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A Honeymoon at Troldhagen

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sun, 31 Jan 2021 21:47:00 +0000

In the previous century (1999), Doug and I were married and flew off to Norway for our honeymoon. Since we were all consumed with wedding preparations, I just booked a 10 day tour and let them decide which cities and sights to see. Edvard Grieg is a national treasure in Norway and thankfully, the tour included a visit to his former home, Troldhaugen. This statue of Grieg looks like a miniature, but I looked up his height and he was only 5 feet tall, so it's probably life-size, a tiny man!

Troldhaugen is a modest house, but you can feel the presence of the musical genius. A concert hall was built on the site, complete with a grass roof, one of my favorite things about Norway.

No chance of me trying the piano in the concert hall, but at least I got a photo.

I hunted down these photos in our photo album, but then I remembered that I had ScanCafe scan all my negatives a few years ago. Sure enough, I found these high quality images on my hard drive that I had forgotten about.

Twenty-six years and a pandemic later, I finally learned my favorite Grieg Lyric Piece, Wedding Day at Troldhaugen (as opposed to this post, A Honeymoon at Troldhaugen).

For an authentic recording of all the Lyric Pieces, check out Leif Ove Andsnes playing them on Grieg's 1892 Steinway at Troldhaugen.

Looking forward to traveling again after the pandemic!

Enabling SSL on Blogger with You Are Not Authorized Error

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sun, 03 Jan 2021 19:09:00 +0000

Everyone knows that SSL encryption has been required of all browsers since 2017. If you don't have it nowadays, you get the dreaded Not Secure warning next to the URL.

But what if you have a blog hosted on Blogger with a custom domain name? Back then, it was costly to purchase SSL and even trickier to implement (which I've done for my work company). In 2019, Google started to provide free SSL for Blogger blogs. When I got around to implementing it, I got the dreaded "You are not authorized to use this domain" error. Clearly the custom domain name works and I own it, why the error?

After much searching, I found that I set up this blog custom domain many eons ago (10+ years) and Google as since changed the DNS configuration for Blogger custom domains. The only way I got this to work was to first remove the custom domain from Blogger and then reimplement it with the new CNAME. So from the beginning...

Log into your domain provider. I use GoDaddy, so screen shots will be shown from there.
Go to your Blogger menu and click Settings on the left.
Scroll down to Publishing and click on Custom Domain.
Click Delete (I know this is scary, it's just temporary...)
Now add the domain name back to the custom domain. This time, you will see an error with some small print saying how to set up the DNS configuration with your domain provider. Copy the CNAME information down in Notepad. This info is unique to your blog.
Go back to your domain provider and navigate to the DNS settings for your website. In GoDaddy, it's Manage DNS under the 3 dots.
If you already have the custom domain, you should already have the CNAME entry for www to ghs.google.com. Click Add at the bottom and add the CNAME with all the cryptic characters. It should look something like this when you're done.
Go back to Blogger and add the Custom Domain name again. It should work this time.
Now scroll down to HTTP section and enable HTTPS availability.
The status will change to Available shortly. Try to access your site with the https:// prefix. It will take 15 minutes to an hour to become effective. Be patient!
After you can access your site over https://, then you can enable the HTTP redirect.
Enjoy your free SSL!

Zipline Platform from Solidworks to Reality

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sat, 28 Nov 2020 18:28:00 +0000

Years ago, I installed a zipline between trees for the kids to play on. Since we didn't want to install a pool or get a trampoline, I decided on a swing between trees and zipline so we'd have outdoor playthings that were completely different from everyone else.

For years we just climbed a step ladder to get onto the zipline, which was ok, but not exactly safe or convenient.

This year, as part of our home improvement quarantine activities, I finally designed a zipline platform. Having just learned Solidworks in the past year, I whipped up this design in a matter of hours! Here's the model, next to the modeled tree. The bar in the back is a handrail to steady yourself when standing on the platform.

And the assembly drawing:

There's a bill of materials for assembly. The different lengths of lumber of simply different configurations of the 2x4 or 2x3 base part.

We were lucky to have leftover decking and some lumber, but needed to purchase more 2x4s. Here's the cut list for determining how much lumber to buy.

This shopping trip started a Snapchat Home Depot meme for Dova. Apparently none of her girlfriends' moms take them Home Depot. Geez, who's gonna raise the next generation of Rosie the Riveter?! Also, straight 2x4s are are to find!

We call it our big life guard chair. We ended up cutting off 6" off the bottom of the legs because the platform was too high. Then later we decided to raise the starting point of the zipline anyway, so that wasn't necessary. It's secured by to the tree by lag bolts using the extra 36" 2x4s (6th row above) attached to a 2x4 the same width of the tree attached to the stand.

If we were to do it again, I'd make the steps up to the top at an angle so that it's not as tippy. Usually we have someone stand of the backside to keep it steady, although it does stay put without it.

Here's master builder Doug testing out the platform:

And now that Dova is a teen, it's a big hit with S'mores night in the dark!

Hancock Shaker Village Cross Stitch

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 02:37:00 +0000

It only takes a pandemic for me to finish a cross-stitch!

A decade ago in 2010, we first saw this painting of The Tree of Life, "Seen and painted by Hannah Cohoon. City of Peace Monday July 3rd 1854", from The Andrews Collection at Hancock Shaker Village. I was fascinated by the design which felt so balanced and abundant.

The following year, I posted about the cross-stitch version of this painting in their store, but none were in stock. I believe it was around $30 so I wasn't about to buy it anyway. I took this quick photo and then painstakingly mapped my own pattern in Excel, adding a title and contrasting border.

For years, the embroidery hoop only allowed the letters “cock shaker villa” to be shown from the words "Hancock Shaker Village”. It was our nickname for the piece.

Now it is finally complete! I've shared the pattern here. The printable pattern has the standard 10 stitch grid (best viewed at 50% zoom). The only embroidery floss colors I purchased were the greens, brown and blue, listed on the last tab. The light coral and red were taken from left over floss. The cross-stitch fits in a 8.5"x11" frame nicely.

It's nice to finally get these crafting projects done!

Crochet Piano Keyboard

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sun, 20 Sep 2020 16:05:00 +0000

I've finally made good use of my craft time and completed this 88-key crochet piano scarf. It's based on this patter from Crochet Spot. It's not exactly the size of a real keyboard, as the keys are a little too wide and too short.

But it does make for a nice conversation piece if you keep the right side out at all times (the back side just has extra black and white crochet stripes).

And you can get this fantastic empow(her) shirt at at our local Indigo Store. RIP RBG.

Unmastering the Cable Knit Hat

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 17:33:00 +0000

A couple years ago, I tried to make this free cable knit hat pattern from Michael's using I Love This Chunky Yarn from the craft store that I don't shop from anymore (don't even want to link to them!).

They look decent enough right? Except it was just too tight. I tried wearing it once to a ski resort (while not skiing of course, always use a helmet while skiing!) to convince myself that it was okay and would loosen up, but it kept popping off my head because it was too tight. We ended up donating them, because it would probably fit kids with smaller heads fine.

For the next version made with Lion Brand Hometown Yarn in Lake Tahoe Blue, I tried to make a loose slouchy cable hat, so I added an extra cable which is 8 stitches. And I made it extra tall.

This took nearly two skeins and ended up being really heavy. Sure you can put it on your head for the cool slouchy look, but it just falls off immediately after the photo shoot.

If you put in on top of your head so it doesn't fall off the back, it fits too loosely and just falls over your face.

Clearly, this cable hat doesn't work either. I completely frogged the hat (didn't want to donate this disaster), and started again. This time I used the Aspen Hat crochet pattern from 5 Little Monsters. It worked perfectly.

I was even able to reuse the pom pom.

So the key to making a chunky cable knit hat is not to make a chunky cable knit hat, you will never get the right number of cable stitches to work!

Crochet Heart Wreath

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sat, 08 Feb 2020 02:22:00 +0000

It's that time of the year for heart-shaped decorations! Here's a heart-shaped wreath covered in crochet flowers made from any scrap yarn with red, pink or purple hues.

Really, I only used scrap yarn for this project! Way too much pink and red yarn in this house... The only thing I purchased was some floral wire that I shaped into a heart by twisting it together, overlapping it 3 times.

Darice Floral Paper Wrap Wire Brown 8 Yards

For the flowers, I used a variety of free patterns from my fellow crochet artists. The largest flower in the center is Lisa's Rose Crochet Flower Pattern.

Another interesting pattern is Mikey's Crochet Bee Happy Flowers. This is reminiscent of the Crazy Exponential Necklace as it simply triples from row to row. I couldn't make it to the fourth row, but three is plenty. Up close, this flower looks like brain folds!

The majority of the flower uses Jenn's Small Rosette Pattern. It's quick and easy to make.

Attaching the flowers to the wireframe is a little tricky. The first time I tried to assemble them, the flowers would flop to the side and wouldn't stay in the front. I found a technique that worked to keep the flowers steady.

Using a yarn needle, thread one end between the wires so that the flower faces forward. This may be one or two wires depending on where the flower falls on the wire twist. The flower below is threaded under one wire.

Thread one end in between wires on the front side

Tie the flower on the backside of the wireframe. The flower below, shown from the backside, is threaded under two wires. Arrange all the flowers with ties until you are happy with the spacing.

Once all the flowers are positioned, untie each flower and knot it in place. Then wrap one end around all three wires and knot it again. Trim the excess ends. This is how it will look from the backside.

Hang and enjoy! Happy Valentine's Day!

Half Page Turns for Digital Sheet Music

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sat, 16 Nov 2019 01:58:00 +0000

Performing with one of my favorite page turners, Adam.

In 2012, we watched Christopher O'Riley perform on From the Top with a laptop folded back on the piano. This was before tablets were widely used, and certainly before the full-size iPad Pro came out.

Christopher O'Riley with Gordon Neidinger, mandolin, From the Top 2012

From the Top Photo by Neale Eckstein, 2017

Shortly afterward, Mr. O'Reilly switched to an iPad as seen here with Ifetayo Ali-Landing in 2017. Being a software geek through and through, I had to jump on the bandwagon. I didn't want to invest in an iPad Pro in case my efforts fell flat. I opted for a used (unfortunately discontinued) Samsung Galaxy Pro Tablet 12.2" and a Donner Bluetooth Pedal. At around $350 total, this is a much smaller investment than an iPad Pro 13" at $1000 and top off the line Page Flip Firefly Bluetooth Page Turner Pedal at $110.

Cheapness does come with a price. I lost 0.8" on the diagonal screen dimension (12.2" vs 13"), but because of the aspect ratio, this becomes even more in the horizontal direction in portrait mode. The width of the page determines how large the sheet music appears on the screen. Full-size sheet music is 9"x12" which is the same 4:3 aspect ratio as the iPad, or 1.333. Even 8.5"x11" pages have a similar 1.29 ratio. By comparison, a 16:9 ratio is 1.778. Here's a little math to determine the difference in the width of the two screens.

So the width of my 16:9 12.2" tablet screen is 6" versus the iPad at 7.8". That's a huge difference in width! So how does 6" look against the same music on a 9x12" page?

Actually, not that bad since music apps crop the white space of the page. At first, I was bothered by the bluish hue of the white background but I finally found the sepia tone to be more like sheet music paper.

The first thing I realized about using digital sheet music is that you have to turn the pages twice as often as paper sheet music. Paper sheet music in books or binders always show two pages at a time. This is fine when the music is not very complex, but when you in a complicated passage near the page turn this can be quite stressful. If you stomp the pedal too many times or press both pedals at once, the on-screen keyboard may pop up by accident or worse the program crashes. This would be disastrous in a performance!

My initial app for sheet music was Orpheus, but then I moved to MobileSheets for this feature: half page turns! I watched a fellow chamber music pianists effortless play a piano trio with his iPad Pro and asked him how he became comfortable turning pages with the pedal. He showed me his nifty forScore app (iOS only at a pricey $14.99!!) and how he uses half-page turns. Wait - doesn't that mean you have to turn pages twice as often, or 4 times the number paper sheet music turns?

With half-page turns, you press the pedal somewhere in the bottom half of the page and half of the next page pops on top of the screen. Then you seamlessly play from the bottom of the screen to the top of the screen without having to worry about pressing the pedal at exactly the right time. After you get to the next page at the top of the screen, you press the pedal again when it's convenient to fill down the rest of the page. So page turns are essentially decoupled from the actual playing and don't have to be timed perfectly right. Even though it's more presses, it's far less stressful.

But I didn't have an iPad Pro with the forScore app! With some searching, I found that the free version of MobileSheets also had half-page turns. It's a little tricky to enable, so here are the instructions (note the sepia tone which is easier on the eyes):

Tap and hold the screen to get the bottom toolbar.

Tap the page button (4th icon circled in green).

Under Display mode, select "Half Page". Also, you can set the Sepia tone lower on this settings page. Another setting I found invaluable was the page scaling mode (next button on the bottom toolbar). When you set to full screen, it stretches the page so that you don't get the letterbox wasted space you can see with the Orpheus screenshots at the beginning of this post.

Here is a half-page turn for a tricky passage in Beethoven's Archduke trio. You simply play from the bottom to the top of the page. In fact, this is a better way to learn the music through a paper page turn because you can see it all at once.

My first performance with digital sheet music was with Claude Bolling's Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano. My sheet music copy was purchased back in 1980 and is completely falling apart. Every time I practiced, more pages would opt to leave the binding and the scotch tape everywhere was getting ridiculous. The performance was definitely a bit more stressful with the digital page-turning, but it wasn't disastrous.

Still, I feel more comfortable with paper sheet music for performances. I mostly use digital sheet music to try out pieces before I decide to print them. Maybe someday I'll become more comfortable with it, but in the end, I'm still an old-fashioned paper sheet music gal. Thank goodness I didn't plunk down the money for the iPad Pro (although I'm sure I could find other uses for one)!

Not a Single Sport Girl Anymore

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 00:12:00 +0000

After many attempts to involve Dova in any sport besides gymnastics, she has finally found another home in Track and Field. Any sport with a ball didn’t agree with her; we had tried soccer, basketball and tennis, and didn’t even bother with softball and volleyball. I had long given up on getting great action shots of her gymnastics, opting to buy fantastic stills from the professionals.

But track has offered a whole of new photography opportunities. Here she is at the beginning of her track career in middle school.

She chose to do long jump and 100m hurdles for her events. I had suggested high jump since she's able to do all those fancy vaults in gymnastics, but it turns out that height matters more than vaulting abilities for the high jump. In her first meet, she placed 1st in long jump and 2nd in hurdles. Wow, I had no idea that she would do that well. She replied that she didn't join track to lose! Hey, what about being part of a team, hanging with your friends and being physically active? I asked her how far her long jump was and she replied 13' 3". 13 feet?? I was expecting something like 10!

I asked her how she learned the proper form for the long jump. She said the coaches didn't really teach them anything and everyone just had to do it. Somehow she knew how to throw her feet in front of her body for the landing thanks to great gymnastics core strength.

It was even more surprising that she did well at hurdles. Her middle school doesn't have an actual track, so during practices, they only set up a few hurdles in the grass to try out. She never actually ran a whole 100 meters with hurdles until her first meet. In fact, in her first race, she didn't realize that she had to run to the finish line after the last hurdle!

She did so well in her first year in track that she easily qualified for the middle school state meet. Now in her school's rinky-dink approach to athletics, there were no additional practices for the state meet and the coaches were not even present. First no hurdles, then no coaches! When we got to the meet, it was complete chaos trying to figure out how to get the team's bibs and all the kids to the right events. I was barely cutting it as the de facto coach mom! We were all quite overwhelmed by the great athletes that were bussed in from all over the state (undoubtedly with coaches too). Not surprisingly, Dova didn't do that well at states due to the lack of practices and the fact that she ran in the hurdles heat that had the girl that who broke the previous state record by 2 seconds! But it was still a great experience that pushed Dova to pursue track in high school.

Now I thought that going to high school level track would provide better coaches and equipment for practice but hasn't been the case yet. Her high school was recently rebuilt and the track was completely torn apart, so again, there was no home track to practice on! Her first race through hurdles was tripped up by falls and it turned out that she was running high hurdles and not low hurdles from middle school. Nonetheless, she persevered and managed to place 3rd in long jump, earning her a Varsity letter as a Freshman. With track cleats now, she flew for 15' 5".

Here's to many more great track seasons! (And gymnastics too!)

Jumping into Mechanics Hall

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Mon, 29 Oct 2018 20:02:00 +0000

People swear by visualization as a technique to achieve your dreams. As a parent, I always wanted my kids to succeed in music. Six years ago in 2012, we went to a concert at Mechanics Hall in Worcester. It was the first time the kids experienced this magnificent space. Adam was 11 and Dova was 8 years old.

I wanted them to feel comfortable in this space so we explored the stage a bit during intermission.

Of course, I made sure they "didn't go too far".

I mentioned, "Wouldn't it be nice if you could perform here one day?"

I took the first photo of the bustling hall, framed it and put it on the landing of the stairs to the second floor of our house so they would see it each time they went upstairs. Imagine yourself performing here...

Only three years later, Adam performed at Mechanics Hall with his school band as part of the MICCA Gold Medal Showcase. Woohoo! Visualization paid off! He's actually performed there six times since with various groups. In the last performance, I decided to capture the same shot but with Adam in the photo this time. He always stands out playing the bass.

And then I replaced the photo in the stairwell. Way to jump into the photo!

Living the Chamber Music Life

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sat, 27 Oct 2018 18:25:00 +0000

Chamber music has always been part of my life, starting with piano duets with fellow students as a child and moving to larger groups as an adult. Because what’s better than playing music by yourself? Playing in a group of course. There’s nothing so magical as playing completely in sync with other musicians, playing in harmony, breathing as one, passing themes back and forth. During rehearsals, we always laugh at funny mistakes and cheer at perfect endings.

Every once in a while, in rehearsal with really good players, the music is so overwhelmingly beautiful that you feel you’ve just touched the divine. You can close your eyes for a split second and everything is completely right with the world. You breathe in and hold your breath hoping to hang onto the sense of euphoria. It must be like an opioid high, but ever so brief. Then the music will carry you back to reality, as it is inherently rooted in the present time. Listen to this spot in the Schubert Trio Op. 99 for a minute as an example.

When Adam played the violin as his main instrument, we played several sonatas for violin and piano by Mozart and Beethoven. These are not violin sonatas with piano accompaniment but really chamber works as both instruments are equally important. It's a pet peeve when someone compliments my "piano accompaniment". If the music is specifically written as chamber music for piano and not a symphonic reduction for a concerto, it is not accompaniment! (Now stepping down from the soapbox...) I had always hoped to play chamber music with Adam in larger groups but he had moved on to playing the bass where there is a lot less chamber music and he had also become a busy high schooler.

One of my lifelong dreams is to play the Schubert Trout quintet. After playing in piano trios for years, I joined a string quartet at my music school and suggested the Trout. I had the Music Minus One version and was never able to play it up to tempo with the CD, but thought I could handle it with real people. Little did I know that this quintet was scored for violin, viola, cello, and bass. The coach (a cellist) expressed her concern about trying to combine the cello and bass parts or shifting everyone to play a lower part (2nd violin to viola, viola to cello) which would be a lot of work. When I heard this, I suggested that Adam play the bass part especially since he was already at the music school for his lesson. Just a few minutes later, he was playing with our group. It was a double dream come true for me, playing the Trout quintet and playing it with my son! I was in chamber music heaven. It was such a thrill!

A couple months later, we were at a party of another chamber coach, a professional musician, who specifically asked everyone to bring instruments and music to play. On the drive over, I was so excited to have Adam possibly play with us. I kept exclaiming, "This is it! This is living the life before technology, where people could only entertain themselves by playing music together. This is my dream to be able to play like this for fun with professional musicians!" Adam was not so keen on this "ultimate party". When we arrived, he was extremely reluctant to take his bass out and I had to have a student cellist in the Boston Conservatory who he knew give him a pep talk. When one of the hosts asked who was available to play with which instruments, I mentioned that Adam played the bass, and his eyes immediately lit up and he said, "Trout!"

Moments later, here we are living the dream (doubled up violins). And we got to perform the Trout again in a lovely bucolic setting in Harvard MA (with even more varied instruments). The A and A-flat keys were sticky on this not-so-lovely electric Roland piano, but at least the pedal didn't wander away.

We also played the Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 (had to hunt for the harpsichord voice, number 66 on the Roland).

Over the summer I convinced Adam to enroll in a chamber music camp, where he was really in his element. They played movements from the Dvorak Bass Quintet and Hummel Piano Quintet.

I love this photo because you can actually feel the collaboration going on.

Camp photos courtesy of coach extraordinaire Amy Lee

The performances were magnificent! I was so glad that Adam got his own taste of the chamber music life.

Living the Jazz Life

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sun, 19 Aug 2018 15:29:00 +0000

At my music school, my chamber group was invited to perform in an art gallery opening in the concert hall. We were asked only a week in advance but thought we could pull off a few movements of the Trout Quintet. We had a 45-minute time slot so we’d have to play some easy filler pieces as well. The violinist in our group suggested that her two sons could play some jazz on trumpet and piano instead having us scramble to fill the time. I immediately offered Adam to play the bass with them. Adam, who was present in the room, nodded and said he could do it. The violinist said that her sons would be in contact with Adam to discuss songs. Sounds good, no problem!

At this point, Adam’s jazz experience was mostly in the high school jazz band where they learn and rehearse a select few songs to perfection every year (he also racks up a bunch of Outstanding Musicianship awards for these). The only pickup jazz experience he had was several weeks of jazz ensemble in music school and a pickup jazz combo in summer camp the previous summer. When the boys gave him a list of songs to look from the Real Book, Adam started to panic because he had not heard of them. I said we’d just listen to them on YouTube. We started to listen while Adam followed along in the Real Book. Immediately the performances veered off the sheet music and Adam said he couldn’t do it. “Why are you making me do this?” I started to doubt myself in volunteering him, although he was in the room and never once seemed unsure of it when we said yes. Before the art opening, he never tried playing the songs by himself and keep dreading the day. On the day or the art opening, the boys were going to meet and rehearse the songs for a half hour before going on. When the day came, Adam had to rehearse with our chamber group first and then bow out to meet the brothers. After introductions, they actually only got 15 minutes of actual rehearsal before playing in public for 25 minutes. We played the chamber music first which was mediocre at best since one of the movements was fairly new.

Click play!

Then the jazz trio took up residence and the whole atmosphere changed. It was easy going, mellow and smooth, as if Adam had been playing with the brothers for a long time. The whole room relaxed as the audience chatted quietly while viewing the artwork. Adam looked completely natural without a hint of nerves. Whew, I knew he could do it! To be honest, there was no way I could ever pull something like that off and I was beaming with pride that Adam could. There were a couple of spots where I noticed Adam got a little lost, but he played right through as if nothing happened. No one else could tell. I asked him about it afterward and how he recovered. He said he just he just played two chords until he figured out where he was. In fact, you can always tell if he’s made a mistake when you see him smiling. Like it’s simply amusing to be lost, no panic whatsoever. Now that’s living the jazz life!

At a jazz jam at the other music school Adam attends (which has a much larger jazz program), I was amazed at how versatile the musicians were. During the course of the jam, a trombone instructor scatted for a song. In another song, she sat down and played the drums. Then she switched it up and played the piano! Adam arrived in the middle where there was another bass player student already playing. The other bassist set down his bass, gave Adam the amplifier plug and then picked up the electric guitar while Adam played the bass. The leader was also a trombonist but spent most of the time playing the piano and drums (but didn’t sing as well). Even the saxophonist put down his horn and played the piano and drums for several songs! Wow, that’s some real musicianship! Adam, who plays only the violin and bass, clearly needs to pick up a few more instruments! We already have the piano at home, although I am completely useless at helping with anything jazz related unless the music is completely written out.

Jammin' - play me!

It appears so effortless when jazz players jam. There’s usually just a skeleton of the music written out in the Real Book but instinctively everyone knows where the changes and the handoff to soloists. The handoff could be just a look or a nod, and it is also completely OK just to talk to each other in the middle. No one ever gets lost or if they do can recover without anyone noticing. This concept is completely foreign to this completely classical pianist. In chamber music, when things fall apart, it’s usually full stop and then announcing let’s start at measure 132. In one performance of the Trout Quintet second movement, I sensed that we were getting out of sync and started to panic. Eight measures before the cadence I started the harmonic descent and miraculously we all arrived at the end at the same time. It was truly a miracle that we saved it. Even Adam thought it was a miracle. But this sort of miracle happens all the time in jazz.

Adam solos - play me!

A unique thing about jazz is probably the most frightening for beginners - solo improvisations. Adam had always refused to do solos, but thankfully this instructor makes him do it. And again, it sounds so effortless and fun. The best thing about being a jazz musician is being able to drop into a group and simply play without having hours of rehearsals together ahead of time. You can just go and make music together. So happy that Adam can live the jazz life!

Happy Stars and Stripes

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Wed, 04 Jul 2018 13:22:00 +0000

After making the knitted American Flag wreath, I had lots of leftover red, white and blue yarn, so I went on an American flag craft frenzy. First I created this infinity scarf using a 1x1 rib stitch. The same star pattern was used to attach stars on both sides of the blue section. I couldn't quite figure out the right length, one loop looks too long and two loops look too small!

After that, I made this mini crochet flag using this free pattern. Of course, I wanted to be authentic and sew exactly 50 white beads in the correct pattern. This painstaking task took about 10 times longer than crocheting the two sides, so I only beaded one side. And what exactly do you do with a mini crochet flag? I wasn't going to use it as a keychain, so it just sits there on the table for random crafts.

Still, the best flag craft is the American Flag wreath. Go check out the pattern!

Happy Fourth of July!

High Flying College Visit from UConn to Foxwoods to Upton Bass

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 02:02:00 +0000

We had the fantastic opportunity to visit Foxwoods and try out their HighFlyer Zipline. Since this required taking the kids out of school, I was determined to make the most of the day. Dova was away for her 8th grade Washington DC trip so it was going to be a mother and son day for Adam and me. Although Adam is a junior in high school, he has no idea where he wants to go to college and what he would major in, so in tiger mom fashion, I created a list of suitable colleges that met our criteria of having a good engineering AND music programs within 200 miles (one of Adam's criteria). The University of Connecticut in Storrs was on the college list, so that was our first stop. Besides, two college visit days are allowed at his high school as an "excused absence". I just looked up the policy, and you "must provide proof of visit signed by college representative". Oops, next time!

Adam was not in the mood for pictures, but he was definitely in the mood for a day off from school, as seen by his choice of t-shirt, "Save Ferris". This strange multi-layered entranceway was to the Chemistry building.

Aha! I captured Adam in a selfie! Some of the grounds and dorms at UConn were really beautiful. We passed the somewhat dated United Technologies Engineering Building and I reminisced about my short employment at Sikorsky Aircraft 28(!!) years ago, long before United Technologies sold it to Lockheed Martin in 2015.

After our self-guided tour of UConn, we headed down to Foxwoods Casino and Resort. What a difference in venue from the rural collegiate campus. I asked Adam how his college visit day was going and he replied, "I'd like to go to college here [at Foxwoods]".

On this rainy day, the zip line wasn't open just yet, so we looked into the restaurant options. Adam had previously been to Foxwoods and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. I scanned the multitude of restaurants and saw that Junior's Restaurant had pastrami sandwiches. As soon as I uttered the word pastrami, Adam could think of nothing else. I reminisced how my father used to work at Long Island University in Brooklyn directly across the street from the original Junior's Restaurant on Flatbush Avenue. He used to bring home their world famous cheesecake all the time. This meant nothing to Adam, he was only interested in pastrami.

Mmm... pastrami #foxwoods

A post shared by Angela T (@moonfever0) on May 17, 2018 at 11:45am PDT

Did I mention that Adam had pastrami? Piles of tender, juicy, salty pastrami? I had a wonderful plate of lox and bagels, another New York delicatessen specialty. We could also view the zip line from the restaurant and saw some high flyers come down as we finished lunch.

It was finally time for our high flying flight. We've all been ziplining before in the Berkshire mountains, but never off the roof of a 350-foot tall building! After watching the safety video, we arrived at the top of Fox Tower.

Although ziplining sounds physically challenging, this ride is not at all. It really only requires stepping into the harness and climbing about two flights of stairs to get to the roof. Everything else, including all the safety straps, is done for you.

We headed down the line at the same time, but Adam beat me down due to his higher weight.

For the landing, we were taught to brace by leaning back and extending our legs. Adam actually hit the stop block on the landing.

I was laughing here because I stopped way before the stop block and I wasn't bracing for anything at all. They pulled me in by grabbing my feet.

It was a fantastic flight! No, my hair didn't get grayer because of the flight, it was the wind, really!

We wandered outside the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center while waiting for the shuttle back to the hotel and finally made it back to purchase these fabulous professional photos.

To make the most of this college visit day, we then headed to nearby Upton Bass to look at instruments for Adam. We stayed for nearly two hours trying at least a dozen basses. He even brought his own bow, but we didn't end up picking one.

We finally made it home by around 9pm. It isn't often that I get to spend that much quality time with Adam, he's a very busy young man. We had quite the jam-packed adventuresome "college visit" day!

Thanks to Foxwoods for providing lunch and tickets to the HighFlyer Zipline. Use code "hfbloggin" for a $10 discount on your HighFlyer Zipline tickets! Watch this video for more info.

Happy Sunflower Crochet

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Thu, 10 May 2018 18:33:00 +0000

I had a large amount of yellow Super Saver yarn, so I thought, what better project to use it on than a sunflower? I found this pattern online but created it with a few modifications: Amigurumi: Happy Sunflower.

At the end of July last year, we drove through Lee, New Hampshire and passed by this incredible sunflower farm in full bloom. I have never seen so many sunflowers in one place!

Image credit: Coppal House Farm

The process of creating this amigurumi was a long one. In the middle, it looked like some alien plant had taken over my table.

When I started the assembly, everything looked disproportionate. The head looked way too big and the petals looked too small. So I frogged back the head several rows, which made the eyes look super large, but not too bad. I also didn't have any felt for the eyes so I just sewed them in with embroidery floss. Then I frogged back all the petals to the row with 16 stitches and increased them to 20 stitches before decreasing again. This required attaching new yarn when I ran out of the original. It took forever!

But in the end, I have this happy sunflower to greet me!

Solution for Wandering Keyboard Pedal

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 20:47:00 +0000

If you've spent any time with an electronic keyboard and sustain pedal, you've definitely run into the problem of the pedal wandering off. There are a few commercial products out there which don't have a good track record with keyboard pedals. Here is a solution that I came up with that really works. It's so simple that it's not worth trying to market, but please click through the affiliate links!

FORITO Large High Precise Gaming Mouse Pad

VELCRO Brand - Extreme Outdoor - 4" x 2" Strips

In this setup, the pedal is attached to one end of a gaming mouse pad (basically an extra large mouse pad) using sticky back velcro. The pedal won't move away from your foot because your foot also is also on the same gaming pad surface. The gaming pad has a rubbery bottom, but that also won't move because the bench anchors the other end of the gaming pad and your weight keeps the whole thing in place. It really works! For gigs, it's easy to wrap up the pedal in your gaming pad and off you go.

The issue with other systems shown below is that the whole thing will move around with your foot and both the pad and the pedal end up moving away without control. Don't bother with these!

CreepNoMore - has a lousy review for a reason!

Pedal-Stay II - for sewing machine pedals, not any better for keyboards

Muck it up for Muckfest

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 21:02:00 +0000

Last year, Dova participated in her first ever charity race at MuckFest MS Boston. She was in a small team of three called the Gymnastys, with a fellow gymnast (obviously) and her dad. This year their team has doubled in size because it's more fun to muck it up in large numbers. You can donate to Dova's page here.

Here are some highlights from last year. Before the race, the Gymnastys looked clean and dry, standing on the outskirts of the muddy start line.

Immediately after the start of the race, they had to run directly into wet, muddy valleys. Here they are contemplating one of the plunges.

And the subsequent splash.

Next, they battled the Big Balls. They went in so fast you can't even find them in this photo.

After that, they headed off into the woods and many obstacles that we only heard about. The Muckfest photographers captured the first cover photo and this sequence of Dova's teammate. Oh yeah, they got wet all right.

When they emerged from the woods about an hour later, they tackled the rope climbing obstacles with ease.

Their last big jump was onto the Crash Landing pad.

Clearly, they were not dirty enough, so the last obstacles were designed to get both sides muddy. First, the Skid Mark.

And then the Belly Crawl.

Picture perfect at the finish line.

The coldest part was the hosing off afterward.

There were plenty of festivities around the event, and they had a game of toilet seat horseshoes in their new "Muck U" t-shirts afterward.

Looking forward to it again this year! Please donate!

Dusting off an AMC Minifish Sailboat

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 20:17:00 +0000

After living in the same house for over twenty years, you tend to amass TOO MUCH STUFF. In an effort to declutter, I started going through our house room by room to donate or sell everything that we weren't using or could part with. In our basement taking up a lot of space, was this AMC Minifish sailboat that my parents gave to me. They bought it around 1980, and I remember taking it out a few times. We also had a Snark sailboat which I enjoyed a lot more because the cockpit was roomier and the boat was way less tippy, but that boat was long gone. I remember taking a Sunfish out in Disney World around 1987 and capsizing it multiple times, not exactly a good time!

Since the last time I used a sailboat was 30 years ago and I really didn't have much sailing experience, the Minifish just sat in my basement. The hull was propped up against the wall and the sail and mast were tied up and sat on some rafters. For TWENTY YEARS! So it was time to either sail it or sell it. Adam and I took it out in the yard to see if we could rig it up. I was worried that the sail was completely eaten up by bugs or rodents, but miraculously it was in perfect shape. I had long forgotten what my dad told me it about rigging it and was hard pressed to find anything on the internet. There were plenty of videos about rigging a Sunfish, which is significantly more complicated rigging than a Minifish. I had one 3/8" rope with it, which I managed to raise the sail with but it was really tight going through the mast and didn't seem like enough to actually sail with. When the sail was up, I took a few pictures for Craigslist just in case I was too chicken to actually sail it.

After much more research on the internet, I finally found the original instructions for a Minifish in a sailing forum. Even this was complicated to understand, having forgotten all the terminology. Finally, I determined exactly what I needed to rig the Minifish. Here it is in easy to understand language!

Assuming the sail is attached to the booms (lashed) and the daggerboard still has its retaining cord, here are the items that you will need (Amazon affiliate links, thanks):

Two 25' lengths and one 15' length of 1/4" or 5/16" diameter braided nylon rope. One 25' length is used as the halyard (raises the sail on the mast) and the other for the mainsheet (rope you hold on to for controlling the sail). It's possible to use about 20' for these, but 25' is what I used. The shorter rope is used as a tow rope or to attach the optional paddle below. You can get rope at Lowe's for $0.22/foot, or spend more at Amazon.
Optional (to attach the mainsheet to the bridle - rope which goes across the back of the boat): Stainless Steel Swivel-eye Boat Snap 3-1/4". If there is no ring on the bridle, this becomes necessary.
Optional (to get you out of still water): Attwood Emergency Telescoping Paddle. This one is especially nice because it has a hole in the handle to attach a retaining rope, but it is a little tricky getting it to open and close consistently.

Here are some all-important knots to know:

Here are the rigging instructions:

If you have a paddle, tie one end the 15' rope to the paddle using a bowline knot, and the other end to the bow handle (handle at the front of the sailboat) using another bowline knot. If you don't have a paddle, use the 15' rope as a tow rope by attaching one end to the bow handle and tying an open bowline knot at the other end. Leave the paddle or the tow rope on the cockpit.
Attach the rudder. First, put the tiller (rudder handle) under the bridle (rope which goes across the back of the boat). Push the endpin of the rudder upward to expose the shoulder at the top of the pin. Insert the pin, then press down again when in place.
Place the daggerboard in the cockpit.
Lay the sail to the left of the mast hole, with the ring over the hole.
Use a 25’ length of 5/8” rope for the main sheet.

If you have a boat snap hook, attach it to one end of the rope with a bowline knot. Clip the hook to the ring on the bridle (or just to the bridle if no ring). Feed the free end of the rope through the back pulley of the sail and then through the front pulley. Tie a figure 8 stopper knot on the end and place the rope in the cockpit.
If you do not have a boat snap hook, tie a figure 8 stopper knot on one end (leave in place for future use). Feed the free end through the front pulley of the sail and then through the back pulley. Tie the free end to the bridle ring using a bowline knot. Place the stopper end in the cockpit.

Use the other 25’ length of 5/8” rope as the halyard (the rope that holds up the mainsail). Tie to the upper beam of the sail just above the 7th plastic sail attachment with a clove hitch followed by two half-hitches. Slide the free end of the rope through the hole at the top of the mast to about halfway down the rope.
Insert the mast into the sail ring and into the mast hole. Raise the sail by pulling the rope and attach the free end of the halyard to the deck cleat with a cleat hitch. Place the remaining rope in the cockpit.
Insert the daggerboard, with the longer straight edge to the back, and tie the retaining cord to the metal loop on the deck.
When sailing, sit on the stopper knot of the main sheet so it doesn’t get away.

Our first outing was to a small lake in New Hampshire, with a beach launch. I was extremely nervous, but put my phone on dry land and set off. This is where you really need a phone! No way to call for help if something goes wrong! It was slow going at first with little wind, but once into the middle part of the lake, there were a few gusts. The only thing I remember from sailing as a teenager was that if things got out of hand, loosen the main sheet. It was really nerve-wracking at first when the sailboat started to tip, but it wasn't too bad once I gained confidence that I could actually sail again. Coming to shore was a bit of work since there was only the slightest of breezes going offshore, so I had to wave the rudder back and forth to get the boat moving (here's where the paddle would've come in handy, didn't have it yet). It was actually, dare I say it, fun!

After that successful first sail, I got Adam into the boat. I gave the briefest of instructions on how to sail (because I knew so little myself) and pushed him away from the beach. He immediately crashed into a nearby dock so I waded into the water to pull the boat away, and set him in the right direction. When I got to shore, I realized that my iPhone 6 was in my shorts pocket and it was completely soaked! I tried to get it quickly into a bag of rice, but it didn't look promising. The screen kept flickering on with the Apple sign then fizzing off and it was extremely hot. The sailboat ended up costing me a phone!

Adam also had a successful outing with no capsizing. He mentioned that sail turned all the way around the mast, but he managed to get it back. The next week, we went back with a new iPhone 7 and this handy pouch. The iPhone 7 may be waterproof, but it certainly doesn't float! I performed a float test with this pouch before going again and it does work!

3 Pack Cambond Universal Floating Waterproof Phone Case

Since then I've got an iPhone 7 Plus, and that is definitely too big to float in this pouch! I may try this one next year:

Temdan iPhone 8 plus / 7 plus / 6s plus/ 6 plus Floating Case

On our second trip the following weekend, I relaxed a bit more and explored around the lake. I attempted to take some photos with my new phone when there was no wind, but the pictures don't capture the beauty of the boat and the feeling of freedom and empowerment by traveling completely through natural wind power.

It's so quiet and peaceful when there is no wind. And then it gets exciting when there is wind. Lean to the side! Watch the water splash over the deck! Whoosh! How fast am I going? And getting around relies completely on your understanding of the wind in the sail. In the end, we decided to keep the sailboat. To many more sailing days ahead!

Knitting an Abercrombie & Fitch Scarf

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 12:35:00 +0000

On a Black Friday shopping trip last year, Dova spotted this chunky cable knit scarf from Abercrombie & Fitch.

The regular price was a $44 (ridiculous!) and at half price, it was $22. I immediately dismissed her wish to buy it because I could easily knit her one for less, even at half price! I snapped a quick photo to capture the stitch pattern and we left. It looked pretty straightforward with a cable stitch in the center and moss stitch on the sides.

The first task was to find the appropriate yarn. With Michael's coupons, I picked up 4 skeins of Bernat Mega Chunky yarn 7 oz. in color Aran. In order to maximize coupon usage, this is technically 4 trips to the store at one coupon per type per day. Thankfully there is a store on the way home from my work (I actually did it in 3 trips, the cashier allowed me to ring up twice on the last day). At $6.99/skein, with two 50% off and two 40% off coupons, the total for the yarn was $15.38. Not so cheap after all! Full price for the yarn would be $27.97, so the Abercrombie scarf is actually cheaper at half price.

Here are the yarn and needles with an Amazon affiliate link (if you don't have a yarn store near you). Get 3 skeins of 10.5 oz (big ball) or 4 skeins of 7 oz (regular ball).

Bernat Mega Bulky Yarn, 10.5 Ounce, Aran

Darice Size 19 15mm Jumbo Knitting Needle

I picked up these knitting needles for the unbelievable Amazon Add-On price of $3.70. You can find size 19 (15mm) in other brands for under $10 on Amazon or at your local craft store (another trip with another coupon!). So my cost for creating this scarf ended up at $19.08, which only saved me $2.92 for my labor!

Before embarking on the main scarf, I practiced on smaller scrap yarn to get the pattern right. I restarted it several times and graphed it out in Excel before I got something close. Dova was worried that I was making the scarf way too tiny and I had to assure her that I was just testing the pattern and that we could give it to one of her dolls or one of our cats.

In the beginning, I got so frustrated with the edging and the look of the cable that I sent Doug to buy the scarf so that Dova could actually have what she wanted for Christmas. At that point, I had little hope of finishing in the right pattern in time for Christmas. Finally, I could do some side-by-side comparisons.

Hey, not too bad at all! But the flip side (which I had not photographed and the scarf was not yet available online) had issues. Note to self: when photographing a pattern to emulate, take pictures of both sides!

With the real scarf in hand, I was able to correct the weird rib on the backside next to the cable and see that there is a slip stitch that rolls to the backside for the edging. Since the scarf knits up so fast, I frogged it back to the ribbed section and started again. Now the backside is much better, look at that beautiful edging!

The pattern may not be an exact replica, but it's super easy to remember while knitting. All the knit rows are basically the same and there are two types purl rows, one for the ribbed section and one for the main scarf. It's possible to use slightly smaller needles, somewhere between 10 and 15 mm.

Abbreviation C4B: Slip next 2 stitches onto cable needle and leave at back of work. K2, then K2 from cable needle. I believe they did C4F (front), but I'm just used to the back, either way, it's just a cable in one direction.

Cast on 16 stitches
Row 1: K2, P, K2, P, K4, P, K2, P, K2
Row 2: Sl1P (slip one purlwise), P, K, P2, K, P4, K, P2, K, P2
Row 3: Sl1K (slip one knitwise), K, P, K2, P, K4, P, K2, P, K2
Repeat rows 2 & 3, 5 times
Row 14: Sl1P, P2, K, P8, K, P3

Row 15 (cable): Sl1K, K, P, K2, P, C4B, P, K2, P, K2
Row 16: Sl1P, P2, K, P8, K, P3
Row 17: Sl1K, K, P, K2, P, K4, P, K2, P, K2
Row 18: Sl1P, P2, K, P8, K, P3
Repeat rows 17 and 18, then go back to row 15 and repeat this block for the main part of the scarf.

When the scarf reaches 6.5 feet or so, end on a cable row and then switch back to Rows 2 and 3 for 13 rows (end on a purl row). Cast off on the knit side in pattern. The Abercrombie scarf is actually about 8 feet long, and this one is a bit shorter, but still long enough to be stylish.

On Christmas, Dova first opened my scarf which she saw me knit and was actually impressed with my knitting abilities. Then Doug gave her the surprise gift of the actual A&F scarf. She loved them both! Here they are side by side:

Mom's handknit scarf

Abercrombie & Fitch scarf

I prefer my handknit scarf myself! The yarn is shinier and silkier than the Abercrombie yarn, but it a bit heavier. She's worn the Abercrombie scarf with the ends tucked into the loop so it looks like an enormous lifesaver. They could put her in the ad!

Shipping up to King Richard's Faire!

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 20:44:00 +0000

Hear ye! It's time once again to head to Carvershire for King Richard's Faire! This was our second year visiting the enchanted forest. Watch our whole visit below in only one minute and 20 seconds! In case you're wondering how I managed to stitch iOS live photos together, I used the Google Motion Stills app to export the videos and then Videoshop to put all the still photos, live photos and videos together (there's no one magic app to handle live photos). Click the sound on to sing along at the end!

This time, we tried to see shows that we missed last year and also try new foods. Here are the shows we watched:

Draiku aerial show (breathtaking, see video clips)
Daniel Duke of Danger (watched again for my mom)
The King's Tournament (can't miss the jousting!)
The Mud Show by the Sturdy Beggars - this is clearly the loudest show in the land so I wanted to check it out. And true to it's name, it's muddy and bawdy, and somewhat entertaining if you like getting dirty.

As usual, here's the rundown of the money spent. Clearly I didn't read last year's post about starting with less food tickets and started with more! Here's how 70 food tickets were spent this year:

$12 for a turkey leg (tasty, smoked and tender, shared by all)
$12 for water bottles (3 bottles at $4 each)
$10 for Caesar chicken wrap (a bit too much dressing)
$10 for chicken gyro (pretty tasty)
$12 for chicken fingers and fries (Adam doesn't like to try new things)
$8 for Blue Moon pumpkin ale with a pumpkin spice dipped cup (very tasty!)
$5 for root beer float (had to have this again, made with soft serve ice cream)
$1 as a souvenir:

Notice that we only really had four meals and drinks split between five people (I snatched bites of everyone's food), so your food dollars may vary. But I was glad to actually get a beer this time and chomp on a turkey leg.

Here's what we spent on other games and goods at the Faire:

$5 for a ring for Lady Dova (she remembered to wear her flower wreath from last year)
$7 for bartender and performer tips (well deserved)
$4 for Dova to throw ninja stars (one stuck, see video!)
$8 for Adam and I to ride the Sky Chair Swing (too dizzy for me)

In the end, we spent less than last year because we kept Master Card and Lady Visa at bay for the pricier merchandise.

Now it's your turn to visit King Richard's Faire. The knights are waiting!

Photo by Tim Rice.

Disclaimer: I received admission tickets courtesy of Dennehy PR, thank you Lady Julie!

Lighted Crochet Christmas Tree

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Thu, 11 May 2017 13:48:00 +0000

This glowing tree was inspired by Petals to Picot Cone Christmas Tree pattern. Since I already had two shades of green Super Saver yarn and a mini LED light set, it was the perfect project!

This idea started from this ugly knitted tree we saw at Target. I thought I could make a better tree decoration than that!

A quick look around the internet for yarn trees got some "interesting" alternatives. Sure you can just throw yarn onto a cone with some glue, but where's the skill in that?

Here's the one stop shopping list for the materials the lighted crochet tree (Walmart is cheaper for Super Saver yarn and foam core!):

Red Heart Super Saver Yarn Spring Green (I used glow worm but Amazon doesn't have that anymore)

Red Heart Super Saver Yarn Paddy Green

FloraCraft Packaged Styrofoam Cones, 12-Inch-by-4-Inch

20 Warm White Micro LED Battery Operated String Lights

For the pattern, I found that following the Petals to Picot pattern ended up flaring the cone to quickly as well as producing bent lines where the increases were. So after frogging half the project, I modified the pattern to something that fits better and is far more intuitive to keep track of.

Using a size F, 3.75 mm crochet hook, create a magic ring with 4 sc.
In each row, work 1sc into every stitch and 2sc into in a random stitch in the row. Each row will have exactly one stitch more than the previous row.
Alternate yarn color randomly every 1 to 4 rows.
After reaching a few inches in length, check the fit in the styrofoam cone (works best with the plastic wrap on).
If the work starts to flare out, skip the increase on the next row. I found that I had to skip the increase about every 3rd or 4th row.
Keep checking the fit every time you change yarn color, or every other row.
Continue until the piece reaches the bottom of the cone.

How's that for a super simple pattern with no counting! At the bottom, I ended up with 66 stitches in the last row. If you end with a multiple of 6, you can attach the bottom piece stitch for stitch.

For the bottom piece, crochet a simple circle using the same color at the bottom of the cone:

R1: 6sc in magic ring – 6
R2: inc around – 12
R3: (sc, inc) around – 18
R4: (2sc, inc) around – 24
R5: (3sc, inc) around – 30
Continue adding rows with incremental sc's amounts until you reach the same diameter as the cone.

To assemble, use a crochet hook to fish out the tiny LEDs from the inside. Stuff the tip of the cone with polyfill. Carefully fit in the styrofoam cone without dislodging the LEDs. I just kept the plastic wrap on the cone. Join the top and bottom pieces together by crocheting through both pieces with a slip stitch. Having the bottom fit exactly to the cone is one of my favorite parts!

In the daytime, the lights are so small, you can barely see them.

But in the evening, it becomes something magical!

A Tale of Two Auditions

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 02 May 2017 20:19:00 +0000

"Auditions are challenging, but they will always be part of your life as a musician."

We read this quote from a high school music camp brochure. "Challenging" doesn't even begin to describe the levels of anxiety and dread that both my children experience when they have to audition for a musical activity. Both kids are talented in music in their own way, but auditions are the one thing that completely demolish their confidence in life itself.

With Adam, you would think he would be a pro at auditions, having auditioned for two orchestras on violin, with seating auditions every year (every time he would say that he got last seat, but always ended up near the front) as well as two stints in the Junior District festivals. Lots of auditions, but he dreaded every one. For the first district festival, he auditioned on both mallet percussion and jazz bass and made 2nd seat in mallet percussion for the concert band. For the second festival, he auditioned for both again, and he made the one and only bass seat for the jazz band. He had auditioned with the electric bass guitar in January of that year, and at the same time started lessons on the upright bass. By April, he was able to switch to the upright bass for the rehearsals and performance. Woo hoo!

Each time, Adam refused to audition for the junior district orchestra on violin (two auditions are enough, mom!). Last year, we were traveling during the senior district performance, so he managed to avoid auditioning for his first shot at the senior district festival as a Freshman. This year, we were not going to let him slide on district auditions!

As a change from the junior festivals, he auditioned on the double bass for the orchestra, and not the jazz band, because he wanted the experience of playing in a big orchestra with other basses (usually being a section of one or two). Also, one audition is enough! Do you think he has a pushy mom? Adam had months to prepare a relatively simple Bach Gavotte (which he played on violin years ago from Suzuki book 3), and obtained the 2nd highest score. The senior district festival performance was in the grand venue of Worcester's Mechanics Hall (he is under the middle pillar on the right side). One of the pieces, Glinka's Russian and Ludmilla Overture, was so fast and difficult that he actually had to practice it and still had to fake his way through it.

The top three out of seven basses from the district festival were recommended to audition for the Massachusetts All-State Orchestra. With all his other commitments, Adam only had about a month to prepare for this audition. The piece required, Handel's Sonata in G minor, was a bear of a piece in high registers, and he had to learn all four movements. Plus a lot of it was written in tenor clef, so he had to learn to read a whole new clef! Through the holiday season, he also only had three lessons to work on this piece with his instructor, so I took it upon myself to help him learn the piece, writing in the notes for tenor clef. I also accompanied each practice session on the piano, pushing him to practice every possible day (like a good tiger mom should). In the beginning, it was really rough and looked pretty hopeless. But by the end, it was definitely presentable, although the fast movements were not up to tempo. I also helped him with musical phrase shaping, an area where he had gotten lower marks in the district audition.

By the day of the audition, Adam was complete wreck. He felt that he hadn't gotten enough time to prepare the piece, and he didn't have all his melodic minor scales memorized. He wanted to back out of the audition and didn't understand why I signed him up in the first place. I tried to calm him down on the drive over, saying that if anything, it would be a learning experience (the adult's consolation prize for everything!) and that it would help prepare him for next year.

Adam auditioned alongside about 10 instrumentalists from his school. Some were nervous, some were confident. Adam was in the new low category of nervous AND despondent. His band director was helping to tabulate scores, and he stopped by before the audition and asked Adam if he was ready because there were a "lot of low scores in the basses". Hmm, that could mean two things, either the other bassists were completely bombing, or the judges were super tough. I took it as the first, that Adam would have a better chance because other bassists weren't doing well. I'm sure Adam took it as the second. During the warm-ups and audition, I had another conversation with his director.

Director: Do you think Adam is ready?
Me: Yes, I've been whipping him.
Director: What?
Me: I've been working extensively with him, accompanying on the piano and stuff.
Director: Well, Adam's very good, but All-State requires a much higher level of performance. I'm not sure if he realizes that and whether he's up for it.
Me: We'll see!

Behind my cocky attitude, I was a totally nervous stage mom. I was more nervous for this audition than I've ever been for any of my kids events, even Dova's state gymnastics meets. I was pacing with cold sweaty armpits and nervously chatting with the other parents. One by one students emerged, some said they did very well, others said they did poorly, and one even said "I think I nailed it!" Adam came back finally and said he did badly (as expected). But he did say that he did well on sight-reading, thanks to me (he thinks I passed on my sight-reading ability genetically). Here's his conversation with his director afterward:

Director: How did you do?
Adam: I did badly. My tone was bad and I messed up my minor scale. Also I messed up counting the rests in my piece because the clock ticking on the wall distracted me.
Director: How was your tone bad?
Adam: My hand was shaking too much and I ran out of bow on the long notes.
Director: But how was your intonation? (probably what got a lot of low scores with all those high notes)
Adam: Oh, that was fine.

That evening, we learned that Adam was accepted into the All-State Orchestra. He was 6th out of the 10 basses accepted, well above the cutoff! He was only one of two instrumentalists accepted from his school, all the ones that said they had done well didn't get in. And when Adam mentioned he did well at sight-reading, he did spectacularly, getting a nearly perfect score:

I don't think I could even manage all perfect notes, rhythm, articulation and dynamics! I joked with Adam asking why he didn't get a perfect score on tempo. He said that it was marked at 72 beats per quarter note, how was he supposed to know how fast that was, was he supposed to be a human metronome? I was impressed that he remembered the tempo marking, a lot of performers wouldn't even notice it under the circumstances. Human metronome training next (just kidding)!

Adam's All-State experience was great, although the only response we got from him was that he was really tired. They performed at Boston's Symphony Hall. Adam is under the pillar again (mixed pair seating order).

Did I mention that it was at Symphony Hall? Consistently ranked as one of the top 5 acoustic concert halls in the world?

Yes, Symphony Hall to a packed house!

Dova, on the other hand, has been doing less and less music, opting to focus on gymnastics. She quit the concert band and jazz band this year, but remained in the chorus. We've never fostered Dova's singing, as she never expressed any real interest in it. I offered her private singing lessons in the past so that she could get into the Select Chorus at school, but she declined and managed to get in on her own. That came as an offhand remark from Dova earlier this year, "Oh by the way, I auditioned for Select Chorus and I got in". Every time she sings at home, it's usually one of those unpleasant repetitive pop songs, so we ask her to stop. But we do let her sing away in the shower.

This is the first year she was eligible to audition for the junior district festival, and her choir director basically required everyone old enough in select chorus to audition. They worked on the audition piece and other requirements outside of school several times a weeks leading up to the audition, so Dova didn't prepare beyond that.

On the morning of the audition, Dova was completely out of sorts because she claimed that she had no nice clothes to wear. I tried to pick out a pretty sweater and blouse with pants, but she insisted that she had to wear a dress which she didn't have. All this fuss was just to cover the fact that she was petrified of the audition. After finally getting her to wear clothes that she would accept, she started crying about audition, how she wasn't any good and that she never practiced. I tried to calm her down reminding her about all the rehearsals that she had with her choir teacher. She always came back with, "But you know I can't sing!" I brought up the fact that she was in select chorus, so she had to be able to sing. She thinks that she got in only because the choir director was super cool and let her show off her piano skills during the audition.

At this point, we had to drive to school for the bus taking the students to the audition site. In the car, she wailed and screamed. I thought to myself that I just needed to stay calm, not say anything that would make it worse, and get her on the bus. Her eyes were swollen and face was tear-streaked and I was afraid that she wouldn't go. She brought up the time she auditioned for a music camp placement years ago and how she cried at the audition because she played the first note wrong in sight-reading. I had forgotten about that. It's amazing what horrors kids can dredge up when they are upset! When we arrived at school, I asked whether she wanted me to walk her to the bus, but she went by herself, red teary-eyes and all. Whew, my job done!

You would never know from this picture taken at the audition that Dova (2nd from left) was completely distraught an hour before. And her choice of clothes are just fine! When we picked her up, she said that she did poorly (just like Adam), but she did do well on her intervals. She said her voice was really shaky during the whole audition. I can imagine that most kids would sound shaky under the circumstances, so judges must take that into consideration!

We learned a few days later that Dova was accepted into the district chorus, with a perfect score in "tonal accuracy". Wow! That's a testament to innate musical ability!

In the end, Dova wasn't able to attend the junior district festival because the performance date conflicted with her gymnastics state meet. She attended the first rehearsal, because at the time, we didn't know for certain whether the gymnastics meet would conflict (50% chance of falling on the same day). We then learned that she would be disqualified from participating next year's festival if she went to a rehearsal and didn't attend the concert. I put in a request for an exception in her case because, "The rules as they stand are not flexible enough to allow for an elite athlete to participate in this festival."

In the end, the audition experience has given Dova new confidence in her singing. She had an amazing experience singing alongside other talented singers at the first rehearsal. Even if she can't participate next year, she felt it was worth that one rehearsal. Let's cross our fingers for next year!

Fitbit Charge HR Reports Higher Heart Rates by a 4:3 Ratio

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 17:03:00 +0000

Ever since I got the Fitbit Charge HR with continuous heart rate monitoring, I noticed that it sometimes reported much higher than expected heart rates while exercising. I would often get peak heart rates of around 185 bpm (beats per minute) which is actually impossible, according to the 220 minus your age rule. According to that rule, my maximum possible heart rate is only 170 (yes, I'm that old now!). At first I thought it was simply reporting one and a half times the actual heart rate, but with some experimentation and analysis, I found it was a more subtle ratio.

Here are two identical walks that I took at lunch taken 10 days apart. They have the exact same route (maximizing Pokestops), and a bunch of hills. The hills account for 21 flights of stairs, or approximately 210 feet climb in altitude, including these sets of stairs here. There are only 3 of 5 flights shown in this photo!

The pace was a little slower in the second walk, but somehow that finally got the Fitbit to measure the correct heart rate! This was the only time (out of close to a hundred walks) that I didn't get a ridiculously high heart rate recorded.

Here are the two heart rate plots recorded for these walks. The peak heart rate the Fitbit records is 183 bpm in the first plot. In the second plot, it's only 136 bpm, with no time in the peak heart rate zone, which I believe is accurate. I try to check my Fitbit during the walks and when it's not measuring correctly, there's usually two dashes in the heart rate display. I've gotten measurements at the top of these stairs and it is usually somewhere between 134 and 140 bpm. Surely a good cardio workout, but not pushing the physical human limits at 183 bpm! The steps are close to the middle of the walk, so it coincides with the peak heart rate of the second plot.

If you simply divide 183 by 136, you get a 1.346 ratio. It's not a simple 1.5 ratio. Maybe the Fitbit takes into account the maximum human limits. It knows my birthday, yet it can't keep the peak heart rate below 170 bpm. I decided to plot 183 and 136 bpm to see how the beats fell against one another. I did find a correlation between the 3rd beat of the lower heart rate and the 4th beat of the higher heart rate, which is a 1.333 ratio. I adjusted the lower number to 139 bpm (within the range that I measured during the walks) to further show this correlation.

It could be that the Fitbit doesn't measure heart rate as many times a second as you expect, or the algorithm is just off. It clearly states that it cannot be used as a medical monitoring device, and that's evident from my use of it. If and when I get a new Fitbit (all of ours are falling apart after 1.5 years), I'll be interested to see if there are improvements to the heart rate monitoring.

Verizon Training Center Pokestop

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 14:30:00 +0000

Earlier this year, I took this photo on a lunchtime walk at work. I found it odd that there would be three old-style phone booths in the middle of a field as if to summon an American version of Doctor Who. It looked like some kind of portal. Except with no telephones inside. Recently, an episode of This American Life chronicled families flocking to a phone booth in Japan in attempt to contact lost loved ones from the 2011 tsunami. Clearly, phone booths carry some kind of magic.

Portals into the past

A photo posted by Angela T (@moonfever0) on Mar 7, 2016 at 11:01am PST

This summer, with the advent of Pokemon Go (yes I am that kind of nerd), I learned that these phone booths were part of the Verizon Training Center. According to the Pokestop description, it's where linesmen learn their craft.

Wow, great spin from the Pokestop!

Aha, that's why there are so many telephone poles that seemingly go nowhere!

Around the back of the training building, you can see a dummy house to practice wiring to.

There are short poles to practice on the ground before moving up to the tall ones.

And once I even got to see training on one of the tall poles.

So cool to learn about the Verizon Training Center from a Pokestop and explore it! (Okay, so maybe this is one of those "dangerous" areas that the game warns not to enter, but I hardly ever see workers outside and stayed clear of the cherry picker!).

Be Off to King Richard's Faire!

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 14:23:00 +0000

For years, we've (I've) been trying to go to King Richard's Faire in Carver, MA, without success. From Dova's broken foot last year, compounded by mononucleosis, plus Adam's soccer and marching band schedules, and (gasp!) overall lack of enthusiasm, it's been nearly impossible for our family to get there over the years. This year we finally frolicked in the colorful world of knights, elves, dragons and saucy wenches.

First stop were the SKY Chairs. At $89.95 they seem quite reasonable until you factor in the construction of a shaded porch to your house. If you have a porch or ample indoor swing space, get one, they are super comfy!

Even skeptical Adam enjoyed them (note cute girlfriend behind).

Don't feed the dragon! But he will pet your bun (in your hair).

Next stop was Daniel, Duke of Danger. Yes, Mr. "Inconceivable" is balanced upside down on his head while playing "Ode to Joy" on two whistles.

Not to mention juggling fire and spinning plates on top of a ladder. I have enough trouble with a step ladder with four legs, let alone two!

Some of the shows were PG-13, so I sent Adam to watch the Torture Show without Dova. Little did I know that it involved fish hooks in the eyes! Adam, like myself, is too squeamish for such acts. I couldn't bear to watch Ryan Stock and AmberLynn on America's Got Talent this year, but Dova was glued to the TV, eyes wide open, while Ryan hung from a hook through his nose. She was sorry she missed seeing a nail hammered into a face live. Eek!

Another fun show we saw was Squire of the Wire. For his finale, he walked a tightrope in high heels! Not to spoil your visit, here's a one second time-lapse sneak peek.

Dova marveled at the "unsafeness" of all the carnival games. Usually throwing darts at balloons are the most dangerous thing at a regular fair. She wanted to throw something dangerous, so I let her choose between axes, knives and ninja stars. She choose axes of course! When do you get a chance to throw axes? This one almost stuck onto the board.

There were merchants galore, many set up in the permanent buildings just for this fair nestled in the woods of Carver, MA. There were so many colorful and beautiful crafts to choose from!

We bought a double spoon holder from Pottery by Sutter (also see mugs and goblets above). The glazing is gorgeous! Doug chatted with Sutter and learned that he brought his ceramics to this fair from Wisconsin every year. That's a lot of inventory to ship! He said that the first time he came to King Richard's Faire years ago, he and his mom never sold so much in one show before. Clearly well deserved, buy it up, people!

The only other item we purchased was this head band for Dova, which can can be worn as a traditional floral headband or a bun decoration as she preferred.

Adam was fascinated by the swords forged by blacksmiths, but that was clearly out of our budget! The crowds were teeming with Cosplay so you never knew who worked for the Faire or not. There was plenty of people watching to be had, including chain mail and medieval corsets. I learned from Doug that the term cosplay comes from "costume play". I've heard the term before, but never knew where it came from, duh!

Here's the obligatory selfie where I'm shocked to see that Dova is almost as tall as I am. When did that happen?

There were so many shows we couldn't possibly see them all in one day. But I wasn't going to miss the jousting! Alas, there is no real death in "Joust to the Death" but the stage play was still fantastic.

Now, the real question is, how much does all this fun really cost? Before going, I researched it and found lots of complaints that the fair was mostly cash only (especially food), with some merchants accepting Master Card and Lady Visa (love the renaissance take!). I read that food was expensive and all the performers begged for tips. Our budget was tight, but we made the most of it. If you're lucky enough to snag Groupon tickets before season, that will help defray costs. We were grateful to obtain promotional tickets which didn't require writing this glowing review.

About the food. I read that no outside food or beverages were allowed. At Six Flags where you cannot bring outside food or beverages, they still allow water bottles, so I decided to try it here. At the entrance we were told that we couldn't bring in water bottles, so I brought them back to the car. So cha-ching the food bill went up. Food must be purchased with $1 food tickets in $5 dollar increments. So whatever you think you will eat, you will have to round up to the nearest $5 and then get something that you probably didn't need to use the tickets up. I asked the food ticket attendant what she would recommend for a party of five and she suggested $80. Wow! We went for $60 in food tickets to start. Granted, we shared drinks and meals and tried to get the cheapest food in the realm, but I think we could've managed with less. Here's how the $60 was spent (luckily spreadsheeted as soon as I got home):

$6 for bacon mac 'n cheese (small pie tin, but tasty)
$8 for shepherd's pie (another small pie tin, pretty good)
$8 for pizza (not recommended - too doughy)
$12 for chicken fingers and fries (Adam shared with his girlfriend, I didn't actually see it)
$5 for soda (just a big paper cup - rip off!)
$4 for water (20 oz, Dasani - another pricey drink)
$4 for kettle corn (humongous bag that you will end up taking home)
$4 for slushie (small, probably around 12 oz)
$5 for root beer float (Dova loved this, made with soft serve ice cream)
$4 for elephant ear pastry (using up tickets, but tasty)

Next time, I would start with less tickets to spare the extra stuff after the drinks and maybe go for the pricier $12 turkey legs which smelled delicious. I also wanted to try the $6 loaded baked potato (pud-da-doe or something like that), but it was "5 more minutes" for about 15 minutes and I gave up. Also, anything alcoholic started at $10, so out of the question for us.

Here's what we spent on other games and goods at the Faire:

$15 for Dova's head band
$34 (incl tax) for the pottery (needed Lady Visa for this one)
$4 for performer tips (they didn't beg that badly)
$4 for throwing axes
$3 for sledgehammer strength test (Dova didn't ring the bell on top)
$1 for the mug slide (I threw it too hard, but it stayed on the slide at least)

Keep in mind that King Richard's Faire is only around for two months on weekends in September and October. It is permanently located in a enchanted forest with buildings and landscape to maintain. Considering the overhead, all the prices need to be inflated, it doesn't happen by magic!

Next time, I would definitely try the SKY chair swing ride, powered solely by burly renaissance men. It was $4 per person ($20 for all of us) and we were running out of cash. Now where can you find a human powered ride like this!? (video by nimbus nico)

Disclaimer: I received admission tickets courtesy of Dennehy PR, but no blog post was required. We really did have a blast!