January Weather

What a difference a few days make. 

Tuesday late afternoon - 71 degrees

Yesterday late afternoon - 48 degrees

The Age of Insight

When I read about this book The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconcious in Art, Mind, and Brain: From Vienna 1900 to the Present, I think I just saw the Klimt painting on the cover and the words Vienna 1900. I particularly enjoy this period of history - the fin de siècle Vienna - with Klimt and Mahler and coffee with schlag (whipped cream), so I picked up the book with enthusiasm.

The first 200 pages were fun for me - discussions of how Freud, Klimt, Kokoshka and Shiele influenced the thinking of the age, with some discussions of various artworks. Then, the rest of the book started, and my eyes glazed over with all the neuroscience figures. This half of the book is for my daughter, the neurobiologist. Part Three is titled: Biology of the Beholder's Visual Response to Art. I am sorry to say that I will be returning this book to the library unfinished. Not because it isn't a good book, but I think I got out of it what my mind was able to.

Borscht

Tonight I reconnected with my Mennonite roots and made borscht for dinner. My ancestors were of the Russian Mennonite variety - the group who came from the Netherlands, through Prussia and into what is now the Ukraine. Although they tended not to integrate into the Russian culture, the Mennonites did pick up some of the local food, including red winter wheat and borscht.

I still have a slight stain on my hand from peeling and chopping the beets, but it was worth it. This recipe is not quite what I ate growing up since it is vegetarian, but with the beets and potatoes, cabbage and tomatoes, it was pretty hearty, and the sourdough roll on the side and the plain greek yogurt on the top were perfect complements.

Up and Running in the New Year

Today was the first day of school in 2013 for the CUSD. After two weeks off, it is always a little shock to the system to get back into the routine. However, this time of year is very sweet. Kids are generally in the groove, but since they've had a break, they are not worn out and I think they are generally happy to be back with their friends. Some even like the structure, but don't tell them that.

I really enjoyed all my classes today, although with the very first group we played a game where we had to sing louder and softer for the game hot and cold, and we had to sing very loudly at times to make sure the guesser could figure out where the hidden button was. My voice was a little strained after that class, but it slowly came back for the next 4.

I am working on presenting a lesson for teachers (music and classroom) next month, and I'm using the second graders as guinea pigs, and so far, what I envision is working. I'll spread the lesson over three weeks, in order to let the information sink in for the kids. This gets shortened to one 45-minute presentation for the teachers.

So, it was a good day, but now I'm tired...

Moonrise Kingdom

Moonrise Kingdom was one of those movies that I wanted to see in the theater this summer, but it was gone before we could get there. We finally watched it last night, and I really, really liked it. Now, Wes Anderson films are pretty quirky, and I'm not a particular fan of his at all, but this one's sense of a mythic 1960s childhood resonated with me. (Guess my age!) It felt like the kind of foreign film that I often enjoy without being able to pinpoint why.

I loved the music of the film - lots and lots of Benjamin Britten (who knew I was such a fan of his?), and the fact that the girl carried a portable record player with her. She also carried about six library books that I found out were made up for this movie.

If I had to chose books that I would have put in her hands, some would have been Harriet the Spy, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (I know it was published in 1966, a year too late for the movie, but, it would still fit), A Wrinkle in Time, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Prydian Chronicles, and any of the Narnia books.

I am also catching up on some TED talks, and I blogged about one of them in my music blog. This one is Stuart Brown's talk about the importance of play in human life.

Maybe I'll add that to my new year's resolution list - relearn German and play more.

Gandolfo's

Back online. The internet and phone spontaneously started this morning around 10:00. Hmmm...Anyway -

While out on a shopping spree in Rancho yesterday, C and I stopped for lunch at Gandolfo's - an New York deli on Millikan and 7th. After perusing the umpteen hundred sandwich choices, we zeroed in on the two vegetarian options and both chose the Ebbets Field half sandwich. It was probably one of the best vegetarian sandwiches I have ever had - great bread and whatever they smeared on it was chock full of flavor.

The only downside I found was that during your order they try to upsell you a variety of things, and we did go for the pickle - big and crunchy and cut in quarters. I said no to the extra cheese and was glad I did.

No Internet!

When I arrived home this afternoon from shopping, I found that my internet was not working. I did the usual thing of cycling the modem by unplugging it and replugging it, but the phone was also not working. After using the cell to call H at work, he contacted Time Warner who said that the machine that fixes the problem (and resides in India) is not working, so they have to send someone to our house tomorrow afternoon to fix it.

So, here I sit at my daughter's house using her internet for a few minutes before I try my life without a lifeline to the world. Well, to the webby web at least.

See you later, world!

Road Construction

When we lived in Minnesota the line was, "There are two seasons in Minnesota - winter and road construction." Well, it seems that winter break is a great time for road construction in Claremont. It seems as though I can hardly drive anywhere these days without running into it somewhere along the way.

Clearing Out

Perhaps in anticipation of going on sabbatical, perhaps because it's a new year, perhaps because we have a holiday, today we went into the garage to see what we could get rid of. I have been bugging H about the lumber in the corner for, oh, let's say many, many years now, and for some reason, he thought now might be a good time to clear out. I did not want to discourage him.

We are going to see if the Habitat Restore is interested in picking up these usable items to keep them from a landfill, and perhaps help someone out. We always look for the win-win-win situations.

Last week we took a pile of stuff to the LA County hazardous waste roundup in LaVerne, spurred on by the stuff we found on this blog post from October. It seems as though we never run out of things to get rid of. How can this be?

Looking Forward

It's a new year, a time when we like to look ahead to think about what the future may bring. Our future is starting to look quite exciting as we think about our next sabbatical year. Not next fall, but starting in the fall of 2014 we are planning to spend a year in Zurich, Switzerland.

About a month ago we heard back from a friend of ours at the ETH (The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology/Zurich) who answered H's request to be invited to do research for the year.

We have many questions about living in a foreign country, and we have been asking all of our friends who have done such what advice and knowledge they can impart for us. Most importantly, this far in advance, what we need to do is to revive the German that is hidden deep within our memories. Both of us took German in college, and I spent a term (3 months) in Graz, Austria during college studying the language over xxx years ago.

We have a copy of Roald Dahl's The Magic Finger, a short children's book, in German, and we are slowly working our way through it with the English translation at our side, trying to remember the sentence structures, the verb conjugations, some basic vocabulary and noun genders. I am surprised by how much and how little I remember. I don't generally make New Year's resolutions, but this might be a good one: practice German!