I met my college friend, Lynn. The mocha was one of the best I've had.

For lunch mom and I met Erika and three of Erika's friends at Rainbow, a restaurant with good vegetarian fare.

Mom and I had the enchilada special with ground soy and lots of spinach and cheese inside. Delicious!

Feast or Famine?

I'm spending a few days in Fort Collins, CO visiting my family during spring break. Today's activities revolved around food. My mom and sister and I drove to Boulder for lunch at the Dushanbe Tea House where we met two friends for great food and conversation.

I had the Moroccan Stuffed Acorn Squash, but then split it with Erika's Spicy Indonesian Peanut Noodle. Both were excellent.
For dinner we went to the First Presbyterian Church for an experience post-Lenten focus on hunger. We were each given a packet of Monopoly money and a menu. I ended up with a packet of $100 which was enough for me to eat about 2 1/2 meals, while others at the table had other amounts. We decided to share the wealth, and we all had plenty to eat. I bought the clean water, but we were given the choice of "river water" for free.

Moloka'i

Upon the recommendation of a friend, I chose the book Moloka'i by Alan Brennert to read for our book club next week. Following the life of Rachel as a young girl, the novel traces her story as she is sent to live in the leper colony in Hawai'i as a young girl. While the writing is ordinary, the story is compelling, the characters real.

Easter

Scenes from Easter yesterday:

The flowering cross at church

Some of the 99 eggs (77 plastic, 22 hard-boiled) hidden for Ben and Aaron by the older boys before Easter dinner at the Mawhorters.

Earthquake

Sitting outside at 3:40 this afternoon with friends, we looked at each other and said, "is this an earthquake?" It was! It felt rolling and lasted for a little while. Turns out it was a 7.2 in Baja, well over 200 miles away. Quakes are much quieter if you aren't in a building.

Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve

A rare treat today - a whole day with nothing scheduled for either of us. The original thought was to drive to Joshua Tree National Park to see the wildflowers, but after remembering that it takes 2 1/2 hours to get there (and then 2 1/2 hours to return), we looked for a closer place and discovered the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve near Murrieta. It's only about an hour away.

The Reserve boasts Vernal Pools, as well as wildflowers, and with the lovely rains we had this winter, it was a great day to take a 3 1/2 mile loop to take in the pools, the rolling hills with great live oak trees, historic adobe house and grinding stones. I have a new album at my picasa site with photos from our hike.

I love using my macro on my little camera - and with the blue sky today, I took this poppy photo looking up instead of down.

Teacher Ed

Last night I had the opportunity to be a guest presenter in my friend's teacher education class for young children (ages 3-8) at Chaffey College. I brought in a pile of instruments, scarves, beanie babies, books and recorded music for an hour of singing, chanting and moving. If we could just get all teachers in all schools to incorporate music into their classrooms on a daily basis, then children would benefit greatly.

April Fool of Yesteryear

No student tried to fool me today, but I remember a year when kindergartener got me good. She came to school with her arm in a sling. I asked her what happened and she told me with a very straight face that she had fallen and broken her arm before she looked up at me with a big smile and said, "April Fool!" Boy. A kindergartener. Today she is one of my 6th grade viola students.