Riot and Frolic

Don’t Think About It

August 9, 2012

People often say to me, "I don't know how you do it." I'm not sure it's a compliment or not or what exactly "it" is, but my reply is always, "I don't think about it."

The life I have is not quite the life I expected. I never expected to have children, or even really get married, and come on, who plans on becoming a ballroom dancer.

I've popped into a great and strange daily routine and it's funny and weird (have you ever spent the day with toddlers? they do and say the weirdest crap) and frustrating (see: prior parentheses, plus dancing with my husband) and challenging and active.

If I thought of all the challenges that lay ahead, I probably wouldn't do… anything. So I go about my day, raising my 3 kids, being a professional ballroom dancer, writing mah blog, taking the world by storm and ignoring all the preconceived notions and actual challenges that exist.

Because DID YOU SEE THIS GUY?

come on

Screw conventions and do what you want to do.

One year ago: Can't Name This Post– a waving baby and a great recipe
Birthday Baby

August 8, 2012

One year ago, this baby waved hi.

hey, guys

Her eyes are pretty, blue.

frank sinatra's competition

She is a Muppet.

mah na mahna

She's charming…

what 6 month old has teeth?! this one

Even when she's trying not to be.

the awful photo shoot

I mean, seriously…

this egg is the BEST

Happy birthday, Zoo. You're cute.

i could listen to this guy sing a lot

One year ago: I WAS GIVING BIRTH. No post. :)
Can, I Do It

August 7, 2012

Last week, I took my naptime/chill-out time and put it to good use (if you don't consider staring at Facebook and Pinterest and Instagram productive, which I do). The ladies and I had harvested two gallon buckets of our early-bird tomatoes and I wanted to put all those canning jars to good use.

Result? My favorite part of canning was this:

skilled tomato peeler

V woke up from her nap and snuck downstairs, only to be put to work. She was enthusiastic to help as usual (ruins the fun of making her do chores when she replies "OH YES!") and her nimble fingers were quite adept at peeling the tomato skins off. She'd hand them to me when the skins were removed and I'd squish the seeds out. It was quiet and delightful.

Blanching the tomatoes, peeling, and seeding them was tedious, but mind-numbing in a nice way but I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS THE KIDS MIGHT WAKE UP ANY SECOND!

"Hey, Kate, don't you have a food mill that would do all that work for you and do it a lot faster, just by turning on your awesome Kitchenaid?"

…

Next time, I think I'll use my food mill attachment (thanks, mom-in-law!) to process the tomatoes. Thanks, you.

And I'll have 72 more gallon buckets of tomatoes. Because you know how many jars of sauce I got?

1.

One jar of sauce.

Well, one and a half.

1.5.

Lame.

The weird thing is?

WHAT CAN I CAN NOW?

That "tink" of the vacuum seal sealing? LOVED IT. Addicted.

Somebody send me some fruit or cucumbers or something, because I want to get my can on.

THE CAN

Good times.

pretty sure he spends time between movies canning

One year ago: LLLL, where I prove women are awesome by simultaneously writing a blog post and preparing to deliver a child.
List of Last Week’s Labors of Love

August 6, 2012

– a birthday tablecloth that my elbows are currently sticking to, making me rethink my choice for today's blog station.

that is not my princess lunch box…

– a birthday girl. A smart, funny, little rascal who likes to help me peel skins off tomatoes, wants a mop and some soap for her birthday, calls me "Mother" with a British accent, and uses words like "slobbery" and "intersection" in context. You're neat, V.

don't mind the concerned looking baby

– Burger Moe's. Go there. We've been there a handful of times and we've always had stellar service, great food (burgers, duh), and their patio is bbbbbeeeeeeeaaaaaaaauuuutiful. Huge. Free. Birthday. Sundae.

– murder. I MURDERED my to-do list. Killed it. You see the bottom? 25 things I did? I DO rock.

the app is called any.DO and it cheers when you check something off

– a completely [re]weeded garden. This time, I'm going to keep it tidy. I even cut back the monster tomato plants even after I found a swarm (okay, like, 10) of locusts (aka "grasshoppers") chilling amidst the vines. As Mae Cake would say, "Smooky."

I'm looking for recommendations for late-summer plants: kale, peas, lettuces, garlic are all in the running. What do you know?

it's a little barren, but less scary now

– peel, smushed, cooked, and canned tomatoes for 5 hours to result in one glorious can. Well, a can and a half. We ate the half. I've already made 17 notes on what I can do better/to make it easier.

the real can

the half can

– a baby who eats lemons, in the two-fisted style.

"it ain't no thang"

– a neat… thing… from the lotion in this bottle.

it's a leaf, it's a feather, it's… lotion!

– a lot of crochet. I'm working on that afghan and got to the hard part (the row of flowers) and immediately thought of 9 other projects I'd like to start. But I sat down yesterday and plowed through the nasty work of figuring out how to attach them and the hard part is half done. Woohoo! Persistence, who knew?
Antiquated Rhythm

August 4, 2012

10 Zelda's Theme

When I found the Double Rainbow notebook, there was a whole section of cryptic choreographical notations and another section on practice drills and another one on dance quotes. Then I found a couple of interesting Pros/Cons lists. At some point, I had considered switching teams and going to the dark side… Latin.

Hindsight being 20/20, this is a ridiculous notion. I hate moving fast and that's all Latin DanceSport is. Cha-Cha= fast. Rumba= you'd think slow, but there's all that contrast, so it's either fast or building up to be fast. Samba= duh, fast. Paso Doble= well, it's merengue, but then there's Jive= and that's just too much.

When I made the list of pros and cons for Latin and Rhythm (over 10 years ago), the main con that stuck out on Rhythm's side was "antiquated". I had been dancing for more than a few years and that's one of the adjectives I used for my style of choice? Touché.

Rhythm dances are neat. Cha-Cha, Rumba, Swing, Bolero, Mambo- they're all based on some awesome partner dance from the streets. They were created and used in clubs and parties… And then someone threw them on the competition floor.

There's a constant debate on what constitutes "American Rhythm" on the competitive floor. What seperates it from International Latin? The dances? The leg action? An occasional leg action? Should the dances be changed to reflect actual American rhythms?

It seems there are no hard and fast rules in American Rhythm. How much bend is "bent"? How long are you on that "bent"? Can you land on a straight leg just because it's pretty? How is the style supposed to progress (theme of the week tie-in! nice, huh?) when the top coaches don't agree?

I'd like to take "antiquated" of the list this century. Those dances are fun and they're a necessary form of dancing for anyone who wants to partner dance in a relaxed setting (and those Fred Astaire and Arthur Murray schools would be a lot less fun without them). I freaking love Bolero (one of the Pros on the Rhythm side) and I love teaching a good ol' box step to… anyone.

So maybe the higher-ups could decide what we're supposed to do and then make everyone do it.

Like so many other debates in the world today, WHEN WILL IT END?

pa-dow

One year ago: Experiment Cookin'– it's hilarious. You should read it. Or just scroll to the bottom.
The Work Progresses

August 3, 2012

Theme of the week: progress.

To-do list: decimated. Running: Miles and miles. And miles. Children: "being have." Crafting: surprising amount of production!

Besides stitching up 20 rows at 5.5 feet each, I watched a lot of White Collar (a clever little show with pretty people that satisfies my loss of Alias from 6 years ago). And that's important.

so 70s

I decided to put a row of flowers amongst the stripes, so I experimented with a couple patterns.

there's a hole in the bucket

I didn't like the gaping holes, so I did something a little different on the next one and it looks the same to you, BUT IT'S TOTALLY DIFFERENT!

there's still a hole in the bucket

Searching the interwebs, I tweeked a third pattern and got a happy little flower. Seen here:

yay

When I switched to the other color, they were NOT the same size.

not quite

With a couple adjustments that would be fascinating to chronicle (and read), I came up with some mostly uniform flowers to attach together somehow in a row. I'm keeping the details a secret to add mystery to this here blog.

13 down, 9 to go

Is it working?

One year ago: Bow Down, a silly little tutorial
The Return of the Running Mojo

August 2, 2012

Guess what? If you drink water before you run, you'll be able to run and run and run. It's like your body needs it or something.

Duh.

I ran five miles yesterday without feeling like death (those five miles included some "nice" [read: evil, long] hills) and I completely attribute it to drinking a 16 oz. glass of water beforehand.

Did I have to pee like a racehorse when I got home? Yes. Did that possibly make me run a little faster (and softer) the last mile or so? Yes.

But that morning run tomorrow is looking a lot better than it was a week ago. And that's progress.

What are you making progress on? Any Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals?

blade runner

One year ago: It's So Fluffy…
A Rant About Zucchini Bread

August 1, 2012

We harvested 5 zucchini from the garden this year. Each was about 5 pounds. Seriously, as big as my arm, each one.

Since most recipes for zucchini bread call for 2 cups of shredded zucchini, I'll be making zucchini bread for about a week straight. I decided I'd try a different recipe for each batch to find my favorite (and hopefully, most healthful) one.

Starting from Square One, I googled "zucchini bread recipe" and came up with this awesome one from allrecipes.com.

It's five stars and rightfully so. It's delicious. A little spicy, a little dense, a lot of moist. Awesome.

My problem lies with the comments.

I won't quote anyone, but if there's as much sugar in a recipe as vegetable, OF COURSE YOUR KIDS WILL EAT IT.

Pretend idiot: "OMG, my kids ate carrot cake. I'll be making this as a side dish from now on!"

Maybe, if you didn't raise your kids (and yourself) on soda, fast food, and frozen dinners, they would still have taste buds that can detect the flavors in food.

I haven't eaten processed sugar (white, brown, high fructose, most chemical sweeteners) for six weeks and I can immediately taste/feel when I've eaten a food with sugar in it. I'm doing an ongoing experiment to notice what happens to my body when I ingest it. Hyper. Active. For me.

I'm not saying you should never eat sugar, or fast food, or frozen dinners, but, by God, LEARN HOW TO COOK. It'll save you money and pounds and years of your life and it'll give you joy and a hobby and health.

*nods sagely while climbing down from dining table [high horse] as children eat lettuce and carrots and tomatoes*

End scene.

most english name ever

One year ago: Arguing With My Brother-In-Law. Oh, let's not start this again.
List of Last Week’s Labors of Love

July 31, 2012

– a new car seat for Zoo. We've had an ever-changing configuration of carseats in our vehicle for four years and all of them have annoyed the piss out of me. But this new carseat was a game-changer, man. GAME- CHANGER! It was recommended on a couple different websites, but I was hooked after reading about it here.

sadly, we did not get the cow print cover

That nifty base on the seat? Makes it sit above the seats on the other two (a Graco Nautilus and Sunshine Kids Radian), so all three fit in like a dream.

And the new one? It's clllllleeeeeeaaaan. Whoa.

– sword fighting.

princess kicks-butt-a-lot

– made-up recipe for mac'n'cheese that totally rocked.

cream, cheese, and noodles, right?

– swimming, during which Mae Cake wore "gobbles" the entire time. Good. Times.

mae cake is a weirdo

– one of two delicious breakfasts I didn't have to cook.

bacon

- the best cover version of this song I've heard (sorry I missed the intro):

BEWARE: THE VIDEO IS VERY LOUD! TURN DOWN YOUR SPEAKER VOLUME!

– Arthur Murray Dance Studio's 100 year celebration at the MOA. Knowing half of the people in the production makes it a lot of fun, but those kids put on a good show.

it's not a flash mob, but it sure is a formation

– hilarious:

– I totally started that thing I said I was going to start. It actually is a WIP (work in progress, nerds). And V's already hounding me for one of her own, so…

– instead of buying the Method Squirt & Mop cleaner (which, no lie, I love), I poured some Murphy's Oil Soap into the ye olde Method bottle, added water, and Violet! [what?] I get about the same thing for, like, a tenth of the price.

brillant, watson

What'd you do last week? OMG, have you gotten hit with the "I must by school supplies" bug? How's the cabin treating you? Checking off your summer bucket list items?

One year ago: LLLL, with the infuriating popsicle box
Double Rainbow

July 30, 2012

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?! *sob*

i'm sure this made sense at the time

I found my old dance notebook and holy hell, it is a goldmine.

What kind of gold it is, I'm not sure. Probably fools'.

(If you don't get the "double rainbow" reference, you really need to stop working and do something productive, like watch this video. If you do know what I'm referencing, you should still watch this video, because it's just as funny as you remember it is. "Look into your soul!")

One year ago: Spiderman and the Orchard– websites I dig

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