Singing through a haze

My choir is singing our fall concerts this weekend, with the first being this evening. I am equal parts exhausted (ten hours of rehearsals plus six hours of commuting to rehearsals) and excited. Last night we rehearsed in the first performance space, a church, which turned out to be a modern building (all cement, glass and wood) which had the acoustics of a Cathedral (because of all the cement, glass, and wood). Singing with the orchestra and soloists makes us sound like an honest to goodness real choir. They hope to put some of the concert on YouTube, so if that happens I'll post a link.

In other news, I somehow hurt my back and am taking muscle relaxants. Although I am only taking one quarter of the drugs prescribed, I am tired and loopy. My coworkers have intimated that I am not censoring my comments quite as much as I usually do. So far they find this amusing, but I'll be glad when I'm back to my usual self.

On the Sandia mountains

We were in Albuquerque this past weekend, and, my, is it lovely there. Andrew was ready to move, but the lure of mountains in my back yard is not as great as the lure of warm seas and city skylines for me. I originally planned the trip so that my husband and uncle could go hiking together, thus relieving me of any responsibility to climb anything beyond a couch cushion on the way to the kitchen to get a drink. Unfortunately, various injuries and maladies prevented hiking, and we took the wimpy tourist option of driving up into the Sandias. On the mountain top we enjoyed lovely views and stunted trees:We also encountered a whole herd of the rare mountaintop antenna:
Later we got our fill of red dirt, visiting ruins of Pueblos and churches at Pecos National Historical Park. As my aunt pointed out, the story of the American West is pretty consistent: Native people lived there until missionaries (or soldiers) came and converted (or killed or enslaved) them. It's a rather disheartening story if you think about it too much.
For Andrew, the highlight of our day trip to Santa Fe and points north was a petting zoo. The "zoo" was really a pen of goats, chickens, and an alpaca in the middle of a tiny town. For $2 you could buy a bag of corn and earn the intense (but short-lived) interest of every beast.

I appreciate the less animate animals, such as the Steel Burro.

For even more about the trip, check out dispatches from our reporter on location here and here.

The Glades

We had lovely weather last weekend (read: finally cool enough that we can put the top down on the car), so we took a drive through the Everglades. Several entrances to the park are less than an hour from our house, so we managed the trip in an afternoon. I'm a bit pressed for time because I'm leaving for a short vacation tomorrow, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

From a distance, the Everglades kind of look like the Midwest. Flat.

Even slight changes in elevation are a big deal, because they're the difference between dry ground and swamp.

We saw many birds, but I don't know anything about them.

Andrew's straw hat fits again, now that he cut off all his hair.

Living in the past

I'm having a lot of fun dressing vintage lately. I seem to have hit some magic amount of vintage and vintage-style clothes in my wardrobe such that I can wear the look about half the time. This also means that I've been spending far too much time researching things like how to do your hair in rag curls and whether you can really wear dance shoes outside in rainy weather (they make a lot of inexpensive dance shoes in vintage styles, but many of them have suede soles).

Pity my poor husband, who is the unwilling recipient of all that I learn, and who listens to my debates about whether $110 is too much to pay for a petticoat. (Which of course it is, but there aren't that many petticoat manufacturers around any more, so it's not like I have a lot of options.)

In other news, I took a wonderful weekend trip to DC a few weeks ago. I was in Virginia for work, and extended the trip so that I could visit some of my old friends in DC. It was wonderful to see the fall colors. And to kick leaves. And to be able to wear a sweater. Because I love my job in Miami so much, I keep hoping that my longing for seasons will abate. I hear songs on the radio and think of cider and soup and my heart is struck with a feeling that has no name. Perhaps I will name it Herbssehnsucht, (longing for fall)? In the meantime, I will be happy that it is cool enough that we can sometimes turn off the air conditioner, and I shall look forward to the ten frosty days in Ohio this Christmas.

Rainy day at home

Mondays are my work at home day this semester. Right now I'm sitting down with a cup of tea and a piece of a new torte, Lingonberry Yogurt Chocolate Torte. This recipe has a feature new to me - the thin bottom layer is shortbread. When you build the cake and cream layers on top of it, it stays stable because the shortbread doesn't get mushy. Trust those Germans to engineer a cake properly.

Weekend projects

Andrew and I are both a bit behind at work, so we spent a good chunk of the weekend trying to catch up with our paid jobs. But we also found time for projects. Andrew installed a pedal extender on the clutch of our car (Yes, I am that short), while I painted our couch. That's right, I painted the couch.

Last year we bought a white couch from IKEA, primarily chosen because it was the tiniest couch we could find. A year of black cat love, red wine drinking, and a husband who regularly uses the white couch as a tool storage location left the sofa looking quite dingy. Slipcovers cost as much as a new couch, so I painted it.

Research showed that you could use regular water-based paint, mixed with fabric medium. It worked, and it actually looks better than this picture shows. It looks kind of like suede and you can't see any of the stains. Hopefully the new navy blue color will hide evidence of future mishaps as well.

Respite

Those of you dreading the approaching winter: now is the time to make your Miami travel plans. The temperatures here have dropped the all important three or four degrees. This week we're looking at highs around 85 F (That's in the 30 F for my non-US friends). It's still warm enough to go to the beach (we went twice this weekend, which is a record for us), but it's cool enough to put the top down on the convertible in the evenings.

Along with those two trips to the beach, we also spent Saturday evening listening to strangers tell us their true stories, at Lip Service. People can submit their stories, judges pick the best ones, and then they read them on stage. (Listen to examples here.) Good fun, although they were a bit overwhelming for my sensitive soul. The stories included three deaths and one stabbing. Good thing I always bring a fresh handkerchief to any kind of theater performance.