Cookie Monster

So it's been over a month since I've posted. What motivates me enough to grease up the old blog? Cookies. Yes, cookies. I looooove me some good cookies. Lately I've been loving them more due to a recent mediocre audition. I'll write more about that later.

I love love LOVE cookies. Cake? Blech. I didn't even have a bite of cake at my own wedding, but if we would have had cookies.... ooooo.....

So, I went to Kowalski's (for the 3rd time in 4 days) to pick up some cookies. They have an amazing M&M cookie. Normally not so fond of M&M cookies because they're usually hard and the M&M's are usually old and kind of gross and it's mostly just a sugar cookie with like 3 M&M's. Well folks! These cookies are the best. They're soft in between the zillions of M&M's that are fresh and jammed so close together it's really just a pile of M&M connected by delightful cookie. Oh, and they're like the size of my head. *sigh* It pains me to think about it because when I went in there last night, I couldn't find them. They only have a table of cookies and they had 2 packages of half crushed chocolate chip cookies that looked hard and they were broken. Everybody knows that broken cookies taste different than whole ones. All I see are the same kind of cookies swarming this table. So I catch a glimmer of false coloring in one of them and my hope goes up. I pick it up thinking it would be a lame substitute, but it's called "Trail Cookie". What the heck? It looks like something you'd find on a playground after fiestata lunch day. What are we, hiking through the mountains munching on our gorp and our "Trail Cookies"? Lame. I don't eat cookies to be healthy, I eat it for the sugar and the pound of butter in every cookie. So I settled on the sugar cookies. They're pretty awesome... but they'd be better with 6 cups of M&M's in them. ;-)

I've had a chronic stomach ache for the past 4 days, but it's worth it. I definitely would not go through the pain if it were from gorp cookies. I think I have to bake today. :-)

Spring Is In The Air!

Finally some warm weather! This feels like a heat wave compared to what it was just days ago. I love the snow and I love winter, but now that I've had a taste of spring, I really want the sunny days and warm breezes back. But instead I predict about 3 more months of half melted brown dirty snow and frigid mornings and warm beautiful days while I'm working and then frigid evenings when I leave work. :-(

It makes me want to retire. Do people do that at 25? I suppose they do if they're worth 8 figures, not -5 figures. Well, actually I can't say that I'm -5, because I am debt free now, so I'm riding high at an even $0 and I'm happy!

When we were out walking our too-cute-for-words-and-I'm-not-just-saying-that-because-she's-mine dog yesterday, it felt like spring all over. A young teen was playing basketball in his shorts and T and other people were out standing and chatting without jackets, and the true sign of warm weather, we smelled dinner being cooked on grills. Yum!

Well, even if I can't be out to enjoy it, at least I have windows I can look out of. That's a first for me at a place of employment! :-D

A Gem

Solveig's Song is on the radio. What a great piece. It's from Peer Gynt. YouTube it, if you haven't heard it. *sigh* It touches the soul. Just thought I'd share.

I've Hit A New Low

My caffeine addiction has hit a new low. Now it's just not the entire pot of morning coffee with a pick-me-up Dew at lunch. Or the massive headaches that immediately start an hour after I've been awake if I haven't downed a good 4 mugs of joe.

Last night at about 11pm I was feeling sleepy and winding down before bed by playing a little rock and roll on Guitar Hero. I went upstairs to get a water from the fridge, when my right arm independently moved from my body to grasp a beloved Mountain Dew. I watched in horror as my single arm tried to open the can for a guzzle-fest. I would not have it. If I had a Dew at 11, no doubt it would kick in about 11:30am and I would be up scrubbing the grout in our guest bath or re-trimming the carpet. Not like I've done a weird thing like that before... but now that you mention it... Regardless it took all my effort (along with the help of my left arm) to turn my head away and put back the dew. Then I had to sit against the fridge and cry a little because I really wanted that dew. But I got over it and went to bed. However, I was up half the night thinking about the little dew can in the fridge taunting me. So maybe it wouldn't have been that bad to have a little before bed. hehehehe

Puppy Love

Exciting news! We're going to be parents! Not of actual children, but of a very cute little Shih Tzu. We were on the list to adopt a puppy from this dog, but after a big long whoo-haw, turns out she wasn't "with puppy".

A big disappointment at first for us because after our beloved fish Kipu passed, there has been a void and we were excited for a little mongrel to fill it. Then even better news came. Because the situation was full of a big case of the crazies, they offered us first say on the "mom" not-mom. She is incredibly cute. She's just over 10 pounds and she's all black with a very cute face. Doesn't she look like a little fiesty Ewok?

I am so excited!! She's coming a couple months earlier than we anticipated getting a floor mop, but we couldn't be happier. Now come the preperations, because she arrives in just over a week!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

24

It has been a day since Santana was traded. I'm still sad. I miss him.

Bonjour mon ami!

Well, since I've been posting daily since I started this blog you must have missed my short absence. What? You didn't notice? Oh right, because I'm about as regular as an old man who lacks fiber. But I'm back and ready to wow you with my exciting life.

The holidays were a sea of crazy this year. The stars aligned this year and every friend, family, and foe was in town and wanted to get together. Why is it that everyone is always in town for only 2 days around the holidays? It makes it very difficult to plan. But nevertheless I got out my 27x34 flip chart and my laser pointer and set to work diagramming the holidays. Fortunately it all worked out. I saw every family member and friend and rescheduled all the foes for the day after never.

Amidst the hustle and bustle of spreading holiday cheer I was still taking lessons with my new instructor. And as of late, I have decided to throw myself to the mercy of the MN Opera directors. Yes folks, I am auditioning this spring and receiving a rejection letter in the summer. I can hardly contain myself. Now just to decide which aria to sing. Oh and how to convince them that I would be a great mezzo for them while singing Bester Jungling or Batti, batti. Ha! *sigh* If only sopranos were slightly less common than a dandelion in spring. *cue violins*

I'm still working and trucking along and gearing up for my best friends wedding. Speaking of, I better start working on my toast!

Busy Times!

I have finally decided on a voice teacher!! Woo! I had my first lesson with her on Saturday. We didn't sing a stitch, but rather peeled through my book collection for potential pieces. It's still overwhelming to pick from 50, but it's a little less daunting than thousands. The question now, is how many, which language, variety or submersion and still figuring out which fits my fach. Too much! Do I go all French and immerse myself to really delve into French literature? Or do I have a variety of languages to get back in the groove of things? I'm like a kid in a candy store.

Yes, you're probably right, I should just do a variety of languages that I'm more familiar with to get my chricothyroid and cricoarytenoids stretched and strengthened. OK, so a variety it is... hmmm now back to the piles of books to decide which.

Oooo! And I got a fun new gadget for my lessons. I used to drag out the old tape cassettes to record my lesson, but what a pain that is! So, I recently invested in a mini-microphone that plugs into my iPod. So, now to I can save them on my computer and they're all digital and ready to go. I'm so excited! I love technology.

This Is My Quest

... Only without the whole man of La Mancha part.

I am on a quest to find a new voice instructor. Now that life has settled down to a dull roar, I really am feeling the bug to get back to performing. I have thought about long and hard what I wanted to do. I have sung in choirs after college and have even applied for graduate school. At the end of last years' season, I really knew that I wanted to get back on the stage singing and dancing my little heart out. I guess I always knew it, but was more scared and lost about where to start.

I was fresh out of college and bright eyed and bushy tailed and had music in my heart. So I audition for the 2 heavy hitting choirs of MN. Woo! Got into both of them... of course that meant rehearsals over in Minneapolis at least 3 times a week, and when there were performances it was a non-stop commute-sing 'til your voice box drops right out on the floor-drive home at an ungodly hour-and get up and work. *repeat daily* I cut back here and there with one of the choirs and it seemed to be okay, and then the wedding planning was in full swing and my sanity was in limbo. So, last spring was my ending for a spell. Then this summer was filled with wedding planning and a new job. Now the honeymoon is over and life is peachy.

So the past couple of weeks I have contacted a few voice instructors. Now I'm in the midst of interviewing them. Then my goal will be to study and get into some auditions and get shot down 99% of the time, but hopefully get into an occasional something here and there. If I start studying now, I think I will bug the MN opera again. My past auditions have been horrible with them... well, I guess just one out of 2 was horrible. It was right after I graduated and I was bed ridden for about 5 days and felt like I had 83 heads and they were all congested. I pulled myself out of bed and showered for the first time in eons and trucked it over to my audition. Blech. I kept sniffling during the interludes and when I sang my head was so congested that it rang around in there and I wanted to grab my head and cry and nap on the floor. The second time I hadn't been studying, but I had been singing and I just wasn't ready. They also probably remembered my monstrous self from last year and thought I was Jekyll and Hyde. Or, probably more just like Hyde.

So off I go into the scary world of rejection, divas, divos, and long commutes. I'll keep you posted.

Morning Coffee

There's nothing else than a hot pot of coffee to wake you up. It just wouldn't be a good day unless I guzzled down at least 4 cups. Since I go through it at a mind blowing rate, I thought I better look into some cheap, but passable, coffee. So I came out of the grocery the other day with a drum of dark roast called Black Silk hoping to up my caffeine intake a bit.

So I'm sitting here, eyes half closed, listening to the lovely brewing sounds of my coffee with my mug of sugar in hand waiting for the coffee to stop. I'm looking forward to getting a nice pick me up by switching to a darker roast. It's finally done. As I pouring my beloved coffee, things are in a sudden chaotic state, I must have poured too fast, there's coffee spewing out all sides, and about half the pot ends up on my leg. Nothing wakes you up faster than 3rd degree coffee burns on your thigh in the morning. I nearly cried. Not because of the burns, but because of all the wasted coffee.

Pure Evil

I have been a pumpkin carving machine. I carved a pumpkin last night that was tedious, but was satisfying because I didn't lop off a necessary chunk like I usually do. Here's the pumpkin that made my fingers feel like I was 94. I gotta up my Aleve all day strong all day long dosage.

Tonight I carved 3 pumpkins. My fingers are gnarled, but at least I still have all of them intact. Giant knives can be dangerous when carving a thick mass of vegetable.
No you have to imagine this next one with guts coming out of his head. Right now they're in a baggie in the fridge keeping nice and fresh and gooey until Halloween night.
All of these fit into our little pumpkin hunter/killer display on the front stoop.