Springtime project!

Mike and I have been in nesting/home improvement mode in the last few days. We've been polishing furniture, moving it around to mop and polish the floors, and generally making things sparkly and shiny. This afternoon we went "thrifting" to try and find some window planters, with decent success (okay, not at the thrift stores, but Marshalls saves the day!)

A few weeks ago there were $1 herb garden starter kits at Target, and I've been craving fresh basil since our last grocery store plant bit it with a case of spider mites.

Cool random fact... these bugs have a unique life cycle in that females are diploid like most organisms while males are haploid (have only 1 copy of each chromosome). That means a single female can lay unfertilized eggs, which develop into males, and from there they can spawn a whole colony! Neat!

Well, unless they are eating your garden.

Anyway, my seedlings had finally reached the point where the tiny plastic greenhouse was too small, so I needed to re-pot them. The tin pots we found came in sets of 3 with a drainage tray, but the pots themselves weren't vented, so first I had to spend half an hour with a hammer and a nail making some holes. A layer of glass stones (salvaged from our wedding decorations!) in the tray provides an escape route for excess water.

I don't have much plant re-potting experience, so the hardest part was teasing the seedlings apart from the root-and-soil clump they had formed in the tiny pot. I soaked it in a cup of water and gently separated them with my fingers, so hopefully enough roots are intact that these suckers will actually grow!

After all of our cleaning yesterday, I felt a bit guilty about the mess... but not too guilty...



And here's the finished product! Looks like Mike will be putting basil on everything after a while. (That's one way to get him eating some greens...)



Yum!

Breaking News: Man Eats Vegetable

Self-proclaimed "meatatarian" Mike N., 26, of Chicago, was observed last night eating a stir-fry which contained measurable amounts of Brassica oleracea, or the common broccoli. Witnesses state that, although he voiced concern and appeared discomfited at first bite, he finished the dish without dire consequences.

"I'm shocked and amazed, but definitely pleased," reports the man's wife. "I don't know if this is going to become a regular thing, but it's a step in the right direction.

The man himself was unavailable for comment, since he's busy taking a shower.

Board game night

Mike and I had about a dozen folks crammed into our apartment last Saturday night for food and board games, starting out with A Touch of Evil and Puerto Rico (which I only lost by 1 point!). Our stash of games has been steadily building, especially since last Christmas. However, we quickly realized that only a handful of the titles we've accumulated can be played with two people (Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride are my current favorites)... and even those play with an entirely different dynamic and new strategies when more people are added to the mix. Thus, we've started hosting a monthly game night with friends in Chicago.

The menu included prosciutto panini sandwiches (Mike's culinary contribution), winter pear salad and a gruyere/swiss fondue (mine), as well as bread, veggies, and fruit to dip, plus fancy cheeses, beverages, and dessert brought by friends. Hopefully we'll be able to keep up the interest (we had grad school folks, a friend from Kenyon, and various roommates and significant others) and do it again soon, especially as winter finally leaves!

Today, I stumbled across an article online about the genesis of another of our favorite games, Settlers of Catan. I didn't see the byline until the very end, but the author is Andrew, a friend and fellow fulbrighter who lives in Berlin. Board games... bringing friends together!

I'm ready to be done with this class...

I'm taking a course for my training grant, and as useful as it's been to hear so many experts weigh in on the salient features and our scientific ambitions regarding Alzheimer's disease, I'm ready to have my time back for work in the lab! I'll present my final paper on Monday, but there's lots to be done to polish it up so I can submit it by tomorrow night... and I've been working on it for what feels like ages already.

I need a break... so it's back to blogging! Here are adorable pictures of my cousin Lauren and her husband Neal's little (so big!) boy, Brian, from our visit to Michigan on Valentine's day weekend:







There's another one with more of my Grandma in it two posts down, from when I originally wrote about the trip.

Chamber Singers in Chicago!

The Kenyon College Chamber Singers stopped in Chicago on their tour this year! Well, technically Oak Park, but that's close enough that Mike and I were able to catch them on this past Wednesday night. It was fantastic! I couldn't stop grinning the entire time, and I was amazed to see that I've sung about half the current program. I guess I'm far enough out from graduation that Doc has cycled some pieces back into rotation... although the madrigal that started the concert, Bennet's All Creatures Now, is actually in the current repertoire of the Catatonics (the grad a cappella group I sing with these days). The whole program for those who are interested:

I. All Creatures Now - John Bennet

II. Yihyu leratzon imrei fi - Ernest Bloch
Jubilate Deo - Orlando di Lasso
Faire is the Heaven - William H. Harris
At the round earth's imagined corners - Williametta Spencer

III. Tebye poyem - Sergei Rachmaninoff
Ñe ímamï inya pómoshchi, op. 25 - Pavel Chesnokov

IV. Four Shakespeare Songs - Juhani Komulainen
1. To be, or not to be
2. O weary night
3. Three words
4. Tomorrow and tomorrow

V. Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein rein Herz, op.29, no.2 - Johannes Brahms

(intermission)

VI. Trois Chansons - Claude Debussy
Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder!
Quant j'ai ouy le tabourin
Yver, vous n'estes qu'un villain

VII. Signposts - Eskil Hemberg
Signpost I
Signpost II

VIII. Un jour vis un foulon qui foulait - Orlando di Lasso
Ich stund an einem Morgen - Ludwig Senfl
The Turtle Dove - Ralph Vaughan Williams
Do not pick my rosemary - Allen Hoffman

IX. Sizongena laph'emzini (two Zulu wedding songs) - arr. Mzilikazi Khumalo

X. My Lord, what a moanin' - arr. Adolphus Hailstork
Ride on, King Jesus - arr. Edward Boatner

It was especially nice to hear again some pieces that aren't on the CS CD's I have, since those are foggier in my memory than the ones I can listen to at will. I have recordings from my own time in the group of the both di Lasso pieces, the Chesnokov, all three from Debussy, and the Vaughan Williams. The Bloch was recorded on As Torrents in Summer (96-97... as well as the Bach's huge Singet dem Herrn ein Neues Lied which we sang my senior year that didn't make it onto In Concert). However, the Khumalo isn't on any of the recordings I own, including the recording of the live concert in Rosse Hall from senior year when Dr. Khumalo came to visit the choir. I believe we sang it on tour Sophomore year (I can't find the program to check that) but it didn't make it onto Luna so I hadn't heard it since then. The South African music in a CS concert is always a fun time, since there's often a bit of dancing involved. It was great to see how much fun the choir was having... for the first time from the audience's perspective!

I also got to talk to Doc and Kay again, and a few other young alums in the audience. I'm old now, though. I only knew one of the current singers, and she's a professor's kid I knew from church who was in high school while I was at Kenyon.

And of course the final piece was Doc's arrangement of Kokosing Farewell. There was a special treat to be had there, though. Apparently last year Doc began a new tradition of inviting alums to join the singers on the risers for Kokosing. I had no idea this was coming, and almost fell over Mike in my rush to get up there and join the group! I only wish I hadn't been fighting a cold at the time, since I felt obligated to sing as quietly as possible so my croaking wouldn't take away from the piece. What a grand feeling, though, to be on those risers again in a lovely church with Doc conducting in his carefully crafted fashion, coaxing every familiar ebb and swell into place.

Great Valentine's Day

A post! Whoa!

Last weekend was great fun, and a wonderful first Valentine's Day since Mike and I were married. My folks drove up to Chicago and brought us along to Michigan to spend some time with extended family and attend a fun event... my cousin Sarah played the role of Giannetta in Opera Grand Rapids' production of L'Elisir d'Amore by Donizetti, otherwise known as The Elixir of Love. The production was very entertaining with a highly talented cast, and it was great to be able to see my cousin in her first professional role. The plot is romantic with lots of opportunity for humor, and like much comic opera every character finds a happy ending. It was great to be there to support Sarah and see how proud and excited her family was for her performance.

I also invited a college friend, Nick K., to meet us at the performance and catch up a bit since he's living in Grand Rapids these days. We lived on the same hall freshman year at Kenyon and got to know each other pretty well because we were both involved at church, but aside from a longstanding facebook "poke" tradition we haven't kept in touch much in the intervening four years. He and Mike and I wandered around snowy downtown Grand Rapids after the show looking for a bar or café with decadent chocolate desserts, suffered a minor setback when I thought I'd lost my I.D., and wound up at a chain restaurant (but at least one with decadent chocolate desserts!)

The other very exciting part about the weekend was meeting a new addition to the family. My cousin Lauren (one of Sarah's sisters) and her husband had a little boy in November. Brian is extremely cute and eating very well (as demonstrated by the fact that at 3 months he's in 6-9 month baby clothes already!) My grandma was with us for the weekend, so she officially met her first great grandbaby for the first time. It was interesting to listen in when my cousin Melissa got her reminiscing a bit about her own memories of young motherhood. I wish I could post a picture or two, but I forgot to get out my camera... it'll have to wait until my mom can figure out how to email me the ones she took!

***UPDATE***

What a cute little butterball! Here's me and Grandma Doris (now Great-Grandma) with Brian! "Who the heck are all these new people??"
*** end update***

Oh, and as for celebrating Valentine's Day as a married couple, Mike stepped up to the task admirably, surprising me with a purple sprig of flowers (from the dollar store, no less!) before we headed back to Chicago.

Full photo album now online...

That's right, 3600+ pictures from the wedding. The full slideshow clocks in at about 2 hours. Extreme.

You can find it at my Shutterfly site

So... scavenger hunt time!

Alaina making a goofy face OR Mike blinking=1 point
Food on face OR ducks=2 points
Italian gesticulation=4 points
Alaina gettin' low=5 points
Alaina funny face AND Mike blinks (same picture)=10 points
3 or more people blink simultaneously=12 points for 3 (+3 per additional blinker)
Alien invasion OR giraffe=a million points

What's your score?