Write the end, Doritos contest

Hello lovely blog readers (all what, three of you?),

Doritos is holding a 'Write the End' contest for their new Dorito flavour. The winner is partially determined by the number of votes their entry receives. My chances of winning are pretty slim, however; if everyone can take a few minutes to click on the link below and vote for my entry I'd be much obliged. You can vote once a day, so don't forget to go back and vote as often as possible.

http://www.writetheend.ca/en/gallery/A/8549/

Ciao,

Andrea

Updating the opera: Abduction from the Seraglio

On Thursday night Andrew and I attended the Edmonton Opera's production of Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio. I'd never heard of this opera until a groupon message arrived in my inbox offering me a great deal on two tickets for the show. I sent the message onto Andrew to see if he was interested and since the price was good we thought we'd go for it. I briefly checked out Edmonton Opera's Website to get a gist of what the opera was about (spies and romance with a 1960's, James Bond-equse twist, how could it go wrong?) and ordered the tickets. Since attending the opera I've learn that this was one of Mozart's first operas commissioned by Austrian emperor Joseph II as a part of his Nationalsingspiel project--an effort to produce German lyric operas.

To be honest, the production wasn't exactly what I'd expected. It felt more like a Gilbert and Sullivan production (Edmonton Opera is performing The Mikado next year--I'm very excited) with it's corny jokes and, in general, very silly atmosphere than a Mozart opera. If I had to guess, this staging was an effort by Edmonton Opera to engage a younger audience and encourage a new generation of patrons. I had been expecting and looking forward to the 1960's setting, but only half of the opera was sung (therefore does it still count as an opera?). Actually, according the ever-wise Wikipedia, this is how the opera was originally performed. The songs were sung in German and the spoken sections in between were in English. And the spoken sections had been clearly re-written to incorporate modern day references (including those to Facebook, YouTube, Mike Holmes and I believe even a reference to Weird Al's movie UHF).

I think it was the hyper-updated references that put a bit of an odd taste in my mouth (like how my meal last Friday at the Blue Chair had tiny bits of cucumber, thus decreasing my enjoyment ever-so-slightly). It felt like the jokes had gone a little sour with too much effort, and if they had stayed away from the uber pop culture jokes it might have been more effective. Now, I should point out that people did laughed. As the joke about Facebook was set up, the audience giggled and continued to do so when the punchline was thrown. It just didn't suit me. I think I would preferred dialogue that had been translated more closely to the original German text and only updated where the references to eighteenth century Vienna wouldn't make sense in twenty-first century Edmonton.

I did like some of the original things they did. For example, the Edmonton Opera made an opening credit film. While the opera's overture played the film was projected onto a screen. It showed Belmonte (the Bond-like character) striding onto the screen and striking the traditional Bond-gunshot pose, while the background colour turned red with blood. They used the screen again later on for the chase seen, which I also liked. As with the other Edmonton Opera productions I've seen, the set and costuming were all excellent, and I really did enjoy the sung parts. I find I actually rather like opera (at least when I'm seeing it in a theatre as opposed to listening to Saturday Afternoon at the Opera on CBC). Unfortunately, Andrew doesn't much care for it. We went to see Carmen a couple of years ago and he found the storyline too base, or too simple...too unbelievable, perhaps? And he doesn't much care for the operatic singing style either. At least he likes Gilbert and Sullivan, and so is happy to see The Mikado with me next year.

All-in-all? Abduction from the Seraglio was okay--but not as great as I'd been hoping it would be. We didn't pay full price for tickets, however; and it was an opportunity to support Edmonton Opera. I think we'll probably stick with patronizing the orchestra for now.

Ciao,

Andrea

Dinner and a show: Little Miss Higgins at the Blue Chair Cafe

A few weeks ago while listening to In Concert on CBC2, they featured Little Miss Higgins. I'd heard a few of her songs played on the radio before, although I wasn't otherwise too familiar with her music. The concert played on CBC2 sounded fun, then at the end of it they announced that she would be touring throughout Alberta including Edmonton. I asked Andrew if he would be interested in going to a concert and I looked up the details: she was playing at the Blue Chair Cafe (we'd only been once before, when the string quartet of a co-worker of mine was performing there). Cover charge was $15, and we could opt to have dinner there beforehand. I made reservations the next day, and as it turned out the timing of the concert (last Friday) was perfect as I've had a couple of tough weeks at work.

The menu at the Blue Chair isn't huge, but it's interesting (with many vegetarian and vegan options) and they have specials, which seem to change weekly. By some weird twist of fate I ended up with two courses that included cucumber. I hate cucumber, I can't even stand the smell of it when Andrew chops it up for his lunch. The first cucumber containing item we ordered were the salad wraps, which when dipped in the delicious spicy peanut sauce that came with it, the offending ingredient wasn't too noticeable. For my entree I ordered the kefta pita, which came with a nice colourful salad-type thing, which again unfortunately included cucumber. However, when I paired it with the absolutely delicious kefta's (a type of black bean patty) and topped it with goat cheese is wasn't too bad. At the end of dinner Andrew and I both ordered our own 'giant cookie,' which was exactly what I wanted to end the evening. A chocolate chip cookie with cashews and ice cream. Yum.

About halfway through our dinner the show began. For those of you who haven't been to the Blue Chair, it's a fairly averaged sized restaurant. One section (near the windows) is on a slightly higher level then the back half of the restaurant (where we were sitting). There's a stage nestled in the back corner of the room with the necessary sound equipment--a very cosy and intimate setting to be sure. Not knowing a whole lot about Little Miss Higgins (and having only ever heard her on the radio) I assumed that she only sang, and had a band who backed her up. Therefore, I was quite surprised to see her strap on a guitar. Not only did she play guitar, but she was lead guitar and fantastic! The group was completed by Joey Lorer on bass and Foy Taylor on stomp box and guitar.

Little Miss Higgins seemed to have as much fun performing for us as I had listening to her. I told her later (when we were in the lineup in the women's washroom) that my cheeks were sore from smiling. I liked that occasionally she seemed to change her mind about what they were going to play (by saying to her band members, 'hey let's do...') I'm not quite sure how to describe Little Miss Higgins sound. The placard on our table described her as roots/blues, which was maybe just a catch-all phrase for a mashup of: swing, big band, 50's rock, blues and country. Whatever it was, it was fun and I could have happily danced all night except for that I was eating during most of it. Some of the songs I enjoyed the most included: The Tornado Song, The Dirty Ol' Tractor Song, Slug on my Boot (followed by a humours story about how it came to be), Glad Your Whiskey Fits Inside My Purse (also accompanied by a good story) and possibly my favourite: Bargain Shop Panties.

All-in-all we had a great night. I would definitely go see Little Miss Higgins again if she came back to Edmonton, plus Andrew and I are planning to go back to the Blue Chair Cafe on Valentine's Day. We don't usually make a big to do about Valentine's (it being a fabricated holiday and all...) but it happened that while there we heard there was supposed to be a jazz harpist playing that night and well...we (Andrew) couldn't resist the idea.

Ciao,

Andrea

Everyday ordinary: Gardening

Perhaps the first week of February seems like an odd time to talk about gardening, but once again, I have two reasons for doing this: 1) I failed to give a final wrap up of how our balcony garden from 2010 worked out; and 2) Andrew and I are now planning what we're going to plant for the upcoming season.

Last year we saw a modest harvest--we are attempting to grow vegetables on a balcony twelve floors above street level, so to expect a haul that will keep us going all winter long is unreasonable. We did see an improvement over our previous attempts, I would guess in large part due to our two vermicomposters. The nutrient rich soil the colony of worms hanging out in our storage closet produced is perfect for our vegetables and there was no need to add fertilizer. Our major challenge last year was weather. Our summer was cold and rainy. We didn't have a day over 30C all year, and we received more rain than normal in desert-like Edmonton. I don't feel too bad about our limited success considering many of the farmers at the market struggled to fill their stalls with quality produce.

Nonetheless, we manage to produce a small collection of tomatoes, most of which went into make a batch of delicious sourdough tomato hamburger buns. Green-red peppers, which were delightfully crisp and sweet and pretty much used up in one roast. We were also able to pick greens over a period of one or two months to add to our salads. Our potatoes were disappointing. I had fostered high hopes that when we dug into our blue-bin we would find a treasure trove of potatoes--the plants were tall and bushy and I'd thought for sure we'd be 'in the money,' but I think we ended up with a dozen small 'taters (thanks for digging in the dirt, Michelle!). Our zucchini plant was also disappointing. The plant started off well, but developed rot (most likely due to the damp weather) and we only managed to harvest one summer squash before it died. The carrots were small...and deformed...but we kind of knew they didn't have enough room to grow, so I don't call them a disappointment...but not a success either.

Valient the grapevine did very well this year. We hope he survives the winter.

Our one successful zucchini, gone in one meal.

Bright red tomatoes. The made delicious buns (I'm not that big a fan of tomatoes, actually).

Green peppers, which eventually turned partially red.

So, what are we going to plant this year? This year we're taking advantage of our Friends of Devonian Garden membership, which allows us to pick out up to 25 seed packages for free (we can purchase more, if we wish). Since a number of these seeds are for heirloom plants native to Edmonton or at least Alberta, I have high hopes that we might see even greater success this year. We've picked a rather eclectic bunch of plants including a dwarf pomegranate tree, native grasses, rye, beans with vibrantly coloured flowers, and another variety of beans that's supposed to taste like asparagus. We've also ordered seeds for the Alberta rose. We'll be taking a trip out to Devonian this weekend to tour their greenhouses (they're hosting a 'winter pick-me-up') when we get to pick up our seeds as well. We'll see how things go once the weather warms up.

Ciao,

Andrea

Everyday ordinary: knitting

*I started this post a week and a half ago...where did my week go?*

I don't normally blog about my knitting. My two main reasons for this are: 1) there are plenty of good knitting bloggers already out there; and 2) I take forever to complete my projects. The latter is not because I'm a particularly slow, or incompetent knitter, I just don't spend much time on my knitting. Generally I get in a couple of hours a week when I might sit down to watch a movie on the weekend, or on Wednesday nights when we catch up on the latest Castle episode (we don't have cable/satellite, so we watched it on the CTV website). At this point I'm actually pretty adept at cables, bobbles, etc., and my knitting is pretty smooth, although I have less experience with knitting colour patterns.

I use to knit in class during my Masters. Not all the time, mind you, just during classes where presentations were scheduled and I didn't have to take notes. I'm perfectly capable of listening to people talk, while knitting. In fact, I'd argue I pay more attention while knitting, then I would have if I'd sat at my desk with an open notebook. Then I'd be more likely to doodle, or jot down writing ideas, in which case I'd totally tune out the speaker. I generally don't take my knitting out on public transit or at movies/theatres, however. In the case of transit, I ride the LRT all of two stops and often don't sit down. And although I'm pretty good at watching t.v. and knitting at the same time, I don't think I could do it in the dark. That and I'm pretty fussy about my theatre etiquette.

At any rate, I've completed a variety of projects as of late, so I thought I'd showcase them here.

My most recent sweater. I generally only complete one (full sized--i.e. not for a baby) sweater a year. I started out making a cardigan, but it became clear about half way through that this wool was too thick a gauge to work properly. I re-started it sometime in February or March and only got it finished in November (3 baby sweaters got in the way).

Fingerless gloves. I bought this wool over a year ago and had a different glove pattern in mind, but I never got around to finishing them. I re-tackled this project just before Christmas, and had them done shortly after retuning home.

A cozy/case for our netbook. No pattern used here. I just picked an interesting stitch pattern out of my Vogue Sitchionary and knit it in a long rectangle. I've been meaning to add some buttons so the top flap will stay closed.

A closer look at the pattern--a simple lace. I did a different pattern on the other side (plain eyelets) that I thought might look like the 'under side' of the pattern. I started this sometime in November and completed it over 2 weeks.

I decided to sign up for this crafting 'Pay it Forward' thing going around on Facebook. I happen to have a package for 6 vegetable bags...this is the first, a pea pod purse. I just need to sew in the pockets and add the zipper. I knit pretty much all of it last weekend during the Canadian Nationals.

A cabbage clutch. My second 'Pay it Forward' gift. I just need to finish up the top edging and add a zipper. I think I started this one last Sunday.

Much ado about nothing

It would seem that my 2011 is off to a slow start. Considering the things I've seen friends posting on the Facebook and Twitter accounts, I suppose this is a good thing. I am healthy and no one I know has died/lost a job/been diagnosed with something, etc. The only trepidation my slow start has caused me is that I haven't much to report on my little blog. I went to work every day last week, skated on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, edited my manuscript on each of the nights as I was home, and we had a couple of friends over for dinner on Saturday night. Everything's been perfectly ordinary, which given the flooding in Australia, the mudslides in Brazil, the political turmoil in Tanisia, and all the other strife in the world, I shall not complain.

Instead, I will look forward to what is coming: lots of skating this week (junior and senior nationals are underway in Victoria, BC), there's a perogy dinner next Friday night (Jan 28th), Andrew and I will be going out for dinner and a concert the Friday after that (Feb 4th), I'm attending a conference in Vancouver mid-February, I'll be baking another wedding cake in March, my 30th birthday is in April, and much more (including ESO concerts, the first of which I believe is sometime in February). I might be off to a slow start this year, but I'll have plenty to comment on later. So perhaps for now I should relax? Or at least, I should be happy to be busy with the little things I do. Maybe I'll spend my next few blog posts talking about the ordinary things until something extra-ordinary takes place.

Ciao,

Andrea

My life and figure skating: two worlds that don't exactly collide

I debated for some time over what I would write for my first blog post of the new year. I considered writing a look back over the year, or to layout a couple of my new year resolutions (yes I make them, not that they're any different from most people's), I even considered not writing at all (after all, I'd have more time to dedicate to my manuscripts if I didn't take the time to write a blog post once a week). I've kind of become attached to my blog; however, and for my three followers, and maybe half a dozen more random readers out in the vast space that is the Internet, I'm not ready to stop yet. Therefore, from the way things are looking after the near completion of my first week of 2011, it looks like figure skating is going to take a major role in my life for the next couple of months. And so I'm going to take a few (many) minutes to write about it.

If memory serves I started figure skating when I was eight. Just group lessons, nothing fancy, I probably had a pair of Canadian Tire skates and that was just fine for the time. I progressed reasonably well through the first couple of levels. Within maybe two years I was doing all the jumps except for axel. I would have loved to take private lessons or to compete, but sports weren't a priority in my household, and as noted in a previous post, I was a chubby child (i.e. I didn't exactly have a figure skater's physique). I dreamed that someone might 'discover' me and I would finally get the lessons, and do spring and summer skating school, but of course that never happened. I took a few tests here and there as my minimal coaching would allow and eventually did land an axel (something I'm struggling with now), but stopped around aged fifteen as even I had to admit I was never going to be a world champion.

Skating became a sometime (or more like rare) activity until a few years ago when I decided to look around and see if there were any adult programs, which I discovered to my delight, there were. I joined the Ice Palace F.S.C. in Edmonton, for no particular reason except that it was the first one I found. After that I started working with a really great coach who is always enthusiastic and encouraging of what I do. After getting a good quality pair of skates (the first new ones I bought were not sufficient for the level I was skating at) I started to see a noticeable improvement in my spinning, which has always been weak. I'm working towards landing axels again (actually, I've been pretty much trying to do this since I started back) and my loop jump, which used to be my least favourite jumps is now one of my best.

Okay, so there's the recap of what I've been doing, so now what? Now I'm planning to take two tests in March, the preliminary skills test (Skate Canada's replacement for compulsory figures) and my junior bronze freeskate test (both the skills and program components). I want to pass, and in order to pass I have to be able to land an axel or a wally, and do a flying spin. My flying camel is surprisingly good. I would never have suspected I could do one without falling when my coach had me first try last winter. Then there's my axel. See, here's the problem with having skated in a small club coached primarily by kids only a couple of years older than myself: bad technique for my axel has set in because no one corrected me and now it's causing me problems. I have a tendency to kick my leg out wide when I take off, which makes it hard to get the rest of my body around and complete the one and a half rotations necessary.

In order to pass my tests I need to skate more. Competitive figure skaters practice upwards of twenty-five hours a week, it's how they develop consistency and improve their skills. Obviously I'm not going to skate that much. I don't have the time, and I don't have the money to pay for that amount of ice time (and oh yeah, I'm still not going to be a world champion), so I'm going to try to squeeze in as much practice as I can from now until my test day. That means running over to the U of A arena on Tuesdays at lunch to use the figure skating club ice time, then again on Friday days during the rec skate ice time. It means skating on Wednesday nights on the Ice Palace adult time, and it means long runs on Saturday has been replaced with long skates in the afternoon on an open session at a nearby arena.

Hopefully at the end of all this I will pass my tests in March. I'd be disappointed to fail--I mean who wouldn't be? If I pass I'll be qualified to take the first level of Skate Canada coaches training. I'm not sure if I actually have time to coach little kids right now (the rest of my spare time is spent on writing, of course), but I might find I have time in the future. We'll see how things ban out over the next few weeks.

Ciao,

Andrea