Monday, December 25, 2006

Happy Holidays!

Here's the closest I get to a holiday card...


Wishing you the best!!

You can't catch me!

I've been meaning to put these photos up for a while, and I finally had a free moment. Brian's semi-dying of what looks to be strep throat, so I'm being quiet while he sleeps as much as possible to get better for our trip to Montreal that starts tomorrow!

Anyway...a few weeks ago I was asked to do some storytelling at a winter wonderland event put on by one of the preschools I work with. I really wanted to use puppets, so after wracking my brain for a good puppetworthy story, I chose The Gingerbread Man. It's actually kind of a weird tale, since the main character gets eaten in the end, but he was kind of an ass anyway. And, as I found out, little kids do NOT CARE. They just like seeing puppets run around chasing each other.

And what funny puppets they turned out to be! Of course I procrastinated, and of course I had to make elaborate puppets, so the night before Brian and I stayed up late, making ears and noses and getting high off of craft glue fumes. In the end, I fell in love with my little handmade darlings, and the storytelling went very well.

Here are two of them, the horse and the rabbit, both characters that try, and ultimately fail, to catch the sneering gingerbread boy.



And here are the others. The clever fox who, I am well aware, looks perhaps a little bit more like a mouse or maybe a ferret, but I couldn't for the life of me find a redder sock than that...and of course, the unfortunate gingerbread man, who falls for the fox's helpful ruse and gets unceremoniously devoured in the end.



Ahhh, the holiday spirit.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Peeps.

Brian and I are now back and recovering from a wonderful, long weekend in New York. Brooklyn specifically, since we only spent a couple of hours in Manhattan. I must say, we did a fantastic job of seeing everyone and balancing culture with brunches and partying. The good Dr. Science beat me to the descriptions of Annie's party and our evening at the Brooklyn Museum. He did a better (and more thoughtful!) job of describing it than I could, so I suggest checking it out here and here. The sculpture by Ron Mueck? Blew. Me. Away. It seemed to have a similar effect on everyone else there too, apparently, since volunteers and security guards kept asking people to stay back and not get so close to the artwork. It was just so hard not to want to examine every hair follicle and vein on these astoundingly lifelike (and giant and miniature) sculptures. Go check it--and the other current exhibits--out at the Brooklyn Museum if you're in the area.

I got to spend lovely time with my sister and her nanny charges...three tiny little fashionable Manhattanites who live in an absurd townhouse on the Upper East Side (someday I will do a blog reflection on how that kind of upbringing must be). We saw a sketch comedy show, partied with Abbey, Brendan, Zack, and the Grahams, and had sushi with Andrew. My only regret is that I picked a weekend when my hetero-life partner was only in town for a short while...Susie and Josh went to a wedding in DC, so we had to resort to staying alone in their apartment, hugging their teddy bears. Sniff.

And upon our return, we were given a classic Chicago welcome of snow, ice, and wind chills of 0 degrees. The good news is that I got a new coat and hat, and also it turns out that our apartment is particularly cozy when we can look out at the snow-covered roofs of the neighborhood. The bad new is, it's snowy and icy and the wind chill is zero.

Time for some hot chocolate and clementines.
Brian and I are now back and recovering from a wonderful, long weekend in New York. Brooklyn specifically, since we only spent a couple of hours in Manhattan. I must say, we did a fantastic job of seeing everyone and balancing culture with brunches and partying. The good Dr. Science beat me to the descriptions of Annie's party and our evening at the Brooklyn Museum. He did a better (and more thoughtful!) job of describing it than I could, so I suggest checking it out here and here. The sculpture by Ron Mueck? Blew. Me. Away. It seemed to have a similar effect on everyone else there too, apparently, since volunteers and security guards kept asking people to stay back and not get so close to the artwork. It was just so hard not to want to examine every hair follicle and vein on these astoundingly lifelike (and giant and miniature) sculptures. Go check it--and the other current exhibits--out at the Brooklyn Museum if you're in the area.

I got to spend lovely time with my sister and her nanny charges...three tiny little fashionable Manhattanites who live in an absurd townshouse on the Upper East Side (someday I will do a blog reflection on how that kind of upbringing must be). We saw a sketch comedy show, partied with Abbey, Brendan, Zack, and the Grahams, and had sushi with Andrew. My only regret is that I picked a weekend when my hetero-life partner was only in town for a short while...Susie and Josh went to a wedding in DC, so we had to resort to staying alone in their apartment, hugging their teddy bears. Sniff.

And upon our return, we were given a classic Chicago welcome of snow, ice, and wind chills of 0 degrees. The good news is that I got a new coat and hat, and also it turns out that our apartment is particularly cozy when we can look out at the snow-covered roofs of the neighborhood. The bad new is, it's snowy and icy and the wind chill is zero.

Time for some hot chocolate and clementines.