Pictures At An Exhibition

On Sunday I heard the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra perform Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition, which is called his greatest solo piano composition. I heard, however, the Ravel arrangment for orchestra.

Words cannot even begin to describe the performance. Magnificent. Powerful. Dainty. Loud. Awesome. Beautiful. Breathtaking. Passionate.
I was simply blown away. This is one of my favorite compositions and to hear it performed where the conductor clearly pulls so much from the orchestra.

Absolutely stunning. I’m still smiling. And still thanking my pal Dave for inviting me along.

Oh, and as a mention of Dave he suggested the pre-session lecture, which I tend to roll my eyes at and then always end up learning a thing or two. So in this one I learned that Mussorgsky did not shy from complicated tempos and that, as a rather large man, the opening walk on the promenade movement represents how he would actually feel were he the one walking and looking at the pictures.

Seriously - how cool is that?

On a separate topic – my house reeks of mothballs. I realized I had the entire stupid box in my basement, in a plastic bag, but the smell was leeching out. I must have the worst smelling trash in town for tomorrow’s pickup…mothballs and dog dirt. Not bad for a couple of chicks, as they say.

Must Love Dogs

If you have seen the movie Must Love Dogs then you will understand why friends and family compare me to it. I must admit, today at the grocery store, as I bought one fish filet and one lone Roma tomato, I could not disagree with the comparison. My stubborn unwillingness to post an online singles ad carries on the theme. And oh yes, there is the love of dogs. (Though I must admit, as much as I love my Jake I’m not sure how fond I am of others’ dogs; ironically enough, by the way, Jake is also the name of the main male character in Must Love Dogs.)

So on top of yet another evening alone, snuggled up with a book and a single person’s dinner, my house smells like “old people,” as K said when she came home and was welcomed with the nice, fresh scent of….moth balls. Reviews are mixed on the success of them in defeating critters, but I needed to try something new so and this is it.

This morning I managed to slug out a three-mile run during which my right, front calf cramped up. Knock wood I almost never cramp up so this definitely caught me off guard and made me question the sanity of a half-marathon. There is still plenty of time to commit.

Gosh, I hate that word. Commit.

The Critter Saga Continues

This guy was in my driveway after work today.

I’m still shaking my head.

Wanting vs Needing

I’m doing a small test. For two weeks I am trying, diligently, to spend money on what I need instead of what I want, and what I am finding is that, gosh, there are a lot of “wants” in my life. Coffee out (when I have everything I need to make a very good cup at home), food out (when my kitchen is well stocked), makeup and creams (when I really have plenty at the moment), running pants (though I have a couple of perfectly good pairs), a new book, a bag of chocolate, flannel sheets, and etc.\. The list goes on and on and on ad nauseum.

Thinking thinking thinking…is there really anything I “need” at the moment or is it mostly things I “want?” At least as far as the material life goes. And you?

Speechless? Nah, Just Quiet

This weekend I am apparently speechless.

The critters remain and my determination to get them is, I’m afraid, a bit down. They are wearing me out, though I refuse to be beaten. Maybe my will to win will go up this week.

I did get in a nice run on Saturday, almost five miles. But it’s still not enough, and as I write this on Sunday afternoon I’ve had a glass of sangria so am certain I’m not heading out today for either a run or a routine at the gym.

Jake had a great day yesterday – he got to go to the dog park. He loved it! There were several relatives there (black labs, no Great Danes) and a new friend in the form of a black pug who was tremendously friendly. One hour of play and he was a worn out boy.

K is glad that I am, once again, eating meat on occasion. She has requested asparagus wrapped in prosciutto. The recipe:

1 T olive oil
16 asparagus spears
4 oz prosciutto (4 to 6 slices, cut into 16 strips)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil and coat with the 1 T of olive oil.

Wrap one strip of prosciutto around each asparagus spear, starting at the bottom and spiraling to the top.

Bake for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove pan, turn asparagus, return to oven and bake another 4 to 5 minutes or until asparagus is tender and prosciutto is crisp.

This has been added to my Thanksgiving menu!

Note the Lack of a Social Life

My day started with a 4 mile run, followed by a couple hours of gardening, followed by an hour of shopping. Next up are two batches of banana bread to get rid of the nasty spotted brown bananas sitting on my counter, and then K and I will have homemade mac-n-cheese for dinner.

The gardening included watering my seeded lawn as well as the new sod. And for the first time today I actually mowed the new sod. Wow – it looks just terrific. I am so glad I went ahead and got this taken care of and very glad I listened to my friend who suggested going with sod so that it’s all finished up nicely and in one fell swoop.

I also planted a bunch of Asian lilies, one of my favorite flowers. It looks like I may have over-bought when I bought 150 mixed bulbs. I have maybe 50 more to plant and am not quite sure where to put them. Typical. My eyes are bigger than my stomach…or than the size of my flower gardens. This will be next weekend’s project.

Finally, I moved my woodpile. The garden crew had moved it right next to the house, which was fine as a temporary stopping point. However, when the critter guy was here yesterday (placing six bait boxes for the mice around the perimeter of my house) he suggested it be moved – it’s a friendly home to too many things (not just critters, but of course termites as well).

Jake, by the way, has been my shadow today. What a guy.

Here Mousey Mousey....

Things are not good in my critter battle. As in, at the moment I’m not winning. But, as the girls say, I have a plan.

There is a gardening sotre in my town called OK Hatchery. I stopped in after work last night and stocked up on bait and traps. The bait I put around the outside of my house. That was easy. The traps were another story.

Me to the guy at OK Hatchery: “I have a mouse.”

The guy: “And you want this mouse?”

Me: “No. I want to get rid of it.”

The guy: “You never have one mouse. Follow me. You can use glue trays or traps, but really traps are best.” This was not what I wanted to hear. Me set a mousetrap? What if it flipped and caught me and I was home alone and it bled and I couldn’t get it off and I screamed and Jake freaked out. And how would I dispose of it once the mouse was on it?

Me: “Can you show me how to set it?” This was a moment of insanity. To give him credit he did a great job of patiently showing me how to set the trap and not pinch my fingers. After he demo'd how to set it, during which time I pummeled him with questions, he sprung the trap and handed it to me to practice. Success! I had it! I was a natural! Then he had me put it down so that I understood how delicate the trap mechanism is. Success again.

Me: “I’ll take three packages (six traps). What else do you have?”

The guy: “Bait. We have this bait. It works on mice, squirrels, and chipmunks.” Holy cow – did he just say chipmunks?

Me: “Perfect. I’ll take that as well.”

Loaded up I came home and basically booby-trapped my house. Bait and traps loaded with peanut butter. I set all six in my basement, carefully placed where Jake cannot get to them. And now the waiting game begins.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

In October, I must admit, I LOVE pink. Most of the time I'm not a huge fan, but it's different this month. The local grocery store has pink plastic bags, and this year they are selling the pink reusable bags. At Target there are pink kitchen utensils and small appliances and a pink hair dryer.

Breast cancer awareness is near and dear to the girls and I and wow - am I ever proud of both of them.

H’s volleyball team is sponsoring “Dig for the Cause,” a promotion in conjunction with the Breast Cancer Foundation. You can pledge an amount per dig picked up by her team or you can make a flat donation at the door before they play.

K is, once again, designing and ordering t-shirts printed for her team. She plans to do some additional fund-raising through this effort and even throughout the school year.

On top of that, my friend Kim is doing a 3-day breast cancer walk. She’ll walk 60 miles over the course of these days – how impressive is that! You can use the above link to donate to her fund raising effort if you are so inclined. She will do this walk in October 2009.

Breast cancer and breast cancer scares have touched our lives. A sister, a friend, a friend’s mother, and undoubtedly others we don’t know of. I think it's awesome that, for one month, there is endless attention paid to this disease. (And wow - I do like my new pink post titles!)

Critter Patrol

The critters remain. I'm not even sure if the critter guy has been here this week. I just want them gone. Tomorrow I get to call and tell them to come back and check the traps, maybe reset them.

$300 t0 $700 per pound and they are still here.

13.1

More and more, I’m considering doing my second half-marathon. I’m not quite certain what is holding me back from committing (except my ongoing commitment issue). I’ve done one before so know I have the discipline to train. I even enjoyed the first one. I went into it with only two goals and both were met: 1) finish and 2) run the entire thing. A surprise outcome was that I ran a respectable 2:03 when I was anticipating a 2:10 at best.

What I’m thinking of is the Go! St. Louis Marathon, Half-Marathon, and Marathon Relay, which is held every April in my beautiful burg. In 2007, I was part of a marathon relay team and did enjoy the race and day.

I signed up for the 2008 half, but didn’t train enough during the cold winter months to run it, which I ended up regretting. This year, with a gym membership, the cold weather should not limit my training as much– I can simply run inside, once I learn to discipline myself to run on the treadmill.

This time there will be a third goal: finish in under 2 hours.

Maybe it’s time to put my commitment issue aside for a time, sign up, and start the training program.

A Day At Home

For the past four or five weeks I have been busy every single Saturday with one of the girls and volleyball. Great sport, yes, but gosh it is hard to get things done around the house in one day. It all feels very piecemeal. I did get to spend a few minutes in the yard today....

When I was a kid the town in which I grew up in Iowa had more than its fair share of black walnut trees. My friends and I would take a brown paper grocery bag and pick them up and bring them home to our respective mom (not that our mom ever asked us to do this, we simply took it upon ourselves, thinking, I guess, that our mom would like them or appreciate them). These little green monsters turned our hands black as we touched one then another then another.

Two years ago I moved into my house and realized my first fall I was blessed with two sweet gum ball trees. (More on that in a future post.) I also had a couple of dead or dying trees. An arborist friend was good enough to stop by and confirm that yes, they should be removed. He also pointed out a black walnut. I had no idea! That first year I didn’t really have many walnuts land in my yard. The second year I was so overwhelmed with sweet gum balls that I barely noticed a walnut. And of course, the dog run was in so most walnuts landed there or in the flower bed. Out of sight. Out of mind.

Not so this year. I have walnuts. I picked up round one today and they weighted down my lawn back pretty nicely. With walnuts dropping that lets me know that soon sweet gums will be dropping as well. Oh joy!

I’m also on to critters of a different sort and am trying to take care of these myself. Mice! In my basement. Will it never end? I set two mouse traps. A friend, a year ago, recommended those self-enclosed traps. I had never used them so set them and of course, after they were all set realized I had forgotten the bait. I added bait, but then thought that maybe that wouldn’t work – adding it after the fact. So off I went to the hardware store this morning and purchased these two beauties. They are loaded with bait (i.e., peanut butter) and ready to do their job. The package said you can release the live mice, but somehow I think I’ll be more likely to throw the entire setup away!

My other hardware adventure is Great Stuff. I’m attempting to fill the gaps where the chipmunks are splashing leaves into my basement so I can at least, I hope, ensure that they don’t make their way inside.

Last on my list is making pound cake, from scratch. Kind of having a craving and K definitely is. Plus she may go see H this weekend and if that is the case, she can deliver a sweet treat….provided we don’t eat two loaves!

Clean!

I splurged. Now I feel guilty, but only slightly.

I hired a cleaning service. They came today and the result is just awesome.

Wow!

Zing!

Sparkle!

I love it. Things I never get to – and undoubtedly would never get to – are spotless. Last night I was thinking about the things I had to do this weekend and dredged up cleaning then remembered that I didn’t have to clean. I can actually do some gardening, reading, and writing without having to think about dusting and floors and bathrooms and bleach and scrubbers and etc.

Last night, as a total surprise, H called. She was 10 minutes away! Seems her team spent a night in St. Louis before heading to Kentucky. So K and I piled into the car and went to say hello to her. We chatted for about an hour, which is nowhere near long enough, but still it was a treat. Gosh I miss her.

The final tidbit is that I am, once again, considering a half-marathon.

Price Per Pound

$300 later I am rid of three chipmunks. K thinks we still have at least one more. Jake is moping as if he’s lost all his friends.

I was curious as to the price per pound of getting rid of these chipmunks.

I found a Web site called Got Critters? They had a nice rundown of many different types of chipmunks and while I didn’t read each one in detail I did notice some of the weights. It appears that the lowest weight is 1 ounce and the highest is 5 ounces (and if there is something larger or smaller, I apologize – I read the information quickly).

So at 1 ounce it would take 16 chipmunks to make a pound. With the cost of trap setup and removal that would be $711 per pound.

At 5 ounces it would take 3.2 chipmunks to make a pound. Again, figuring in cost of trap setup and removal that would be $343 per pound.

My initial thought is that I am absolutely nuts for paying this kind of money to get rid of these critters. Or desperate. And I realize it is more desperate. I want them gone, but I don't want to "see" them leave.