a weekend to be thankful for

Bryce and I spent another Thanksgiving Day at home this year, just the two of us. Over the previous two nights, I had gotten a combined 5 1/2 hours of sleep due to a project deadline, so my body happily complied with sleeping until noon. We had a lazy afternoon, watched some Netflix, went for a walk, and finally started cooking dinner around 6:30. Despite the fact that it was just the two of us, we prepared a feast that could have easily fed ten. We're a fan of leftovers. Dinner was finally ready around 10:00. We'll have to work on our timing if we ever want to invite guests over for the meal. What we cooked: turkey meatloaf; sausage stuffing (which turned out to really be sausage meatloaf); roasted cauliflower with parsley and golden raisins in anchovy vinaigrette; braised escarole with apple and bacon; garlic mashed potatoes; white wine gravy; sweet potato pie, slightly burned. It all tasted better than it looks in the picture. The veggie side dishes were my favorites. The meatloafs were, well... meatloaf.


Typically, after taking Thanksgiving Day off, I have to work through the rest of the weekend due to a show going into dress rehearsals the following Monday. We do have a show going into dress rehearsal tomorrow, so I was prepared to work through the weekend. But instead of bussing over to Rowan, I was able to haul the costumes home to work on them at the house of this show's costume designer, my friend Heidi. Most of the costumes had to be painted, so that's what we did all day. We were going to call it a day around 7pm and start again Saturday morning, but I decided to stay a bit later, which turned into staying until almost 2am, making it a nearly 16-hour workday. But it was a nice day, not without good food and fun. For lunch, Heidi made us each one of her baked apple pastries from stratch.


Heidi makes the best pie crust I have ever tasted. No exaggeration. I'm going to have her teach me her method one day. This is what one of them looked like before going into the oven.


I didn't get a post-oven shot because I was too intent on shoving it in my mouth.

By that point we had gotten enough done that I could afford to not do any more Rowan work for the rest of the weekend. I didn't have a very clear idea of exactly how much painting we had to do, and it turned out to be less that I thought. Now, that's something that has never happened before. So I have felt like I am playing hookie this weekend. And yet, despite suddenly having a whole two-day weekend with which to do whatever personal projects I desired, like people with normal forty-hour-per-week jobs, I am staring into the abyss of late Sunday evening and asking myself what happened to the two days. Tomorrow will be a 15.5-hour day, and Tuesday through Thursday will vary between 10 and 13 hours each, depending on how each preceding day goes. So much for all that stuff I wanted to get done.

Still, it has been a lovely weekend. I am thankful that I have been able to spend so much time at home with my husband and my boys, as I haven't had a weekend like this in a long while.

Chicken-Flavored Olives

I wanted to share this funny story, but didn't think it would come across the way I wanted it to in writing. Plus, that takes a long time. So I asked Bryce to video-record me telling it. You will probably laugh. You may be slightly grossed-out. Especially if you're a vegetarian.

For your entertainment, Friends and Family, I present... a video blog. Enjoy.

Man Food

It was Bryce's turn to make dinner tonight, and he went to far more effort than usual. I felt like a princess. We had steak topped with sauteed mushrooms, creamy garlic mashed potatoes, and leeks (the least manly part of the meal). I am one who is more likely to crave a big veggie-filled salad than a big steak, but that steak was SO-O-O good. Go, Bryce!

Dizzy

More kitty fun:





For some reason, this makes me think of playground jump-rope games. I was never very good at watching the rope go around and around, and finding that perfect moment to jump in. I was usually the kid who managed to get caught in the rope.

Borrowing a post from "The Kitchn"

I know it's totally cheating to make a post on my own blog about a post on another blog, but I'm going to do it anyway.  I saw this post on The Kitchn, and felt like sharing it with someone, so I might as well share it here.  The post: "Weekend Meditation: The Shared World."  It gave me warm fuzzies, and another good excuse to love food.

Not to worry, I'll be back to babbling about my cats soon enough.

Election day

Our polling place is in the lobby of our apartment building.

Since we don't even have to go outside,

I think that one of these years,

I should go down there and vote in my bathrobe and slippers.

The khaki legs are Bryce's.

We got stickers!

Still here. Still.

Today, I rebelled.

I put off doing some major work that is due tomorrow, in favor of doing something that would make me happy: updating my blog with all of the stories, photos, and videos that I had been wanting to share over the last three months.  Ten posts in all, plus the introductory post, and now the conclusion.

Tonight, I will pay for my rebellion.

I will pay by staying up late, possibly even pulling an old-fashioned college all-nighter, in order to prepare the recontracting document and colloquium presentation that I must present tomorrow. This will not be a good way to start a week that I knew would be rough even before I made this decision to claim a weekend afternoon and evening as MINE, not my job's.

You can make it seem worth the trouble.

I have a favor to ask of you, my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, and friends: Leave a comment. Let me know that you were here, that you stop by occasionally and learn about what's happenning in our life over here. Let me know what you enjoyed, what you didn't. Let me know what stories were boring, so that I can skip ones like them in the future. Let me know when you think my jokes are so lame that I should apologize for them. Let me know when I have made you smile. Share your witty banter, your humor, and your sage wisdom. Connect with me, and with each other, across this great distance.

I started this blog as a way to connect with family and friends, because we live so far away from most of you. Over these eight (yes, 8) years, the disconnect has grown, and sometimes it feels insurmountable. I thought that this blog would help. But when we visited California in December and Kansas in August, when I made references to it, I was most often told that this blog hadn't been looked at since I sent the announcement when I started it in August of 2007.

I felt, well... embarrassed.  Kinda pathetic.  Like that time when we spent hundreds of dollars and many hours in the kitchen to throw an awesome New Year's Eve bash, and only four people showed up.  It often seems as though my college friends Devon and Holly, who inspired me to create this blog in the first place, are the only people who look at it more than once every few months. Maybe I'm wrong, but I have no way of knowing if you don't let me know you were here. In this matter, I want to be wrong.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: Maintaining this blog is a lot of work. And I'm trying to figure out if it's worth continuing.  I have a decision to make.  Please let me know what you think.

With Love and Devotion,

Stephanie N.

10) Twins. Or, another post that requires the word "cute."

I can't help but think that their twin-ness helps to exponentially increase the boys' cute factor.

The following photograph and video offer some very convincing evidence of said argument.

9) Like "Animal Planet," only cuter

My favorite part is the head "doink", a la Napoleon Dynamite. You'll see what I mean.

The boys' wrestling is usually much wilder than this, but once I have the camera focused on them, they stop wrestling and watch me instead. So this is the best footage we have been able to get of their wilder antics so far.

8) From late October: "whimsical hanging sculptures"

At a Philly bar/restaurant called Tattooed Mom's, there are two windows that look out onto the narrow space between Mom's building and the next. It is odd, and not really outdoors, as far as I can tell.

These two videos don't do justice to the remarkable, whimsical hanging sculptures that exist in that narrow space. My friend Heidi, the companion you see in the second video, says that they are ever-changing. Heidi is well-known at Mom's, and she tolerated my tourist-like behavior well by telling onlookers that I was Canadian. I took it as a great compliment.

7) From mid-October: "Dad and Sue's Philly Visit"

My dad and step-mom Sue (who I rarely call "step-mom" because it seems so impersonal a title, so she's usually just "Sue") visited Philly for a 3 1/2-day weekend, before heading northeast on a 5-day roadtrip that took them over to Cape Cod and up to Maine, and to many places in-between.

Sue took a lot of pictures while they were in Philly, so I was lazy about getting out my camera. Highlights included:

A. Dining and dancing (and goofing) the night away on the "Spirit of Philadelphia" dinner cruise on the Delaware River.

We did this on the night of Friday, October 10th, the exact date of Dad and Sue's 10-year wedding anniversary. Aww...








B. Walking around dowtown and the historic district.

I always enjoy getting to show off how cool Philadelphia is, especially our neighborhood.


C. Lots of yummy restaurant food and drinks every day.

I think I gained 5 pounds, which always happens when we have visitors.


D. Saturday's road-trip out to historic Valley Forge.



E. Sunday morning's duckboat tour.




I eez a toureest, yah?


F. Dad and Sue's pitstop at Rowan University.

At the conclusion of their roadtrip, just before returning to the airport for their Saturday afternoon departure, Dad and Sue took a detour down to Glassboro. They got to see my costume shop and the theatre. I think they were impressed by my shop, especially after seeing the tiny shop at the Walnut Street Theatre when I dropped off some borrowed costumes there the week before, during our on-foot tour of our neighborhood.

It is a rare, joyful treat when Etienne decides to sit on my lap.

It always melts my heart.

Life gets put on hold.

Have to run some errands? They can wait.

Need to use the restroom? Just hold it.

This was the first (and still the only) time he curled around me like this.

My heart became a gloppy puddle of goo that Sunday afternoon, and it has still not quite solidified.

5) From late September: "Sarah Palin made Etienne late for a veterinary appointment."

Okay, it wasn't really her fault. I was running late, and then I had to stop and gawk at the huge number of news vans that were raising their towering masts outside THE IRISH PUB, of all places. I haven't gone to this particular joint in a while, partially because it's not quite divey enough for when B and I or friends and I feel like heading to a dive bar, and also because when we feel like going someplace that's not quite a dive but also not too classy or expensive, there are so many better, closer options that aren't filled with annoying frat boys.

But I spent quite a bit of time there during grad school. It was, and probably still is, a favorite spot for Temple Theatre's opening night parties. Kalina and I spent a number of evenings there, kvetching about grad school, people at our grad school, and life in general. The one and only Claremont Colleges alumnae happy hour in Philly took place there a year or two ago. I haven't been there in a while, but still, I felt like Ms. Palin was infringing on my turf when she decided to hang out there before the first presidential debate WITHOUT INVITING ME! That's okay, I'll take Devon there for drinks the next time she visits. And then let's see how many news vans show up.

After the vet appointment (Etienne's big asthma follow-up appointment, which he passed with flying colors, meaning that the current steroid inhaler regime is working), the vans were still there and crowds of jubilant demonstrators had shown up.

I would have stuck around to take in the scene, but Etienne had already been traumatized enough by the walk over there, and by the appointment itself. But I was tickled to find out from one of the demonstrators I passed that Cat Lovers for Obama buttons were available online.

P.S.: Obviously, postponing this post by over a month turned out to be advantageous because I got to sneak-in Devon's October 31st post. Sometimes, such delays can be propitious, yes?

4) From late September: "Humans make great pillows."

Most fans, friends, and parents of cats are well-aware that cats can sleep just about anywhere.

We also know that we ourselves make excellent cat-pillows.

It's one of Bryce's special talents.

Bryce is lying on his side, fast asleep, and Etienne has settled rather comfortably upon his rump. Marcello has curled up into the crook behind his knees.

The boys did not appreciate being woken up by the sound of the camera.
Bryce was un-phased.

Bryce, again, is fast asleep.

3) From mid-September: "I might be a theatre addict."

As briefly alluded to in my geek/trekkie/defcon post, I attended about thirty events of the Philadelphia Fringe/Live Arts Festival, blowing my previous record of 16 shows clear out of the water. Looking back on that 15-day blur of theatre, dance, and other performances, hurried meals between performances, and post-show critiques over beers and late-night pub grub with friends, I can't believe that only two months ago, my life was such that I could leave my job at a decent hour after a normal workday, five days a week (like most "normal people with normal lives"), and I didn't have to take work home with me or stay up until the wee hours of the morning finishing a recontracting document, or a budget file, or a script analysis, or a colloquium presentation. But I just have to remind myself that it's not always like this. And also that I shouldn't complain because, working for an educational institution, I have health insurance, a retirement plan, and a decent salary, unlike many people who work in the arts.

As I was saying, "I might be a theatre addict." This is only interesting because there was a time, not too long ago (like in my early twenties, seriously not that long ago) when I only did theatre because I liked doing costumes. Now, it's almost the other way around. I love doing theatre, but sometimes I wish I wasn't doing the costumes because it can feel like such a thankless, underappreciated drudgery. Not that I would rather be a performer. Ick, ick, ick. But if I hear one more person say "Oh, that must be so much fun!" when I try to explain what I do for a living, I'm afraid I might smack them. Or just kick them in the shins and run away. Because seriously, the back pain and the swollen knees and the cramped hands and the sheer physical and mental exhaustion from too many hours worked (hours that people often don't believe when I try to explain how many) just doesn't seem worth it a lot of the time.

No, what I really want to do now is get paid to attend theatre and write about it.

This year, for my very first time, I'm a Barrymore voter. I applied, and I was selected out of the pool of applicants. The Barrymores are like the Tony awards, except that they're for Philadelphia theatres rather than for Manhattan/Broadway theatres. Even when I am sent to shows that are terrible, I love it. I get to go home and fill out an online ballot, awarding points for each awardable category according to the criteria rubric for each category. It's awesome.

This post was going to be about the Philly Fringe/Live Arts Festival shows, and other shows I have managed to attend recently, both by choice and as Barrymore assignments. But I guess what I really want to say is that I, Stephanie N____, have come to love theatre, to daydream about it, to hunger for it. My 21-year-old self would not have believed this possible.

But I also have to admit that I'm already getting burned-out by this particular career path in theatre. I have been for some time. Back-up plan: theatre critic?

2) From late August: "Xtracycle Envy"

I so want one of these.


It's the Xtracycle SUB (sport utility bicycle, get it?).

And hey, I could ride on the back while Bryce pedals. It would sure beat the heck out of riding on his handlebars and getting thrown across the street when we crash. Yes, actually happened. Last weekend. Stupid, I know. No need for a bike safety lecture. It won't happen again.

Not that we have the space to store it our apartment, of course. But, you know, if anyone feels like dropping $800 to $2000 to buy me one some day: http://www.xtracycle.com/
Just kidding. Okay, only slightly kidding.

P.S. "Sun Retro 7 model," you are my favorite. You will be mine. Mwah-hah-hah...

1) From mid-August: "The Kansas Report," or "Another Week With that Wild and Wacky N. Family"

Straight from Defcon, we flew to Denver for a 5-night visit with the N. family in Kansas.

Highlights included:

A) Celebrating the 35-year wedding anniversary of Rhonda and Jerry (my in-laws).

My sibling-in-laws planned a surprise party at the local firehouse (I think that most of the credit goes to the women). The anniversary couple thought that they were going to the surprise wedding anniversary of another couple, their friends Rich and Diane. We got 'em good. Video and photos:






Jerry wore these shoes to their wedding. Look closely at the old wedding photo, and you can see them there on his feet.




B) Seeing Kallan now about a year old, and quite mobile.




C) The second N. family talent show.

We weren't there for the first one, and apparently we really missed out, because this was a hoot. The videos would be too much to post here, so I chose a couple of my favorites.

[To be posted after I get permission from said performers.]

I'm still here.

It has been a rough couple of months, and the prognosis is not great for the next couple of months, either. It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. "Prognosis" is perhaps a poor word choice. It's nothing medical. Mainly just a job that requires super-human stamina over absurdly long hours sometimes, combined with some household issues that aren't interesting enough to talk about here.

This hectic life has not kept me from having many happy, blog-worthy moments, but it has kept me from actually blogging about them. So, in a last-ditch effort at playing catch-up rather than just giving up on all the posts that I started or meant to start over the past few months, what will follow this post will be abbreviated versions of the posts that I have not managed to post over the past few months.