In Java, Literally...

Cutting to the Scene with the Pixie

2021-03-07T12:05:00.000-05:00

Ten years ago, I decided to do one of the most drastic things I had ever done to my hair. I went from a long style (below collarbone) to a pixie cut. The weeks and months after were amusing because people didn't recognize me, they would see me out with my husband and think he had a side chick, and even my own mother didn't initially recognize me when she saw me for the first time at a funeral for a family member.

My friend and stylist, Martha had created a fantastic hair style for me that I adored playing with and doing fun things like getting blue and red highlights. Of course, I eventually grew it out because I did miss my long locks. Over recent years, I wavered over whether I ever wanted to cut it like that again because the growing out process is an absolute bitch.

A week and a half ago, I knew it was time. I joked a little that I needed a "break up haircut" after 2020, but it wasn't just 2020. It was several years of high stress and loss. We bought our new house and had many headaches selling our old house, Matt had brain surgery just 3 weeks before we moved, Matt's Dad died, Matt's boss decided to retire leading to Matt needing to find a new job, we got a new boss, the Pandemic started, and then I lost my job.

I'm here to tell you that cutting off that weight was a great feeling. As Martha's work evolved, my smile got bigger because it was like rediscovering someone who had been away for a very long time.

Before


After

What's A Crocus?

2021-02-24T09:55:00.000-05:00

Today the temperatures may reach 50 degrees in Jamestown, a degree we haven't seen in weeks, perhaps months. I don't recall.

We haven't had an overabundance of snow here but it was been ground covering with frosty temperatures for long enough that the idea of grass and other things that grow seems mystical. Then my friend tells me she's watering seedlings in her greenhouse today and I know that Spring must be coming.

Looking forward or trying to plan has become that thing that feels dangerous or radical with how much is uncertain with the Pandemic. Do you dare plan to see family after they're vaccinated, even if it'll be months before you're vaccinated yourself? Do you hope for a warmer Spring so that you can see friends at safe distances outside more easily? Do you hope with warmer weather and related activities trying to start up that maybe you'll be back to work soon?

The latter has been especially hard.

In the few days before my job ended, I had people saying, "Well, you'll get some nice time off at least," which I didn't disagree with because I really did need a break. Back at the beginning of the year, I thought two weeks of "vacation" would help me recharge so that I could move forward into the next project or exciting thing. As time passed, I realized I needed a lot more time to process what had happened in December and the past year. People losing their jobs happens all the time but it rarely happens in a public forum, especially where the employee is a spectator to others deciding their fate. I don't wish that experience on any civil servant. I'm extremely grateful for the support system I have that helped me cope then and now. That system is especially helpful when I still regularly hear people say, "You must be enjoying your time off!" as if I'm on some chosen, happy vacation and not having constant anxiety about what's happening next.

When you've been told you will get your job back, but have no information about when that might happen, it's hard to know how to plan. I'm a planner. I also have people telling me I should look for a new job, consider a new career, and to go off and recreate myself! I understand where they're coming from, but it feels like they're missing the point of what I'm going through in saying that. I had a good job. I worked with amazing people. I did good things for my community. It paid decently and had fantastic benefits. I'm more than hesitant to walk away permanently for a job that may not offer all of that. Also, if my position is reinstated, they have to offer it to me first before being able to hire someone else. It's not a good look take a new job, then quit to go back to the old job, leaving the new employer in a lurch.

So I wait, somewhat uneasily and impatiently, for the word to come that I'm not in a holding pattern any longer. While I don't have the answers now, at least I know one thing that will happen in the coming weeks - the crocuses will bloom.

Bite by Byte

2021-01-13T16:43:00.001-05:00

I promised Matt that while I was unemployed that I'd take over dinner preparation since it would give me something to prep and plan for each day. Call it step one in creating a temporary new routine that also is budget friendly on a reduced income.

I became a fan of Budget Bytes some years ago, including buying the app so that I had an easy way to access recipes while in the kitchen.

Here are the meals I've made since the beginning of the year, supplemented by some usual stand-by meals:

Chili Cheese Beef Mac - First meal I made and it was the comfort food we needed

Banana Flax Muffins - I didn't use walnuts because I don't like them. I liked that these weren't overly sweet and the flax gave it a nice nutty taste without having to use actual nuts.

Turkey Chili Smothered Sweet Potatoes - I thought I had ground turkey in the freezer. Turned out it was ground chicken. Worked just fine and Matt, who doesn't like sweet potatoes, said he'd eat this again

Green Chile Breakfast Quesadilla - I made this for lunch one day for a switch from sandwiches and soup. Winner!

Unstuffed Bell Peppers - Another winner with plenty of leftovers. I was worried about the rice not cooking through, but I kept an eye on it and added some additional beef broth when it looked like it was cooking off too quick on low.

Matt has been a very willing consumer of all of these and joked that maybe I didn't need to go back to work if I was going to keep cooking like this. He also said he was going to gain so much weight.

You probably noticed the lack of chicken in these recipes. That'll be rectified next week. I had bought club packs of both chicken and ground beef and it just happened that the recipes I wanted to try called for ground beef. I also want to mix in a few more vegetarian/vegan recipes, which the site has plenty of, to be sure we're getting all the veggies we need.

Binge Living

2021-01-02T19:57:00.005-05:00

I'm super curious about who else didn't binge watch a show last year given that after some thought I realized that I definitely didn't.

While binge watching has been a thing for a while, 2020 magnified that for many who made the effort to stay home.

I have shows I used to love to watch. Grace & Frankie, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, THE CROWN.

I'm behind 2 seasons on the latter, I think the middle one has ended, and I don't know where things are with Grace & Frankie. My friends who love The Crown are aghast and practically clutching their pearls that I haven't watched season 3 yet.

The recommendations for "You MUST watch this!" or "I can't believe you've never watched Downton Abbey!" fall fairly flat with me as my television viewing seems to be limited to the local news and a couple DIY channel shows. Well, and "What We Do In The Shadows." We all have to have our one thing, right?

The one thing I could be accused of binging is books. If it's not too weighty, I'll read up to 2 books a day if I have the time. That said, I only read 67 books in 2020 because I threw in a few heavier books that demanded I take time, re-read sections, re-read them again, and then try to remember everything without going back to re-read a third time. I'd blame pandemic-brain for why I don't recall a lot of those books, but if you asked me about some saucy plot point in one of my rom-com stories and I'm pretty sure I could relay a fairly decent facsimile.

What are you binging, whether it's television, music, literature, or something else entirely different?

Tipped Balances

2021-01-01T11:39:00.002-05:00

On the last day of 2020, before the few people planning to be at work arrived on our floor, I put "Tik Tok" by Kesha on my iPod and then danced through every open office, hallway, breakroom, and conference room. Most of those rooms were vacant of even desks or other office detritus as the department that had occupied the space moved two months ago.

It was a moment that felt slightly subversive and freeing.

I did it to celebrate and to also try to forget that it was my last day of employment for awhile.

After being just shy of 12 years in my job, I was leaving with my return being left in the hands of a City Council that eliminated my position under the pretense that it was "temporary."

I texted a friend this morning whose 2020 could be best described as soul-trying,

"Here's to a new year that hopefully is better balanced, or even tipped toward more happier moments if we can have wishes and dreams of that."

Life is a balance. It doesn't always work out the way we had planned because we simply cannot control everything. The best we can do is to live, love, and laugh. I'm absolutely kidding. Somewhat. Whoever thought to market that aspiration deserves their millions.

A year ago I said to my husband that all we had was our integrity and we should live and work as such. It wasn't an attempt at a new year's resolution, but I feel we've achieved that.

Toward the end of this year, the premise of dignity and being able to hold my head up high despite adversity is something that mattered. It's something I can do because of respecting how integrity matters.

I'm far from perfect and hope to never be because that sounds painfully boring. Here's hoping that while I can't control everything that I at least can continue to act in ways that help tip the balance toward the positive.

Happy New Year

Series(ously)

2019-05-30T16:45:00.000-04:00

I've been accused of not knowing how to relax. Give me a day off and I'm pretty good at filling it up with cleaning, gardening, errands, and other things that are the opposite of relaxing. The only thing that has a proven success rate in getting me to sit still for hours is putting a book in my hands.

I've upped my reading game substantially in recent years, averaging 62 books read a year. I usually set my annual Goodreads goal for 52 books and will likely surpass that goal as I've already read 32 books before June 1st.

Mysteries are still my favorite genre and I especially delight in series. If I find a series I like, I will page through as fast as the books become available through our library system. The two series that I discovered this year are the historic fiction Maisie Dobbs mysteries by Jacqueline Winspear and the cozy Booktown mysteries by Lorna Barrett. I'm also eagerly anticipating two books from series I've previously devoured coming out later this year: A Better Man by Louise Penny and A Bitter Feast by Deborah Crombie.

It's been almost 18 years...

2019-05-29T14:26:00.000-04:00

I forget I have a blog until I mention that I used to post alllllllllllllll(breathes)lllll the time. Shut-up, Grammarly, I know that last sentence has an "incorrect" word.

So I've been blogging for nearly 18 years....

On the last episode of "In Java, Literally..," Julia was having a meltdown because of our house situation and Matt's medical situation. A good chunk of last year is hazy to me because I shut-down due to stress. It was a surreal state of being present in order for all the things to get down but also needing to be detached so that I could continue to function. That said...

We finally sold our house. Matt's surgery 3 weeks before our move went fabulously. We moved into our new house three days before Christmas. Everything is fairly grand other than some unknowns in the job department for Matt. There always has to be something, right?

Our new house has an interesting chameleon-like ability to feel like where we're in the forest and in England and in the city and just about anywhere other than "here." I feel like you have to be there to understand. Either way, I'm in love with the place even though we still have so much work to do from painting the interior, getting the yard further squared away, and other stuff. I'm proud of the fact that we're nearly 100% unpacked after 5 months which, when compared to when we lived in our old house, is a near miracle.

Another cool thing about our house is that we're friends with the people who owned it two owners ago. They've shared with us all kinds of photos they took while living there, so it's a little surreal to see how they used various spaces, especially since I'll recognize a piece of furniture and think, "Oh, they have that in ___ room at their current house now." Also, we have various acquaintances who remember the family who lived there for several decades before our friends bought it so I've already been regaled with stories of good times and parties. You couldn't hope for more! Oh, and yes, the house is haunted but we haven't been bothered too much. That's what happens when you buy a 1910 house.

Stress Overload in Buying and Selling

2018-10-15T12:30:00.000-04:00

In the almost 2 years since I last posted, a lot has changed. Some has not.

The big change is that we're selling our house. We're also buying a new home. We even have a buyer for our house. It's never simple though.

In order for us to buy our new home, our contract has a contingency that we must sell our house. That contract ends November 1st.

When we accepted our buyer's offer on our house, she didn't know until a full month later that she had to sell her house in order to buy our house. Her retirement community house has been on the market now since August.

Our mortgage commitment expired on Friday. Our interest rate lock expires today. The other deadline is looming. We will need multiple extensions at this point. Financially, we're not in a place where we can make the down payment out of savings, pay for movers because we can't physically do that job ourselves anymore, and still pay for the mortgage and utilities on our current house.

Being in limbo like this sucks. We're still showing our house given that our realtor is hoping we get a better offer since we had no contingency clause with our current buyer. He also doesn't know when she'll be able to sell her place.

Until we got the news about her situation, we had been diligently paring down furniture and stuff. We have quite a few packed boxes lining the walls. I had packed away my winter clothes thinking we wouldn't need them for at least a month or two because we were supposed to be in our new house by early September.

But here we are.

Because we can't do anything by halves, we also threw in Matt getting major surgery at the beginning of December. That can be moved, but only by a few weeks to a month. It's much-needed surgery but it also comes with being down for 6-weeks.

It has been increasingly hard to stay positive and to not let the stress wear me down. It's a major fight to stay on task at home and work. I've always worked hard to make sure I didn't let my personal life affect work life, but the stress has bled over to there. I did get away last week for a couple days for an on-the-road Rolling Hills Radio but even that, as fun as it was, wasn't really relaxing. I'm sure my friends and family are super sick of hearing me complain about the situation. It's also frustrating to have people ask how the new house is and have to update them, because we actually did sell our house less than 3 days after listing it but that buyer walked on us 2 weeks later.

I really need good news soon because this is paralyzing.

Away, Away

2016-11-15T22:20:00.001-05:00

We're on a mini-vaca in an area where they're experiencing forest fires (thanks asshole arsonist). It's an area that makes Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls, Ontario look rinky dinky. Holy cow. Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg is no joke. Tomorrow we try to escape it and find some peace and nature in the (literally) Smoky Mountains.

Where A News Junkie Goes During Social Media Blackout

2016-11-14T07:49:00.001-05:00

I'm a fan of sites that automatically refresh. It means I don't have to worry I missed something because I hadn't refreshed in the last 5 seconds.

This social media break is going to kill me. Well, it was until I got to today: Monday. Today is the day I get my first Skimm since Friday.

I signed up for the free service earlier this year and have found it's an easy way to keep up with non-local news. Granted, I only receive one email a day but it's enough since it preps me for what to expect after I finish consuming it along with my first cuppa caffeine.

If you want to check it out for yourself, use this link as they've teamed up with FEED who will donate a meal to a child for every click through.

When You Love Pumpkin Flavored Everything

2016-11-13T09:00:00.000-05:00

Some years ago, my friend Jane created a group on Facebook called "Everything Pumpkin Flavored" in honor of all those wonderful pumpkin spiced items that come out in the Fall. The group has garnered several hundred members over the years, posting recipes, beers, food, and weird things like pumpkin-spice dog treats.

As one of the admins of the group, I had the horrifying realization that I deactivated my Facebook account at the HEIGHT of everything-pumpkin-flavored season. MY GOD! Thankfully, I can still blog so I will share with you two links that I also sent to my friend/EPV admin, Ali, for her to post in my absence:

Get Your Pumpkin Fix With This Pie In A Mug

Make Better Pumpkin Pie With Twice Pureed Canned Pumpkin

On Tuesday, I'll be baking my pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving. I'm going to try baking both pies at once per instructions given to me by my co-worker, Leigh Anne. This will be life-changing if it works out as it usually takes me all day to bake the 4-5 pies that I bring for Thanksgiving dinner.

Elections REALLY Got You Down?

2016-11-12T19:55:00.001-05:00

If you find you're having difficulty coping with things lately, here's an article that might help:

Top 10 free and affordable mental health and counseling options.

Autumn Break

2016-11-12T16:53:00.001-05:00

I'm on day 2 of no Facebook and Twitter. I will admit I'm feeling a little twitchy. I figured at least I could blog given how many times I've picked up my cell and stared at it in frustration.

Why am I off social media? I needed a break from the endless negativity that ratcheted up after the elections. I also needed a break from news in general. Aside from social media being a time suck, I also found it affecting my mood and productivity.

I figured a two and a half week break would be a good timeframe since I'm also on vacation from work. I'm still looking at Instagram and have the ability to tweet my blog posts on Twitter courtesy of a Chrome app that allows me to tweet from the address line. Gone, but not for good!

There Are Some Bad People On The Rise

2016-11-11T09:19:00.001-05:00

https://youtu.be/xrsOQyfxDtM

[UPDATED VERSION!] The Trouble With The Electoral College

2016-11-10T17:19:00.001-05:00

In light of this week's Presidential election, here's an update on why the Electoral College is awful. Watch the original video after this short update:

[UPDATE] The YouTuber went back and did ANOTHER update to correct himself on some issues. It's also worth watching especially because one part of it reminded me of the awful governing situation we have in New York State that is referred to as "3 men in a room."

Selling Bridges and The Like...

2016-04-01T07:24:00.002-04:00

No new jokes-on-you this year, but if you want to know all the fun I've had in the past on this date, check out posts from the following years. The 2008 post really got some people going while my parents thought we were actually moving after they read the 2011 post:

2015
2011
2008
2003

Rolling Hills Radio

2016-02-25T17:18:00.000-05:00

Last April, I auditioned to be the announcer for the local, live-recorded radio show, Rolling Hills Radio. The former announcer, the most awesome Jason Sample, was stepping down after being part of the show since its inception. I hadn't done anything regularly on WRFA-LP in several years and thought it would be a cool way to get back into doing some on-air work in addition to getting to hear some great music every month.

Apparently I still had the vocal chops, as I've been with the show now since the end of April 2015. It's been quite a ride! Most people who know me know I'm an alt-rock kind of girl. I sure love my electric guitars and drums! At the same time, I also like some singer-songwriters and have been more open-minded when it came to other styles of music since I took History of American Pop Music as a freshman at Baldwin-Wallace (College) University.

Over the summer, the semi-annual Chautauqua Institution show featured Michael Gablicki from Rusted Root. Being able to be the Donna Pardo for this gig was the stuff of dreams. I had a damned hard time not fan-girling all over the stage as I sat feet away from the one of the guys responsible for providing the soundtrack to my senior year in high school through my early college years.

One of the other cool things about Rolling Hills Radio is the stories. I love hearing our host, Ken, draw out the stories from featured musicians about why they write, how they got started, and other fantastic tidbits.

Tonight I get to hear some more. Podcasts of all the shows are available on WRFA's website along with the link to where you can buy tickets to future shows too. Maybe I'll see some of you there sometime.

Carpool Karoke

2016-02-19T17:06:00.000-05:00

My latest obsession/spirit animal is James Corden and his Carpool Karaoke sketches. Here's the latest one with Sia:

If it wasn't for YouTube, I'd never get to see this kind of fun stuff that comes out of Late Night TV. My night owl tendencies I had as a baby went dormant at some point and 10pm is my bedtime lately.

Book Duels

2016-02-19T12:30:00.000-05:00

I'm having a stare-off with a pile of unread books on my coffee table while some e-books wink at me from the Kindle app on my phone.

We're more than halfway through February and I've completed just 2%, or 5 books behind, of my 2016 Reading Challenge on GoodReads.

I lowered my goal for this year to 45 from last year's ambitious goal of 50 books. I was 3 books shy of meeting my goal once December 31st rolled around, so I thought I'd be slightly more realistic about how 2016 would go. Honestly, that's still a pretty crazy goal given that I hadn't come anywhere near reading that many books for many years. There were some years where if I read 5 books, that was a lot. I'm at a point where I have one or two books that have been waiting for years to be read. I know at least one of them was on the coffee table when I wrote this post.

If you're on GoodReads and want to link up or just see what I've been reading or want to read, you can find me here.

Bloggery (a repost)

2016-02-18T17:00:00.000-05:00

I wrote this on another site:

Perhaps I'm too old for the reveal-all-confessional type of blogging but reading claw marks lately makes me want to start blogging again to at least expand upon the thoughts I wouldn't otherwise write out in a Facebook post or vague tweet.
A couple of years ago, I took the month of February off from Facebook under the premise that the time I wasn't wasting on Facebook could be channeled into other things. I blogged quite a bit, I read a few books, got out a little, and generally tried to avoid looking at anything on there. It wasn't perfect, by far. A fair amount of friends still use Facebook to communicate about social events and general happenings, so I was out of the loop on all of that, thus defeating part of my goal to be in better touch with hanging out with them. Weird how that shit works.
Ultimately, I think I want more conversation. The introvert in me loves social media because it allows me form a complete thought and reply to what I'm reading. In the early days, blogging allowed me to write long essays of my thoughts. Now? I share links and a couple lines of dialogue. It's not much different than my in-person interactions. The obvious problem is whether anyone actually wants to listen or read and if they have to patience to even interact in a thoughtful way in response. Maybe I don't give people enough credit.
So going back around to my first paragraph, I would like to blog more but I just don't know if I can. I don't have anonymity on my current blog. This post is friends-only public. I don't necessarily enjoy the idea of having to start a new blog from scratch to try to have a certain kind of anonymity but there are a lot of things I wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable talking about on my current blog. I don't need to jeopardize my job or relationships. Not that I am doing horrible things or plan to say horrible things, but when you live in a small city you do have to be careful who you target if you want to spout off about something. Self-censorship is a real, daily occupation.

My best friend had this to say when I debated about whether to just post from here or start a new blog and ohmygodwhatifIoffendanyone,

"you're a big girl now
a real, grown-up woman with her own thoughts and opinions
you're going to be 40 this year, for crying out loud"

So that's that. Stay tuned...

District Coffee FTW!

2015-04-01T07:00:00.000-04:00

I just learned about this cool new project that the BPU is working on to help combat issues with water main breaks in the winter time and provide a tasty new service to customers in the service area. The District Coffee project will tie into the heat exchange system of District Heating where both the water for District Heat and cold brewed coffee will be heated in separate tanks by waste heat. After being heated, the coffee will be distributed in lines that run alongside water mains, which will help keep those mains from freezing in the cold winter months. As water mains and the district coffee lines will be adjacent, it will be easy for local businesses and residents to tap into that line for an on demand supply of hot coffee. An initial hook-up fee and monthly fee will be assessed to those who opt to take part in the service. Hey, it’s a better way to get coffee on demand than using a Keurig!

2014 Moratorium

2014-12-31T10:43:00.003-05:00

It doesn't seem fair to do a moratorium in a year I'm still living in, if just for a few more hours, but I felt the urge to scribble a post.

2014 had a lot of good moments. It was a kind of relief from everything that had happened over the previous two years between Matt's mom dying and losing our dogs, Buddy and Zak.

Accomplishments: This one is not my own but I consider it a pretty major deal that Matt not only completed his Bachelor's Degree through Houghton College but he maintained a 4.0 the entire time!

Matt and I also celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in July. It doesn't really seem like it has been 10 years!

Travel:

Four-day trip to Washington D.C. in March to see our friends, Brian & Tim as well as getting to see M. (long time friend and shenanigans associate) and Brandy (Jamestown transplant)
Overnight to Cleveland, OH in May to take part in an alumni orchestra rehearsal at Baldwin-Wallace under Dwight Oltman's baton one last time. Saw many old friends.
10th Wedding Anniversary trip to Burlington, VT with a day trip to Montreal in September to finally meet Maurice.
plus numerous trips to Rochester, Buffalo, and Erie, PA.

Books: I read at least 15 books according to a scan of my Goodreads list in 2014, which is a marked increase from recent years.

Movies: Between Netflix, movies at The Reg, and our local theatre chain, we saw some good flicks including The Monuments Men, The Way Way Back, We Are The Best!, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Le Week-End, Guardians Of The Galaxy, Frozen, Mrs. Brown, A Single Man, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, The Trip, Funny Face, Slacker, New York, I Love You; Coffee & Cigarettes, Don Jon, Blue Is The Warmest Color, Geography Club, and The Interview.

Music: My top ten artists according to last.fm for 2014 have a lot of overlap when you consider that Johnny Marr and Morrissey both were part of The Smiths and Adam Schlesinger is writing/singing/performing songs for both Fountains Of Wayne and Ivy.

Fountains Of Wayne (132 plays)
U2 (126 plays)
Morrissey (99 plays)
Taylor Swift (62 plays)
The Smiths (59 plays)
Ladyhawk (52 plays)
Enya (51 plays)
XTC (48 plays)
Johnny Marr (47 plays)
Ivy (44 plays)

Violining: My violin was attached to my neck most of this Fall but for overall ensembles/concerts that I performed with this year, I offer this:

March - "Annie Get Your Gun" at Falconer High School
May - Jamestown Area Community Orchestra Spring concert at Jamestown High School
October - Jamestown Area Community Orchestra Fall Concert
November - "Les Miserables" at Jamestown Community College
December - The Living Christmas Tree at First Covenant Church

Random Bits: I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism in October and have been on medications since that seem to have stabilized my levels so far. Matt made the decision in 2014 to get Lasik surgery on his eyes, but that won't happen until 2015. We bought a fancy, new convection oven, 5-burner gas stove in December after another pecan pie filling failure on Thanksgiving. I also bought a Pono device after buying Neil Young's pitch hook/line/sinker. It really does have great sound quality although I will admit I'm still mad at Apple for discontinuing the iPod Classic as that probably would have been my music player replacement for my iPod Touch, which is old and doesn't hold nearly enough music for my liking.

Looking Ahead to 2015: Who knows what could happen? It's going to be a year of some change with my office being moved to City Hall, Matt being able to see without glasses, and the fact that it's an election year for our Mayor. I've never been a fan of resolutions because they're far too easy to break, but I'm hoping that we go into 2015 with an open mind and patience for what lies ahead.

28 Days Later

2014-03-01T09:00:00.000-05:00

Here I am at the end of 28 days away from Facebook. What have I been up to?

Books I've Read:
Morrissey: Autobiography (UK Edition)
Why Can't I Be You - Allie Larkin
Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell
Summer In A Glass: The Coming of Age of Winemaking in the Finger Lakes - Evan Dawson

Movies I've Seen:
The Monuments Men
The Way Way Back

Blog Entries I've Written = 29

Pounds Lost = 2

Exercise Classes Attended = 8 (guessing at this since I only started recording on Feb 18th)

Nights Spent Snuggling on the Coach with Sammy & McKinley while watching many episodes of Poirot on Netflix = Too numerous to count

Outings Out Into the Cold to See Friends Socially That Weren't Connected to Work/Boards/Organizational Events = 3

Phone Calls to Parents = Three. One 2-hour call and one 1.5-hour call and one 40-minute call.

New Beers/Ciders Imbibed = 7
Southern Tier Brewing - 2XOne
Southern Tier Brewing - Grand Arbor
Otter Creek Brewing - Citra Mantra
Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits - Tongue Buckler
Stella Artois - Cidre
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery - 75 Minute IPA
Lagunitas Brewing Company - A Little Sumpin' Wild Ale

Musical Rehearsals Attended - 2. Will increase exponentially in the next week

Paczkis Consumed Prior to Fat Tuesday - One solitary over-filled, seemingly double-glazed wonder

Tickets Purchased To See Morrissey In Concert at Artpark: - 3. One for me and 2 for my cousin and his friend.

Buffalo Sabres Traded: Two

Stealing & Recovering a $5 Million Stradivarius in Milwaukee

2014-02-17T10:09:00.000-05:00

It's easy to put a romantic spin on a story about the theft of a Stradivarius violin, but it was anything but for Milwaukee Symphony Concertmaster Frank Almond when he found himself tasered and his $5 million "Lipinski" Stradivarius stolen just before he got in his car following a concert.

Indulge me with a moment of levity. I can't help it. I imagine that there are many in my age group who automatically hear the pronunciation offered by Vincent Furnier, known professionally as Alice Cooper, in this movie scene:

Done? Done.

Almond recently told his side of the story to The Violinist's Laurie Niles.

Fortunately, the tale ends positively with the recovery of the violin and the arrest of the two individuals suspected in the case. Almond was back on stage with the "Lipinski" in concert a week after it was recovered.

One of the things I appreciated is that the value of both of the bows that resided in the violin case along with the Stradivarius were divulged: $20,000 and $30,000. Stradivarius violins are so desired because they produce an amazing sound, are rare, and still retain some mystery in terms of the exact combination of materials that work to give the instrument its sound. But every violin needs a bow if you are going to realize the instrument's potential. A bow's construction is just as important as its larger partner. Of course, a bow isn't much without a violin where you can still make music on a violin in the absence of a bow.

My public service announcement for the day to any parent who has a child who is becoming more serious about being a violinist and who is playing on a full-size instrument, is that it's worthwhile to invest in owning a violin and it's worthwhile to buy a quality bow. Your wallet may be unhappy in the short term, but your child will enjoy playing on a better quality violin versus struggling with a violin-shaped-object. The goal of purchasing a violin is not just to save on rental costs but to give your child the opportunity of a lifelong enjoyment of her instrument. Here are some other thoughts on the topic.

Coffee To The Extreme

2014-02-16T16:31:00.003-05:00

Caffeine addicts, like me, will joke about needing a mainline of the stuff on particularly rough mornings. It's probably a good thing it never occurred to most of us to try something like this. As the sub title says, Never Ever Do This At Home: