Weekly Recap + what we ate: Hallowe’en 2026

I started to write this on the metro on my commute to the theatre. Parking there is challenging, so I’m taking the metro, which is actually quite nice as I can read and chill and write a micro blog post, and then on the other end is a 15-20 minute walk that takes me by two lovely cafes where I can get a chai- one warmly spiced and one spicily spiced. The money I am saving my taking the metro is perhaps offset by my chai and salted oat cookie habit. (spoiler alert – I did not finish this on my commute that day.)

This is a lengthier post – I feel like no one wants to read lengthy posts during National Blog Posting Month, but this is my usual weekly brain dump and it would feel very weird not to do it just because I’m trying to post every day.

Saturday night was Hallowe’en. It was my day off, but the day was packed. I still had a bunch of sewing to do for the kids’ costumes, but before then there was our Saturday morning family meeting, then I took the oldest to her voice lesson and went for a run while she was in her lesson. When we got home, I had lunch and then collapsed on the couch and took a nap. I think it was the combination of the late tech week nights and then staying up the night before to finish a book. (Best Offer Wins- bonkers but I kept turning the pages.). I vaguely remember the 7 year old tapping on my shoulder and saying, “Mom, when are you going to wake up and finish our costumes?”

Around 3:00p, she came back again. I sat up, still quite groggy. “Bring me a fizzy water and a Coke,” I said.

I hydrated and caffeinated and got to work, finishing the last stitch at 4:55pm.

We all bundled into the car and headed to our friend’s house. We live on a cul de sac that sees very little activity on Hallowe’en so we always go over to our friends’ house to trick or treat, and then sit around their fire pit and hand out candy.

Overall I was pretty happy with how the kids’ Avatar Last Air Bender costumes turned out. I wish the 7 year old’s Katara costume had a few more details- if she weren’t standing with the other two kids she’d pretty much just be a girl in a blue wrap dress. I had a piece of tulle she was supposed to use for her water bending skills, but then lost the tulle in the chaos of the house. I don’t know how well known Avatar is; the 9 year old as Aang was recognized the most and even then not a lot. In the end, thought, it was the kind of group costume where the people who recognized the kids were super excited to see them, and that felt gratifying in it’s own way. Someone did ask me why I wasn’t dressed up as Appa….

This is probably the most ambitious I’ve ever been about sewing. I’ve had to make good use of my seam ripper several times. My biggest lesson is that when making something out of fabric that has no right or wrong side, to always mark one side “right” and one side “wrong”, or else you’ll end up with two left pant legs. But all in all, I’m realizing that the hardest part of sewing is not the actual sewing, it’s the cutting of the fabric and then piecing it together correctly. I’ve also realized that seams can hide a lot of flaws in the cutting, but only to a certain extent.

We trick or treated from 6:30p until about 8:15pm. Their neighborhood has a neighborhood Hallowe’en decoration contest so it’s always fun to see all the houses.

Audrey!
These were freaky – we thought they were real people at first. Also this house didn’t have any candy left.
Number Blocks!!

When the kids ran out of steam and the houses started running out of candey, we went back to our friend’s house to hang out and eat Chinese take out and finger foods. The kids went through their candy stash, the two younger ones pulling out all the gummy candy since they aren’t allowed to have gummy candy, per their dentist. Works out in my favor since I love gummy candy.

At one point I had to tell them that Tootsie rolls are just as bad for their teeth and they should give those up, whereupon the 9 year old said, “What if I just lick it slowly and don’t chew it.”

I mean technically I guess that’s okay….

The current plan for the candy is to let the kids binge all they want for a week, then limit them to two pieces a day and then throw out any remaining candy that is lefty by Christmas time. The thought of throwing candy (really anything) out makes me cringe, but I have to remind myself that it’s just candy and there will always be more. Do you have a Hallowe’en candy policy?

It was a lovely Hallowe’en, but having October 31st be my one day off was not restorative. Although on the flip side, I’ve also had to work on Hallowe’en before, which is always a bummer. There’s no perfect solution when one works six days a week. I think this was particularly exhausting since it was tech week. Moving into the theatre is always exciting and even more so for this show. Everything is so huge and unlike anything I’ve done before. But in the end, for what I do, a lot is the same – get people on stage, call the light cues at the right time, end rehearsal on time so that the evening doesn’t get expensive. Actually in a lot of ways, things are easier because the space is so huge there aren’t a lot of scene changes for me to call, and often in tech that is what eats time, getting the scenery to move in the right time in the right place and without mowing anyone over.

The other thing I’m enjoying about the new venue is the location. When we were at the Kennedy Center, I felt like we were… well, at the KENNEDY CENTER. But now we’re at a different venue, and to get there from the Metro, I walk by the White House and the Renwick and all sorts of other iconic DC buildings. And it really feels like we’re doing opera IN WASHINGTON, DC, like we’re creating art not just defined by our parent venue. And I’ve been enjoying that on my dinner breaks I can take a run or walk down on the Mall and I can see the Washington Monument on one side and the Lincoln Memorial on the other. All in all, it’s been a good tech week – everyone is working their butts off but I feel like we are all excited and happy to still be doing what we do. I’m exhausted, bur really pleased with how things are going on my end.

Grateful For Last Week:
-My work BFF for driving me home every night. She lives two miles from me and drives me home. I feel like I have the best of both worlds – I get my morning commute with my book and my chai and sometimes my micro blog posts, and then at the end of the night, I get to chat with my friend and she takes me straight to my door.

-A Successful Soup Party. At work, we had our annual soup party and people brought so many tasty kinds of soup. I think my favorite was a apple butternut squash curry soup. It was so good. Note to self: get the recipe.

-No piano lessons last week. I might have mentioned in a previous post that the kids’ piano teacher was on vacation the past two weeks so there were no piano lessons (The kids take lessons at 7:45am on Wednesdays and 6:30am on Thursdays). I didn’t realize how fortuitous the timing was because her vacation week fell during tech week. I was so grateful that I didn’t have to shuttle kids to piano lessons after being at the theatre til 11pm the night before.

-My hand me down sewing machine.

-A New Month – Hello, November! Though it now means that January 2027 has appeared on our three month calendar.

–Elisabeth for hosting Cool Blogger’s Walking Club and Engie for hosting Cool Blogger’s Book Club. I haven’t been able to keep up with posting, but I did walk every day in October and I did read Convenience Store Woman. It was so nice to have non-work goals on my calendar this month.

-Finding my green pants. I got these lovely green pants from Taiwan last winter and then I haven’t been able to find them for the past six months and I was sad. Well, I found them! Turns out I had folded them over and hung them on a hanger and then put a sweater on the same hanger. Yay – I love finding lost things.

Looking Forward To:
-being home in the evenings. I feel like I haven’t seen my family in ages. The 14 year old leaves for school before I’m awake and then I get home around 11pm when everyone is asleep. I do always go to the room the 7 and 9 year old share and give them kisses and re-tuck them when I get home, but it feels weird to do that for the 14 year old. Anyhow, all told – I’ll be glad to get my evenings back.

-Thanksgiving! There was a request for duck for Thanksgiving. Challenge accepted. I think. I’ll have to figure out where to get a duck and what to do with it.

-Parent Teacher Conferences. Are coming up. I feel like school is such a black hole for finding out how my kids are doing, so I’m glad we’ll get a chance to sort of find out.

-This stack of books from the Library. (I also got Best Offer Wins in this trip, but I tore through it in four days and then returned it before I could take a picture of my library stack.)

What We Ate:

Monday: The Husband made an eggplant stir fry, which we ate with noodles.

Taco Tuesday: The family had black bean tacos. At work I had had soup as part of the soup party. I made Marry Me Gnocchi Soup from Nora cooks. It was tasty (and vegan).

Wednesday: Box Dinner. We realized that Wednesdays were bonkers for eating dinner and what we were doing was just not working. The 9 year old has Dungeons and Dragon Club after school until 5:15pm and then fencing at 6pm. The 7 year old is not old enough to stay home by herself so when I’m working, she needs to ride along since the 14 year old (who would usually stay home with her to keep things legal) has basketball at 7pm. Version A was:
-4:30: Pick up 6 year old from bus
-5:15: pick up 9 year old from school D&D club
-5:30p: arrive home, everyone shovels dinner in mouth
-6:00p: 9 year old to fencing, 6 year old rides along
-6:45p: 14 year old walks self to basketball
-7:15p: Husband, 7 and 9 year old arrive home
-8pm (or 9pm): Husband picks up 14 year old from bball.

It was bonkers. I mean for the Husband. I’m at work and just chilling and doing my job thing. Anyhow…. It wasn’t working for the 9 year old because he was just exhausted and that’s always a great thing to be when one is engaging in an activity with epees.

All to say, the new plan, Version B, now is to pack the 7 and 9 year old a box dinner and they eat in the car, driving directly from school pick up to fencing, which hopefully allows a bit of downtime before suiting up.

Writing it all out, it feels like a lot and maybe the kids are overscheduled. They probably are. BUT these are all activities that the 9 year old wants to do, so we try to make it work. And I think for one child it’s fine, but with three, the logistics are complicated exponentially.

Thursday: Marry Me Gnocchi Soup – I had made a double batch on Monday so the family could have some for dinner.

Friday: Pizza takeout and The Matchbox Movie. I had leftovers at work. I think I had soup.

Saturday: Hallowe’en! Chinese take out = I had hot and sour soup – and finger food (crudites, cheese, chips, and a really yummy buffalo dip.)

Sunday: I was at work and ate leftovers. No clue what the rest of the family ate, but I hope it was leftovers too.

NaBloPoMo post #3 (even though it’s day 4…).

The moment I decided to be a stage manager – Part One

Where I’ve been spending my week.

Happy Election Day, USA!

I voted early last week since I knew today would be a long work day. I’m on the Metro on the way to work again, and let’s see if I can again finish this post before I get to my stop.

I often get asked how I came to be a stage manager, since it is such a specific profession. Well, here’s the story.

Like many good Asian kids, I went to university telling my parents I wanted to go to med school. I don’t really think I wanted to go to med school. In my heart I wanted to be an opera singer, but I realized that I lacked the talent and personality to do that.

I did, however end up studying music- not performance, but rather composition and history. I also sang in the Glee Club, took performances classes and did a few recitals. In addition, part of my financial aid package was a work study job in the scene shop of the theatre department. There I helped build sets and labelled tools and sorted buckets of screws.

At one point, I was talking to a theatre student and she said, “Have you thought of being a stage manager? The student groups are always looking for stage managers.”

I kind of dismissed that because I wasn’t really a theatre kid, I was a music kid. The scene shop job was just to get me through and earn some spending money.

So I went through school very involved in the music department and not being very interested in technical theatre. And then I graduated and decided I wanted to work in arts administration because I wasn’t going to be a performer, but I liked being part of the process of bringing shows to life. So I applied to basically every theatre internship program I could find. Opera companies didn’t have internships in arts admin, so I figured I’d start in theatre. This was back when the internet was a new thing for me, so I while I found some of these internship programs online many I read about in trade publications liek ArtSearch. Everyone still sent paper resumes and cover letters. I sent out so many resumes.

I ended up getting an internship in Company Management at a theatre in the same town where I went to school. Company Management is the department that deals with travel and housing for actors, directors, designers. I cleaned a lot of apartments and did a lot of driving to the airport.

The Company Managers and the Stage Managers shared an office, so I often got to see the stage managers coming in and out, arms fill of binders and papers and tape measures. During tech week, company management was always on call, so I would hang out in the office or in the theatre watching tech. I remember thinking, “Boy, the stage managers always look so busy. If I have to be at the theatre til midnight, I’d rather be busy than sitting around waiting to drive people home…”

… and now I’m at my stop. So I’ll leave you on that cliff hanger and write part 2. of Diane’s career epiphany another day.

NaBloPoMo- introduction to my blog

I missed the first day of National Blog Post Month because I worked yesterday from 9:45am to 11:30pm. In fact, I started drafting a post yesterday while on the metro to work, and never finished it.

So here I am, on the metro in to work again and let’s see if I can write a post before I get to my stop. I’m not a fast writer.

Since this is my first NaBloPoMo post, I thought I’d write an introduction.

Hi! I’m Diane. I’m a 40 something Taiwanese- Canadian- American who now lives in the Washington DC area with my Husband and three kids.

I work seasonally as a stage manager, primarily for opera productions, but really whatever anyone hires me for. I also do surtitle work – you know like subtitles for a movie, but for operas and concerts, and projected above the stage.

This blog was my COVID baby. Well one of them- I did have a literal baby (my now 7 year old) during COVID. I had contemplated starting a blog for a few years and COVID time at home was the kick I needed to start a blog, a project just for myself where I could word vomit and no one cried.

So here I am.

Eleven Things I can talk endlessly about:

-Dumplings and noodles and where to get the best dumplings and noodles in the area

-cloth diapers. Even though my youngest is now seven.

-stationary

-Dinner and meal planning hacks for when I’m never home in the evenings.

-the silly, funny, infuriating things that my kids do and say.

-how terrible my commute to my summer job is.

-How important representation in media is.

-Fun things to do on DC and how much I like living here.

-Foods to eat in Taiwan.

-bookstores and chai tea.

-opera

-The endless mental calculus that goes on in my head whenever I have to make a choice.

Welp that’s all you gets

Thanks for popping by.

Let me know if there is anything you can talk about endlessly!

Weekly Recap + What we ate: Cool Blogger’s Walking Club, Week 3- Fall Foliage

I thought I’d again combine my post with my Week 3 Cool Blogger’s run down since clearly writing two posts in one week is too much for me right now between work, sleep, and sewing Hallowe’en costumes like a fiend.

First off the Hallowe’en Costume update – the kids are all dressing up as characters from Avatar The Last Airbender. (I always have to specify because otherwise people ask me if I’ve invested in blue body paint.)
Kid #1, going as Katara – Dress is finished, just need to hem it. Still needs a belt, but I have the materials for that.
Kid #2, going as Aang – Purchased yellow shirt and joggers, brown legwarmers. Today I made a capelet out of orange fleece (no sewing, just cutting a circle with a hole in the middle). I still need to sew the blue arrow to the pink hat I bought him.
Kid #3, going as Toph – top is done, just need to hem the collar (this is a bit of dilemma because I lost the pattern for the collar. I might just stick some white bias tape on it and be done.). pants are done, need hemming. Headband made. Belt ordered (if I have time, I’ll add the gold accents). Still need to make a tabard, but I have the material, so should be quick.
All of that seems doable on Hallowe’en morning, since that will be my next day off. And this coming week is tech.

Also – added to the mix was that last week, the 9 year old said to me, “I need a costume for the Fall Festival.” The Fall Festival was maybe ten days away. It’s an event at school where kids dress up and there’s a parade and then a party in the classroom.

“Well good,” I said, “you can go as Aang.”

“No. I need to go as a book character.”

“Oh.”

Because it would be too easy for parents to allow kids to just wear their Hallowe’en costumes to school. To be fair, in all previous grades, the students made their costumes in class. This was the first year my kid had to make one at home.

There was much angst because he didn’t know what book character he wanted to be and he was afraid that none of his favorite book characters were recognizable. And then he said, “I’ll go as Harry Potter.”

And I said, “Honey, you haven’t even read Harry Potter. I don’t think that is the spirit of the exercise. Why don’t you go as Dog Man.”

“Oh that’s good idea.”

So this morning I also helped him make a Dog Man costume. So that’s four costumes I had to make this year.

Anyhow, on to Cool Bloggers’ Walking Club.

Welcome to my week three Cool Blogger’s Walking Club recap. Thanks again to Elisabeth for leading the charge.

Week Three’s theme was Fall Foliage. It actually was a little early to be in peak fall foliage, so this theme was a little bit more of a scavenger hunt than I had thought it would be – a lot of trees were still fully green and leafy here. I think that’s good, though, because the walks became an exercise in noticing.

Thursday 10/15:

10 minute morning yoga

Walked kids to bus then took the long way home. Fall foliage is starting to peek out. (“peek”, not peak – that comes later…)

Friday 10/16:

20 mins yoga in the morning.

The kids were off school since it was a grading day for the teachers. Everyone was antsy by 8am so we went on a 30 minute walk down to the trail.

At work, I biked to take my bike to the bike shop for tune up and then walked back to work.

Saturday 10/17:

10 minute. Yoga in the morning

30 minute run walk along the trail while the 14 year old was at her voice lesson. It was a little grey and chilly, so the fall colours were rather muted, like this res vine:

Sunday 10/18:

20 minute yoga in the morning

10 minute walk during half time of the 9 year old’a flag football game. I walked the track around the field and then a loop of the parking lot where I saw this gorgeous tree.

Monday 10/19:

14 minute yoga.

Walked the long way home after the bus drop off. I was very amused by the pruning of this tree:

Then I took a loop through the park before heading home:

Tuesday 10/20:

15 minute yoga

30 minute walk taking the kids to the bus stop and then choosing the long way home. There was some beautiful yellows:

Wednesday 10/21:
10 minutes of yoga in the morning.

I had to be downtown for a site visit this day. Parking around the venue is not easy and I ended up parking about 10 minutes away. Which was a little annoying, but then I realized that this was a good way to get my CBWC steps in. No foliage picture from this urban stroll because I didn’t pass any foliage in the city.

Then on my dinner break I walked to pick up my bike from the shop and then biked back to work. There was fall colour on my bike, but I haven’t mastered the art of biking and taking photos :).

That’s Week #3! Next week’s theme is Hallowe’en, and I think it will take me to the end of the month since next week is also tech so I don’t know that I’ll post before Sunday. Which is November.

Speaking of November- would it be bonkers for me to participate in National Blog Post Month? I’ve started it a few times, but never manage to pull it off. But this year, I should be done the hardest part of tech by November 1st so I think it might be doable….

Grateful For:
-The other parents at our bus stop. One day last week, the bus was super late, so one mom put my kids in her car to take them to school. The bus actually pulled up as they were leaving, but it was so nice of her to be willing to do that. And then on Wednesday, when I had to be downtown by 10am, I was able to drop the kids with another parent at the bus stop. I mean, I guess the kids are old enough that they could just wait on their own, but it was nice to know there was another parent looking out for them.

-Clear blue skies and crisp autumn air for the last flag football game of the season. Also grateful for the 9 year old’s coach. The team lost every single game this fall, but they were playing against teams that had been together for two or three years, while the 9 year old’s team was new this season. Anyhow, I’m grateful the 9 year old had a chance to try things out – he came away with some nice NFL swag and has decided that he’s going to go back to playing soccer.

-Spare laptop at work. One day, I forgot my laptop at home and when I got to work, I had that sinking feeling. Luckily we had a spare lap top at work, so I didn’t have to go home to get my own lap top.

-Our Technical Director at work who is such a bad ass and is doing some amazing work transforming the venue space into an opera stage. She is responsible for so much planning and coordinating and balancing to make things happen safely and smoothly. What she is leading is a huge undertaking and I’m sure she is fielding demands left and right. So much respect for her. Also so grateful that she is at the helm..

-Dogs who stick their heads out the windows of cars. They look like they are living their best live and it makes me so happy to see. Last week I passed a car with a dog in the back seat, head out the window, tongue out. It just made my day.

-TMI, but I’m grateful I got my period this week because next week is tech and of course I can still do my job while on my period, but it is always easier to not be on my period during the most intense week of a show.

-An afternoon contra dance. We went dancing today and it’s nice that the dance is in the afternoon because we can take the whole family and not worry about the kids staying up way past their bedtimes. I’m also really grateful that everyone was super kind the the kids while they were dancing – the 7 and 9 year olds still don’t quite get how to do a hey for four, but no one got annoyed at them, instead they just gently pushed them along. We were on the fence about going, but I’m grateful that we did go to the dance, and I got to dance with the Husband.

-Also – grateful for a bounty of apples. One of my favorite parts of fall is the abundance and variety of apples.

Looking Forward To:
-Tech. I mean I’m not looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to being on the other side of it. I really am trying to be excited about tech and the show – we are in a new venue in a huge new way and it is, honestly, a little intimidating. I’m trying to not be toxically positive about the situation (“I’m so excited for this challenge!!”) but also trying not to be just toxic and catty, which is sometimes a defensive mechanism.

-Okay, one thing I am looking forward to is our new venue is by the Mall, so I’m looking forward to running on my dinner breaks near some iconic DC architecture.

-Thanksgiving… At our family meeting yesterday, we discussed what folks wanted to eat for Thanksgiving. The 14 year old would like to make the pie this year. And I guess the 9 year old is going to take on the mantle of rainbow Jell-O.

-Kabocha squash. On a whim I asked the Husband to pick me up two kabocha squash from the Farmer’s market. This was one of my grandmother’s favorite foods. Not sure what I’ll do with them yet – my Ama liked to just steam them and eat them plain. I love their sweet nutty flavor – and the texture isn’t as stringy as other winter squash.

-Voting. Early voting started last week in Maryland. Most of it is fairly predictable given where, but still, I like going and I like going early.

-Soup Party! Our annual departmental soup party is this coming week. I was debating between cream of mushroom, hot and sour soup, or chickpea gnocchi soup. I think I’m going with the chickpea gnocchi soup because I can make a double batch and the kids will eat it. I’m not sure if they will go for cream of mushroom or hot and sour soup.

-Gilded Age – Season Four is coming November 1st!! The trailers show some very fun scenery chewing. Can’t wait.

-Fluffy happy reads (or I hope…) to get me through tech week. Just borrowed this on Libby:

What We Ate:
Monday: Gumbo’s Daddy from NY Times Cooking. This is a sort of simpler version of gumbo that I made because we had five lbs of chicken wings to use up. I also added okra to this because I like okra. I did the cooking step in the InstantPot so I could make it the night before, after I got home from work. Next time I would add the okra later because it kind of melted into the soup. Tasty. We ate it with rice and I had it for dinner later the week and froze two containers of it for leftovers. I was at work and had the leftover quinoa salad from the week before.

Taco Tuesday: We pulled some smoked pork out of the freezer and the Husband ate that with the kids as nachos. I had the leftover quinoa salad from the week before.

Wednesday: Sweet potato and black bean soup from the freezer. “From the freezer” is a theme of our dinners this month. Still more quinoa salad for me.

Thursday: The kids had mac and cheese out of a box – the 14 year old cooked because the Husband was out with a friend and I was at work. I had some leftover take-out Thai for dinner.

Friday: The family had take out pizza and watched K-Pop Demon Hunters for Family movie night. I had the faux gumbo from Monday night for dinner.

Saturday: The family went out for dumplings and noodles. I had their leftovers when I got home.

Sunday: We’re trying a new thing for Sunday dinners. We used to have pasta and red sauce on Sundays because it was fast and easy. Well, now we’re going to try “fend for yourself” – aka Leftovers or cereal. The leftover situation in the fridge and freezer was getting out of hand. And also, I don’t want to have to cook on Sundays. Maybe it’s just this slew of Sundays when I’ve already worked all Saturday…? Anyhow – the 7 and 9 year old made themselves eggs. I think they each ate five eggs a piece. They’re obsessed with frying eggs and eating them. They’ve practically made it a competitive sport, seeing who can make the prettiest, unblemished egg with a fully in tact yolk.

That’s the week. I’m girding my loins for this upcoming week of tech, and reminding myself of the important things – sleep, food, and kindness. I have to remember to pack good snacks and healthy meals (thank goodness for the freezer full of soup), go to sleep at a decent hour, and hug the family when I can. I do think tech week is harder for the Husband because he has to essentially single parent while doing his paying job and I mostly just concentrate on my job and come home late at night.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Are there any Hallowe’en costumes in your future? Any bad-asses at work? In a good way :).

Weekly recap + what we ate: a week of outfits!

The weather has been so bonkers lately! One day it is 80 degrees and then the next it is 55 degrees and spitting rain. It was a busy week last week. Often when I have a busy week, I do a “Week of Outfits” post because it’s something I can do a little at a time. Of course, I really should have saved “Week of Outfits” for next week when I’m in tech, but I think the first week of rehearsal is more interesting sartorially.

Monday – First Day of Rehearsal!

I like to get a little bit dressed up for the first day of rehearsal. I went with an all red theme because red is one of my favorite colours and I feel good in red. (Afterwards the executive director of the company said that red was the official company colour…) The hat was purchased this summer from the hat shop in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The red sweater is from Uniqlo. The Dress is from Wool& and the shoes are Geisswein.

Tuesday – Forgot to take a picture til 11pm after I got home from work:

Theme of the day was Orange! It was also 80 degrees this day. Hat another NOTL purchase. The button down used to belong to the Husband, but it no longer fits him so it’s mine now. Duluth tank (with built in bra). Cotton gauze pants from Old Navy (a last minute purchase two summers ago, grabbed as I headed to check out. They are one of my favorite summer pants). Black Allbirds – my father saw them on sale at REI, purchased them for the oldest kid, but they aren’t her thing, so they are now mine.

Wednesday:

Same hat and shoes as Monday. The dress is from a Japanese brand, a hand me down from my cousin. You’ve probably seen it on past “what I wore” recaps because I love this dress; it is so easy to wear because it is stretchy cotton, and also has interesting details so it feels like an effortless way to look like I tried.

Thursday:

Yet another hat from NOTL (I bought four!). Wool& dress with floral Uniqlo top worn over it. (I’m sure I’ve worn this a lot too.) Shoes are also Geisswein. I need to replace my Geisswein shoes; they are two years old and the treads are all worn out on this pair and the red pair. But it’s nearly winter, so I think I might wait until spring.

Friday:

No hat this day because I took my bike in for maintenance so I had to wear my helmet. I actually came to work in shorts and a t-shirt, rode the bike to the shop then came back to work and changed into this outfit. The top is Uniqlo, the skirt is from JC Penny, off the discount rack.

Saturday: My day off. I have no picture from this day – I put on my running clothes in the morning to go for a run while the oldest was at her voice lesson and then just never changed out of them.

Sunday: Flag football and rehearsals.

Photo taken by the 14 year old…

It was cool but sunny this day, which was a relief after having terrible weather so far for flag football season. After flag football, I went to work and was there til 10:30pm. The red knit cap is from (you guess it) that shop in Niagara on the Lake. I wore my fox overalls. I like to wear my fox overalls when work on the weekends. It’s a bit of dopamine dressing for having to be at work. The quarter zip is another hand me down that the Husband out grew. I think it’s from Joseph A. Banks.

That’s a week of outfits!

What other “Week of…” posts can I do…?

Grateful For:
-Boone. My friend L’s dog passed away last week. I only met him once and he was such a sweet presence. I’m so glad L shared Boone with all of us.

-A smooth first day of rehearsal. Shhh … here’s a secret… I don’t actually like being the stage manager. It really stresses me out to be in charge. I much rather be the assistant stage manager. The first day of rehearsal stresses me out because there are so many new elements descending on me at once. But last week’s first day was very smooth and mostly routine and I felt like I knew what I was doing.

-on that note – I’m grateful for people of a higher pay grade than me to whom I can kick problems up the chain.

-My bed. I’m so grateful for my bed and being able to slide in between the sheets after a long day at work.

-Sally’s sewing machine. I am sewing Hallowe’en costumes on a sewing machine that was gifted to me by my late mother in law. It is a Spartan Singer sewing machine from the 1950s and only does straight stiches, and I’m so grateful to have it.

-Sewing tutorials on the internet. I don’t have a serger, but the patterns I’m looking at has all these serging instructions. The internet suggested I do a French seam instead. I’m so glad that there are a plethora of videos online that will tell me how to do that.

-Clear blue skies after days of rain.

Looking Forward to:
-contra Dancing! Next Sunday, one of the Husband’s favorite callers is calling an afternoon contra dance and it’s on our calendar to go. Sometimes we loose steam and don’t end up going, but I’m putting this into the world and saying that we are going.

-Seeing a friend from my mom’s group. Her kid got cast in my show, which means that she’ll be bringing him to rehearsals. I’m excited because her kid is pretty awesome and is so excited to be in the show.

-The Hallowe’en costumes are coming together…. I can’t wait until they are finished! Both because I’m excited for how they turn out and also because I’ll be glad to be finished.

-Listening to more of this book:

I was really into this mystery(ish) series years ago, around when the oldest was born. It’s about an ex-Army helicopter pilot turned Episcopal Priest and a Police Chief of a small town in upstate New York who team up to solve crimes. (I call it mystery-ish because it’s not typical clues and red herrings, but then it’s also not twisty enough to be considered a thriller.) A few years back, the the author had a lull and the series fell off my radar. I just discovered that in the past few years she has published more books in this series, so I’m excited to catch up. I started listening to this one and realized that I did actually read it when it first came out, but it will be a nice way back into the series.

What We Ate:
Monday: Mexican rice. The Husband cooked. We had a lot of rice leftover from take-out Chinese the night before so we are trying to think of ways to use it up. I went to tap class after work so I got home late and had snack dinner.

Tuesday: Chili black beans and corn burritos. The black beans and corn were from the freezer. I had leftovers for dinner at work.

Wednesday: Broccoli Quinoa Salad – a variation of this recipe from the NY Times cooking. I added mango and red peppers and didn’t add cheese or pecans. The cheese really does elevate the salad, but I was aiming for a plant based meal. Though the dressing does have honey. So…. vegan-ish. This was a great way to eat lots of vegetables.
I had leftovers at work again.

Thursday: Any ground meat Bolognese. This is the meat sauce I made two weeks ago, pulled from the freezer. The Husband was going out so all the 14 year old had to do was warm the sauce and make pastas.
I had the Broccoli Quinoa Salad at work for dinner, adding a few handfuls of arugula to it.

Friday: Pizza (the Husband made) and the kids watched Asterix and the Secret of the Magic Potion. The 9 year old is really into Asterix – which is nice because it’s one of the things I can get in French that was originally written in French as opposed to other books her reads that are French translations of English books. They did watch the movies in English, though.

Saturday: Waffles and green beans. We made both Savory cornmeal waffles from the King Arthur’s Baking Cookbook as well as the Cinnamon Sugar Waffles that I had read about on Nicole’s Blog. Be warned! The Cinnamon Sugar Waffles says that it makes 5 waffles so I doubled the recipe. This recipe makes a butt ton of waffles. We had so many waffles left over. I guess breakfast for the week is taken care of.

These are the leftovers.

Sunday: I was at work and ordered out a tempeh panini because a friend was meeting me on my lunch break. At home the family went to play D&D at a friend’s house and they ordered pizza.

Well that’s the week here.

Tell me what’s your favorite accessory? Have you ever used a serger? They kind of scare me.

Cool Bloggers Walking Club October 2026 – Week #2

Shout out to Elisabeth for organizing a global effort to encourage intentional movement every day this month!

I’ve been pairing my walks with themes, just so I can practice the art of noticing. My theme this week was Little Free Libraries. There are so many Little Free Libraries both in my neighborhood and also where I work, so this week, I was on the look out for Little Free Libraries… and if I found a few books along the way, so much the better!

Thursday 10/8
Walked the kids to school and took the long way home, passing these two Little Free Libraries (LFL) along the way. They are on the same street about a block apart.

Friday 10/9 :
-15 minutes yoga in the morning.
– I biked with the kids to school and then biked to work. This LFL is on the way to work, on a uphill climb so I was walking my bike at this point:

Then at work we went for a site visit of the theatre. We took the metro, but the theatre was still about a mile from the Metro stop, so that was another 20 mins of walking to the theatre and then back. Along the way, we saw lions…

Saturday 10/10
-20 minutes of yoga in the morning.
Then I was at work all day and didn’t manage anything else.

Sunday 10/11
=15 minute yoga in the morning.
-2 hours at the pool with the kids. I thought I wasn’t going to get out for a walk today because it was a wet rainy day, so I’m glad our friends called and invited us to go to the pool with them and I got a lot of movement in that way.

Monday 10/12
-20 minutes yoga in the morning.
-Walked the kids to school bus and then took the long way back home. Passed this LFL, chock full of books on the way home:

-Took a 15 minute walk on my lunch break. Saw this rainbow LFL:

-Evening tap dance class. I’m not very good at tap and I’m really uncomfortable seeing myself in the mirrors, but I’m really enjoying the mental and physical challenge of this tap class. I’m sad that this will be my last tap class for a while; I’ll be working evenings until the middle of November. Luckily the tap studio is pretty flexible and will let me make up the classesnext session.

Tuesday 10/13
-10 minute yoga in the morning.
-Walked the kids to school bus and then again took the long way home. Passed three LFL, including this one that is specifically for children’s books. It is set lower to the ground so kids can browse easily. There also used to be some kid sized benches next to this one, but those are gone now:

And this one, which is half a block away is one of my favorites because there is usually something I want to pick up there:

I came home from that morning stroll with a stack of books and a science magazine for the kids:

Dungeon Crawler Carl wasn’t on my TBR list, but when I see a book that is hugely popular in a LFL, I’ll usually pick it up as a low stress way to check out what the buzz is about.

Wednesday 10/14
-10 minute yoga in the morning.
-10 minute walk with the 9 year old while his sister was at piano lessons. There is a LFL at the nearby park – we like stopping at this one because it has a good mix of kids and grown up books.

-Then swap! I took a 15 minute walk with the 7 year old while her brother took his lesson. There is actually a LFL right in front of his piano teacher’s. There was a copy of The Husbands, which I grabbed. I’d read and loved the book and had given my copy away, so I figured it would be nice to have another copy. This one had a different cover than the first one I had.

That’s week two. Week 3 theme is Fall Colour!

Are there Little Free Libraries around you? Do you have a favorite?

Weekly recap + what we ate: Cool Blogger’s Walking Club – week #1

Do you ever end the weekend more exhausted than you were on Friday? That’s where I am right now on a Sunday night. I’m just exhausted. Okay, this is not totally unexpected. Friday night I stayed up past 2am cutting the fabric for the kids’ Hallowe’en costumes. That was my own bad judgement, but I was in a flow state and didn’t want to stop.

Late night craft project. Those are my late mother in law’s straight pins and orange handle scissors.

Saturday, I did work from 10:30a to 6:30pm and ended up falling asleep on the couch at 9:30pm after dinner. Today’s flag football game was cancelled, but then we got invited to join some friends at the pool. The pool was fun and the perfect activity for a rainy rainy day, but it was not relaxing.

After the pool there was no small amount of mental and emotional energy expended to get the kids to take showers and then pick up around the house. Then dinner and then the entire day’s worth of dishes to do. And also laundry and prep for the week. And then the rainy rainy weather – so grey and somber. I think all that has contributed to a very low energy feeling. NOT how I want to go into the first week of rehearsal, but… oh well.

But let’s talk about energizing things! Like Elisabeth’s Cool Blogger’s Walking Club. Much as I find that the “Cool” in CBWC giving me imposter syndrome and bad high school flashbacks what with me never having been cool in my life, I do think it’s a lovely movement (pun!), and I’m here for it. I had a whole plan to have “themes” for each week, but October 1st snuck up on me. So I guess the theme for Week 1 is… just life. This is the movement I do without trying too hard, that usually would have happened anyway. Spoiler Alert – there isn’t a lot of walking. Here is my summary of the first week of Cool Blogger’s Walking Club:

Thursday 10/1 –
15 minute yoga
15 minutes of …. something??? All it says in my journal is “15 minutes” That was some bad habit tracking going on there. Wait, maybe this is walking the kids to the bus stop then back?

Friday 10/2:
15 minutes yoga in the morning.
20 min bike to school with the kids in the morning.
45 minute walk with my friend A mid afternoon. It was great to walk and chat and catch up.
45 mins Bike to pick up kids after school, stopping at a park on the way home.

Saturday 10/3:
15 minute yoga.
It was a rainy rainy day, so I didn’t get outside. Though the 14 year old and I did go clothes shopping – so I’m sure there were many steps taken then.

Sunday 10/4:
15 minute yoga.
Otherwise, not a lot of intentional movement today because I worked two job back to back starting at 10am, and I didn’t get home until 7pm. But I did take the Metro to both jobs, so I think all told that was 30 minutes of walking. Maybe it counts as intentional because I took the Metro instead of driving?

Monday 10/5:
15 minute yoga.
Walk to take the kids to the bus – this was probably 20 minutes total.
15 minute walk at lunch around the neighborhood.

Tuesday 10/6:
15 minute yoga in the morning.
20 minute walk – after dropping the 6 year old at school following a Doctor’s appointment, I took the long way back to the car.
15 minute walk at lunch

Wednesday 10/7:
10 minute yoga.
Then I literally wrote, “Lots of little walks” What does that even mean? Oh I remember, I met my friend A at a parking lot that was a little farther from school and we walked up together to pick up our kids from Dungeons and Dragon club. Now that I’m back at work full time, I don’t have much time to see friends, so I texted her an hour before pick up and asked if she wanted to go on a micro walking date with me to pick up our kids. It worked out well.

So that was the first week of Walking Club. I have got to take better notes for the rest of the month….

Grateful For:

-The kids’ bus driver. Okay, I might have a little inappropriate yet innocuous crush on the school bus driver. He’s young, kind of cute, and always patiently waits for the kids. He can pull of a three point turn in the bus! More than once we’ve been at least two blocks from the bus stop when he pulls up, and he always waits because he sees us. And the other day, when we were biking, and the bus drove past us, he gave the kids a little encouraging honk. All to say, I’m grateful that he gets the kids to school and back safely, and it doesn’t hurt that he’s cute.

-A UPS store near work, so I can return packages easily without having to drive somewhere else and park.

-Free Food! So bizarrely, I got free food twice this week. (Well, three times if you count when my boss bought the team lunch.) On Wednesday, I was sitting around waiting for rehearsal to start and a chorister came up to me and said she had ordered the three mushroom soup from the Thai place down the street, but they had misunderstood and gave her three (3) mushroom soups and would I like to have one. I do love mushrooms, so I happily took one off her hands. It was very tasty.
Then on Friday, someone Door Dashed a Subway Tuna fish sandwich to our office for Wanda. Only there is no one in our office called Wanda. The folks at work called around the building to find Wanda, but couldn’t find Wanda. I felt really bad for Wanda. Anyhow, I put the sandwich in the fridge in case Wanda showed up. The next day, the sandwich was still in there and the guy in charge of facilities at work said I should either eat it or throw it out. Well, I wasn’t about to let a perfectly good tuna fish sandwich (with honey mustard sauce and jalapenos) go to waste, so I took option b and brought the sandwich home for dinner. Wanda, if you are reading this – thank you, and let me know your venmo handle.
I love free food.

-Autumn skies in the morning, all pink and orange in the morning as I take my kids to their piano lessons before school.

-The county pool. I had never been to open swim at the county pool before and it was a really good time. The pool is nice and new with a couple different areas for kids to play in. And it was only $17 for me and the kids to go swimming. I mean how many ways can a family have fun for less than $20 these days?

-An inadvertent 45 mins at home. The day I was supposed to pick the 9 year old up from D&D club, I somehow did the time math wrong in my head. D&D pick up was at 5:15pm, which meant I should leave work at 4:45pm. But somehow, I left at 3:50pm, thinking that I was late for D&D pick up. oops. when I discovered I was early for pick up, I went home and had a nice 45 minutes with the 14 year old. Nothing elaborate, we just sat side by side and read/ scrolled. And then the Husband came home with the 7 year old and we all just sat in the living room and chatted until it was time to pick up the 9 year old. It was just so nice to be able to sit and chat during daylight hours. Sure I could have gotten some good work done if I had stayed until 4:45p, but this way, I got to see my family and have a relaxing late afternoon interlude before going back to work.

– My cousin J who was in Baltimore for work and came to visit even though it isn’t terribly convenient. I love that she always has such enthusiasm for the kids’ lives. She even went to Agility class to watch the 7 year old bounce on a trampoline.

-People who put art and beauty into the world. I was taking a walk around the neighborhood and I saw these painted rocks piled around the base of at tree and it really made my day.

Looking Forward To:

-Rehearsals starting, and seeing the director. I first met this director twenty three years ago when I was the intern and she was the Assistant Director at an opera company in San Diego. Now look at us all grown up.

-Speaking of which – I saw the rehearsal schedule and it looks like we are mostly rehearsing afternoons and evenings. So I am looking forward to some mornings free from paid work.

-Hallowe’en Costumes. I’m plugging away. Hopefully they will be done eventually. I suspect this is what I’ll be doing with a lot of those mornings off. I am super excited about how they are going to turn out!

-The Renwick Gallery. The Renwick is maybe my favorite museum in town. Their specialty is the art of craft – you know the kind of stuff people use to make as a hobby but which no one thought to pay them for? Anyhow, there museum is temporarily closed while they put up a new exhibit. The new exhibit, opening in November is called Handwork: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery.

-The last two weeks in October without piano lessons. Look, I’m very determined that my kids learn piano, but those early morning lessons are HARD. (The two younger kids go at 7:15am on Wednesday, and the 14 year old goes at 6:30am on Thursday.) Their teacher is going away the last two weeks of October and I’m really looking forward to a little reprieve from early morning piano lessons.

-Christmas…? Maybe? At least the kids are looking forward to it. The Amazon toy catalogue came in the mail last week, and the 7 and 9 year old immediately began to pore over it. The 7 year old started making her list. I didn’t know that she could write so much:

I’m actually impressed that a kid who can barely read can write such an extensive Christmas list.

-Reading this book for Engie’s Cool Blogger’s Book Club:

Not sure why the cover is cut off in Libby…?

What We Ate:

Monday: Some kind of noodle stir fry with eggplant and pork. The 14 year old made it and it was really tasty.

Tuesday: My cousin was in town so we took her to Thai for dinner.

Wednesday: Breakfast sandwiches. Wednesday is always our busiest day activities wise, so we need fast and filling for dinner.

Thursday: Oven baked Chicken drumsticks and broccoli. I prepped the drumsticks ahead of time and the Husband popped them into the oven at the end of his work day.

Friday: Pizza (take out) and The Great British Baking Show, a show that is new to us because we are new to Netflix. (I just discovered that the show is originally titled the Great British Bake Off but we can’t call it that in the United States because Pillsbury has the term “Bake Off” trademarked. What a silly thing!) It was a great show to watch with the family.
Also – after the little kids went to bed, we watched an episode of Worth It, a show produced by Buzzfeed where the hosts compare very cheap versions of food to very expensive versions of food – this episode was the $0.50 dumpling vs. the $29 dumpling. And it was SET IN TAIWAN!!! AND the dumpling that won was from a dumpling place that my father took us to in Taipei. AND the $29 dumpling was from Din Tai Fung, which is this global phenomenon of a dumpling place where there is always a huge line (like sometimes over an hour), but where I feel the food just isn’t so good. So I felt very vindicated that the hosts did not pick the $29 dumpling as “worth it”.

Saturday: Take out Chinese. We had some friends over to hang out. I’m honestly not a huge fan of take out Chinese from most places, but the food was waiting for me when I got home after a long day at work, so I think that counts for something there.

Sunday: Acorn Squash with Black Bean Sauce, and Skillet Gnocchi with Miso Butter from NY Times Cooking. We had some Acorn Squash to use up and I had seen this recipe years a go in one of Hetty Lui McKinnon’s cookbooks, I can’t remember which one. McKinnon does wonderful things with vegetables. Basically the recipe calls for roasting and mashing the squash and then making a sauce from garlic and fermented black beans and soy sauce. It was really delicious. The original recipe calls for kabocha squash, which I think would have been even better. For the squash averse, I made the gnocchi. I added mushrooms and used broccoli instead of asparagus. Some members of the family thought the miso taste was too pronounced, but the other folks liked it. We’ve now filed this recipe under “Make when the oldest goes to college.”

Well that’s it for last week. This week I will be plunging into rehearsals so it will be an adjustment for sure.

Are you participating in Cool Blogger’s Walking Club? How do you track your activity? Do you still get innocuous crushes? Weekends – energy replenisher or energy suck? Any free food in your life lately? have you ever seen a restaurant you’ve been to on TV?

Weekly recap + what we ate: Good-bye September, Hello October!

I started this post on a rainy rainy Saturday, while the oldest was at her voice lesson….

. The teacher is teaching out of a church and there is a little church library with comfy chairs and warm wood paneling and muted colours and wifi and it all feels very cozy. I have my tea with me, but there are no coasters here and I’m afraid of putting my mug down on a surface here without a coaster. All to say, I have 45 minutes, so let’s see if I can write a post.

Here is October! We flipped our 3 month calendar and December is in sight! (Note to self: Order a new 3 month calendar. Actually order planners in general.) October came in blazing hot with temperatures in the 80s, but now we are looking at another drizzly week ahead. The leaves are starting to be tinged red and brown. The season is moving forward for sure.

a leafy green giant tree, with the leaves on some branches starting to turn orange.
The leaves are changing colour!

So Hello, October. Good-bye September. Here was how September was:

September Highlights:

-The last week of our pool being open and swimming laps. Seeing the kids make leaps and bounds in swimming this year.

-Our Annual Trip to the Maryland Renaissance Festival – there was music, food, juggling, jousting, acrobatics, and the purchase of a giant wooden axe.

-The 14 year old got a part in the high school play!

-Some nice social time for me – Happy Hour with my bus stop mom friends. Walks with a friend I met at a new mom’s group 7 years ago. Ethiopian food lunch with another friend. It always fills my cup to connect with friends.

-Long weekend trip to Monticello and Shenandoah for hiking.

-My parents visiting. We didn’t do a whole lot special (aside from the Monticello/Shenandoah trip)- just life with them around.

-Celebrating the birthday of the youngest. She is now Seven! We had strawberry shortcake the day of and the following weekend a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese with an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. AND she got all her Thank You cards out! I got to send snail mail for her – it feels really nice to send snail mail.
(On that note – we watched a Kathleen Madigan comedy special and she has this line about how amazing the Postal Service is, “Here’s 45 cents. Please take this to Alaska.” I mean she’s right – that’s an amazingly cheap service. Although now it’s $0.82, which still seems like a good deal to bring a bit of joy to someone far away.)

-Biking to school with the kids.

-Starting Tap Dance Class. It’s been a challenge, but fun. I’m working on flapping with my left foot without accidentally scuffing my heel on the ground.

-Date night with the Husband – we had dinner at a Turkish restaurant and then went to a performance of Bernstein’s MASS.

=My cousins came to visit (Actually my cousin and her grown daughter, but I call them both my cousin). We went to Glenstone Museum and took a walk at the Botanical Gardens and just hung out.

-Summer: The Donna Summer Musical at Toby’s Dinner Theatre. Our first dinner theatre experience and it was a lot of fun.

-Favorite Dinner Cooked: Crispy Tofu Tacos (so good we had it twice last month), Thai Quinoa Salad.

-Favorite thing watched: I finished Starstruck and found it such a sweet and funny show. We also started to watch Schitt’s Creek, Better Things, and Gilmore Girls.

Goals and Habits:
-Painting: only 1 painting this month. I thought I would paint during our long weekend away in Monticello, but I didn’t. I think painting is taking a backseat in October since I have to finish the Hallowe’en costumes.
-Crossword puzzle completed: 1
-Live Performances: 3 – Bernstein’s MASS and also lots of live performances at the Renn Faire, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical
-Museums: 2 – Glenstone Museum and Monticello
-Hike: 1 – Shenandoah hike on Turk Mountain Trail
-Yoga: 18/30, but I think this was actually higher because I wasn’t good at logging and habit tracking last month.
-Run: 6x (+2 bike rides and 2 laps swims)
-Strength: 2 (My goal is 8x a month, but I’m finding it really hard to motivate myself for this one…i just need to find a consistent way to work it in)
-Vegan Dinners: 4 (Goal is 4x a month, so yay)

September Lowlights:
-The situation at the Kennedy Center being shut down. I’m not directly affected because I no longer work there, but the trickledown effect is huge throughout the arts community in DC.

-Our fridge not working, us buying a new fridge, then the old fridge working again and us regretting getting a new fridge so soon. Oh well. I guess the fridge was over 12 years old so it was getting unpredictable.

-Stressing about kids’ activity sign ups. I still feel like the kids are doing too much but also missing out on things. There’s no perfect solution here.

-Saying good-bye to a beloved work colleague who has gone on to a bigger job.

-Some non-bloggable stressors in life – I guess I’ll just say sometimes it’s hard to have patience with the world and those around me, for sure the fault is mine.

Quote of September:
Don’t try to convince the other person during the argument.
-Ron Friedman on the Radical Candor Podcast. This quote really landed when I was in the midst of the aforementioned non-bloggable things. Friedman’s point is that sometimes it is best to make your case and walk away and let the other person ponder, rather than pushing to change someone’s mind in the midst of the argument. People need time to come to conclusions themselves.

Looking Forward to in October:
-Hallowe’en! I’m a little stressed about having to make the costumes, but I’m excited. I don’t have a serger, so I’ve been watching lots of YouTube videos on how to make a French seam. (Is this even necessary???)
-Starting rehearsals for a new show. To be honest, I’m dreading this show a little – I don’t do well with change, and there will be a lot of new things to deal with since we will be in a new (to me) venue. I mean even the fact that I’m calling it a venue and not a theatre is kind of telling. Also not looking forward to the schedule – there is rehearsal almost every night for the next month. The Husband looked at everyone at our family meeting today and said, “Take a good look at mom so you remember what she looks like when you see her again in November.”
BUT despite that- I AM looking forward to the stage manager colleagues coming in and to working with them.
-My cousin is coming for a quick visit.
-Theatre trip to see Come From Away (we just did this and it was FANTASTIC!)

A smiling woman in a striped dress leaning against a sign that says, "Welcome to Gander". In the background is a photo backdrop that says "Come From Away at the Ford's Theater"
lobby sign

-Supertitle gig. It looks like it’s a lot of songs from the Great American Songbook, which is always a great joy to listen to. And we don’t run titles for the popular song selections, so I just get to listen.
-Elisabeth’s Cool Blogger’s Walking Club. I was going to have a theme for every week’s walk, but this first week snuck up on me, so no themes this week.

-reading some fun books. In the busy season at work, books need to be gripping and fun. Currently reading:

I’m on an Annabel Monaghan kick ever since I read Dolly all the time.

-also, I started watching Bridgerton Season 4 and it’s been so wonderfully swoony so far. Looking forward to watching more of it. (i’ve skipped season 2 and 3 because I didn’t like those books as much as Sophie and Benedict’s story. Theirs is probably my favorite of the series. That and While He Was Wicked. The rest of the book series is very meh for me.)

Grateful for this past week:
-The Library close to my mechanics. I had to take my car in for an oil change and was able to go to the library three blocks away while I waited. How amazing that there is this place with desks and wifi and I can park there for three hours – for free.

-Flowers even though it is autumn. There are some autumn dahlias in our garden that bring a cheerful burst of colour to our front yard.

-Sandwiches. What a perfect invention for when one is hungry! Bread, meat, cheese, mustard. All able to be slapped together quickly for a satisfying mouthful. These days, I’ll take whatever is in the fridge, but it’s been brown mustard, turkey, and cheddar cheese. If I have more time, and I have it on hand, I’ll add avocado or arugula.

-The rain letting up just in time for my walk to the Metro and then from the Metro to work.

-Naps and an unscheduled Saturday afternoon in order to take one. I had been feeling a little run down all week and ended up taking a 3 hour nap and felt much better when I woke up at the tale end of the afternoon. Also grateful to the Husband for taking care of dinner while I was napping. Naps are such glorious restorative things.

-a fun hair cut. So two nights before my appointment to have my hair cut, I had a dream that I was getting my hair cut. And in that dream, the stylist – who, incidentally wasn’t my stylist and I spent a good portion of my dream asking, “But where’s Alexei???” – the stylist gave me a super sleek 1920s bob with blunt bangs. So I go to get my hair cut and when I sit down, Alexei asks, “What are you thinking today?”
And I tell him all about my dream. And he says, “Okay.”
He starts snipping away.
“I’m digging your dream,” Alexei said. “This is so much better than those people who come in and tell me, ‘AI told me I should do this.’ And the AI image has nothing to do with what their hair texture is like, or what what their face is like or anything.”
And twenty minutes later – my hair was short and I had my blunt bangs. (Alexei works fast and charges by the hour…).

Sometimes I think I should try to cover the grey, but then I realize I don’t want to spend the time on the maintenance.

I’ve since washed the hair and it still looks cute. This has been my favorite hair cut in ages.

What We Ate:
Monday: Salmon Pasta – the 14 year old made dinner. I don’t have the recipe for what she made, but it involved salmon, spinach, and pasta.

Taco Tuesday: Crispy Tofu Tacos from NY Times Cooking. We made these last month and everyone loves them. I served with cabbage and avocado. Vegan, though the kids put sour cream and cheese on theirs.

Wednesday: Ground anything Bolognese sauce and pasta w/ bagged salad. This was a “clean out the freezer” meal. I had three containers half full of crushed or pureed tomatoes, and a variety of ground meat in the freezer – sausage, beef, lamb, and pork. Though the pork smelled a little off, so I ended up throwing that out. Anyhow, it all went in a pot with carrots, celery, onion, garlic, and the left over tofu from Tuesday’s crispy tofu tacos. Hearty and oh so satisfying.

Very happy to get these out of my freezer.

Thursday: Thai Inspired Coconut Curry Soup from NY Times Cooking. We still had sweet potatoes and a cauliflower left from the CSA box our friend gave us while he was out of town, and this soup was a delicious way to use it up along with the rest of a jar of red curry paste in the fridge. This was really tasty. The recipe itself is vegan, but I added chicken broth to get it out of my fridge and a dash of fish sauce.

Friday: Pizza (the Husband made – sausage and mushroom; pickle; red pepper; fig and balsamic. All very tasty) and Funny Girl. Funny story here – it was the 14 year old’s turn to pick a move and she wanted to watch a movie musical, so she picked Funny Girl, having seen the stage show this summer when we were in Niagara-on-the-Lake. So we rented the movie from Amazon and put it on. And we’re watching it and I’m reading the credits and it says, “Songs by John Kander and Frank Ebb.” And I thought, “Oh I didn’t realize that!” And then we’re watching the movie and Barbra Streisand is frolicking onstage in a huge musical number and the plot unfolds, and I keep asking the 14 year old, “Was that part in the stage play?” And she kept saying, “No, I don’t think so.”

Then truth be told I might have fallen asleep for a little bit because the movie is going on and on, and I’m like, “When is Barbara Streisand going to sing Don’t Rain on My Parade???” And then I make some comment about how the movie version of Funny Girl seems very different from the stage show. And then the 9 year old pipes up from his corner of the couch:

“We aren’t watching Funny Girl. We’re watching Funny Lady.”

Wait what???

Did you know there was a sequel to Funny Girl, called Funny Lady?

We had accidentally rented Funny Lady instead of Funny Girl. I guess the 9 year old noticed, but he hadn’t seen the stage show, so he didn’t clock that we were watching the wrong movie. By then we were half way through Funny Lady, but we stopped the movie, rented Funny GIRL, and pizza and movie night lasted an epically long time.

Saturday: Bahn mi sandwiches, take out. This was the evening I wasn’t feeling well, so we wanted something fast and easy.

Sunday: Sausage, tortellini, and red sauce – typical Sunday dinner.

That’s the dispatch from here. Hope everyone had a lovely weekend and a great week ahead!

Weekly recap + what we ate: Soggy soggy week

Well that was a very full weekend! The weekend started Friday with a trip to Toby’s Dinner Theatre, and it was so much fun! We went to see Summer, a juke-box musical about Disco Queen Donna Summers. Dinner Theatre and Juke Box musicals aren’t usually something on my radar, but a friend of ours plays in the pit, and he got us a ticket discount, so we decided to take the whole family (including my parents). I’d never been to Toby’s before, but my work BFF was telling me that she went every year with her family and she couldn’t believe it was still around. The particular dinner theatre is performed with the audience sitting on all sides. When you walk into the space, there are different levels with dinner tables and chairs set up and a buffet and salad bar on the ground level. (And an ice cream bar in the lobby!) At around 7:15pm, people started clearing away the buffet and salad bar, sweeping and mopping the floor, clearing the tables, etc. And at 7:55pm the show started in the space that previously was the buffet area.

a plate of salad sitting next to a program. The program reads Toby's dinner theatre. Summer: The Donne Summer Musical.
Salad and rolls and theatre program.

As we are waiting for the the show start there is a host who gives the standard safety announcement and then gives shout outs. He goes around and calls out all the birthdays and anniversaries that are being celebrated that night and has a whole patter routine with the celebrants. The patter was hilarious and heartwarming and he always ended by wishing each person, “Good life, good laughter.” We were there to celebrate both our newly minted 7 year old, but also my parent’s anniversary. (Actually, their birthday too! They have the same birthday and they got married on that date.) I had never done the math, so I was a little shocked when my father told the host that they had been married for 53 years. Fifty-three! Wow. Good life, and good laughter, indeed.

And then the show really began. One of the fun things about dinner theatre is that the waiters who serve you dinner before the show are the actors onstage during the show. To be honest, it was a little jarring at first to see the guy who brought us our drinks an hour before, now onstage singing and dancing. We did get a little preview because he brought the 7 year old a special dessert and sand Happy Birthday to her. At intermission, the performers threw on bathrobes over their costumes and brought us our intermission drinks and the bill. I think, though, that’s part of the family feel of Toby’s Dinner Theater – the folksy humor, the “all hands on deck” feel of how the place operates. Everyone is working very very hard to make sure the patrons have a good time.

I thought the show was really well done – the space is small and in the round so it felt very immersive. (The theatre is really not that big – and in fact, it is going to be torn down at the end of the year because they are opening a new facility next door come 2027. ) The singing and dancing was full of energy and you could see everything super close because of the layout of the theatre. I think I’ve always thought of dinner theatre as cheesy and never thought about going, but you know what… I was wrong. Of course it might be cheesy, but it’s a really good time.

Saturday morning was activity free – the 14 year old’s voice teacher was out of town, and the 7 year old’s gymnastics class is cancelled whenever there is a home football game because the gym is on the campus of the University of Maryland. I guess on paper that would bring us a bit of breathing room to start the weekend, but after our weekly family meeting, it felt like I spent the rest of the morning with laundry, chores, and various tasks. In the afternoon, the two younger kids had a birthday party to go to so after dropping them, I went to the library near by to work on some supertitles for an upcoming gig. I’ve been having a hard time finding time to focus on work at home, so it was nice to go to the library where the distractions were fewer.

In the afternoon, the 14 year old wanted to go to the mall with her friends. (I mean the Shopping Mall, not the National Mall… I feel like I do have to specify that given where we are and all that.) The two major malls near are about to pass a 3pm curfew. Which means us that after 3pm, if you are under 18 years old, you must have a chaperone/parent/guardian with you who is 21 or older. THREE O’CLOCK in the afternoon!!! I’m so irked that my kids will not have the mall rat experience. The curfew is understandable because of some shenanigans (and then some) that have been going on lately at the mall – some of which I understand were quite violent. The mall is just trying to protect their businesses and patrons. But even still….

Anyhow, the 14 year old didn’t really have much interest in roaming the mall with her teenage friends prior to the news of the curfew, but I think she figured she should experience that which is about to be taken away from her. So on Saturday she went to the Mall with some of her friends. Near as I can tell, they browsed some stores, she had sticker shock as to how much clothes really cost, and she had some food and boba.

Saturday night we went to our favorite dumpling house for dinner, ate way too much and came home and collapsed in food comas. The 14 year old, the Husband and I watched an episode of Gilmore Girls and then a Kathleen Madigan comedy special. The latter was very funny.

Sunday morning was again one of those stretches that on paper seems empty, but somehow got filled with laundry, and dishes, and chores, and throwing a football around with the 9 year old. I had wanted to go to the park or ride bikes with the kids in the morning, but the weather was kind of grey and drizzly all day. Is this the start of autumn? I mean it is technically autumn now, but it feels like a switch flipped in the past couple of days and we went from scorching heat to grey and damp. The kids are wearing pants! PANTS!! I put on pants too. Pants always seems like a seasonal marker.

Sunday late morning, we spent two hours in spitting rain watching the 9 year old play flag football. This is a new activity for him – I signed him up for flag football because trying to figure out soccer made my brain hurt. The weather was gross but not bad enough to cancel the game. (They only cancel for Thunder). Props to everyone who stuck it out. I had my large golf umbrella with me, and I stood on the sidelines holding it over the kids who were waiting to go in. Our team was soundly trounced, but I think that’s okay when you have a team that’s played together for two weeks (us) playing against a team that has been together for five years (them.) The 9 year old seems to like Flag Football; he likes playing defense and chasing people down.

After we got back from flag football we had an hour or so to decompress, eat lunch and then we headed to Chuck E. Cheese for the (now!) seven year old’s birthday party. We had gotten the low frills party package – basically game cards and a reserved table – no host or extras, and we ordered pizza separately. But there were three other birthday parties going on at the same time so we did get visited by the person in the giant mouse suit, took part in the dance party, and the 7 year old got to do the ticket blaster. I find Chuck E. Cheese over stimulating, but I think the kids all had a great time. It’s funny how exhausting a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party can be, even though we didn’t do much other than say hello and hand out the game cards. (Also pro tip that I didn’t realize until after the fact – you can pause your game card. I wish I had known this because we spent 30-40 minutes eating pizza and cake and then afterwards only had 15 minutes left on our card to play. Next time, I’ll have folks pause their game cards so they extend the time available after cake.)

The 7 year old in the ticket blaster. She was smart and figured out that it was easier to grab the tickets that were on the floor than the ones flying through the air.

I did go into the photobooth – we didn’t get the the whole family into the photo booth this year – the 9 year old couldn’t be pried from playing Halo – but we got the Husband and his girls, and I got into the photobooth with my mom and the oldest. I think the Photobooth is my favorite thing at Chuck E. Cheese.

We came home and I’m writing this post while supervising the 7 year old as she opens presents and writes thank you cards. We’ve been miserable failures at getting the kids to write Thank You Cards, so I’m very determined this time that the cards will be written as the presents are opened. Wish us luck.

Other Things This Past Week:

–The youngest kid turned 7! The actual day of her birthday was quite busy with activities, so we had her favorite dinner (Ama’s chicken wings, steamed green beans, and tater tots) and then after everyone got back from activities we had strawberry shortcake. Happy Birthday to this smart, bold, fearless, happy kid. We’re so lucky you’re part of our family.

–The NY Times came out with ANOTHER List – 100 Best TV shows of the 21st Century -which seems a little presumptuous because we’re barely a quarter of the way into the 21st century, so it seems a little early to say. But hey – it’s a fun exercise and I’m sure it gets them lots of clicks. Here’s a link to the list, if you’re interested. ANYHOW… I haven’t seen very many of these shows – (I’ve seen 22 of the 100. And that’s just seen at least one episode, not “seen’ in any kind of completist way.) – but I have quibbles. It seems that the list leans heavily towards shows featuring a lonely anti-hero, solitary existentialism, and trauma leveraged for entertainment. Let’s see – the top five are: Breaking Bad, The Wire, Mad Men, Succession, Fleabag.

I haven’t seen Fleabag or Breaking Bad, but the other shows are shows that I find deeply unpleasant to watch. Not that they aren’t compelling in their own way. Not that I wasn’t sucked in to them. But in the end, they all feature some pretty demoralizing things happening to people.

Life is hard enough – I don’t need to spend my free time watching horrible people doing horrible things to each other.

I mean where is Bluey on this list? I think Bluey is quite brilliant, actually.

Or Brooklyn 99? Or Parenthood? Or Younger?

Clearly I don’t have very refined tastes.

–The absolute heartbreakingly bonkers situation of the closing of the Kennedy Center. In case you haven’t heard, the Kennedy Center has had an embattled past year or so, ever since Donald Trump fired the President and the chairman of the board and appointed himself chairman of the board instead. Things have gone downhill since then – his name went on the building. Ticket sales plummeted. Entire departments were gutted. The name came off the building (court ordered). He’s trying to find ways to put his name back on the building. And then last week, the Center was closed, citing dangerous conditions. It’s all so bonkers.
This is a place that I’ve considered my work home for over twenty years. I’ve spent a large chunk of my working life there. I’ve met the best people there – backstage and onstage. It’s where I’ve seen so many great performances, where my kids and my parents have seen so many great performances. One of the Husband and my first dates were there. My oldest has performed on the stage there. And to have the place be shut down is bewildering and gut-wrenching. I’m so mad that our President doesn’t seem to understand the purpose of a national arts center, or of a place being a living memorial that honors a dead president. To have my industry be so fundamentally misunderstood is so very very frustrating. But also … I find it baffling that he cares – there are so many other issues he could go piss on (and that he does). Why deny people the opportunity to experience the Arts? All to say, the whole thing is pretty devastating to watch.

–On a happier note – did you see that the Mayor of New York is giving away free opera tickets to New Yorkers who haven’t been to the opera since 2019? This is government involvement in arts done right.

–These enormous grapes. On another happier note – I was at HMart last week and saw there enormous grapes. Of course I bought a bag to try out and there are SO good! They are crisp and juicy and sweet. I googled it and apparently these grapes are only in season in August and September, which means we’re near the end of seeing them in stores. I’ll have to remember for next year. I might have bought at least ten lbs of these grapes in the past week. We’ve been polishing off a bag a day. Good thing they were on sale at HMart for 2.99/ lb!

a bag of green grapes.

–This article was an interesting read: How to Raise a Son Who is Boring and Unattractive to Women. I mean that title is click bait right there. The author does acknowledge that he is writing from a certain culturally specific ideal, but I think he does make a good point about the importance of being well rounded. There is a certain privileged bourgeoise nature to his criteria – not everyone is going to be able to afford a piano let alone lessons – but I really like his idea of teaching kids to have lots of interests – boys who don’t just do sports, but boys who also find a pathway in the arts – and raising kids who can talk to adults and who can read. I think, though, more important than the reading, is a sense of curiosity. I had forwarded the article to a friend who is deep in the trenches of dating and she said that worse than boring men are the narcissistic men who are only interested in themselves. I don’t think this article applies only to men, but to humanity in general (again, hierarchy of needs and all that…). When we have casting calls at work and the ratio of boys to girls is 1:8, it makes me a little sad that boys aren’t being encouraged to participate in the arts the way girls are. Anyhow, food for thought.

Grateful For:
-My back up car flannel. I keep one of the Husband’s old plaid flannel shirts in the car in case anyone needs an extra layer. And oh boy, last week, that layer was needed. I left the house, blissfully thinking that it was still summer. It was not. It was so very cold. I’m glad I keep this flannel in the car for those moments.

-The now 7 year old. What a brighter world this is for her being in it!

-That is rained and took the humidity out of the air, replacing it with bracingly crisp autumn breezes.

-The Husband driving us to and from Monticello safely. (Monticello recaps coming soon!). I don’t like driving so I’m always grateful that he wants to do all the driving on our road trips.

-Happy Hour with my bus stop moms. I’m grateful we could squeeze in one last gathering before my schedule got super busy.

-My bike! There was one day I drove to work and it took twice as long as normal because there was a lot of construction. The next day, I rode my bike and it was faster and I got a good workout. I was realizing that I’ve had my bike for twenty years. I remember when I bought the bike, thinking it was so expensive – it was probably a couple hundred dollars, which was a big deal in my twenties – , but it has definitely recouped the investment.

-My Parents’ visit. My father is 82 and my mother is 77 and I sometimes take it for granted that they are still active and able to visit and hang out with the kids. Their minds are still sharp and engaged and I feel so lucky to have them with us still.

Looking Forward To:
-The Stage Managers are coming! A New Show Is Starting! My work is starting to ramp up – I’m excited, but also a little bit nervous about what’s coming up for us.

-Hair cut. I like to get my hair cut before I start a new show so I have an appointment for this week. Looking forward to having bangs again.

-Trombone! The 9 year old starts instrumental music at school this week. He’s picked the trombone. The Husband plays the baritone – I’m looking forward to hearing then play duets. I’m really glad the 9 year old’s school is still committed to music for the students.

-Hallowe’en costumes. I bought fabric for the kids’ costumes and I’ve cut the patterns for one of the pieces. I’m rubbish at cutting patterns – that’s the hardest part for me. I’m glad that’s over and I’m looking forward to the actual sewing part for the first garment I’m making. Wish me luck.

– Reading more of this book – it’s kind of a twist on Jane Eyre, set in Old Hollywood. Jury is out on it so far – it’s got a confusing dual timeline thing going on – but I do love a Jane Eyre re-telling.

What We Ate:

Monday – we got home from our trip. No one was particularly hungry since we had had a huge lunch on the way home, so it was kind of scrounge and snack as you will.

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday. Chicken and black bean tacos – meat pulled from the freezer.

Wednesday: Ama’s Chicken wings, steamed green beans, tater tots – the 7 year old’s requested birthday dinner. Strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Strawberry shortcake w/ fresh whip cream and strawberries. so tasty!

Thursday: Spicy Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili from NY Times Cooking. Our friend had given us his CSA for the week since he was going to be gone and there was a lot of sweet potatoes. This was tasty and we have plenty left over for the freezer. Vegan.

Friday: Toby’s Dinner Theatre. There was so much food at the buffet.

Saturday: Dinner out at our favorite dumpling house.

Sunday: The 7 year old’s birthday party – Pizza at Chuck E. Cheese. Ice Cream Cake from Dairy Queen. I had a turkey sandwich when I got home. Why is there something so deeply satisfying about a sandwich? Just bread, cheese, meat, mustard – so simple and satisfying to eat.

That’s it for this week! Can you believe the end of the week is October??? Turning the corner into the last quarter of the year!

Were you ever a mall rat? Have you ever been to a dinner theatre? Or Chuck E. Cheese? What kind of things do you keep in the car in case of emergency?

(bi, er… tri)Weekly recap + what we ate: Labor Day Weekend 2026 and more

And then I see the end of September just around the corner. Not sure when that happened. It’s been a bit since I wrote a re-cap post, so this might be a little bit of a brain dump. September has been kind of quietly inefficient for me. I’m only working 5-10 hours a week. The other day, the Husband asked me, “What do you do all day?” And I can’t really say where the time goes. I mean aside from the one morning that I ignored everything to finish Nora Goes Off Script….

Let’s see in this period of underemployment….

-I make dinner without feeling like I’m in a rush, even when we have to eat at the dot of 5pm so people can get to activities.

-I spend hours researching how I’m going to make the kids’ Hallowe’en costumes.

-I walk the kids to the bus and then go for a run afterwards, or even just walk the long way home.

-I even got to bike with the kids to school a few times.

-I bake muffins.

-I replace the torn screens on six of our windows. All by myself. This is actually quite easy to do; it took less than ten minutes per window.

-I have spent more time scrolling the internet than I should. Internet rabbit holes are my nemesis and always make me feel…. blergh-y. It is ironic how much time I spend reading blogs and articles online about maximizing productivity since it is precisely reading blogs and articles about productivity that is keeping me from being productive.

-Also clearly I haven’t been blogging a lot. This is one area I would like to be more disciplined about. Not because I think I have incredible content that must be pushed out into the world, but more because it’s a creative outlet and I like to try to do something creative every day in a routine way.

Anyhow, things are going to change because I’m on to a 20 hour a week (paid) work schedule starting this week. Which doesn’t sound like a lot of time in the office, but it means being in the office approximately 10:30a – 3:30pm. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for other, non-paid things. Maybe I can get a run in before work, or declutter one thing. Run one errand. Maybe it will make me more efficient. Or maybe it will stress me out and I will revenge bedtime procrastinate even more.

And then in October, I’m back in rehearsal and it’s game over then for leisure time. To be honest, I’m kind of dreading October until the end of the year. It’s going to be a really exhausting time at work, I can tell already. Usually when work ramps up, family is the first things that falls by the wayside and I want to figure out how to not let that happen this year. I will ponder….

On to other happenings….

Ever since the school year has shifted to starting before Labor Day, I’ve always felt like the holiday has come a very inconvenient time. We get momentum from starting school then… whoa. Here’s a long weekend to throw the routines out of wack.

The past couple of years, Labor Day Weekend has meant Maryland Renaissance Festival. They have a new ticketing system this year where tickets are released in two batches – one set in July and one set the Monday before the weekend. It was a little confusing, because if you check for tickets mid week it will look like everything is sold out. And then you will be sad. I guess I understand – last year tickets were being sold on re-sale sites for 3 or 4 times what they cost. All to say, the new ticketing system was very confusing and I was worried we wouldn’t get tickets. So couple weeks ago when I saw that a batch of tickets had ben released for Labor Day, I snatched them up.

On the day, I managed to get everyone out of the house by 9:00am and we got to the Renn Faire around 9:50am, then it took us another 15 minutes to get through the gates – it was very crowded. Aside from the 6 year old’s floral crown, no one got dressed up this year – we just went as we were.

Friends, I love going to the Renn Faire SO MUCH. As we were walking up to the gate, I was struck with a giddy sense of excitement for the day ahead. “I love this more than Christmas,” I sad to the kids. “It’s just as fun and I don’t have to cook!”

It was a really good day. We saw all our favorite shows – acrobatics, juggling, physical comedy, music. We saw the jousting twice; there are three jousting show throughout the day and we always go see more than one because there is a narrative arc built into the day.

We heard some new to us musicians – isn’t music grand? I don’t know that I’ll ever go to a rock concert or anything on that scale, but I do love listening to and seeing people play music. There were bagpipes! We browsed the shops – the 9 year old bought a battle axe that is over half his size. We ate turkey legs and other food and drank lots of Pepsi because it was super hot.

On the matter of hydrating – I made kind of a critical mistake this time. Last year water bottle fillers were installed, which was great. In previous years I always brought two big bottles of water with me because you had to bring sealed water. Well now with the bottle fillers, I thought I’d just bring my small Nalgenes and not weigh myself down so much. Well that was a bit of a mistake because the lines for the water filler were soooooo long. I think I waited at least 15 minutes each time I went to fill my water bottle. The second time, I did a little thought experiment as I waited in line – “If someone were to walk up to me now, and offer to instantly fill my water bottle for $2, would I do it so I wouldn’t have to stand in line?”

Because that’s the thing – the soda is $2. (It’s not a terrible deal and the soda stands are run by a rotating roster of youth organizations as a fundraiser. So really it’s more liek $3 because I like to tip. “Huzzah for the generous tipper!” they always yell when someone puts money in the tip jar.)

Anyhow, I don’t know what my threshold would be for paying for water vs. spending time standing in line, but I did miss the last few numbers of the bagpipe band, so maybe it would have been worth the $2 to have a cold soda and hear music. I find the internal calculator such a fascianting thing.

Next year, I will bring bigger water bottles. Any maybe also fill them with ice.

We stayed at the Renn Faire til closing, when members of the company sing a last parting song at the gates. Then we got in our cars and wistfully went home, eagerly looking forward to next year.

Because there will always be a next year. The Maryland Renn Festival is 50 years old this year. There were a series of signs up throughout the grounds this year with tidbits of history and blurbs about the people who had performed here over the years. What a beautiful tradition. May it keep going for another fifty.

Other fun things that we’ve been up to so far this month –

-Date Night. The 14 year old’s voice teacher was performing in a production of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS, one of my favorite pieces of music. Although I’ve worked on MASS, I’ve never been in the audience for it – it takes a lot of people to put it on, dancers, singers, chorus, children’s chorus, orchestra…. So when I saw that it was being performed, I asked the Husband if he wanted to go. He said yes and it was date night! We even went out to dinner before hand – it was Restaurant Week in DC, so I picked a nearby restaurant from the list of participating restaurants. We ended up at Ottoman Taverna where the tzatziki was melt in your mouth smooth, and pita fluffy, and the meat grilled to perfection.

-One last swim in the pool. Most outdoor pools here close on Labor Day, so we managed to squeeze in one last evening at the pool. It was raft night so people could bring their floaties. I swam laps, we had dinner sitting in Lounge chairs, and we enjoyed on last relaxing poolside evening. I’ve already paid the membership for next summer.

-A Visit from my Cousin and a trip to Glenstone Museum. My cousin and her mom – okay technically her mom is my cousin, but I call them all cousins – were here visiting. I love how they just fold into the family. They help around the house, eat whatever we were planning on eating, cuddle on the couch, and put up with the noise and chaos of three kids with big feelings.

Glenstone Museum. Nature trails leading to a Richard Serra sculpture.

My cousin loves Glenstone Museum, so she got tickets to visit. Glenstone is a museum of contemporary art with several galleries set on 300 acres of land. There is also a restaurant and walking trails and many many outdoor sculptures.

Jeff Koons, seen from a skewed distance. This is a fun sculpture to see throughout the seasons. because the vegetation changes.


This time there was a striking exhibit of works by the artist and activist Andrea Bowers that were centered on issues of body autonomy and environment. There was a room that was papered with letters written to an abortion activist who was known for providing people with a list of abortion providers. It was really heartbreaking, reading all the letters from people – women, men, parents, all desperate for help.
There were some stunning images drawn on canvases made of recycled cardboard, including one that had the tagline, “Women and the Earth have to tolerate a lot.”
I suppose Bowers’ work had a little more politics than I was comfortable with for a sunny Friday afternoon, but I imagine making people confront their discomfort was part of the point.

-Back to School Night, including our first High School Back to School Night. Wow. It’s been a long time since I was in high school so it was a little surreal to once again be wandering hallways, looking for classrooms. It must be so hard this constant sense of change that high school brings – every few months, it’s new teachers, new classrooms, new patterns. I also wondered if my parents ever went to Back To School night? I don’t really remember; I certainly never accompanied them if they did go. But of course, school communication was very different back then. I’m pretty sure schools sending out email communication wasn’t a thing when I was in school.

-I finished watching Starstruck on HBO Max – I really loved this show. It’s about a twenty something woman who has a one night stand with a famous movie star which turns into more, which turns into on again, off again, what am I doing with my life? The show is funny, messy, and filled with just the right amount of existential angst and rom com warm fuzzies.

-I started taking tap dance lessons! I signed up for a seven week class. I feel frumpy and uncoordinated, but there is something very satisfying about intentionally making lots of noise.

-Funny Kid Quote: I asked the kids the classic question of if they would rather be a big fish in a little pond, or a little fish in a big pond. The six year old replied, “I want to be in a big pond so I can have the whole pond to myself!”

Grateful For:
-The Maryland Renaissance Festival. Every year we go, I just feel so lucky that we have the country’s best Ren Faire so close to us.

-My (former) work colleague C, who has now gone on to bigger and better things. She was so brilliant at her job, always logical and clear-eyed, and handled very difficult situations with grace and tact. I’m sorry to see her go, but I’m glad that she’s on to fulfill other dreams. I’m so glad I got to work with her.

-Music. Especially when it’s played in the car very loudly and everyone sings along.

-Free Bus Ride. The local county bus is free to ride. I had some errands to run the other day, and decided to take the bus. It was so easy to just get on and find a seat. I find this is a lovely use of my tax dollars.

-On that note – car free days. This year, the kids’ bus stop is less than a ten minute walk from our house. And then last week I was able to take the Metro to work. And then because there were no kid activities that evening – I managed to have a car free day. Driving always stresses me out, so I’m always happy to leave the car at home if I can. I realize I am very lucky to have a car to use when I need to, but I am also grateful that I can have a day here and there where I can just get on the metro and read my book.

-The 14 year old taking over some of her own communications. She had to re-schedule a voice lesson the other day, so I asked her to email her voice teacher, and she did. It seems pretty cool that she’s now of an age that she can take care of these things for herself and I don’t have to be the middle person.

-That my grandfather is home. My mother was supposed to come to visit last week, but then my grandfather in Taiwan went to the hospital, so she went to Taiwan to be with him instead. She’ll spend a few days with him then come to us. My grandfather got to go home not soon after my mom arrived, and we Face Timed with him briefly. I guess he was okay since they discharged him. My grandfather is 101 (102 if you’re counting the Taiwanese way), so every day with him active and alert seems amazing. I’m grateful for him receiving medical care and then being well enough to go home. I’m grateful that my mother could get on a plane to him. It’s not nothing to be able to purchase an international ticket at the last minute.

Looking Forward To:

– Come From Away! This is one of the Husband’s favorite musicals and we’ve never seen it live. It is being produced at a theatre here this fall so I got tickets for October.

-Monticello. We have a long weekend coming up for school, so we’re going to go to Charlottesville and visit Monticello. My father, who is visiting, has always wanted to go, and it’s not really that far. We’re going to make a two night trip of it and also get some hiking in…. (Note – we’re currently on this trip… recaps coming!)

-Speaking of which …. National Parks! Now that the middle kid is in 4th Grade, we get a free National Parks Pass for the year. We’ll probably take a trip to Shenandoah on the way home from Charlottesville/ Monticello for a half day hike. Closer to us, Great Falls has some really nice hiking along the Potomac. I’ll have to research more. Last time we had a parks pass, we went to the Smoky Mountains.

-A new mattress. We finally went shopping for a new mattress. Our current mattress is maybe 10 years old but it has definite lumps and valleys in it. Shouldn’t a mattress last more than 10 years???? Oh well. I’m looking forward to our new one. This one is flippable, which I ‘m finding is quite rare these days. (Also – side note, as we were wandering through Macy’s we saw an area that was all curtained off. Of course, we were curious, so we took a peek behind the curtains, and what did we see….?

(Christmas is COMING!!!!)

-We also have a new fridge coming. I might have mentioned the conundrum of our old fridge starting to work fine again after we bought a new fridge. Well we couldn’t stop the order and delivery of the new fridge, so the old fridge is getting sent for Recycling by Pepco (our electricity company). It makes me a little sad to get rid of a working fridge, to be honest. Argh. One of those frustrating things in life.

-Gilmore Girls. When Gilmore Girls first came out, I was just out of college and I didn’t have a television. Which, back in 2020, you needed a television to watch TV. (funny, that. Also funny that they still call them TV shows when you don’t need a TV to watch them these days.) So, partly inspired by J, I’ve decided to fill the Gilmore Girls sized gap in my cultural literacy. It feels so cliched, but I’ve been watching with the 14 year old. There are many many many seasons, so it will probably take me a decade to get through this show, but I’m looking forward to it.

-Reading this book – it’s about Taiwan, how could I not pick it up?

And listening to this audiobook:

What we ate: Oh wow – I haven’t post meals since the start of the month…. Okay. So here is three weeks’ worth of meals:

Monday: Pasta and meatballs and garlic bread. The 14 year old cooked. The meatballs were from the freezer – I had made them a while ago.

Taco Tuesday: Cuban Pork Tacos. from the freezer. I also made a pot of black beans to go with. And quick pickled red onions.

Wednesday: Chicken noodle soup, at the request of the kids.

Thursday: Pad Thai – the Husband made. I went to Happy Hour send off for my colleague C.

Friday: Pizza (the Husband made at home) and Avatar Last Airbender live action movie from 2010. The movie was not great, but also ended on a cliff hanger, so I’m a little irate that there isn’t a sequel. Also it was directed by M. Night Shyamalan, which I find fascinating.

Saturday: The Husband and I had dinner out for Date Night. The 14 year old made fried rice at home for her younger siblings.

Sunday: KFC eaten at the pool. Fried Chicken has always struck us as a perfect meal to bring to the pool, but for whatever reason fried chicken never made it on the menu all summer. Until the last day. It was crispy, crunchy, and delicious.

Monday: Ren Faire! We ate fair food and our own snacks throughout the day and weren’t hungry for dinner when we got home.

Taco Tuesday: Freezer Tacos again – the rest of the batch of Cuban Pork Tacos from the freezer that we had eaten last week. (We are in a major “clean out the freezer” phase right now.)

Wednesday: Thai Quinoa Salad. This recipe from Cookie and Kate, only I used coleslaw mix rather than red cabbage – I didn’t want to shred a whole head of cabbage – and I added edamame instead of snow peas for a boost of protein. This was really tasty and packed full of veggies and topped with a peanut dressing. I really needed this injection of vegetables. Vegan.

Thursday – Roasted Salmon and potatoes w/ green beans. The 14 year old cooked.

Friday: Pizza (take out) and Aristocats. I had never seen Aristocats before – my cousin picked this movie; when we have guests visiting, we always let our guests pick the movie for pizza and movie night. And truth to tell, I still can’t claim to have seen this movie because I fell asleep about thirty minutes in. It was probably just as well that I fell asleep because afterwards we watched a music video for one of the musical numbers and there were some pretty problematic Asian stereotypes going on with that Siamese Cat. I don’t know… I still get super uncomfortable with slant eyed/ chopstick wielding/ sing song voiced characters in movies. Maybe I should squirm my way through them and have conversations with the kids about how terribly racist people are and how this is not okay to distill entire races down to one or two exaggerated elements. But you know… when I was growing up, kids pulled their eyes into slants at me and I really don’t need to subject myself to that willingly. So… sorry kids, you don’t get to see fake Asians on my watch. You’ll just have to settle for watching other egregious bits of racism – like Peter Pan. (All of this, I realize, makes Breakfast at Tiffany’s kind of difficult because it is, Mickey Rooney aside, one of my favorite movies…. Sigh. The world is complicated.)

Saturday: Butter Chicken with rice and paratha. My cousin brought a spice packet with her when she visited and the kids like chicken.

Sunday: Butternut squash curry with tofu and noodles. I know there’s a fancier name for this dish, but the Husband made it, so I don’t know what the real name is. But it was really tasty. And bonus – he used up a bag of butternut squash that was in the freezer.

Monday: Chicken Parm Pasta. The 14 year old cooked. This meal was very tasty, but more soupy than expected.

Taco Tuesday: We went out to eat because our favorite Mexican restaurant was having music and Taco Tuesday specials.

Wednesday: Soup. I can’t remember, to be honest, but I think this was some kind of soup that I pulled from the freezer and re-heated.

Thursday: Tofu rice bowls. Sort of based on this recipe from NY Times Cooking, only I made the tofu from this recipe, and added edamame and used brown rice. I love a good bowl where each person can craft their own thing. Vegan-ish since I used honey.

Friday: Pizza (take out) and Air Bud. It was my father’s turn to pick the movie and he wanted something that was a comedy. After some really inappropriate suggestions (including Booksmart, and something in French), we decided on Air Bud – it’s got dogs AND basketball – something for everyone in our family. I have to admit, I might have teared up more than once during this movie. I hear there are sequels…. Wait I just looked it up. There are FOURTEEN Air Bud movies. Ouf. Not sure if I will make it through all (or any) of them….

Well, that’s the bits and bobs of September so far here… this week is a short school week, and we’ll be celebrating a few birthdays, plus my parents are in town, so that will be fun.

Do you have a favorite National Park? Have you seen any Christmas Decor yet? How much would you pay to not stand in line for 20 minutes to fill your water bottle?