via vimeo.com
super cool.
21 October 2011
08 June 2011
The KO Hip-Hop Cello-Beatbox Experience: Julie-O
via youtube.com
Again on my cello tangent... I think I just found a new solo to add to my collection. Check. This. Out.
And may I say... beyond well done. The kid is a genius.
06 May 2011
birthday week
Husband and I started Birthday Week when we got married. An entire week to celebrate the start of one's life. An entire week during which the birthday individual, in this case me, calls all the shots... favorite dinners for the week, favorite restaurants (thank heaven for birthday gifts from all my favorites that magically make it to my door just in time), full control of remote, which movies to be watched etc. etc. This ultimate week of pampering also comes with a list of breaks too... no dishes, no putting young man down for the night, no worrying excessively about housework.
This year my birthday week came with flowers, chocolate macademia nut masterpieces from Costco favorite Thai spring rolls with Tom Ka Ghai (made by my dashing Husband) and an early lobster fest from my parents. (Can anyone say garlic cheese rolls?) Yep. I am aware. I am slightly spoiled. And none too soon. It was nice to take a break from some things that have been weighing heavily on my mind as I turned 25 for the tenth time.
But thank you, everyone, family and friends for all the birthday wishes this year. I feel more loved than you ever will know. There. Enough sappiness for one post. The end.
* You may notice that the hair is slightly (12 inches) shorter than in recent photos. To go with my birthday week, and the warming trend that has finally hit our neck of the woods, my sister and I donated our hair again to Locks of Love. Here's more of where this tradition started.
29 April 2011
Spike Jonze Presents: Lil Buck and Yo-Yo Ma
via youtube.com
I am a cellist. My life would not be my life if I weren't. I love the range. I love the mellowness (is that a word?) of tone... the dark, warm color of it... the softness and the roughness possible just with the change of a bow stroke. I think it would be safe to say that my cello was my first love. I am convinced that had I not become a graphic designer, I would have aimed for professional cellist as my job title. And now that my graphic design-ity has tapered off some (thank you economy), I have gone back to teaching cello lessons. Back to the first love. Back to the joy of music.
I just caught wind of this clip of one of my heroes, Yo Yo Ma, teaming up with this amazing dancer, Lil Buck of Los Angeles. Poetry of motion mixed with poetry of song in one of my favorite pieces... the Swan by Saint-Seans.
Love this.
21 April 2011
jack's three ways to test drive a beta fish
day 1, test #1: plastic fork fishing
As fish are Jack's favorite thing in the world right now (yes, he really can identify everything from a nautilus to an manta ray), I was shocked to turn around from doing dishes to find my boy trying to skewer his brand new pet. I asked him what he was doing (not altogether calmly, I admit) to which he sweetly replied, "Go fishing? Poke da fish!"
day 2, test #2: give the fish a drink
Again, with the dishes. I had just given Jack some chocolate milk. And put a wax paper cover, with punched holes, over the mason jar this time so he could still watch Mister Fish swim. I turned this time and saw that the water was cloudy, Jack leaning over the jar. I'm sure you can figure out what he managed. Jack pushed his straw through the top wax paper and spit chocolate milk into the fish dish. Sad. He said he wanted to share with Mister Fish. Sweet, but after a quick rescue with a ladle and into a new mason jar, Jack and I had another chat about what you can and can't do with a pet fish.
day 2, test #3: would you like lemon with your water?
Yes, this actually happened the same day. I put Mister Fish and his dish (I've been reading way too much Dr. Seuss lately it seems) on top of the island in our kitchen. With a new wax paper shield. "Jack can't reach there," I convince myself. Young man was playing with cars in the family room and I went into the front room for a few minutes to practice hymns for my church responsibility. All of a sudden, I didn't hear any more sound effects for his crashing cars. I came in to the kitchen to find Jack had pulled a chair over to the counter, found a lemon from our fruit bowl, pushed the chair over to the island and rammed the lemon whole into the mason jar thus pushing Mister Fish into tighter, and decidedly more citrusy space at the bottom. (yes, this was a huge lemon and was a bit of a challenge to get out) Again with the fish rescue. Again with the chat. And now, with a very skittish fish.
But. He isn't dead yet. There are a few morals to this story: one, keep fish safely out of reach for both the fish's and your sanity; two, never think that wax paper will keep out a two-year-old; three, and this is to Husband, I think it is time we mount the wall-hanging fish dish... and soon.
16 March 2011
ode to snow.
Gone fishing. We had a neighborhood/church snowman building contest. We won best angling snow-fisherman. Or something like that. I don't know if you can see it in this shot, but Husband even sculpted a fish on the line.
One fine snow day. Jack would have stayed outside forever. So glad our boy loves snow as much as we do.
We have had up to 12 deer in our backyard at a time this past winter. What can I say? They like our grass.
Jack's first ski day at Alta! My youngest brother came down over Presidents' Day so the three of us went skiing whilst everyone else worked. Gavin went on the more serious slopes. Jack stood on my skis while we shushed down the bunny slope. He did great & had so much fun. Next year, we'll have to find him his own skis. And I had better get myself in better shape! I am so glad no one had a video of this little adventure. I revisited my awkward days from teenagehood. Trust me, they weren't pretty.
After one run, I was beaten by the rope tow. Jack spent the rest of the time "sledding" down a little hill waiting for Gavin. {click above} There were quite a few skiers who stopped just to watch my boy. He isn't giggling in this one, but I am sure you can imagine.
Starting in late fall and now into winter (yes, I know it is March) this bird has landed on the railing of our deck and in this shot, our tree. He is huge! We would love to find out what he is. Any ideas?
How did we get all this lovely snow? Not in light flurries, I will tell you. We had a wicked blizzard a few weeks back. I called Husband to let him know the snow was coming ... and to get his handsome self up the hill before the road became impassable for his poor rear-wheel drive truck. Unfortunately for him (and by extension, me) he couldn't get off work until the blizzard had been in full swing for over an hour. He called me from the 10% grade, about half way up the north side of our mountain to say the rear-wheel-drive truck wasn't going to make it this time. He was going to try to head back down the mountain and could I meet him at our grocery store at the bottom. I got off the phone, packed up Jack and our things — extra water, snacks etc. just in case — and headed out into the dark in our all-wheel-drive car to "rescue Daddy." {Side note: Jack has really taken to this show called Super Why. Now, every time we leave the house, he yells "to the rescue!" So. Dang. Cute.}
We have two ways to get to our house, the north and the south side of our mountain. The north side is much steeper and longer with fierce winds, but the south side requires driving around rather over. A little out of the way, but usually the safer choice. Not that day. I started down the south side only to find myself in high winds blowing snow into 12 inch drifts covering the road. No street lights along the mountain road either so I drove by our GPS. And by faith. And prayer. And whistling to keep me calm as we slid around the road. We nearly hit a median due to the low visibility, but twenty minutes later, I made it to the main highway. The light had no power, but it appeared that the drivers were behaving themselves and taking turns nicely at the then four-way-stop. Lucky for my outbound lane, and unlucky for the inbound lane, there was lots of traffic to light the way. Traffic stopped several times to let super strong wind gusts/snow drifts to pass, but ultimately, by the time thirty more minutes passed, we made it to the freeway. Home free! We could go all of 35 on the freeway around the mountain. Large snowflakes and a head wind made it seem a bit like driving in place, but at least I could follow the car in front of me and there wasn't deep snow to deal with.
How was Jack during all this? Asleep. Thank heavens. We picked up Husband, I handed him the keys, breathed a huge sigh of relief and he drove home on a freshly plowed north side. Bless the snow plow boys!
The moral of this story? The path that may seem of least resistance may be the most difficult of all. That said, it was a bit of a spiritual experience for me... a kind of microcosm of life all rolled into an hour and a half rescue.
{Another side note: No, this is not our house. I was not about to brave the elements just to get a shot of our flocked abode so I took this from the comfort of our own home after our little escapade. Yes, this is at night. Weird what happens when the blizzard clears. Sort of.}
the end.
01 March 2011
happy birthday at the gateway
Happy Birthday John Dahling! Yes, it was at the beginning of the month, but here is a clandestinely-shot video {by husband} of our little man Jack playing his new favorite game... stomp & count. Jack was counting up to 14 when he turned 2... now he likes to mix it up a little bit.
I love that John takes the day off work to spend his birthday with his little family. Bowling has become the tradition along with taking advantage of Tucanos' happy birthday John present. It really pays to sign up with them online!
jack: master of mischief
So. It appears that John was right. Jack is his boy. Managing mischief was John's number one job when he was a kid, or so he told me whilst dating a few years back now. Last week, I got a glimpse firsthand of what John's parents must have experienced.
One of my piano students brings her little 1 year-old girl to play with Jack during our lesson. I put on a movie for them, they have toys to play with, then I teach in our music room. For the record, these two cute kids typically play very well together. {read: Piper follows Jack around while Jack plays} I should have known that not hearing kids playing was a sign of trouble. Bravely though, I kept teaching thinking to myself that whatever was going on was something I could take care of after the lesson. My student deserves a full uninterrupted lesson, right? Toward the end of the lesson, Jack came around the corner and just stood there, not saying anything but was wearing a look of mischief on his face. Then I noticed that his socks were wet as were his pants up to mid-calf. I told him to run upstairs to take off his wet things and of course, Piper followed. I finished the lesson and ran upstairs to find the kids, who had by this time gone quiet again. I found Jack, still in wet socks, hanging out with Piper in his bedroom. {good thing they are only nursery age!} And. I found water running. Behind a closed door. In the bathroom. Apparently, Jack was drawing himself a bath. I couldn't imagine why he would think he needed one. I was soon to find out. Good thing he doesn't know how to plug the drain. The mind reels at what could have happened.
I brought the safe, and might I add dry, Piper down to her mother and sent them on their way. But so far, I had only a small introduction to the best of Jack's mischief. Something to keep in mind as you read on: Jack managed all this in just a 30 minute lesson. I changed Jack into some dry clothes and we both went downstairs to our half-bath/half-laundry to investigate where his wet socks came from... since they were wet before he went upstairs to start his bathwater.
The downstairs bathroom door was closed, light on. {Sidenote: anytime there is a closed door, sometimes locked, with the light on, Jack-boy is trying to hide something. Always trouble} After opening the door, I found water all over the floor; both rugs, soaked; Puppy on the floor, soaked; no toilet paper on the roll; towels & plunger on the floor; decorative flowers pulled from their stems and floating in the toilet; AND a Jack in my arms with a smile on his face as he explained, "give Puppy a bath!"
Such a proud Mommy. Jack had, of his own volition, tried to give puppy a bath. In the toilet. Using toilet paper as washcloth. Trying to flush the evidence. Overstuffing the evidence thus overflowing the toilet. Using the plunger to unclog said toilet resulting in splashed water, everywhere. Grabbing the towels atop the washer to clean up the mess. Realizing it was a futile effort, Jack then closed the door. An absolutely magnificent mess that will be recounted for years to come. How could I possibly be mad, for long, at such an attempt to be helpful? I placed Jack on the couch and went to work on restoring the bathroom to proper working order. I'm still not sure what he thought he was using the flowers for. Maybe to make Puppy, and by extension Jack himself, smell better? Maybe. But I have a guess as to how his pant legs and his socks got wet. Remember this? Scroll down in that post and you'll have my guess.
And how, you may ask, did I not get a picture of this? No idea. We have 5 cameras about the house and not one of them ended up with an homage to Jack's installation art. But if I did take a picture, and Jack were a little older with smaller teeth and bigger ears, it would look like this:
04 January 2011
merry winter
Presenting... our mini 2010 in review. Click and enjoy. I sincerely hope to get more of our shenanigans posted this year! Our other blog still stands as the more current of our two. Visit us! {I just update this one to remind everyone how to get there.}
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