(in no particular order)
Planted a garden (that hasn't produced much produce)
Dug up and lifted an entire backyard's worth of natural stone boulders
3 major landscaping projects
Got stung by a scorpion
Got stung by a bee
Went an entire week without washing my hair (several times)
Watched a bee pollinate flowers for an hour
Made a sign to put outside a lizard's hole-in-the-ground home
Sold a piece of property that has been in my family for probably 100 years
Lived peacefully in a 3BR 2.5BA, 2200 sq. ft., home with 7 total people
Tie dyed probably 20 different articles of clothing
Sent tie dyed clothing to many members of my family
Had to remove a tarantula from the kitchen
Built and painted a wooden step for our well pump shed
Made friends with a little old man who walks at the same time of the morning as me, and every day he asks "Are we walking before it gets hot?"
Made friends with my UPS driver (I really did this pre-pandemic, but I have increased admiration for him now)
Made my back porch and back deck into an outdoor haven
Waited over 6 weeks for delivery of a frame and porch swing for my backyard
Cursed FedEx (whose drivers I am NOT friends with)
Walked 229.11 miles
Watched all of the Marvel movies in story order
Ate chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing for dinner
Started harvesting rainwater
Attended a Black Lives Matter protest (while socially distancing and wearing a mask!)
Had a cat live in my house for months
Reminisced with friends on the 30th anniversary of the day we graduated high school
Accidentally threw a stick at a baby deer
Pet-sat (sitted??) for a week for an adorable pug that we nicknamed The Hulk
Learned a lot about my family genealogy
Made some food from scratch
Got several bidets for our toilets
Tried to learn calligraphy
Watched the Mississippi State vs. UConn game about 10 times
Watched Tiger King (unfortunately)
Watched a video of Billy Porter washing his hands over and over
Thought about Jonathan Groff a lot
Started to plan the Great Road Trip of 2021 to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary next year
Monday, July 27, 2020
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Thank you, Jonathan Larson!
If you know me personally, you know that I am a HUGE fan of musicals. I recently ran across an online quiz that prompted me to count the number of shows that I've seen in my 46+ years. The grand total is 69 musicals (which includes15 Broadway shows, 3 London West End productions, 9 Broadway tours, 4 regional professional productions, and 38 amateur shows).
A few nights ago, Fox continued its newly established annual production of a musical for live television with the cult favorite Rent by Jonathan Larson. Of all of the shows that have been done for live television, Rent seems like The One that would translate the best from the Broadway stage to television. The cast is small, there are not a lot of heavily choreographed numbers, the set is pretty minimal and easily adapted.
In case you've never heard of it, Rent was conceived by a young Jonathan Larson and had its beginnings as a workshop in the New York Theatre Workshop. It was loosely based on the story of the opera La Bohème by Puccini, a story of young bohemians living in Paris. Larson's version followed struggling young artists living in the lower Ease Village/Alphabet City part of Manhattan and the societal issues they faced as they reached adulthood. He based his version on his real life experience of living in lower Manhattan, sharing an apartment heated with an illegal wood-burning stove. Onstage, it realized/humanized sex (both hetero and homo), drugs, HIV/AIDS, addiction, homelessness, gentrification. It even touched on future things that definitely resonate today, like police brutality and the role of media in daily life. It didn't gloss over such things, they were given the spotlight with gritty rock opera style music and lyrics. It was fresh, it was painful, it was ugly, raw, and it was beautiful. This young creator was on the cusp of a revolution of the musical theater world. And then the night before his show was supposed to open to previews Off-Broadway, Larson died of an aortic dissection. He was 35 years old.
As always, the show went on. On opening night, the cast performed the show as a sort of solemn table read, singing the music while seated at the table on set. But by the time they reached the last number of Act I, La Vie Boheme, they couldn't contain themselves and jumped up to perform the show as rehearsed. At the end of the inspired performance, an member of the audience (which consisted of family and friends) shouted "Thank you, Jonathan Larson!" and a tradition was born, the revolution started. Rent sold out all of its off-Broadway performances and moved to Broadway. Finding a Broadway home for Rent was responsible for the restoration of the derelict Nederlander Theatre, and it pioneered what we now know as the ticket lottery. It became an anthem for Generation X and inspired a cult following of self-titled Rent-heads. Rent won 4 Tony awards, 6 Drama Desk awards and Larson was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The show ran on Broadway for 12 years, 5,123 performances.
I saw the original production of Rent on Broadway in August of 2001, I think. We got married in 1996 and had our first kid in 1997. Anchored down by the demands of parenthood, crushing school debt, and minimal income, we did not travel much early on in our marriage. But in spring of 2001, we got an opportunity go to visit New York City. A friend was getting married on Long Island, so we made a whole trip of it. I'm pretty sure on that trip we grabbed some cheap tickets from the Tkts booth and saw Phantom of the Opera. I had already seen it, and it was a good one for my husband's first Broadway show ever. However, it did make us realize that needed to go back to NYC. When we got home, we started planning for a return trip in August 2001. Part of that trip was advance purchase tickets to go see Rent and The Producers (starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick!). At this point I had only ever been exposed to classic musical theatre, so Rent was a real eye-opener for me.
So this blog post, which started out as as a review of Rent Live on Fox, has now turned into my love story for Rent on Broadway. I guess now I will briefly get into why I just did not connect with the Rent Live version. I am all for musicals. Musicals on Broadway, musicals on tour, movie musicals, musicals on television. As you can deduce from my listing of theater attendance way back in the first paragraph, I will go see a musical any time, any place. However it takes a team of insanely smart and creative people to find the insanely talented people who are triple threats (acting, singing, dancing) to put on such a show. When you cut corners, you lose something from the soul of the show.
I get it. Television producers are driven by viewership and ad space. But it is an extreme disregard for the value of talent when they assume they have to dumb down a production in order to appeal to the masses. Honestly, was Vanessa Hudgens as Mimi really going to bring in enough extra viewers (who might not have watched otherwise) to make a ratings difference? And have a real effect on the bottom line? I'm pretty sure, no. The High School Musical viewers were already going to watch the show anyway.
Stunt/star casting bugs me. It always has. Theater people are seriously talented, and I don't care that Taylor Swift has millions of fans who might pay to see her in the movie version of Cats. She will not be good in it, because they cannot autotune it enough to disguise her vocals for those of us who have music ears. I want to hear somebody who can seriously SANG (misspelling intentional). It takes away from the gravitas of the show to cast people who cannot handle all aspects of a role, as was the case with Rent Live. I admit, I didn't catch the first hour or so because there was a basketball game that I was required to watch. (Side note: I love Mississippi State Women's Basketball almost as much as I love theater.) When I was finally able to switch over to the show, the first thing I noticed was BVD (Brandon Victor Dixon) was the standout among the cast. He was followed by the kid who was playing Mark Cohen (who I think has a little Broadway under his belt). I also could NOT get over the fact that Mark was wearing some version of Red Wings shoes, which cost in the neighborhood of $300. Details, people. For a show that made an inside joke of Mark's (famous) ugly hand-me-down sweater, it's a shame they overlooked the fact that his shoes were ridiculous. I felt like I was watching a video game version of Rent, and it cheapened the overall message of it.
I read an article once that quoted a Broadway theater critic on stunt/star casting, and it perfectly summed up my feelings on the matter. "If anyone with a big Instagram and Twitter following can be thrown into the lead of a play, what's the point of real actors learning and honing their craft?"
Moo with me!
A few nights ago, Fox continued its newly established annual production of a musical for live television with the cult favorite Rent by Jonathan Larson. Of all of the shows that have been done for live television, Rent seems like The One that would translate the best from the Broadway stage to television. The cast is small, there are not a lot of heavily choreographed numbers, the set is pretty minimal and easily adapted.
In case you've never heard of it, Rent was conceived by a young Jonathan Larson and had its beginnings as a workshop in the New York Theatre Workshop. It was loosely based on the story of the opera La Bohème by Puccini, a story of young bohemians living in Paris. Larson's version followed struggling young artists living in the lower Ease Village/Alphabet City part of Manhattan and the societal issues they faced as they reached adulthood. He based his version on his real life experience of living in lower Manhattan, sharing an apartment heated with an illegal wood-burning stove. Onstage, it realized/humanized sex (both hetero and homo), drugs, HIV/AIDS, addiction, homelessness, gentrification. It even touched on future things that definitely resonate today, like police brutality and the role of media in daily life. It didn't gloss over such things, they were given the spotlight with gritty rock opera style music and lyrics. It was fresh, it was painful, it was ugly, raw, and it was beautiful. This young creator was on the cusp of a revolution of the musical theater world. And then the night before his show was supposed to open to previews Off-Broadway, Larson died of an aortic dissection. He was 35 years old.
As always, the show went on. On opening night, the cast performed the show as a sort of solemn table read, singing the music while seated at the table on set. But by the time they reached the last number of Act I, La Vie Boheme, they couldn't contain themselves and jumped up to perform the show as rehearsed. At the end of the inspired performance, an member of the audience (which consisted of family and friends) shouted "Thank you, Jonathan Larson!" and a tradition was born, the revolution started. Rent sold out all of its off-Broadway performances and moved to Broadway. Finding a Broadway home for Rent was responsible for the restoration of the derelict Nederlander Theatre, and it pioneered what we now know as the ticket lottery. It became an anthem for Generation X and inspired a cult following of self-titled Rent-heads. Rent won 4 Tony awards, 6 Drama Desk awards and Larson was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The show ran on Broadway for 12 years, 5,123 performances.
I saw the original production of Rent on Broadway in August of 2001, I think. We got married in 1996 and had our first kid in 1997. Anchored down by the demands of parenthood, crushing school debt, and minimal income, we did not travel much early on in our marriage. But in spring of 2001, we got an opportunity go to visit New York City. A friend was getting married on Long Island, so we made a whole trip of it. I'm pretty sure on that trip we grabbed some cheap tickets from the Tkts booth and saw Phantom of the Opera. I had already seen it, and it was a good one for my husband's first Broadway show ever. However, it did make us realize that needed to go back to NYC. When we got home, we started planning for a return trip in August 2001. Part of that trip was advance purchase tickets to go see Rent and The Producers (starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick!). At this point I had only ever been exposed to classic musical theatre, so Rent was a real eye-opener for me.
So this blog post, which started out as as a review of Rent Live on Fox, has now turned into my love story for Rent on Broadway. I guess now I will briefly get into why I just did not connect with the Rent Live version. I am all for musicals. Musicals on Broadway, musicals on tour, movie musicals, musicals on television. As you can deduce from my listing of theater attendance way back in the first paragraph, I will go see a musical any time, any place. However it takes a team of insanely smart and creative people to find the insanely talented people who are triple threats (acting, singing, dancing) to put on such a show. When you cut corners, you lose something from the soul of the show.
I get it. Television producers are driven by viewership and ad space. But it is an extreme disregard for the value of talent when they assume they have to dumb down a production in order to appeal to the masses. Honestly, was Vanessa Hudgens as Mimi really going to bring in enough extra viewers (who might not have watched otherwise) to make a ratings difference? And have a real effect on the bottom line? I'm pretty sure, no. The High School Musical viewers were already going to watch the show anyway.
Stunt/star casting bugs me. It always has. Theater people are seriously talented, and I don't care that Taylor Swift has millions of fans who might pay to see her in the movie version of Cats. She will not be good in it, because they cannot autotune it enough to disguise her vocals for those of us who have music ears. I want to hear somebody who can seriously SANG (misspelling intentional). It takes away from the gravitas of the show to cast people who cannot handle all aspects of a role, as was the case with Rent Live. I admit, I didn't catch the first hour or so because there was a basketball game that I was required to watch. (Side note: I love Mississippi State Women's Basketball almost as much as I love theater.) When I was finally able to switch over to the show, the first thing I noticed was BVD (Brandon Victor Dixon) was the standout among the cast. He was followed by the kid who was playing Mark Cohen (who I think has a little Broadway under his belt). I also could NOT get over the fact that Mark was wearing some version of Red Wings shoes, which cost in the neighborhood of $300. Details, people. For a show that made an inside joke of Mark's (famous) ugly hand-me-down sweater, it's a shame they overlooked the fact that his shoes were ridiculous. I felt like I was watching a video game version of Rent, and it cheapened the overall message of it.
I read an article once that quoted a Broadway theater critic on stunt/star casting, and it perfectly summed up my feelings on the matter. "If anyone with a big Instagram and Twitter following can be thrown into the lead of a play, what's the point of real actors learning and honing their craft?"
Moo with me!
Friday, September 11, 2015
Why did 'promposals" become a thing?
If I ever decide to go back to school, I'm going to get a masters degree in psychology. I'm constantly baffled at the mind operations and decision making processes of other people. I just don't understand why they do what they do. And I already have the perfect thesis in mind.
Somehow in recent years, promposals became a thing. No idea why, because the very idea is ridiculous to me. Clearly, boys don't give a shit about pre-planning some elaborate event, surely to be filmed for the permanent record, where they have to go above and beyond the already nerve-wracking experience of asking a girl out on a date to come up with an original awe- and awwww-inspiring way to ask said girl. It's, quite frankly, preposterous.
And of course, now the elaborate ways of asking girls out on prom dates have spilled over into homecoming as well. Oh joy. I can't wait to see all the ways that this tradition gets implemented.
I took a psychology course online a few years ago, and I learned about 2 psychological terms that have changed the way that I look at life via social media: personal fable and imaginary audience.
From the wiki, the personal fable is a belief held by many adolescents telling them that they are special and unique, so much so that none of life's difficulties or problems will affect them regardless of their behavior. And the imaginary audience refers to an egocentric state where an individual imagines and believes that multitudes of people are enthusiastically listening to or watching him or her.
So these are actual psychological states that are found in adolescents and beyond. More and more, it's beyond. And I think that social media is largely responsible. I have to choke back the vomit more times than not when I open Facebook and look at everyone's perfect pictures and perfect status updates with the supporting videos that show how perfect their lives are. It's like a contest to be the most perfect person with the most perfect life on Facebook. Nobody is real. Nobody is truthful. It's a highly edited version. It's auto tuned.
I don't want to read it anymore. (and if you know who I am, I know you find it ironic that I have this particular stance about this particular social media platform!)
Somehow in recent years, promposals became a thing. No idea why, because the very idea is ridiculous to me. Clearly, boys don't give a shit about pre-planning some elaborate event, surely to be filmed for the permanent record, where they have to go above and beyond the already nerve-wracking experience of asking a girl out on a date to come up with an original awe- and awwww-inspiring way to ask said girl. It's, quite frankly, preposterous.
And of course, now the elaborate ways of asking girls out on prom dates have spilled over into homecoming as well. Oh joy. I can't wait to see all the ways that this tradition gets implemented.
I took a psychology course online a few years ago, and I learned about 2 psychological terms that have changed the way that I look at life via social media: personal fable and imaginary audience.
From the wiki, the personal fable is a belief held by many adolescents telling them that they are special and unique, so much so that none of life's difficulties or problems will affect them regardless of their behavior. And the imaginary audience refers to an egocentric state where an individual imagines and believes that multitudes of people are enthusiastically listening to or watching him or her.
So these are actual psychological states that are found in adolescents and beyond. More and more, it's beyond. And I think that social media is largely responsible. I have to choke back the vomit more times than not when I open Facebook and look at everyone's perfect pictures and perfect status updates with the supporting videos that show how perfect their lives are. It's like a contest to be the most perfect person with the most perfect life on Facebook. Nobody is real. Nobody is truthful. It's a highly edited version. It's auto tuned.
I don't want to read it anymore. (and if you know who I am, I know you find it ironic that I have this particular stance about this particular social media platform!)
Friday, April 11, 2014
Things I've Done Since Logging Off of Facebook
My last status update was March 26. So I'm 2 weeks 2 days off of Facebook. Ok, technically I did post some videos a few days ago, but that's how I was able to deliver them to family members for them to see. They are too big to email, and my Google Drive is pretty full.
Anyway, here's my list:
- Read the entire Divergent series
- Started running for exercise again - up to 3 miles a day now
- Watched Law and Order from the beginning - I'm currently on season 12
- Spot cleaned all of our carpets with my little Green Machine
- Finished scanning Cami's sheet music portfolio. Now we've got paper and digital copies of all music!
- Started recording all of our VHS tapes to mp4 files
I wish I could leave it behind completely, but that's probably not realistic. We live too far from our families, and FB is their main way of keeping up with us. It's likely that I'll only be on to post pictures and/or videos. Hope I can keep it up!
Anyway, here's my list:
- Read the entire Divergent series
- Started running for exercise again - up to 3 miles a day now
- Watched Law and Order from the beginning - I'm currently on season 12
- Spot cleaned all of our carpets with my little Green Machine
- Finished scanning Cami's sheet music portfolio. Now we've got paper and digital copies of all music!
- Started recording all of our VHS tapes to mp4 files
I wish I could leave it behind completely, but that's probably not realistic. We live too far from our families, and FB is their main way of keeping up with us. It's likely that I'll only be on to post pictures and/or videos. Hope I can keep it up!
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Crunchy as hell
We're getting solar panels on our house. Lighthouse Solar has been canvassing our neighborhood for a while now, and we've even had them look at our roof to evaluate if we can get panels. The first observation was that we didn't have a large enough roof space on the south and southwest sides to accomodate enough panels.
But another guy came around last week, and his design utilizes the wooden pergola in addition to our limited roof space - and he thinks we can get 24 panels. That's enough for about half of the average power we use.
Here's the best part - total cost around $25,000. Austin Energy program will pay about $14,000 of it and we get about a $7500 tax credit (subtract this amount from the amount of taxes you owe). So total out of pocket will be in the $3500 range. We'd have to be crazy to pass that up. Did I ever mention that living in Austin rocks?!
For the record, Cass drives a Volt, I drive a hybrid, we buy wind power, and now we're getting solar panels. We should just join the Green Party and be done with it.
But another guy came around last week, and his design utilizes the wooden pergola in addition to our limited roof space - and he thinks we can get 24 panels. That's enough for about half of the average power we use.
Here's the best part - total cost around $25,000. Austin Energy program will pay about $14,000 of it and we get about a $7500 tax credit (subtract this amount from the amount of taxes you owe). So total out of pocket will be in the $3500 range. We'd have to be crazy to pass that up. Did I ever mention that living in Austin rocks?!
For the record, Cass drives a Volt, I drive a hybrid, we buy wind power, and now we're getting solar panels. We should just join the Green Party and be done with it.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Congratulations! You've won a cheap ass gift!
A couple of weekends ago, on the day of the Egg Bowl to be exact, we went to our neighborhood Thai place to grab a bite to eat before the game. They were quite busy, and we actually had to wait about 15 min for a table. When we got seated, the waitress gave us a ticket to fill out with our info. It was the restaurant's 2 year anniversary, and they were giving away door prizes. Cool! I filled it out.
Here's what was inside. A lovely set of cheap,*plastic* promotional sake glasses. And some cheap, hollowed out chop sticks. Oh, and they removed the bottle of sake for us (That's a cheap, cardboard representation). Thanks guys. They serve the drinks in their restaurant in better stuff than this.
a) I'm glad we didn't go back for another meal when we picked up the gift, and b) I'm pretty sure they've managed to lose our business with this marketing genius.
The next week, Cass gets a call. We've won a door prize! It's a set of sake glasses. That sounds pretty cool, right? So we stop by there to pick up our wonderful door prize.
Here's what they gave us. A big, cool package.
a) I'm glad we didn't go back for another meal when we picked up the gift, and b) I'm pretty sure they've managed to lose our business with this marketing genius.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Indulge
I've gotten pretty lax about writing on my blog. Is Facebook killing blogs? I wonder. Blogs are about sharing via the internet, and Facebook has pretty much cornered that market for now. They just make it so darn easy and centralized. But I digress....
I decided to do a blog prompt today. And today's word is indulge.
I don't indulge myself much. I've got a lot of other people's needs to meet, so I don't have a lot of time to do anything for myself. That's the way it is for most Moms. You know what I'm talking about. Heck, I desperately need to get my hair trimmed and I haven't managed to do it since oh about last fall. It's crazy.
Every once in a while I will treat myself though.
Things I have done to indulge myself lately:
I bought myself a Smythe blazer. If you are a fan of hgtv, you know who Sarah Richardson is. I watch some of her shows, and she wears the coolest blazers. I finally started Googling to find out about them, and I discovered that her jackets are made by some Canadian designers. And one of the designers is the sister of Sarah's design assistant Tommy. Cool.
Of course, Smythe blazers are quite $$. So I did some more Googling and I found one for about half the price. I debated it for about a week, like I do with any big purchase. Then I decided to Just Do It. It came yesterday, and I LOVE IT.
Another thing I've done for myself lately is that I bought mini season tickets for Broadway Across America at Bass Concert Hall in Austin. 3 of us will get to see South Pacific, Beauty & the Beast, Mary Poppins, and Les Miserables. I admit, I did it just to see Les Miserables again (this will be the 3rd or 4th time for me). But I'll love the other shows too.
I decided to do a blog prompt today. And today's word is indulge.
I don't indulge myself much. I've got a lot of other people's needs to meet, so I don't have a lot of time to do anything for myself. That's the way it is for most Moms. You know what I'm talking about. Heck, I desperately need to get my hair trimmed and I haven't managed to do it since oh about last fall. It's crazy.
Every once in a while I will treat myself though.
Things I have done to indulge myself lately:
I bought myself a Smythe blazer. If you are a fan of hgtv, you know who Sarah Richardson is. I watch some of her shows, and she wears the coolest blazers. I finally started Googling to find out about them, and I discovered that her jackets are made by some Canadian designers. And one of the designers is the sister of Sarah's design assistant Tommy. Cool.
Of course, Smythe blazers are quite $$. So I did some more Googling and I found one for about half the price. I debated it for about a week, like I do with any big purchase. Then I decided to Just Do It. It came yesterday, and I LOVE IT.
Another thing I've done for myself lately is that I bought mini season tickets for Broadway Across America at Bass Concert Hall in Austin. 3 of us will get to see South Pacific, Beauty & the Beast, Mary Poppins, and Les Miserables. I admit, I did it just to see Les Miserables again (this will be the 3rd or 4th time for me). But I'll love the other shows too. That's all I can come up with, but that's pretty good for me.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Things I Learned in the Fire
On Sunday September 4 Cass and I walked outside to go to the grocery store, and our neighborhood was on fire. The visual we got when we stood in our driveway was black smoke filling the whole sky with helicopters dumping water. The power had been turned off. It was pretty immediately obvious that this was serious.
Our neighborhood is positioned in a bend of the Lower Colorado River, and there is one main road that goes through the center from north to south. In order to evacuate the neighborhood, everybody has to drive out on that one road. Steiner Ranch has about 15,000 residents. You can imagine what a nightmare scenario an evacuation is.
I admit it, I freaked a little bit. I just wanted to get the eff out. I didn't pack wisely for myself or for the kids. I did manage to grab our fireproof box with our passports and birth certificates in it. I got my new expensive camera, my laptop/chargers, and that's about it. I didn't have clothes, we didn't have dog food, the kids didn't have toothbrushes. I did think to look for valuable jewelry, but I couldn't see in our bedroom with the lights off and I couldn't remember where a flashlight might be.
We got out before much of the neighborhood did, since we were able to pretty much drive right out. The sheriff's office had blocked off the main outlet highway, so there was no traffic to deal with there. I heard that later, it took people over an hour just to get out onto the highway. We drove straight to Cedar Park to our Canadian friend's house (aka the Canadian Embassy, according to Cass). We quickly realized that we weren't going back, so we had to go shopping on Monday.
In the end, 23 houses burned completely and another 3 had serious damage. 28 houses had minor damage like burned fences, decks, backyards. The cause was high wind from TS Lee blowing large power lines, causing them to arc and set the greenbelt on fire. We don't have any close friends who lost a house, but the kids' music school owners lost theirs. A girl in Cami's varsity choir lost hers. The firefighters probably saved over 100 homes. The photos I've seen show plenty of houses where the fire burned right up to the back door.
The drought out here is ridiculous. Avg rainfall up to this point of the year is about 27 inches. We've had 7 inches. Everything is dry as a bone. Lake Travis is 33 ft below average September levels (49 feet below what's considered "full") - there are island chains forming in the middle of it. We are under Stage 2 water restrictions. It's going to be a long time before things return to normal out here.
So after all that, here's my advice for escaping a wildfire. I'm sure a lot of it is similar to hurricane preparedness.
-I have all our important papers in a fireproof box - birth certificates, passports, SS cards, etc. It was easy to grab it and go.
-Make sure everybody has their medications. Pharmacies can get replacements for you, but it's much easier if you have the info.
-Get a cheap memory stick and put all your pictures on it. Grab and go.
-Unless there's a fire at your door, take a few minutes and pack a few changes of clothes for everybody.
-Take all the computers/laptops, phones, and chargers for all.
-A big one - take a video of each room of your home and save them on the memory stick. It will help if you have to make an inventory of anything lost in a fire. I took photos of all the rooms and uploaded them to Picasa.
-Also, I learned that your freezer will keep for 24-48 hours without power. Ours was off for about 26 hrs, so we only had to throw out a small number of things. Luckily, we didn't have much in the refrigerator.
-Always know where a flashlight is located. They cut our power, and I was trying to find my jewelry to take - and I couldn't see a thing in my bedroom. I never found what I was looking for, but they were things covered by our rider anyway.
Our neighborhood is positioned in a bend of the Lower Colorado River, and there is one main road that goes through the center from north to south. In order to evacuate the neighborhood, everybody has to drive out on that one road. Steiner Ranch has about 15,000 residents. You can imagine what a nightmare scenario an evacuation is.
I admit it, I freaked a little bit. I just wanted to get the eff out. I didn't pack wisely for myself or for the kids. I did manage to grab our fireproof box with our passports and birth certificates in it. I got my new expensive camera, my laptop/chargers, and that's about it. I didn't have clothes, we didn't have dog food, the kids didn't have toothbrushes. I did think to look for valuable jewelry, but I couldn't see in our bedroom with the lights off and I couldn't remember where a flashlight might be.
We got out before much of the neighborhood did, since we were able to pretty much drive right out. The sheriff's office had blocked off the main outlet highway, so there was no traffic to deal with there. I heard that later, it took people over an hour just to get out onto the highway. We drove straight to Cedar Park to our Canadian friend's house (aka the Canadian Embassy, according to Cass). We quickly realized that we weren't going back, so we had to go shopping on Monday.
In the end, 23 houses burned completely and another 3 had serious damage. 28 houses had minor damage like burned fences, decks, backyards. The cause was high wind from TS Lee blowing large power lines, causing them to arc and set the greenbelt on fire. We don't have any close friends who lost a house, but the kids' music school owners lost theirs. A girl in Cami's varsity choir lost hers. The firefighters probably saved over 100 homes. The photos I've seen show plenty of houses where the fire burned right up to the back door.
The drought out here is ridiculous. Avg rainfall up to this point of the year is about 27 inches. We've had 7 inches. Everything is dry as a bone. Lake Travis is 33 ft below average September levels (49 feet below what's considered "full") - there are island chains forming in the middle of it. We are under Stage 2 water restrictions. It's going to be a long time before things return to normal out here.
So after all that, here's my advice for escaping a wildfire. I'm sure a lot of it is similar to hurricane preparedness.
-I have all our important papers in a fireproof box - birth certificates, passports, SS cards, etc. It was easy to grab it and go.
-Make sure everybody has their medications. Pharmacies can get replacements for you, but it's much easier if you have the info.
-Get a cheap memory stick and put all your pictures on it. Grab and go.
-Unless there's a fire at your door, take a few minutes and pack a few changes of clothes for everybody.
-Take all the computers/laptops, phones, and chargers for all.
-A big one - take a video of each room of your home and save them on the memory stick. It will help if you have to make an inventory of anything lost in a fire. I took photos of all the rooms and uploaded them to Picasa.
-Also, I learned that your freezer will keep for 24-48 hours without power. Ours was off for about 26 hrs, so we only had to throw out a small number of things. Luckily, we didn't have much in the refrigerator.
-Always know where a flashlight is located. They cut our power, and I was trying to find my jewelry to take - and I couldn't see a thing in my bedroom. I never found what I was looking for, but they were things covered by our rider anyway.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
2 weeks' worth
My parents were in town last week for Cami's play, so I skipped posting my running progress.
5/5 1.53 miles
5/6 5.26 miles (bike)
5/7 1.95 miles
5/9 0.96 miles
Total 9.7 mies
5/14 1.73 miles
5/17 2.17 miles
5/18 5.27 miles (bike)
Total 9.17 miles
5/5 1.53 miles
5/6 5.26 miles (bike)
5/7 1.95 miles
5/9 0.96 miles
Total 9.7 mies
5/14 1.73 miles
5/17 2.17 miles
5/18 5.27 miles (bike)
Total 9.17 miles
Friday, May 6, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
2 days (and more)
I was only able to run 2 days this week. Blah.
4/22 1.82 miles
4/27 3.17 miles
Total 4.99 miles
* I lost my sanity for a moment and bought tickets to take the girls to the Taylor Swift concert in Austin. Cami saw the ad for it and started begging. I was able to get tickets through a pre-sale available to AmEx members. The concert isn't until October 26 - 6 months from now. Oy.
* Still no rain in Austin.
* I find it humorous that when Kate drives up to the West entrance of the Abbey to make her grand entrance, she has to walk past the gift shop of all things. I'm not all that interested in the wedding, but I love seeing all the familiar London places all over the TV. Westminster Abbey is the one place that we *always* go see when we're in London. I've been there probably 10 or more times.
4/22 1.82 miles
4/27 3.17 miles
Total 4.99 miles
* I lost my sanity for a moment and bought tickets to take the girls to the Taylor Swift concert in Austin. Cami saw the ad for it and started begging. I was able to get tickets through a pre-sale available to AmEx members. The concert isn't until October 26 - 6 months from now. Oy.
* Still no rain in Austin.
* I find it humorous that when Kate drives up to the West entrance of the Abbey to make her grand entrance, she has to walk past the gift shop of all things. I'm not all that interested in the wedding, but I love seeing all the familiar London places all over the TV. Westminster Abbey is the one place that we *always* go see when we're in London. I've been there probably 10 or more times.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Sick
4/15 2.04 miles
4/17 2.05 miles
4/18 1.66 miles
5.75 miles
I've been sick for the last 3 days, so no running for me.
4/17 2.05 miles
4/18 1.66 miles
5.75 miles
I've been sick for the last 3 days, so no running for me.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Burnin' down the house
I went out for a jog today, and I noticed a very smoky smell in the air. By the time I got halfway through my run, I could tell that it was affecting my breathing, burning my lungs. It was really hazy out, too. I had heard that a front was going to blow some smoke in from the fires out in West Texas, but I didn't think it would be that bad. We've been under red flag warning for weeks, we're under a burn ban, it's very warm, completely dry, and very windy. Texas is usually pretty windy all the time, but we've had 30-40 mph winds regularly over the past week or two.
When I got home, I checked the news. A wildfire had broken out near a subdivision in South Austin. Supposedly it was sparked in an area that has a homeless camp site. It quickly spread north and right into Scenic Brook subdivision. After a few hours, they brought in helicopters and finally 2 C130s to drop flame retardant material on the blaze. By the time they got it relatively (90%) contained, it burned 10 homes and damaged 10 others. They evacuated the whole subdivision, and they're still unable to return until it gets completely controlled.
The little blurb at the end of that article about another brush fire near Steiner Ranch - yeah, we live in Steiner Ranch. It would be a complete nightmare if they ever had to evacuate this neighborhood. There are 15,000 residents, and one main road by which to exit. It's bad enough when you're trying to get in/out during rush hours.
When I got home, I checked the news. A wildfire had broken out near a subdivision in South Austin. Supposedly it was sparked in an area that has a homeless camp site. It quickly spread north and right into Scenic Brook subdivision. After a few hours, they brought in helicopters and finally 2 C130s to drop flame retardant material on the blaze. By the time they got it relatively (90%) contained, it burned 10 homes and damaged 10 others. They evacuated the whole subdivision, and they're still unable to return until it gets completely controlled.
The little blurb at the end of that article about another brush fire near Steiner Ranch - yeah, we live in Steiner Ranch. It would be a complete nightmare if they ever had to evacuate this neighborhood. There are 15,000 residents, and one main road by which to exit. It's bad enough when you're trying to get in/out during rush hours.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Randoms
* So, it's official that Logan is high maintenance. She had a reaction to lip balm last month, so the allergist wanted to patch test her to see which ingredients she has a contact allergy to. In addition to all her regular allergies that she gets shots for (basically all trees, grasses, molds, etc.), she has contact allergy to 7 things. Gold is one of them - so I guess she'll be a platinum girl. And Balsam Peru oil (a tree product), which is in basically every kind of makeup. It looks like she'll be able to wear Bare Minerals, though - which is what I use. It's made from crushed rock minerals. Her other contact allergens are bacitracin (a topical antibiotic), benzocaine, toluene sulfonamide formaldehyde resin (in nail polish), and disperse yellow 3 (very common in hosiery). Oh, and she had a pretty bad reaction to the medical tape, too.
* Correction: Cass is going to China (Shanghai) in July. He's going to Germany (Frankfurt and Bremen) in May.
* Cami got into National Junior Honor Society. I'm proud of her. But this one has a requirement for all kinds of volunteer hours. 10 hours each 6-weeks grading period. It will be a bit of a pain to get those logged.
* I love Nvidia. They really are good to their employees.
* We're thinking about sending Luke to a computer/engineering camp at UT Austin this summer. He claims he wants to stay overnight. I'm not so sure (that he really wants to). But the thought of driving him downtown during rush hour every morning makes me want to not sign him up.
* Eeyore's Birthday Party is coming up!
4/8 2.4 miles
4/11 3.13 miles
4/12 1.56 miles
4/14 1.5 miles
Total 8.59 miles
* Correction: Cass is going to China (Shanghai) in July. He's going to Germany (Frankfurt and Bremen) in May.
* Cami got into National Junior Honor Society. I'm proud of her. But this one has a requirement for all kinds of volunteer hours. 10 hours each 6-weeks grading period. It will be a bit of a pain to get those logged.
* I love Nvidia. They really are good to their employees.
* We're thinking about sending Luke to a computer/engineering camp at UT Austin this summer. He claims he wants to stay overnight. I'm not so sure (that he really wants to). But the thought of driving him downtown during rush hour every morning makes me want to not sign him up.
* Eeyore's Birthday Party is coming up!
4/8 2.4 miles
4/11 3.13 miles
4/12 1.56 miles
4/14 1.5 miles
Total 8.59 miles
Thursday, April 7, 2011
This and that
* We finally got Luke moved out of his original classroom and into another classroom that we think will be a much stricter, more organized environment for him. He needs it.
* Y'all know how much I love London. You couldn't pay me enough money to be there during all the royal wedding nonsense.
* Cami got braces this morning. That makes two kids at once with them. Yay.
* Cass may be going to China in May, I think he said.
* This week was another off week. I do most of my exercise at/near the weekend, and we were in Louisiana for a wedding. But now I am recording the miles run and not miles walked. I always walk a little when I'm out, I just don't count it anymore.
4/4 1.71 miles
4/6 2.15 miles
4/7 2.40 miles
Total 6.26 miles
* Y'all know how much I love London. You couldn't pay me enough money to be there during all the royal wedding nonsense.
* Cami got braces this morning. That makes two kids at once with them. Yay.
* Cass may be going to China in May, I think he said.
* This week was another off week. I do most of my exercise at/near the weekend, and we were in Louisiana for a wedding. But now I am recording the miles run and not miles walked. I always walk a little when I'm out, I just don't count it anymore.
4/4 1.71 miles
4/6 2.15 miles
4/7 2.40 miles
Total 6.26 miles
Thursday, March 31, 2011
A little off this week
3/23 3.08 miles
3/25 2.91 miles
3/27 2.0 miles
3/31 1.67 miles (run)
Total 9.66 miles
The weather hasn't been all that great here. A little too cool to get outside and run. I'm ready for summer - who isn't?
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Weekly log
3/18 4.38 miles (run/walk)
3/19 1.82 (hike)
3/20 2.84 (hike)
3/22 2.37 (run)
Total 11.41 miles
Since I was able to start back exercising on 2/24, the total is 74.25 miles.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Hiking in Barton Creek
Last minute, we decided to go hike in Barton Creek Greenbelt this afternoon. I can't believe we've never been there before. It was very similar to the trails that are in our neighborhood, but on a bigger scale.
This was a falls area where the rock formations were really weird. When we got to this location, we stayed for over an hour. Eventually, Luke was completely wet - down to his socks and shoes. When we got home, I looked it up and this area is called Sculpture Falls.
Our hike route, including the elevation. It was not fun to climb back out at the end of the hike!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Weekly log
Some of these are estimated, because I lost some of my info. I inherited Cass's iPhone 4 a few days ago, and when I restored it to my backup copy it didn't include the last week's worth of recording.
3/12 2.5 miles (hike)
3/16 5.9 miles (bike)
3/17 2.9 miles (1.4 mile run)
13.8 miles
We have friends we know from grad school at MSU whose son is in Japan right now. He's been video blogging on Facebook, but now he's gotten an article on Msnbc.
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