Weddings and Things

I played for a small wedding and reception this morning. It was probably the most fun I've had at someone else's wedding, and I was working. It was a very small guest list and an intimate ceremony and reception. Michael came with me and we both had a great time. They made us feel like part of the family.

I've been practicing as much as possible the last couple of days. I have a lot more practicing to do before Tuesday morning. At this point, I'm just hoping to make it past the first round. Michael will be mad at me if he reads this for not being super positive, but I don't feel super positive right now. I wish there were more time. Like another week. Or four. But, here we are. Not getting to practice for several days while I was sick did nothing to help. But, all I can do is the best I can do. Wish me luck, my friends. We leave at 4:00 in the morning. I am looking forward to my lesson with one of the UVic professors on Monday afternoon.

Failure, of sorts

So, yesterday was November 5, day 5 of NaBloPoMo, I did not post. I completely forgot. To be fair, I am preparing for an audition in four days. That takes precedence. Yesterday I taught two 5th grade strings classes, started sewing a sleeve on Katrina's sweater, practiced, drove to Spokane and took a lesson, came home and had dinner with Michael, practiced, emptied the suitcases my grandparents gave us last summer, found some more music for my gig tomorrow, practiced, watched a show with Michael while working on a sock (I only got three rows done), then went to bed. While, technically, there was time to blog, I just wasn't thinking about it. So now, the question is, do I keep going as if nothing ever happened, or just call it quits and go back to my (ir)regular blogging schedule? Care to chime in, anyone? Today's schedule will be just as busy, and will include packing and going to church. I have another lesson with my teacher this afternoon, which is good. My preparation schedule for this audition has been very different than ever before. We've been working a lot more on technique, rather than the actual audition material. But, the technique is necessary in order to play the audition material. I've been under orders to practice the audition material at half tempo or so to be able to focus on intonation. Now I have to get them up to tempo by Tuesday. All 14 excerpts. So...this will be interesting. Lots of practice today. There's no time tomorrow. I'll have to practice on Sunday when we get to Victoria (sorry, guys...that's why we're going). And on Monday. Hopefully it's enough time.

Finishing

I've finished knitting the separate parts of my sweater. I'm currently weaving in the ends. Then I'm going to wash the pieces, then sew them together. After that I have to pick up and knit the stitches for the collar. This will be interesting because the longest cable of my interchangeable set of circular knitting needles broke. It broke while I was working on the ruffle collar of Katrina's sweater. When pushing the stitches down along the needle, the part that screws into the needle head sheared clean off, leaving the majority of the connection inside the head of the needle, meaning that I'm without a long cable, and without a size 5 knitting needle head. I can buy replacement parts, and they're not terribly expensive, but I have to order them by mail. You can't order them online....really, what's that about? Don't they realize we're in the 21st century? Anyway....we'll see how it goes. Katrina's sweater is nearly done still. I have to sew the sleeve seams and attach them to the body of the sweater, then weave in the last few ends. Soon...I'll finish it soon.

Tuesday

1. Today was Election Day and I didn't vote. I'm not even sure what we were supposed to vote for. City Council and Mayor I think....what else is anyone's guess. The school I teach 5th grade strings at on Tuesday mornings is a polling place. They took over the gym, where I normally teach my class. We got moved to another classroom, and the kids, who are normally pretty chatty anyway, where extra chatty today.

2. Michael stayed home from work sick today. He's exhibiting meningitis symptoms. He started taking the medication for it and called the doctor's office. He has an appointment for two weeks from today. Hopefully it clears up soon and he's feeling better in time for our trip to Victoria.

3. I'm officially all caught up on the lessons I canceled while I was sick a couple weeks ago. Tuesday afternoons/evenings have become quite busy. I teach from 3-6:30 (tonight I went to 7:00).

4. My forearms have been sore all day from shredding the chicken with two forks yesterday. Anyone know a better way to achieve shredded meat?

5. Things are really starting to click in the audition material. That's good since the audition will be over by this time next week.

Time for bed...

Productive Day

Today has been fairly productive. I got some things done that had been hanging over my head for a bit, and also put in two hours of practicing. I realized today that I haven't given an update on my adventures in baking and such. Last week I made apple butter in my crockpot. I bought a five pound bag of apples, sliced and peeled them, then put them in the crockpot. It takes about 12 hours to make apple butter that way, but it turned out really well. I made a loaf of Oatmeal Whole Wheat Quick Bread to eat it with. I liked the bread fairly well. It is pretty dense, though, and Michael isn't a big fan of dense breads, so I probably won't make it again. I also made a batch of Cafe Mocha Mini Muffins. I thought these were yummy. The coffee flavor is barely detectable, but the recipe could easily be altered to leave out the coffee, if one were so inclined. The pumpkin bread is now all gone, and I think I'll have to make some more. Michael doesn't really like pumpkin bread, so I get the whole loaf to myself. I made Michael the Honey Crystal Almonds, which he enjoyed. Tonight I made shredded barbeque chicken, which was really easy. I put a bunch of chicken breasts (5 or 6 I think) in the crock pot on high for about 2 1/2 or 3 hours with a bottle of barbeque sauce, took it out and shredded it with two forks, put it back in for a while, then served it on hamburger buns. It was tasty.

NaBloPoMo

I've decided to participate in National Blog Posting Month this year. I'll be in Canada for a few days next week, so that should make things interesting. I believe my friend Patrick is bringing a wireless router with us, so perhaps I will have Internet access. So, here goes nothing.

Fall

I very much enjoy fall. Yesterday I went to the post office downtown and got to drive through some of the neighborhoods near downtown. I like those neighborhoods. There are places where the houses are not so nice, but for the most part (at least where I was yesterday), the houses are well-maintained. And they're not in a subdevelopment, so they have individual characters and it makes them more interesting to look at. There are lots of trees that have been there for a long time, and they're all changing colors and are gorgeous to look at. The wind and the rain yesterday caused a lot of the leaves to fall off, so the trees are getting more and more bare. But the colorful carpets of leaves that cover the lawns and sidewalks make me smile. I also like that once I finish a knitting project, I can wear it immediately. The weather is now appropriate for knitwear. I've been wearing my wool socks, now that I have a few pairs that I can wear frequently. I forgot to post a picture of the socks that I finished most recently. I like them. They're the perfect fall socks.


The pattern is Monkey by Cookie A, and I've lost the band, so I don't remember the brand or colorway of the yarn. I love the socks, though. I finished them last week, and wore them the next day. I also wore them again yesterday. They're even better after a washing.

I finished my flip-top mittens, too. They didn't take very long. I wore them today for the first time. It was chillier this morning than yesterday, so I thought it was perfect for a trial run. They kept my fingers nice and toasty, and I had the benefit of being able to flip back the top to use my fingers as necessary. They only issue I have with them is when I picked up stitches across the back of the hand to knit the flip-top part, I didn't go all the way to the outside edge on either one. It's not a huge deal, and if it really bothers me I can tack the edge down with a darning needle and extra yarn. But, for making them up on the fly, and the first pair of flip-top mittens I've ever made, I think they're pretty good.



I've also been making yummy things. Yesterday I baked pumpkin bread. I found a lower calorie recipe on allrecipes.com. I ended up using a whole cup of buttermilk (well, sour milk, actually) by accident. I soured a whole cup of milk and intended to only use half (and save the other half for the next time I make it). But, without thinking, I dumped the whole thing in. It turned out fine, though. I didn't even have to extend the baking time. It's very moist, and tastes great. I had two pieces last night and three so far today. I'm currently making apple butter. It's done in the slow cooker, so it takes quite a while. Slicing and peeling a 5 lb. bag of apples takes a while. The apples have to cook for about 12 hours total, so it'll be done around 10:00 tonight. Hopefully it's worth all the effort! I have a few more recipes to try in the next couple of days. We'll see how those turn out, too.