Up way too late last night...

...and awake stupidly early this morning.

At least I was up early enough to put out my trash and recycling. They request it be out before 7:00am. It was, by quite a margin. And the temp is in the negative numbers, too! Currently about -4 degrees (F), and it has warmed a bit since I was out putting the trash at the head of my driveway.

I have a pretty messy cold - the random cough is setting in, and I'm pretty drippy - although I'm still working my way through my second box of kleenex.

Last night's rehearsal was choreo - from 7:45 to 10pm, all dance all the time. We cleaned up and worked "NYC," and then the last thirty minutes was review for "Hooverville" and "You Won't Be an Orphan."

One of the other ladies in the adult ensemble - who normally has leading parts - she was our Lily in "Secret Garden" our Anna in "the King and I," and is now content for this production to be down in the trenches with us, mentioned that having a leading role is so much less work. Ensemble is HARD! I lolled. And we're not even in the core dance group - we're the ones who can just about manage to step at the right time, but forget it if it also requires you to move your hand or head at the same time - and add in the singing and you're dreaming big. We have about six more weeks, I think? Maybe only five now, but hopefully by the time we go up we'll have a bit more clue.

Our choreographer is terrific, and while she is working us hard, she also uses her phone to video it and posts it so we can all watch and practice between rehearsals. The ONLY thing that is saving me from wandering around not knowing what the hell I am supposed to be doing when.

In other news, I am particularly loving the Wii. And gwendolyngrace and I are working our way through the Lego Batman game. I fooled around last night when I got home and figured out how to change Batman's suit! We're doing story mode together, but I've gone back and replayed parts of levels to see if I can figure out how to do more. Last night I replayed the Poison Ivy section of Chapter One, and figured out a few things (and died a lot, but whatever). I think I might have to try to get the Lego Harry Potter 1-4 once we've trounced the Batman game. I now understand the need for more memory - I'll pick up a memory card in the next few weeks.

Plus the Wii Fit is *fun* - and I never thought I'd work up much of a sweat, but I do - so when it is negative numbers out there like today (and only *might* break into positive double digits), I can work out in the safety and warmth of my own home. Awesome. Between the Wii and shoveling the driveway twice a week (and I am as ready as I can be for the next storm system), and dance rehearsals at least once or twice a week, I am working hard.

Ugh. Come noon, I'm *so* going to want a nap - and I've got rehearsal tonight. Nyquil tonight, I think - knock me out enough to get some sleep.

Why yes, insomnia means I will spam your flist...

So I've been watching a lot of DIY shows recently - since most television is crap nowadays. And cooking shows - be it how to or goal/prize based. I love the baking ones, just because bakers are crazy, but I've also seen a few of actually teaching people how to make things, and not to be intimidated by the mysterious implements in the kitchen.

I find this funny, because, well, I don't cook. Pretty much at all. It has never been something I enjoy, and while I can make a few dishes, and am able to follow a recipe and have it mostly turn out okay (although my mom was of the "if you must add salt, add less than half that a recipe calls for" camp, so I grew up adding very little salt to anything). Some things I just don't cook with. Onions, I hate. Unless they are pureed and unknowable I can't stand them in food. I pick them out. I pick them out of stews, sauces, just about anywhere they are visible those suckers end up on the side of my plate. Tomatoes have to be... non-chunks of tomato. Sauce is okay - sparingly, but not salsa.

Salads are never dressed. To me there is nothing worse than oily or icky salad dressing. I like my salad to TASTE like salad - plain, unadorned, naked.

Which brings me to the evil that is cilantro. Now, those that can, LOVE cilantro (also known as coriander). Most people have no taste-aversion to cilantro, and don't understand when I can tell immediately when fresh or dried cilantro has been added to my dish. It permeates the whole dish with a soapy taste.

It is very complicated and has to do with the chemistry of cooking, but I would no sooner eat anything with cilantro in it than I would willingly consume my bath soap for dinner. Some folks say they can *smell* a soapy odor, I don't generally smell it, but I sure can taste it. It makes dining out at a Mexican restaurant difficult, since cilantro shows up in anything from the table guacamole to your entree.

I know. Weird. But you know what? My whole family is the same way. I never encountered cilantro until I encountered it in a restaurant and couldn't eat what they served me since I couldn't verbalize what was wrong with it. I've since learned to ask if anything has cilantro in it.

But yeah, food shows when someone adds cilantro to a dish make me wince a little bit - because my gut reaction is "ew, ick - it sounded good right UP TO THAT POINT!"