Thoughts from Alison that might at least entertain you!

146 Reasons I'm Lucky

I'm not sure exactly how I landed on this particular set of thoughts at this moment, but here you go:  I am so lucky in my life for the perfect, beautiful, and accidental find of my husband!  I can count an enormous list of reasons.  The number in the title above is arbitrary - there are probably thousands of reasons.

First, from my dating history pre-John - there are several experiences I count as Super Ultra Gems.  (I should note: Just in case anyone I ever dated is reading this - there were a number of other real gems in my experience too!)  Just a few of the gents I encountered who helped me define what I wasn't looking for included:

• A guy who stole the little ceramic dishes from a restaurant with the leftover dipping sauces from his dinner.  When I suggested that they might have carryout containers for sauces he said "Oh they'll never miss these - they've got tons of them"
• The guy who likely knew I wasn't terribly interested in going out with him, who waited to ask me out at church - in the context of a conversation with me and my mom!
• A guy who met me for our first (and only) date, and brought along his best friend - a woman he was very obviously in love with
• The car pulling into my parents' house to pick me up for a date - with vanity plates that said "TOO SEXY"
• One who picked his teeth at the table with a Sweet-n-Low packet

And so, just a few things on the list of Reasons I'm Lucky to have found and connected with John:

• Our first date was quite an indicator: a very long walk in my neighborhood, followed by at least an hour (maybe two?) sitting at the "Window on Wildlife" in Wildwood Metropark where we were married a year and a half later.
• Another very early indicator:  John can quote The Blues Brothers much better than I can!
• The calm presence John offers that meshes so well with my sometimes (ok, often) yammering self - and the way we meld the two together!
• John's chuckling appreciation for a standard Christmas greeting at my family's house: "Merry Christmas, Asshole!"
• While I don't have a great need to receive flowers as a gift, I do have a need to have flowers present in our home - especially our new home.  John indulges my need and thanks me for it!
• Our mutual insanity when it comes to conversations "with" our cats.
• A similar need and desire in both of us to live simply, as well as the willingness to indulge in things/experiences/chocolate that makes our lives a bit richer and sometimes just plain fun.
• We can easily spend an entire day together on a train to nowhere - taking in the beautiful winter scenery, watching other people, chatting with new random acquaintances, and taking lots of pictures.  Every moment does not need to be huge!
• This man can laugh with me - but manages to refrain from mocking me - when I go into the bathroom in our hotel and flush the toilet in order to turn on the light.

Canadian Escape

Good Evening, All!

And so after a heck of a work week, John and I are off in the morning for a weekend escape!  We're headed way north to Sault Ste. Marie.  We'll be staying two nights just over the border in Canada, and riding the Agawa Canyon Snow Train on Saturday!

I'm looking forward to a peaceful weekend.  I'm trusting that Mother Nature will work with us for the driving parts of our trip, especially since our destination is expecting significant snow tonight and tomorrow morning!  I guess it wouldn't be spectacular as The Snow Train without some snow.

The girls will be in the excellent care of our pet sitter Linda for the weekend.  I made sure to leave her a note about last week's dental surgery adventures.  She might wonder why both cats have so many shaved spots!

I may offer some yammering thoughts here while we're escaping, or I'll update a bit when we are back.  We'll be back Ann Arbor-way on Sunday evening!

Happy Weekend, Friends.  Be Well.

Sunshine

The brilliant sun in the sky this morning agrees with me:  Only 2 more weeks til spring!

Surgery for Cats

Well the girls are both home with us as of this morning.  The Cats of Prune Ridge aren't quite feeling up to par, but we're giving them until tomorrow evening until we worry.  Tori (who had a simpler experience yesterday than Maggie B who had 4 teeth removed and had to stay overnight) doesn't seem to be eating and is behaving strangely.  Maggie is almost normal (cranky, sleeping on the vents whenever the furnace kicks on, and eating intermittently).  We'll keep a closer eye on Tori because of the insulin factor.  It's very strange for her not to eat!

All in all, they seem to be recovering in their own ways from a traumatic day.

Many, many, many thanks to our good Dr. Sweet!  He had a long day himself with a few emergencies in addition to our scheduled surgeries, and still took great care of our girls.

Happy Saturday, All.

Kitchen Color

So I think I did it.  Even though I don't consider myself a big shopper, I spent a long time today shopping!  My goal was to find some kitchen linens and possibly some accessory pieces to make the area rugs I stumbled on last week work in our kitchen.  And I think I can claim success.  Here are several pictures as proof.

This color odyssey in the kitchen started in November - with the purchase of our new dishes!  (See mug picture)  I've been thinking along the lines of new colors since then.  We brought our colors, dishes, linens, etc. with us from Milan with the move to Prune Ridge last April.  While I struggle somewhat with replacing perfectly functional things with new stuff, I feel like this transition/thought has been brewing for a long time.  I am very good at talking myself out of buying things, but...  see the pictures!

New items include the rugs, towels hanging on the stove, two turquoise pottery pieces (one functional w/ utensils in it and one just pretty), some little glasses with turquoise flowers, and yes - the duck!  If you think things look like they still have tags on them - they do, or did in these pictures.  And no, we don't keep that many towels on the bar of the oven - they're still bundled from the store.

Yay, fresh and pretty kitchen!

Happy Weekend, Friends.  Be Well and enjoy the snow if you're getting it in the morning too.

Exclamation Points

I have determined that I use far too many exclamation points in my blogging.

Various Updates!

Well, well, well...  Absent I Am!

Happy Week, Friends.  I'll do my best to update you on several bits and pieces, and then be a little more present in the coming weeks!

I was pleasantly surprised to learn this past week that I will be able to offer a substantial solo bit on the upcoming Masterworks Chorale concert in Toledo!  My surprise came from the fact that there were many auditions, and choices cannot have been simple - I have the great pleasure to sing with LOTS of great voices!  I will be soloing on a movement from Alice Parker's "A Sermon from the Mountain" - a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Parker used a combination of texts from King's sermons, articles, and books.  We will be performing 3 movements from the work, including "He's the Lily of the Valley" which has some beautiful (and big!) soprano and bass solo work.  Our concert is at 8:00pm on Saturday, March 14th in Toledo.  Let me know if you'd like any more information.

Tomorrow morning I'll be making the trek to Milan with two angry kitties!  It's Dental Day with Dr. Sweet for Maggie B and Tori.  The girls will both have anesthesia and be at the good Dr's for the day.  Uggh...  Maggie B will likely take at least a full week to recover emotionally from this visit.  Tori tends to come back to herself more quickly, and Maggie B's mood will be especially lovely due to the fact that she has to fast following dinner this evening.  (Tori never fasts because of the diabetes/insulin factor.)

Also tomorrow, after the cats are safely "settled" at the Vet for the day, I'll be trekking around the city for errands and such.  We need some groceries of course, but I also get to do some fun (to me, at least) searching!  I'm on a quest for some new kitchen linens and such.  This past week after formulating what I think should be our palette of colors for the kitchen (based on cabinets, appliances, and the new dishes) I put together a tool for color searching/matching.  In Alison fashion, this tool consists of an seemingly random wire loop containing many glass beads, a few strands of fiber pieces, and a bright turquoise piece of foam!  These items, are, of course drawn from my rather large collection of "crap for making collages."  After the colors were pulled together in my mind, I stumbled on some area rugs that are EXACTLY the colors I visioned!  The pattern is random - sort of a tropical floral, and not at all what I would have said I was looking for.  Now I'm out to find a few linens and possibly other items to see if I can make the rugs work in our kitchen - in both John's mind and mine.  Wish me luck...

In my dream world, tomorrow will also allow time for me to repair some vertical blind hems in the living room, make the curtains I've been dragging my feet to start, and begin creating 4 (yes 4) new collages that are brewing in my mind.  The 4 collages will be small ones!  Maybe I'll also get some reading done?

The weekend ahead is a peculiar one with no work for me!  Oh, and next weekend is no work too!  Next weekend John and I will escape for a Canadian train jaunt, with the girls left under the good care of our cat sitter Linda.  Escaping is good when we can do it.  And this weekend John and I will make a little trip to Toledo to spend some time with my folks and help with some computer-to-be-purchased information!

And so...  Happy Thursday Night, All.  Be Well and Be Warm Enough in this Cooooold Weather!

Sconces for Breakfast

Good Sunday morning, Friends!

John and I just polished off some mighty tasty wild blueberry scones for breakfast.  (Yes, scones, not sconces as the title line says - more below on that!)  I bought us a few little treats for Valentine's Day, including a couple of simple scone mixes.  We had the blueberry this morning and I'm completely impressed!

The mix came from Sticky Fingers Bakeries of Spokane, WA (purchased locally at Cost Plus World Market).  This is an all-natural mix, and so simple - you only add water!  They took about a minute to mix and drop on the baking sheet, and 15 minutes to bake.  Add a nice little jar of lemon curd (not at all necessary, but so yummy) and...  perfect!  I'm definitely going to try some of their other mixes.

And as for the sconces:  In my family, scones have long been referred to as "sconces."  Mom, when you read this, do you remember the story?  It seems to me that is was a customer of yours who kept calling scones "sconces" over and over?  Who knows!  It's funny anyway.

And the sconces are excellent!  Happy weekend wrap-up, All!

Muppet Stories

Well in case you haven't seen it yet, check out this article about the origin of several Muppets!  There are some great stories in there.

If any of you Capital friends read this - wasn't Kerm Almos @ Cap supposedly the inspiration for Kermit?  Validate my memory, please!!!

Happy Saturday, Friends - and Happy Valentine's Day too! 

Canadian Police Chase

Thanks to Greg who sent me a link to this video originally.  It cracks me up every time!

Masterworks Chorale in Toledo March 14, 2009

Good Evening, All!  Masterworks (the chamber choir I sing with in Toledo) is hard at work on our next program.  In case you're interested, here are a few details:

We will be presenting a program of choral pieces - all composed or arranged by women!  Our "In A Woman's Voice" concert will be on Saturday, March 14 at Monroe Street United Methodist Church - 8:00pm.

The program is proving challenging and engaging so far, with a few favorites thrown into the mix!  Among many program items, we will offer 3 Gwyneth Walker pieces (How Can I Keep From Singing, White Horses, and If Ever Two Were One), some Alice Parker (A Sermon From The Mountain!), a set of Chinese Folk Songs by Chen Yi, and pieces from Hildegard von Bingen, Carol Barnett, Libby Larsen...  and more!

Consider joining us if you're interested - it will be a good show!  Let me know if you have location/ticket questions and I'll help.

Happy Saturday!

Church is Funny

I've been passing a church marquis every day this week while visiting the hospital in Toledo.  You know the kind - a giant flashing red LED message board. It says:

"Hope Springs Eternal When Our Hope Is Eternal."

Heckuvaweek

Hello Friends!  I'm baaaa-aaack....  It's been a long week at Prune Ridge, at least for the Mrs. of the manse.  Here are some bits and pieces:

• The Folk Festival last weekend was successful and wonderful.  A highpoint of my musical life, which doesn't often happen when I'm working!  The work parts were many, big, and stressful - but all seems to have gone well.  Today I'm headed to the office for a bit on my day off to try and clean up some of the unaddressed clutter left from last weekend.
• John had a couple days of training pieces for work this week - with Zingerman's!  I'm jealous, but living vicariously through him just a bit.  (He also brought home bread and chocolate, so that's always good!)
• Mom's surgery was a bit later than expected on Tuesday, but went as planned and she's working on recovery at this point!  (Goooo, Mom - Get Healed!)
• Tori's visit to Dr. Sweet yesterday was good.  She's a stellar patient compared to Maggie B.  Her blood draw went well and now we wait to hear how her blood sugar looks.  She's also down to 10.5 pounds - this, our previously nearly 19 pound cat!  Tori is just fine with a Dr. visit as long as she has me there to smash her face against.  I think it's her way of pretending she's in a happy place.
• Today, I will finally have enough moments to get some groceries since the sum total of our food stock right now looks something like "jelly, butter, old citrus, and tuna."
• I will also get some new flowers for the kitchen!

Happy Friday, All.  I'll be slightly more present here next week!

The Potato Heads

So, Happy Football Day!  Strangely enough, we have the game on.  (Football isn't a norm in our house)  I'm including my favorite commercial from today's lineup here.  It's a good one - makes me laugh every time I watch it.  There's a definite Toystory 2 reference in here, and I'm pretty sure the voice of Mrs. Potato Head is the same as in the movie.  Happy Advertising, Friends!