![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Fall in New England. Is there any more beautiful time of year? We are expecting peak time for peeping at leafs this weekend and all next week. Coupled with the brilliant blue skies lately, it is almost magic. Pumpkins have been showing up on doorsteps, and halloween decorations have begun to appear. It is still nice enough to only need a sweatshirt or sweater until the sun sets most days. Then you are likely to need a coat. The heat has kicked on exactly twice (I've got it set on 62, and haven't felt the need to raise it yet) when the night temps plummeted.
Typical New England activity in the fall - I went apple picking last weekend with some local friends. Have more apples than I really know what I'm going to do with - but they are good eating. The gala apples are my favorite, but the cortlands have been good, too. I also picked a few macintosh. It was a lovely afternoon wandering amongst the trees. The farm we went to had free-range bunnies and free-range chickens, piglets in an enclosure, and another enclosure with goats, geese, and a donkey. And hay rides! The farm also does pick-your-own berries in season (as well as pears and peaches and pumpkins). Maybe next summer I'll go back for that. The farm was wall-to-wall children - big family outings. Bet they are even more busy this coming weekend for their big harvest festival.
Saw my folks on Sunday. My mom and I talked most of the afternoon as my dad was off golfing with my brother. My brother is installing baseboard heating in his house, and my dad is helping him. My dad's price? Go golfing with him! So silly.
Had my yearly physical today - although I haven't had one in a few years so calling it "yearly" is not accurate. Got a tetanus shot (ow), a flu shot (and ow), and they tried to take blood (ow again - needles! what is with these needles?). My veins, they hide. They had to send me across the hall to the lab for the experts to get the blood (so feeling like a pin cushion right now). Will find out the results of all that in a week or so, but I am not anticipating anything unusual. Other than my doctor wants me to take a calcium supplement with vitamin D. So health-wise, I seem to be doing well so far.
I am planning my entry to Project Wizard for Azkatraz. I think I've decided on my time period. Now I just need to plan it all out. Fabric choices, color choices! What do I have, and what do I want? I'm still thinking it through. My deadline for the design is November 12 - since I leave for Minneapolis on November 13 and will be there until November 22 - I've got to turn it in early. It will be fun!
Typical New England activity in the fall - I went apple picking last weekend with some local friends. Have more apples than I really know what I'm going to do with - but they are good eating. The gala apples are my favorite, but the cortlands have been good, too. I also picked a few macintosh. It was a lovely afternoon wandering amongst the trees. The farm we went to had free-range bunnies and free-range chickens, piglets in an enclosure, and another enclosure with goats, geese, and a donkey. And hay rides! The farm also does pick-your-own berries in season (as well as pears and peaches and pumpkins). Maybe next summer I'll go back for that. The farm was wall-to-wall children - big family outings. Bet they are even more busy this coming weekend for their big harvest festival.
Saw my folks on Sunday. My mom and I talked most of the afternoon as my dad was off golfing with my brother. My brother is installing baseboard heating in his house, and my dad is helping him. My dad's price? Go golfing with him! So silly.
Had my yearly physical today - although I haven't had one in a few years so calling it "yearly" is not accurate. Got a tetanus shot (ow), a flu shot (and ow), and they tried to take blood (ow again - needles! what is with these needles?). My veins, they hide. They had to send me across the hall to the lab for the experts to get the blood (so feeling like a pin cushion right now). Will find out the results of all that in a week or so, but I am not anticipating anything unusual. Other than my doctor wants me to take a calcium supplement with vitamin D. So health-wise, I seem to be doing well so far.
I am planning my entry to Project Wizard for Azkatraz. I think I've decided on my time period. Now I just need to plan it all out. Fabric choices, color choices! What do I have, and what do I want? I'm still thinking it through. My deadline for the design is November 12 - since I leave for Minneapolis on November 13 and will be there until November 22 - I've got to turn it in early. It will be fun!
Tags:
As last night was the very first time this fall the house got cold enough for the heat to kick in, it now is officially autumn. I've had the thermostat set at 60 degrees all spring/summer.
Because the day was colder than it has been (40s and 50s), I set it up a couple of degrees to 64. Just the type of day to enjoy a cup of tea with cookies. The trees are slowly starting to turn, and in a week or two we should be reaching color-peak.
I got my script for the children's theatre show "The Princess and the Pirate." This will be kind of fun to costume, I think. The youngest child will be about eight and is playing a cat. The other kids in the show are teenagers, and the bulk of the players are adults. The characters are the King and Queen (ages 35-50), the Prince (age 12ish) and Princess (age 14ish), the Pirate (adult), a Mouse (teenage girl - 14-16ish), a Cat (child - 8-10 years old, no gender specified), an Innkeeper and his Wife (ages 35-50), a Juggler and a Dancer (the Nasty Nasties - adults), the King's Groom (adult male), and a Boy (12-14ish).
So, yes, while it is a few more people than I was told I'd be dressing, it is not going to be difficult. The setting is "general fairy tale" so anything remotely period, no matter the period as long as it is not modern, or within the last 150 years I should be fairly okay. The story line is fairly simple - the Pirate is on vacation and is angsting over trying decide what to do next in his life, and at the same time the Princess is unhappy with learning to be a Princess (those difficult teenage years!) and runs away with her pet, the Mouse. They end up at this wacky inn where there are no rules, and the Nasty Nasties generally cause havoc and mayhem. It is here that the Pirate and the Princess become acquainted. The Princess sends the Pirate to her parents to let them know that she is alright, and he goes happily enough, because even if he is a pirate, he *is* on vacation and really, not such a bad sort. For a Pirate. The Princess decides at the end to go home to her Royal life, and finds the Pirate has decided to stay at the Palace to advise the King and Queen. The Boy, who the Princess meets at the Inn goes off to sea to seek his fortune, and although it is never stated, he probably signs on the Pirate's ship, and twenty years down the road he'll go on vacation and start the whole damn thing over.
Basic fairy tale stuff in an hour and a half. And a musical on top of that - the music was written by a good friend, so I am expecting the music to make up for the fairly weak plot. He even wrote a new song for the Pirate for this production - "On Vacation" where the Pirate talks about how he is rough and tough and lean and mean, but he is taking a vacation from all that, so don't expect him to do anything pirate-like.
I will likely take my nieces.
Because the day was colder than it has been (40s and 50s), I set it up a couple of degrees to 64. Just the type of day to enjoy a cup of tea with cookies. The trees are slowly starting to turn, and in a week or two we should be reaching color-peak.
I got my script for the children's theatre show "The Princess and the Pirate." This will be kind of fun to costume, I think. The youngest child will be about eight and is playing a cat. The other kids in the show are teenagers, and the bulk of the players are adults. The characters are the King and Queen (ages 35-50), the Prince (age 12ish) and Princess (age 14ish), the Pirate (adult), a Mouse (teenage girl - 14-16ish), a Cat (child - 8-10 years old, no gender specified), an Innkeeper and his Wife (ages 35-50), a Juggler and a Dancer (the Nasty Nasties - adults), the King's Groom (adult male), and a Boy (12-14ish).
So, yes, while it is a few more people than I was told I'd be dressing, it is not going to be difficult. The setting is "general fairy tale" so anything remotely period, no matter the period as long as it is not modern, or within the last 150 years I should be fairly okay. The story line is fairly simple - the Pirate is on vacation and is angsting over trying decide what to do next in his life, and at the same time the Princess is unhappy with learning to be a Princess (those difficult teenage years!) and runs away with her pet, the Mouse. They end up at this wacky inn where there are no rules, and the Nasty Nasties generally cause havoc and mayhem. It is here that the Pirate and the Princess become acquainted. The Princess sends the Pirate to her parents to let them know that she is alright, and he goes happily enough, because even if he is a pirate, he *is* on vacation and really, not such a bad sort. For a Pirate. The Princess decides at the end to go home to her Royal life, and finds the Pirate has decided to stay at the Palace to advise the King and Queen. The Boy, who the Princess meets at the Inn goes off to sea to seek his fortune, and although it is never stated, he probably signs on the Pirate's ship, and twenty years down the road he'll go on vacation and start the whole damn thing over.
Basic fairy tale stuff in an hour and a half. And a musical on top of that - the music was written by a good friend, so I am expecting the music to make up for the fairly weak plot. He even wrote a new song for the Pirate for this production - "On Vacation" where the Pirate talks about how he is rough and tough and lean and mean, but he is taking a vacation from all that, so don't expect him to do anything pirate-like.
I will likely take my nieces.
Tags:
So ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gwendolyngrace is away for the first of three consecutive weekends, so I have a whole weekend with absolutely nothing planned. Oh, I have stuff to get done, but nothing scheduled.
It is getting colder out and autumn has truly begun. I love this time of year. Weather-wise, the days start to have a crispness to them, but the sun still shines brightly and warms us easily. I find myself leaving work for lunch and just wandering around in the sunshine. Even rainy days don't last long. Autumn colors are the best - rusts and reds, oranges, browns and golds and yellows. And that deep deep green. Yummy colors. And pumpkin everything is showing up! I love pumpkins! And pumpkin pie, muffins, bread.
Okay, so enough with the thinky-thinky. So this week's "Project Runway" was so good! I was glad they took all four to Olympus Fashion Week. Only three more episodes this season - and this time I really have no idea. I mean they each have a different design style, and their POVs are so strong. I just hope Uli and Laura can show us different aspects of their design style. I'm pretty sure Uli can, as she rightfully won the last challenge with a stunning dress. But Laura, I want her to give us some color! I nice rich blue, or purple or RED. Enough with the black, white and nude.
Anyway.
The fall also brings us the new network seasons of television. New shows I love? Studio 60 is brilliant, funny, and from the original team of "The West Wing" and is has that same intelligent spark that made the first two-three years of TWW so damn GOOD. And another brilliant thing about this show? It is available ONLINE from nbc.com every week! I watched the second episode on my laptop. It was obviously sponsored by visa because there was a fifteen-twenty second visa spot before each of five or six segments, which didn't really bother me. But I knew *knew* they were going for Gilbert and Sullivan - way before it happened. "We are the very model of a modern network tv show" indeed! Bwahhaahahaha! Shades of Pirates of Penzance.
"Justice" - a crime legal drama with a twist. First, the lawyers are for the defence, and at the end of every episode they show you exactly what happened during the "crime."
Conversely, "Shark" takes a legal eagle who *was* a defence attorney, but has switched sides to prosecute. I've only seen one episode of this show, and it didn't suck, so if I happen to be channel surfing I'll watch it. But I don't have it on the *must see* list.
"Eureka" is a fun little sci-fi show. Gwen told me last week as we watched it that the sheriff is the "Xander" of the cast, and I though, huh, Buffy has ingrained itself so deeply into our culture we can use the archetypes of the characters to immediately reference other things. Perhaps it is the new Wizard of Oz. Maybe the backbone of american culture has grown into Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Our little farm girl in blue gingham grew up into a high-heel wearing, ass-kicking, smart-mouthed California-blonde who is the poster child for Female Empowerment.
Hehem. I digress. We were discussing Eureka. Yes, Jack Carter is the "Xander" of the town. He's the normal guy that all the weird sticks to. His smart-house AI is overly fond of him. He can't understand the least little thing, and he cuts through the bull with relative ease. And he's funny. Cute little show. Also not on the *must see* list but I will seek it out if I am home.
Some of my favorite returning shows? "Supernatural" (yep, I'm on the band wagon for this one), "House," "NCIS," "Criminal Minds," "Cold Case," and "Numb3rs." These are all *must see* and I tape them if I am not going to be home. Other shows I'll watch but am not married to: "Bones," "CSI (all versions)" and "Law and Order (CI and SVU)." Huh. I'm not one for the sitcoms am I? And those shows like "24" that tell one continuous story through the season - um, I can't be bothered to try to keep up like that (one of the reasons I stopped watching West Wing in the final two seasons - it got to be you miss an episode and you're lost for the next five weeks. Sorry, but I have a life, and I am not married to my TV set). I watched "Vanished" for the first three episodes, and then it started to bore me. And "Kidnapped" looks to be very similar. I don't mind substories that are a continuity thread, like glimpses of family life, but god! To belabor the main story through twenty or so episodes - please. My own life is complicated enough, thanks.
Alright, you've heard enough blather from me tonight. Tell me, what do *you* love about the autumn?
gwendolyngrace is away for the first of three consecutive weekends, so I have a whole weekend with absolutely nothing planned. Oh, I have stuff to get done, but nothing scheduled.It is getting colder out and autumn has truly begun. I love this time of year. Weather-wise, the days start to have a crispness to them, but the sun still shines brightly and warms us easily. I find myself leaving work for lunch and just wandering around in the sunshine. Even rainy days don't last long. Autumn colors are the best - rusts and reds, oranges, browns and golds and yellows. And that deep deep green. Yummy colors. And pumpkin everything is showing up! I love pumpkins! And pumpkin pie, muffins, bread.
Okay, so enough with the thinky-thinky. So this week's "Project Runway" was so good! I was glad they took all four to Olympus Fashion Week. Only three more episodes this season - and this time I really have no idea. I mean they each have a different design style, and their POVs are so strong. I just hope Uli and Laura can show us different aspects of their design style. I'm pretty sure Uli can, as she rightfully won the last challenge with a stunning dress. But Laura, I want her to give us some color! I nice rich blue, or purple or RED. Enough with the black, white and nude.
Anyway.
The fall also brings us the new network seasons of television. New shows I love? Studio 60 is brilliant, funny, and from the original team of "The West Wing" and is has that same intelligent spark that made the first two-three years of TWW so damn GOOD. And another brilliant thing about this show? It is available ONLINE from nbc.com every week! I watched the second episode on my laptop. It was obviously sponsored by visa because there was a fifteen-twenty second visa spot before each of five or six segments, which didn't really bother me. But I knew *knew* they were going for Gilbert and Sullivan - way before it happened. "We are the very model of a modern network tv show" indeed! Bwahhaahahaha! Shades of Pirates of Penzance.
"Justice" - a crime legal drama with a twist. First, the lawyers are for the defence, and at the end of every episode they show you exactly what happened during the "crime."
Conversely, "Shark" takes a legal eagle who *was* a defence attorney, but has switched sides to prosecute. I've only seen one episode of this show, and it didn't suck, so if I happen to be channel surfing I'll watch it. But I don't have it on the *must see* list.
"Eureka" is a fun little sci-fi show. Gwen told me last week as we watched it that the sheriff is the "Xander" of the cast, and I though, huh, Buffy has ingrained itself so deeply into our culture we can use the archetypes of the characters to immediately reference other things. Perhaps it is the new Wizard of Oz. Maybe the backbone of american culture has grown into Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Our little farm girl in blue gingham grew up into a high-heel wearing, ass-kicking, smart-mouthed California-blonde who is the poster child for Female Empowerment.
Hehem. I digress. We were discussing Eureka. Yes, Jack Carter is the "Xander" of the town. He's the normal guy that all the weird sticks to. His smart-house AI is overly fond of him. He can't understand the least little thing, and he cuts through the bull with relative ease. And he's funny. Cute little show. Also not on the *must see* list but I will seek it out if I am home.
Some of my favorite returning shows? "Supernatural" (yep, I'm on the band wagon for this one), "House," "NCIS," "Criminal Minds," "Cold Case," and "Numb3rs." These are all *must see* and I tape them if I am not going to be home. Other shows I'll watch but am not married to: "Bones," "CSI (all versions)" and "Law and Order (CI and SVU)." Huh. I'm not one for the sitcoms am I? And those shows like "24" that tell one continuous story through the season - um, I can't be bothered to try to keep up like that (one of the reasons I stopped watching West Wing in the final two seasons - it got to be you miss an episode and you're lost for the next five weeks. Sorry, but I have a life, and I am not married to my TV set). I watched "Vanished" for the first three episodes, and then it started to bore me. And "Kidnapped" looks to be very similar. I don't mind substories that are a continuity thread, like glimpses of family life, but god! To belabor the main story through twenty or so episodes - please. My own life is complicated enough, thanks.
Alright, you've heard enough blather from me tonight. Tell me, what do *you* love about the autumn?
Tags:
.
