Fire, Fury & Flame

And then there are days when I love The Jungle. (Actually, I always do. It's the people that are sometimes stupid.) This particular time I love that we live in a town with great theaters and I get to see the just-on, just-off Broadway shows.
ATL and I went to see the out-of-town opening for Jekyll & Hyde last night. And it was spectacular.
Not really good, but definitely a spectacle.
It's a difficult musical to be sure. Who wants to go and see the main character die? (We were very early this time - which has never happened before - so we talked to the ushers about the show and one said it was depressing to have to watch Dr. Jekyll die every night and twice on Saturdays.)
I was hoping that this new iteration would have some redeeming quality to the story.
It almost did.
I really liked the journal entries being written across the screen to help us see it from Dr. Jekyll's point of view. I wanted there to be one last entry - just a line or something - to finish the show and bring it full circle but there wasn't and it left a depressing feeling as the curtain fell.
The songs are amazing though. I've listened to the CD from the original show's cast and I suppose I am a little bit spoiled by Robert Cuccioli's performance. That man was amazing. He even changed his voice when he sang as Mr. Hyde. Phenomenal skills.
I may or may not have gushed all over the screen about him here.
(If you want to see the whole show, it's still on YouTube, with David Hasselhoff as the main lead.)
But about the real performance and the real actors this time.
You may have heard of Constantine Maroulis - he was on American Idol:4 - and there's no question he has the voice. He's of slighter build than I expected him to be after all the promotions. But he has a really great voice and he sang well. I just felt he was too anxious to get to the angry, mean guy and didn't spend enough time on the calm, rational man. There were a lot of pyrotechnics, and video tricks which sometimes worked and were a little over the top. 'Confrontation,' which is possibly the hardest song in the show, just had too much fire and was MUCH too loud. The amplifiers could have gone down a few decibels (try 50) and been just fine.
True for most of the show actually. The whole good vs. bad thing plays better when the good guy is calm and in control and the bad guy is wild and crazy. Doesn't work as well when both of them are belting it to the ceiling and lights going off everywhere with smoke and strobes. Constantine needs to finesse the role a little but he could be great.
Deborah Cox, as Lucy, was outstanding. I liked the character better this time than any other before. She played it well, she sang it fantastic and she finessed it all over. Really marvelous performance.
I still think Emma is my favorite part in the show. She was a little more snobby than I wanted but Teal Wicks played her well enough. Obviously she can sing. (She was Elphaba on one of the Wicked tours through The Jungle. I saw her UNDERSTUDY. Oy.) Together, she and Deborah did a really phenomenal job on 'In His Eyes.' Brought down the house.
Laird MacKintosh played John Utterson, Jekyll's best friend, and he was good. He wasn't a bass, which I think works better sound wise but whatever.
And that is pretty much the cast. It's a small group and most actors play two or more parts because they are so limited. It's almost a one-man show.
ATL and I had an excellent time. We do love live performances and it's always a thrill to go to the theater. It might need some tweaking before Broadway but I got to see it before New York did!

This is me and it was a big show.

A Life Beyond #11

And that's why my "job" bugs me.
Most times it's fine.
I love the houses, I love pretending that I know things. I like my complete lack of responsibility for the things I do. But there are days...
I went to show a house for Stingy the other day. It was a new house to me, she was in a hurry and didn't tell me anything about it. She doesn't usually but sometimes I can grab the MLS sheet and read the year the place was built and how many bedrooms it has before I go introduce a person to it. This time I did not get that chance and it was a big house. I did count the bedrooms as I ran through turning the lights on - but I missed the maid's room and when that was the first question the broker asked, I knew it was going to be a tough day.
It was.
Including "if you don't know, don't guess" which is a valid point, but I wasn't guessing, I was being snarky about the obvious answer to the question, and ending with "you don't know anything, so why are you here?" I almost answered "so you don't steal anything."
But I didn't.
I was good.
Until they left, and then I called Tarzan and cried.

This is me and I have some weird days on the job.

Because 13 Years Isn't Enough

Is anyone else in their car so much that they hear the same segment on NPR more than once in a day? There are days when I hear every edition of Marketplace and they're identical...
In my desire to hear the funny, quirky things, I hear other things repeatedly. And I have noticed that NPR certainly likes to beat the inflammatory topic drum.
Here's my (next) question for you: how do you feel about Pre-Kindergarten being required and why?
All I know is that my parents worked hard when I was growing up, one or both of them, multiple jobs, etc., and yet all nine of us learned to read and count before we went to school. What's the push for pre-K? When do children get to be children?

This is me, looking for another perspective.

Cat, In Repose

I forgot I hadn't posted this picture from the holidays:

That's Spike, the youngest of my cats, and one of the two I raised from birth. She really likes to snuggle. Probably some throw back to her kitten hood. She has taken to sleeping under the blankets with us at night, (which freaks Tarzan out completely when he reaches for me and grabs fur instead), and her favorite resting places are inside or under things.
Like the present above or the laundry:

When I come home from work, the store, or anywhere, she follow me meowing until I sit down so she can lay in my lap. She often stretches directly across my arms when I'm typing and seems offended if I move her off.
I always wanted a cat that preferred me and would snuggle but this is ridiculous.

This is me and she's a weirdo.

Pho Close

With the temperature dropping - well, sometimes up, sometimes down, sometimes rainy, sometimes windy - I have been experimenting with making soup.
I don't profess to be better than Cambell's or Progresso but I was hoping it might be more convenient to make Pho than have to go out to a restaurant every time I wanted some.
It is certainly not as simple as opening a can and heating it up but it was a fair approximation of Pho, I thought. I used this guy's recipe and it was easy to understand and follow. We began with roasting the ginger and onions on the stove:

 

(Did not expect the skin to peel off and fly everywhere, or the juices to spit out quite so quickly.) After the roasting, the skins came off:

Chicken bits go in the water:

Add all the flavor ingredients:

And boil for a very long time:

Drain the liquid out and discard the solids:

Yes, this exercise was just for the broth.
For the actual eating, we use the broth and a lot of other items. There is a lot of preparation of ingredients for this thing:

Then we assembled the individual bowls by layering the cooked noodles:

Mushrooms:

Chicken:

Onions:

Scallions:

Cilantro:

Then add the steaming hot broth over it all:

Tasted totally awesome:

But it sure took a while. Can't say I'll be whipping that up on a regular basis.

This is me makin' soup.

A Life Beyond #10

I have a lot of clothes.
At least I believe I do, and when it comes to laundry it sure looks like I do.
But in a space like this:

 

My wardrobe would look pitiful. Just pitiful.
Tarzan and I combined wouldn't fill it up.
And this is just one of two for the master bedroom.

This is me not even pretending.

Fancy Pizza

When I made the pizza it looked exactly like the picture in the recipe:

But I'm pretty sure it wasn't supposed to taste that nasty. Something in the crust area was just not good. I remembered the salt so that wasn't it.

This is me and it didn't taste like it looked.

Bang Bang

The thing about compromise is this; neither side gets EVERYthing that they want and both have to give up things that are vitally important but less so than the things they get to keep.
It's not a great system but it's better than a completely dictatorial, might-makes-right plan.
And that's where the country is with gun control these days. (Or pretty much any hot topic that is flying in the media.)
The far end of one side wants any person to have any number of any type of gun, no questions asked.
The far end of the other side thinks we should have a big pot, melt all the guns down and then we all smoke a peace pipe because all the world's problems will be solved.
Obviously, neither point of view is correct.
Especially when it comes to legislation on the topic. Yes, yes, all people should be self regulating and responsible but they aren't and there have to be rules.
Just not stupid ones.
So enters the compromise part.
Some guns should be allowed - the one side just needs to deal with that - but there does need to be regulation - and the other side needs to deal with that.
What is wrong with a background check?
They make people wait to get Harley Davidson motorcycles.
It takes nine months for a kid.
I see not the problem with waiting a bit to get a gun.

This is me and I wish people were more logical.

I'm Amazed It Hasn't Happened Before

I saw the wisdom in BHB's question about soldering my wedding and engagement rings together.
They look kind of like this:

Her comment made a lot of sense this morning when in reaching for my glasses, I brushed against my rings and they went bouncing down behind the headboard of the bed.
I've managed to find and retrieve the solitaire but I can't find the band anywhere.
Tarzan and I are going to have to unmake and undo the bed this evening.

This is me searching.

Post ApocaDecathlon

And this is what the end of a zillion pages of material, 15 kids, nine months of chiding, scolding, driving, drilling, begging, crying, laughing, cajoling, praising, and commiserating and two days of competition looks like:

This is me and it's all over but the awards.

Auditorial

Does anyone else find that you don't hear your phone ring even when it's in your pocket, but you can hear your voicemail alert from halfway across town?

This is me, or is it just me?

Dirty, Mean & Vicious

Whoever thought of the organizational system for the Department of Motor Vehicles was a sick, sick person.
It seems like a good idea to have all the required vehicular services in one place and it would appear to be convenient to allow people to renew licenses and vehicles online but it really is just the first steps in their scheme to drive us all insane.
After going to the website and filling out the forms, paying the fees and printing my receipt I waited.
And waited.
And then the registration on my car expired while I was waiting and now I tremble in fear every time a police officer drives by.
Today I finally had enough time to call the "help" number and it seemed quaint that they offered me a callback option. That is, if I left my number in the phone tree queue, the DMV would call me back in less than an hour. It sounded good so I followed the simple instructions and waited.
Sure enough, less than an hour later I was called back but it wasn't a person it was the phone tree and it wouldn't accept my entry, even though it was the number the message told me to press and then I was told I had exceeded my number of attempts (I pressed it only 3 times) and they hung up on me.
So I called the original number back and while I was trying to get an actual person - they didn't have an option for "I really need my stickers now please" - the callback number called me again and I gave it a second try and AGAIN it wouldn't recognize ANY of the numbers I pressed and AGAIN it hung up on me.
So I called AGAIN and this time opted for a real person where I would have to sit on hold for an hour and wait for them.
Which I did.
When a real person answered I told him my dilemma, he said it wasn't a problem, he would transfer me to the department that could re-issue my stickers. I heard the hold music for a few bars and then I was back in the phone tree again, looking for a real person AGAIN and I had to wait ANOTHER hour and then when I did get a person - much more helpful than the last - she said they can't transfer to other departments and all I need to do is go to AAA and they will get me my stickers.
Done.

This is me and bureaucracy blows...a lot.

Leftovers

I have another resolution this year - I hope to not throw out so much food.
Our fridge is not a fancy Sub-Zero that is only one jar deep, so we lose leftovers sometimes and when I find them again, they aren't quite as edible as they once were.
What this means is that I have to learn to make less for a meal
OR
There will be more meals of leftovers. I was proud of the one we ate the other night:

The quality of the photo isn't so good - but we emptied six Tupperware containers for that meal which made me happy.
Chicken sandwiches, mixed vegetables, sweet potato fries and coleslaw.
I think we might have to worry about our cholesterol, but the fridge will be clean.

This is me and it felt good.

A Life Beyond #9

Usually I offer pictures of some extreme lifestyle choice or home decorating piece that is off the charts.
This week.
Just as a comparison.
I bring you a picture of a life beyond.
In the opposite direction:

This is the fence on the back alley of one of the houses on our block:

It's hard to know who because often the fronts don't match the alley sides of the properties and no one we know really looks like a razor-wire type.

This is me; I live and work a world apart, separated by 10 miles.

Trees Galore

I love the Jungle in January.
It has been kind of cold here recently, Thanksgiving, Christmas and the rest of that mess were dark, busy days and really stressed.
But January has an absence of activities, the days are getting visibly lighter, for longer and the sun comes out just in time for the kids to go back to college and make the parents from out of town jealous.
And there seem to be more holidays with fewer expectations. Which allows for stuff to actually get done.
Witness Tarzan and our yard. He has been on fire with the yard work this month and we have made some serious changes. Our poor unproducing apricot tree in the front yard finally had to go:

 I didn't even get to say goodbye:

We installed an avocado tree in it's place:

We also took out the really tall, unknown type of tree in the backyard - that provided shade but nothing else - and happened to be infested with termites:

Instead we planted a lime tree:

And then today, while the president was watching parades and kissing people on national television, Tarzan and I finally trimmed the orange tree in the front yard. The thing was way out of control and, because they could, people were reaching the branches and stealing oranges. So we trimmed it back:

It means fewer oranges next year but hopefully the branches won't drag on the ground and if we thin it better, we'll get nicer sized fruit.
Provided we cut it right.

This is me and we're doing yard work.

True Story

It's after my shower, I've dried off and am getting dressed.
There are no other distractions, I'm not in a hurry, nothing to get to right away.
I have done this literally thousands of times.
Pulling on my T-shirt, I miss the edge and smack myself full in the face, cutting the inside of my lip on my tooth.

This is me and who punches their own face before breakfast?

A Life Beyond #8

I had a great post in mind on my way home today. It was brief, witty and really made a point.
But somewhere in the hour it took me to get home...
I forgot it.
So you are left with these enviable kitchen photos instead. From one end of the kitchen:

The other:

And around the corner:

Do you know how many burners are on that stove?
Eight.
8.
And they're interchangeable with the griddle, deep fat fryer or grill parts, so one could be making pancakes, have room for both kinds of eggs and the bacon AND still have space left over for the kettle to boil water for hot chocolate, because it is really, really cold right now. (I know, only relatively, but we don't have heat or insulation, so we're feeling it.)
I don't envy much that I see at these houses. But a really great stove like that makes me drool a tiny bit.

This is me and it wouldn't fit in my living room, let alone the kitchen.

My New Philosophy

She is a constant inspiration for things I want to do better.
She has 2-3/4 kids, lives in a land that has winter, and manages more blogs and blog names than I can keep track of, but I call her Rocketgirl.
And she gave me a light bulb moment today on one of her other blogs when she posted this: Move Slowly And Don't Stop
Such a brilliant concept. Rome wasn't built in a day and I won't manage everything on my list at once, but as long as I keep going and working, I am making progress.

This is me and my new life mantra.

Connection Made

I am sure I learned this at some point in my education but I didn't put it all together until this evening on my way home from work. I was listening to the radio - NPR as usual now - and someone was talking about Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery, the Civil War, normal stuff and the guest mentioned that there were two ways to go with slavery. If it was to survive in America, slavery had to expand. Otherwise it would die out and as a Republican, Lincoln did not want any more slaves in the union. So he signed the paper to free them all. It amused me to think of how mixed up the political landscape is; back in the day it was the Democrats who wanted to expand slavery and make more money.
What's that song, "the times, they are a changing?"

This is me and the irony made me smile.

Les Miserables

It was with great trepidation that I went with ATL and Tarzan to see Les Miserables last night.
Not that I didn't want to see it. I did. I have seen the stage show many times, I have all the concerts and I really like it.
No, I was scared to see the film because Russell Crowe was going to play one of the leads as - my favorite character - Javert. I had no idea if he could sing - all of the other lead actors I have heard sing before - and it would be disastrous for me if Javert could not sing, or worse, sang poorly and ruined it.
I apologize to Russell Crowe.
He should not give up his lucrative career and start doing show tunes, but he did well. Far better than I conceived he could. (I was pretty sure I could tell if the take they used was an early one or a late one because his voice was better for the former and less musical for the latter.) He wasn't showy but he held it up adequately.
The heartbreak for me was Hugh Jackman. He looked the part, he acted the part but he didn't sing the part. There were too many flat and/or low notes - I know they rewrote A LOT of things - but even with that he wasn't selling it. There were times he almost broke loose but he never made it consistently and "Bring Him Home" was so sad. I winced and hoped he would stop singing soon. 
However, having Colm Wilkinson in the show was so cool.
Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonhem Carter were exactly what I envision every time I hear "Master of the House."
Amanda Seyfried did an adequate job as Cosette, which is a 2-dimensional character anyway. A little on the light side, but she's the soprano so it's forgiven.
Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit and the rest of the barricade cast were fantastic. Loved them all. "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" was one of the best sung numbers in the whole thing.
Samantha Barks as Eponine was excellent. Pity it's such a small part but she did it really well. She was Tarzan's favorite.
I have only one thing to say about Anne Hathaway as Fantine. Bravo.
The scenery was amazing; having a complete picture for the songs I know so well was just perfect.

This is me and I applauded the end credits until ATL had to tell me to stop because people were looking.