If You Can't Beat 'Em...

As I look back on the year, it seems to me that the American news stream has had way too much in the way of personal, professional, and political potshots. With all the billions of our fellow humans here in the world, we will always be able to find someone who doesn't share our values, who acts differently, and whose approach to situations will be opposite ours. Somehow we need to survive, and possibly even look toward solving problems and increasing our comfort zone and level of happiness. Is hatred and criticism really the way to do it?

My view is that the hate mongering and the "holy war" M.O. is not going to cut it...just as it was horrible during the time of the Crusades. People need to find a way to work the strengths of those who don't agree with them, and agree to disagree about the rest without making the disagreement the central priority. Yes, everyone has strengths. Even the seemingly most vicious among us has an adoring mommy, or has an adored child or pet. Find a way to drill down to this, or the current nonsense will go on and on. If we don't turn it around, the 2012 Presidential election will be the least of our troubles in the long run.

Let's hope the new year will truly be a shiny one, just like in the cartoons. Peace to you.

Wry Elders

I found today's Cryptoquote in Newsday amusing. One look at the weather will tell you why I actually got to do today's puzzles today instead of months from now: snow, snow, and more snow for the LI area. Let's see how much has fallen when we wake up tomorrow.

"The only people to whose opinions I listen now with any respect are people much younger than myself. I would do anything in the world to get back my youth except get up early, exercise or be respectable." -- Oscar Wilde

And So This Is Christmas

The kid in me wants Christmas to bring out the best in people, even non-Christians. Once you get past the nonsense about looking for parking spaces, standing in long lines, schlepping and wrapping packages, etc. it is a season to be giving and to embrace the loved ones in your life. My thoughts bring me around in a complete circle now, because Christmas brings out the kid in me.

I hope you all experience joy this holiday season, regardless of what and how you celebrate.

Leave Your Name and Number at the Beep. Please!

How long have telephone answering machines been in mainstream usage? At least 20 years, right? Nowadays people even have voice mail on the run, via their cell phones. So why do some people insist on calling dozens of times and hanging up? I think it would be much easier for all parties concerned if I received a quick message to the effect of "give me a call when you're free" instead.

The odd thing I've noticed is that most of the time people who call me and do this don't have an urgent need to talk and don't have a specific agenda. So why call dozens of times within a short time period? The other thing that gets me is that I have a couple of charming correspondents who will track down other people who might come into contact with me to ask whether they've seen or heard from me. When, eventually, I either get the chance to call or to pick up the phone and speak to the caller "live" it turns out to be about something that could've been discussed any old time at all, plus some idle chit chat.

I understand that not everyone works a full time job and has a house with lots of kids and activities as I do. And I'm flattered that I'm the object of someone else's attention. It's stressful though, to be the subject of the telephone track down, when there's absolutely nothing noteworthy to say. By the time there's an actual emergency, I may totally have walled myself off from all attempts at contact because of the "crying wolf" syndrome...or at least may not feel the need to respond until a couple of days later.

So let me be clear about this: I love you. I'm glad you're in my life. But please, for goodness' sake...leave me a message!

Thanks!!! (with hugs and kisses and hearts and flowers and little blue diamonds, even)

Some Do Spring Cleaning...

Yeah I know I'm not typical...not a news flash! I had gotten a postcard from Big Brothers Big Sisters announcing that they would be driving through my neighborhood today. So I thought it would be great to do one more charitable donation in 2010, and I already had a pile of stuff that Son #3 had recently said was too small for him (i.e. the end of the line in our family).

Yesterday morning, while two of the three were at religion and the other had his nose in a reading assignment, I went through and made a list of all the items to be donated. It wasn't nearly time to pick up the kids yet, so I decided to look through the bins in the basement to see what else might be appropriate. It was like The Sorcerer's Apprentice; each time I saw a bin that might have a few items that would be too small or not suitable for my fussy little fashion prince, I realized that there were a few more applicable things in the bin behind it.

So there were lots of summer shirts and shorts that will be too small by next year...and a bunch of long pants in the size 6 bin that won't be long enough by next fall...and some extra hand-me-down winter clothes that fit him now but won't next winter. I also took the final step of donating all the old soccer cleats that the other two outgrew...since The Prince has made it clear that he is definitely not a team sports person. No cleats needed to climb a tree or swing from the monkey bars.

Ultimately I filled three large clear trash bags and emptied four large plastic bins. No guilt with the time taken, because all the Christmas stuff is already done. Feels great! Should I have been doing all that six days before Christmas? Of course not...but what the hey...

Hallelujah

What a pleasure to attend the high school winter concert last night. This was our first experience since Son #1 is a freshman. I had gotten to know some of the music teachers already, from band camp, and was further impressed by what I saw and heard. The orchestra, symphonic band, wind ensemble, women's chorus, and mixed chorus directors seem to be a cohesive team who support one another's endeavors. What a great message for the kids to take away, and what a great experience for all of us who get to participate.

The orchestra leader put on a light show to accompany their rendition of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Wizards in Winter" but acknowledged the help of his colleagues in pulling it all together (this being only his second year in the school). The women's chorus leader is also the accompanist for the mixed chorus. The wind ensemble accompanied the mixed chorus for two of the selections, the second being the evening's finale. For that, the women's chorus joined them as well.

The finale, which is performed every year at the winter concert, was the Hallelujah Chorus. Picture about 150 students on the risers, wearing their choral robes, and the wind ensemble (about 70 musicians) in back of them. The conductor asks all alumni, and anyone else in the audience who'd like to join in, to join them on the risers (and we're now spilling onto the floor in front of the piano and onto the stage with the wind ensemble). If that weren't enough, the conductor asks the principal and assistant principal to come up, as well as the superintendent of schools. The district fine arts director went up too, sheet music in hand. Big entertainment value there, of course -- but they really did go up and sing.

The result: a musical triumph, plus that intangible warm fuzzy feeling. Boy am I glad that all three kids are in the music program. I want them all to experience this...and I want to keep experiencing it myself for the next eight years until Son #3 graduates!

Love for a Child

Yeah, like the Jason Mraz song...but this is the real deal! Son #1 comes home complaining about his dizzy French teacher who parlayed "I'll ask my Mom if we can bake for French Club" into a definite commitment to make a buche de noel for the club meeting this afternoon. Mind you, the teacher isn't the only airhead here; my son knew about this over the weekend but didn't mention it until last night when I walked in from work at almost 6PM. "Well, I mentioned it to Dad on Friday..." Hubby is a great cook but I don't think he's ever tried to bake anything in his life, heh heh, and he certainly wouldn't take the initiative of mentioning it to me. Sigh, here we go again, the last minute desperation cha cha.

So we start googling to find easy buche de noel recipes. (For those who don't know, it's the French version of a yule log...jelly roll cake with whipped cream and chocolate...nicely decorated.) So we settled on one, and all I needed was a tub of whipped chocolate frosting and some red and green sprinkles. The class would definitely be aware that we don't own a patisserie, so why aim for bake shop perfection?

Separate five eggs. I find this to be a bit of a pain in the derriere, so don't normally gravitate towards recipes that call for it, BUT we're talking about something for one of the kids for school. So I did it. Whew, the whites didn't get any yolks in them. The yolks still had a bit of white attached, but that's okay.

Beat yolks until thickened, about five minutes. The kid took care of this while Mom measured out the 2/3 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, and 3 tablespoons cocoa powder. Next was the easy part; beat in sugar first, then the flour and cocoa...although I had to show him how to stir the cocoa by hand first until it all gets moist so you avoid the fragile cocoa dust coating everything in the kitchen. Beat whites until stiff peaks form. I took care of that little chore. Fold in whites until smooth. Pour into prepared jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes, or until top springs back lightly when touched.

After 15 minutes we take the pan out of the oven. After reading directions and the doneness test OUT LOUD, son sticks one of his fingers clear through the cake. Zut alors! Anyway, we turned out the cake onto a dish towel that had been sprinkled with confectionary sugar and gently rolled it up, putting it aside for half an hour to cool. Son thought it was awesome that the cake didn't break when unrolled...that's what stiff peaked egg whites will do for ya.

After spreading about 1/3 of the frosting on the cake, leaving about an inch of space on each side, we rolled it up again and used the rest of the frosting on the outside. Making lines down the log to simulate the "bark effect" we then decorated with red and green. Cake taker was stored in the basement overnight to chill. Hope it made the trip to school in one piece this morning; it was an icy snowy day.

What did I really feel like doing after dinner last night? Watching an old VHS tape of Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. Oh well, maybe tonight!

Deflated

Sigh, I just can't be Pollyanna every day.

I'm bummed at the moment because I saw a little bit of a chance for two of my good buddies at work to become friends with each other again...but the bubble of hope was burst. Personal loyalty sometimes becomes intertwined with professional endeavors, and then emotional ties can be ruptured when work related things don't go well. Both are wonderful friends to me as individuals though, and I have to be grateful that neither has asked me to take sides or to choose. (OK we are all over 40 but stranger things have happened!) In my typical self effacing fashion though, I would be truly delighted if the two of them made up.

Oh well, the holiday season is nowhere near over, and just maybe...yippee I see Pollyanna in the doorway again... :-)

Vive La Difference

This parenting thing is really a kick in the head sometimes. My first born is almost a carbon copy of my personality. My second son is the polar opposite. This is sometimes entertaining, intriguing, and invigorating...and sometimes it's frustrating as all get-out.

Tomorrow night is the band concert at the middle school. This is the first year that Son #2 is playing the bassoon. He's only had the instrument since September...but not the beginning of September because of a procurement delay...and then there were several times he forgot to bring it home...plus a two week period when it got lost in the band room but then mysteriously reappeared.

Now...if I were in his shoes, I would have been practicing like mad to make up for lost time, and to make sure I knew the songs backwards and forwards before concert day. But I am the princess of compulsive preparedness. My middle child, whose philosophy is more like "que sera, sera," figures that he'll just play the pieces of the pieces that he knows and he'll keep silent the rest of the time. Mind you, there are only two bassoons in their symphonic band.

This would drive me crazy. And I am trying not to let it. But Sonny Boy keeps saying "It'll be fine, Mom. Don't worry." I'm trying to take him at his word, even though this laissez faire M.O. often comes back to bite him on the butt. Breathe deeply, Mom...and intone a calming mantra.

How to Make Someone's Life

On Sunday, hubby and a good friend of ours took Sons #1 and 2 to their first Rangers game. Both play hockey and are big fans of the team (and never fail to point out when Mom's team, the Islanders, takes a nosedive). Hubby got the tickets (face value over $100 apiece) through a deal with his boss. He'd saved a pile of cash for souvenirs...because how can you take the kids to their first game and not get them official NYR jerseys etc.?

They took the train to MSG, scheduled to arrive when the gates opened. They had good seats, at least as good as you can get in the upper deck. About 20 minutes before game time, hubby called the house, almost yelling with excitement. A representative of MSG had gone up to their section and saw them all geared up in their Ranger attire...and told hubby that he was "comping" them for seats at ice level. Hubby was suspicious at first but he thought that they could still return to their original seats if this was a gag.

It was 100% for real. I guess they have some season tickets that get returned at the last minute, and this is a good way to fill the seats with genuine fans. So they show up in their new location, and a waitress comes over to ask whether they would like food or drinks. Pretty cool not to have to stand on line at the concession area. So hubby is relating all this to me on the phone, and the kids are screaming in the background. "This is AWESOME, Mom!" Whoops, the food arrives, so they have to get off the phone.

OK so the Rangers didn't win the game, but don't we think that the four of them will tell just about everyone they know the story of how they were comped down to ice level seats? A Cinderella kind of tale...kids' first game and all. How much good will does that generate for the Rangers/MSG organization...and guess what, the ice seats have a face value of $250 apiece...so the difference was only $600. Advertising in the traditional way costs millions for a 30 second commercial. Smart, n'est-ce pas?

One Giant Step for...

Thanks to my sister-in-law for rattling my cage and reminding me that I'd been slacking off on blogging these past few weeks. Hanukkah was early this year, and I had to have everything bought, wrapped and organized before leaving for my annual business trip to Boston the Sunday after Turkey Day.

Boston is a wonderful city, and I was luckily able to arrange three visits with friends in the evenings after I was done with the day's work. Two of my PhD physicist colleagues who usually attend that meeting were home with flulike illnesses, but the work part of the meeting went well anyway, thanks to a great journal support person (and her husband who was along for the ride) and a fantastic PhD chemist colleague who picked up the slack.

Over the weekend I was an elf. I have most of the Christmas gifts I bought wrapped now. I have a few more to get, but nothing horrifying. I don't think I will decorate until after Hanukkah has drawn to a close this Wednesday night. I don't even think I can process it yet, to be honest.

Here's an inspiring quote from the pile of puzzle pages I attacked while I was in Boston (dated February 24, 2010!). It's amazing what can be done over breakfast and lunch when there is no conversational companion...this one appeals to me not only because of its meaning but also because it uses 23 of the 26 letters of the alphabet which is possibly the most I've ever seen in a Cryptoquote.

Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps. -- David Lloyd George