Salsa Steps

I'm taking a Level 2 Salsa Class with the Northwest Dance Network.  Some of the combinations are easy, and others are more difficult.

The video shows 2 combinations.  The first is a very easy one with a pass behind the back as well as a kind of "jump rope" outside turn, which is a little difficult to communicate for the lead, because it is different from the standard outside turn.  It's also kind of tricky for the follow to accept, because it feels, for an instant, as if your arm is being yanked from the socket.

The second combination actually came in an earlier class and I'm having a really tough time learning it. The hard part for me is the drape move, followed by the inside turn within the confines of the closed position followed by walking into his extended arm, which almost cuts you in the throat, to be led into a turn that is cued by a shoulder pull.

If I can figure this out, I will be Salsa Queen!!!

The excellent teachers, by the way, are Jodi Fleischman and Jim D'apiece.  I've had many classes with these two, and they do an excellent job.   It was nice of them to share these moves on video.

Wear the Fox Hat

Sunday Ritual

Rituals, I think, are important on Sunday Mornings.

And even though church is usually a part of those rituals, it is not as consistent as Will Shortz Sunday Puzzle on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday.

When I lived in Cleveland and first listened to the local NPR stations, WCPN and WKSU, (because commercial radio was abysmal) I became a fan of the puzzle.

I enjoyed calling my sister Anne in Seattle, and since her NPR station was airing the identical program 3 hours earlier, we would do the puzzle together.

It's a simple mind-teaser that I look forward to all week long.  And there's something strangely satisfying about getting Shortz' word pairs or common phrases right.  I take a strange pleasure from scooping host Lianne Hanson on the correct answer, when the contestant is stumped.

But rarely do I get the challenge to qualify the contestant for next week's show.  

I think I got the challenge this time!  Here it is.  See if you get it:

"Name a famous singer from the past, male or female, whose first name has six letters and last name has seven letters.  Rearrange the letters of the last name, and add a letter from the first name to get a place the singer famously performed".  

I think it's Maria Callas at La Scala.  

But sometimes there's more than one correct answer.  We'll have to wait until next week to see if I got it right.

I don't know why "playing puzzle" brings me such delight. But it does.  Perhaps it's a little challenge as I sip my coffee and the dogs beg for bites of my breakfast.  Maybe it's a ritual that links me to something thousands of others are doing.  Or maybe it's something to help me forget I am, once again, waking up alone with only begging dogs as my companions.

Let's have another cup of coffee, shall we?

Colorful Rain

The maturity of the brushstrokes.   The vibrant colors that take you to the center, where the sun is shining.  The way you can see flowers growing through this colorful rain.

This is stunning and inspiring.  It gets me in the gut and makes me sigh.

The artist?  It's Marla Olmstead and she painted it when she was four years old.

Four years old.  Did she have help?  That is the controversy.  

"60 Minutes" brought in a psychologist who called the child a normal kid, not a "prodigy" who was probably coached by her father.

A documentary, "My Kid Could Paint That" explored Marla's journey from her discovery by the art world and the swirl surrounding her after the response to the "60 Minutes" piece.  And the filmmaker also began to have doubts after watching her paint a work from beginning to end.

But I choose to believe this work is indeed done by the little girl.  A quote from her mother sums it up to me.  

"When you measure something, you change it".  

Sailors Take Warning

This was the stunning sunrise that greeted me on Thursday morning.  

I never would have noticed it had I not installed the new bedroom blinds that lower from the top-down.  The sky was spectacular!!!   It took my breath away, and I thought...."I have my digital camera, why not try to capture this".  

This is a major deal for me, because I've always been terrified of wasting film.

You can see the Cascades in the lower part of the photo, which was taken from the corner of the 2nd story deck of my house.

And, appropriately enough it brings to mind that old saying "Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.  Red sky at night, sailors delight"!

True to form, the red sky led to a morning and afternoon of heavy, cold rainfall.

Strange Times

REALLY basic cable

Maybe it's because winter is setting in, and maybe because I am hungry for stimulation.

But I am getting the urge to expand my cable television package.

DANGER!  DANGER!  DANGER!

Please stop me from this longing.

Cable TV can suck the lifeblood out of me, leave me unconscious on the couch for days on end.  It is the unraveling of civilization.

Find me another stimulating activity with which I can waste my time.

Sure, I have cable TV now.  It's not just "Basic" cable.  It's "Incredibly Basic".  My premium channels are these:  "The Weather Channel", "CBC-Vancouver", "Northwest Cable News","The Discovery Channel"  about 4 shopping channels and, "The Hallmark Channel".  

I think the Cable company does this to torture people.  Do you know what is on "The Hallmark Channel"?  Why would you, unless you had no other channels to watch?  It's re-runs of "Walker, Texas Ranger", "Murder She Wrote", and "Matlock".  That's about it.  Over and over and over.

Oh, to bathe in the luxury of plain-old "Basic" cable.  Imagine.  My nights would be filled with "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report".  I would understand the world better with CNN and CNBC.  

And on weekends!  Oh, the fun I would have learning new cooking techniques on "The Food Network".  I would travel to Tahiti on "The Travel Channel"and learn about great people on "The Biography Channel".  

But this pleasure would set me back another hundred bucks a month.  $1200 a year, for the luxury of spending more time on my butt on the couch.  

Not worth it.  Please forgive my momentary lapse into material longing land.  

I know!  Maybe I'll upgrade my 2-movies-at-a-time Netflix package to THREE!!!!

This film looks SCARIER!!!!

Turns out there's a whole genre of this on YouTube. I'm having a blast watching my favorite films re-cut as horror trailers.

Screw Twilight. THIS is the Horror Film to See!

For you, Travis...and the rest of the gang. Enjoy! :)

Illicit Acts

I caught them. Red-pawed. Never again will I be fooled by their staged fights and mock arguments! They love each other. I KNEW it!!

Found Poetry

I was walking Dudley down Greenwood toward the Mud Bay Granery pet store Saturday, and there, on the tiny parking strip was a pretty little basket with a sign reading "Free Poetry".  I picked up one of the neatly-rolled scrolls and went on my way.

Today, I found it in my coat pocket and unrolled it.  Here is what it read:

Coming Up Into the Light

by Julie Williams

You can only hunker down so long & then the wind dies

or rushes on to some other place to do its damage

& all that time you've been huddled there 

together

holding your breath, hoping against

wildest hope that aboveground

nothing  you love has been

blown away

hoping with a deep longing

the wind has cleared

the air &

the new

light

shining

is 

there

to 

stay

I thought it was just beautiful.  Sharing poetry is usually Eric's realm, but this one just came to me, on a chance, and it was too pretty not to share.

Churchin' at the Temple of Jason Mraz

It was a religious experience at the Jason Mraz concert at the Paramount Theater last night.  Literally.

When the gospel choir joined him on stage, and started singing "Oh Happy Day", I stood and put my hands in the air, palms facing upward, and let that spirit rain in.  Wow.  Good thing too, since I just couldn't make it to church yesterday morning.  So, it became prayer at the Church of Mraz.  

Amen!  What a great show.  That man is a true performer and a very old soul.  He channeled some of the greats.  Mel Torme, Elvis, Sammy Davis Jr, Al Jolsen, Tony Bennett, and even Jack Jones.  He would growl at one moment, scat at the next. throw in a little dance move, and his voice would soar above his version of the "Tower of Power" horn section.

I picked a good one to love.

Jason Mraz has a message too.  Love, laugh, enjoy, and above all else, don't worry.  He even started his show with a remark right out of "The Secret".  He asked us to visualize our love, hope or dream right in front of us, and embrace it.  That's classic visualization and the basis of new-thought religions worldwide.

You get the sense the guy doesn't take anything too seriously.   Even the music.  He loves improvisation and taking his hits like "TheRemedy" in new directions.  He scatted with his fine sax player, asking the audience to scat in a call-and-response segment that reminded me of Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher" routine.  

Almost all the songs were his own, but he made some exceptions, such as "Build Me Up Buttercup".  Fun chances were taken for no other reason than as an excuse to have a great time.

This guy was one with the vibe of the greats.  He'll be around for a long time, and I feel so lucky to be in step with the vibe, and glow in the music.

Taking Stock of the Rain

I'm sitting at my dining room table, listening to the rain pound against the skylights, and I am suddenly possessed with a need to make STOCK!  

It will take several hours, and there's nothing better on a day like today than a hot bowl of fresh veggie soup with homemade stock.  It smells like warmth and tastes like a comforting hug.  

If I venture out later, I'll buy some crusty bread and fresh butter to serve alongside.  

Maybe some different veggies in the soup today.  Let's see.  Fennel would be nice, and lima beans , carrots, and a can of diced tomatoes.  Oh, and fresh rosemary from the neighbor's plant is a good idea. 

And this time, what about egg noodles, cooked separately, and added at the last minute, with freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top?

OK, better get to work!

Dance Classes

This blog is actually called "Dancing Through Life",  so it's about time I post something new about dancing!

I had my first Waltz-3 class tonight, and it was so much fun to be with advanced-level waltzers who know what they're doing!

For some reason (perhaps my German heritage?) I immediately took to this dance when I first learned it in high school.  I even took it upon myself to teach the cast of a musical senior year how to waltz for a particular scene.  After that, I promptly forgot, and didn't waltz again until my mid 30's.  And then, it wasn't so good.

But when I returned to Seattle in 2002 I started taking lots of dance classes.  It let me hold men without getting too close, you know?  

I also learned a lot about waltzing, swing dancing, salsa, blues one-step, rhumba, cha cha, and a few other assorted dance steps.  

These aren't competition-style dance steps.  But I know enough to get by in a social situation, which was my goal.

Back to the waltz.  I took to it like a duck to water.  I've done several day and weekend-long waltz seminars, focusing on different aspects of the dance.  And when the music sweeps me away, and my partner knows what he is doing, the magic is like no other I have experienced.  I am transported to Vienna in the 1700's.  

Did YOU?

I just came back from the polls.  It was pretty crowded, but I didn't have to wait in line.

And, since I haven't been to the polls in years, things were pretty different.  I had the option of voting on a paper ballot (fill-in the circles, like on an absentee ballot) or a voting machine.

I picked the paper ballot.  The poll workers were pretty young.  In fact, the girls who told me where my precinct was were probably younger than 16.  

In fact, there were many enthusiastic people there to help, and it was a lot of fun.  And, I got my sticker!  Now I'm going to go to Ben & Jerry's for free ice cream and Starbucks for a free cup of coffee.

It was a lot more fun than absentee ballots.  I'll miss it when the polls are closed for good.  It's the ritual, the community and, of course, the free stickers!

Hope you voted too!

What Every Cook Needs...

Seriously, what IS this?  

I was killing time in The Mrs. Cooks store in University Village, looking at fun  cooking toys and this just about leapt off the shelf at me.  Had to share it with you.

Don't eat too much Spatzel or you'll get a "Spatzel-Ass"!!

Aw Shucks!!!

Tonight was the Oyster New Year event at Elliott's Oyster House on the Seattle Waterfront, and once again I was honored to be asked to be one of the judges in the "Most Beautiful Oyster" contest.

And therein lies the joke. Most Beautiful Oyster???

But it was a lot of fun. Public Relations Goddess Katie Wilkinson ran the whole shebang, and made sure we silly media types knew what we were doing.


Fortunately, we didn't have to do any oyster shucking. That was left to the pros, who made it all look so EASY!!


Part of the admission price went to the Puget Sound Restoration Fund, which is helping to bring back oyster habitat. They do great work.

There were dozens of seafood companies with all the raw oysters you could eat, plus Elliott's had a great spread of cooked seafood and veggie options.

And the dessert table looked lovely, although I was so full I didn't even try them!

Also there were many Washington wineries and a few breweries with samples to go along with the seafood. I stuck very close to the nice men handing out the Pear Cider.

Very fun event!!!

Halloween Dancing

For the last time ever, there was dancing at the Mountaineers Club on Lower Queen Anne in Seattle last night.  

The Mountaineers have sold the building and the whole place is going to be torn down to make room for.....CONDOS!  What a novel idea!

Anyway, it was a huge blow-out, with hundreds of costumed dancers, crazy DJ Ron Bolin, and prizes.  I waited in line about 30 minutes, just to get a ticket to get inside.

And then I sat.....and walked around the dance floor, and sat again, and smiled, and made small talk, and sat.  The only dances I had were during a "mixer" when the women line up on one side of the room and the men line up on the other.  you walk up, meet in the middle, and that is who you dance with.  So everybody dances.

Junior High School returned.  I blame myself.....I was all in black, pants, long sleeves, with a shot glass worn around my neck.  My costume?....."a shot in the dark"....   OK, it was a theme thing at the last minute.  

And work was stressful, so I probably brought that into the ballroom with me, although I tried not to.

I will not take it personally.  I will not take it personally.  I am a good dancer and a fun partner....really.  I will not take it personally.

Scheduling a Phone Call

How complicated should this be?  Really?  

Recently, through Facebook, I've re-connected with a childhood friend.  We exchanged a note on the message function of Facebook, containing phone numbers.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised when I returned home from work Tuesday night to find a message on my voicemail from her.  She wanted to call again at the same time (4:30 Pacific Time) the next day.

Rather than frustrate her with a string of un-returned calls, I sent her an e-mail suggesting several times we could schedule a call, because of time zone differences, work schedules etc.

Sounds simple enough, right?  But here we are, on our 8th e-mail and we STILL can't find a good time to talk on the phone!!!!!

I thought communication was supposed to be EASIER in this new era!!!

What do YOU suggest?  I'm trying not to frustrate her and lose her again after 35 years!

Why GPS Doesn't Work for Me

I miss two things about Ohio. One of them is the Blossom Music Festival, the summer home of The Cleveland Orchestra. We had season tickets and would attend outdoor symphony concerts nearly every hot, sticky summer weekend. We'd bring a picnic supper, sit on the grass or in the pavilion and get lost in the music. As darkness fell and the stars came out, the music would lift my soul to the heavens.

The other thing I miss about Ohio is getting lost on drives to Amish country in South-Central Ohio on crisp fall Saturdays. My ex-husband didn't care for the adventure, so I went by myself.

I would drive about 2 hours and reach the tiny towns of Sugar Creek and Berlin (pronounced BER-lin), turn right, and just meander down the country roads. If there was a tiny unpaved side street, I'd take it. I learned that these streets were the homes of Amish furniture, quilt and dry-goods stores.

I bought beautiful furniture, quilts for my beds, wonderful jams, mustards, sauces and incredible baked goods. My favorite were the amazing soft, huge molasses cookies with white frosting in one of the bakeries.

I also loved looking through the blacksmith shops that catered to farmers. I learned serious horsemen and women across the country relied on these shops to keep them in high-quality bridles, harnesses and saddles.

Once, I took an unexpected left turn, and drove and drove, only to come across an Amish funeral. I was mortified because I had interrupted the service. I backed up as quietly as possible and turned around when the road was wide enough.

And once, in the town of Berlin, I ate in a Main Street cafe that was popular with the tourist trade. All the waitresses had to dress in Amish clothing, but it was easy to spot the only real Amish young woman working in the restaurant. She used straight pins to hold her apron on, and close the neck of her dress. Her hair was perfectly swept into a bun on the top of her head, and the head covering was impeccably clean and starched ribbons hung down from the sides. She carried herself in such a way that I knew I had seen the embodiment of the word "grace". She was God's grace in human form.

The simplicity of the people, and their strong values were a comfort to me, especially when personal issues clouded my thinking in Cleveland.

And why doesn't' GPS work for me? Because none of these places are mapped by satellite, and a GPS system would not have shown me the random turns that would shift my consciousness.

Don't be afraid of getting lost. Because that, my friend, is where you may find a part of yourself.

Our Day

This is how we ended the daylight portion of our day.  

Prior to the bath at the "Rub-a-Dub Dob Wash", Dudley and I took 2 trips to 2 separate dog parks.

He romped around Greenlake, then we met up with an old friend at the Magnuson Park Off-Leash area.

He's keeping me moving, this lil' boy.  And at Magnuson, he romped with the big dogs in the water play area.

Trust me, he was BLACK when I got him in the car.  I put him on a big garbage bag and belted him in with the seat-belt on the front seat to keep him from getting his black legs and paws all over the car.

.....it's a small life we lead, but a rewarding one.  Nothing smells better than a clean dog.

Light, Form, Color

I haven't posted a painting in a while, so I thought I'd share Caravaggio's "Supper at Emmaus", which he painted when he was just 33 years old.

PLEASE click on it to show the entire painting. For some reason, I can only get 2/3 to come up on the blog, even when I change the size of the painting.

His use of light and shadows, in my opinion, are unsurpassed.

Ironically, he painted another work with the same title 5 years earlier.  the colors were much brighter and the lines were so much more defined.

I like this one better.

Butternut Bisque - Thank You Linda!

I was invited to a dinner party potluck last night, so I decided to try a new recipe.   Butternut Bisque.

I have some experience with soups full of vegetables and flavor, but I've never cooked a blended soup before.   I've long been a fan of butternut squash soup, but didn't have a great recipe.

Here's where thanks to Linda comes in.  She had her favorite cooking magazines transferred to my address, and didn't forward them when she moved to NYC.  So, I am the lucky recipient of "Cooks Illustrated" "Saveur" and "Martha Stewart's Everyday Food".  They're chock-full of great recipes, information on techniques, travelogues of trips to food producers and interviews with chefs and food providers.   

My sister Linda is an expert of all things food.  She graduated from The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York in the 1980's but refuses to work as a chef.  She is much more interested in other aspects of the food business, but is truly drawn toward writing.  If you've read her blog (I link to it on the side) you understand why.

When Linda was here for a few months earlier this year, she also bought a stick blender.  I've never owned one, and avoided making blended soups because I hated the idea of transferring hot, chunky soup into the food processor in batches to get the right consistency.  I've had too many experiences of hot soup spilling out, and inconsistent creaminess.  Viva La Stick Blender!!!!

You use it right in the pot, and the soup was wonderful.  I selected a recipe from the Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine that didn't use heavy cream.  It used stock and half-and-half.  No roux either.  The base is onions (I used shallots) garlic, 3 T of butter and just for fun, I threw in some slivered fresh ginger.  

It turned out great, and was very well received by the guests at the dinner party.  No leftovers either!

Linda, it's not going to be easy getting that stick blender back.

Figuring out Facebook

About 10 days ago, I joined Facebook, after being encouraged (i.e. naggedd...) by a friend for several weeks to get on board.

If you're on the fence, here's what I learned:

1. I now have more than 80 friends.  Most are people I solicited.  A few have solicited me.  It's nice to be contacted by people you went to high school or college with or worked with many years ago.

2. The Facebook system tries repeatedly to gain access to your personal information on your computer.  It does this by asking  you to let a friend add you to a birthday list, send you a flower, poke you etc.  I always say no because I do not want this system to have access.

3. There's not much to do on the site other than invite friends, write on their "walls" (their home pages) and write about what you are doing at any given moment.

4. Some people use Facebook as a marketing vehicle.  My high-school colleague Eric Yaverbaum has done quite well for himself and he is on Facebook to solicit users for PR and book projects and to provide opinions and hits on his business website.  Nothing wrong with that.  It's just interesting to learn.

5. I don't do anything interesting enough to post on my "wall", so I make stuff up.

No "Joe The Plumber"...but not bad!

Yay, Leanne!!!!

Leanne from Portland is the winner of season 5 of "Project Runway".  Hooray!  "Judy Noodles" as she is affectionately known on the Project Rungay blog site has been a favorite since the competition began.

The woman has a unique aesthetic.  She combines draping elements with crisply cut waves of fabric that undulate as her models move.  And she uses breathtaking pastels and crisp linens to compliment the waves.

I loved her collection.  LOVED it!

It's not easy for me to watch "Project Runway".  I have to wait until somebody posts it on YouTube with an obscure title so it won't get pulled by the network.  It's usually in 5 parts, with commercials edited out.  Yay.  

When you have the cheapest possible cable package, the only "premium" channels you get are Hallmark (ugh) and Fox Sports Northwest.  

Go Judy Noodles!!!

What to think now?

Everybody is afraid to talk about it.

We all dance around the issue without saying anything about it, and yet, there it is. Right in front of our faces all of the time.

When will we just speak up and be honest?

Aren't you tired of the lies? Tired of pretending like it's all fine?

Speak up, dammit! Don't waste any more time. Say it before it's too late.

You'll feel so much better once it's out there.

And the funny thing is, they've been thinking the exact same thing.

.......whew. I had to get that off my chest.

What Would Jesus Do?

You may know my penchant for destroying Easter Peeps. This truly takes it to the next level.

This Morning at the Dog Park

His name is Moglie.  He's a 5 month old Havanese, and Dudley and Abbey were enchanted.

So was I.  They played for a very long time before I had to literally drag my guys away because it was time for work.

"sigh"

Another Career

Do you ever wonder what ELSE you would be doing, if you hadn't selected the career path you are presently following?

I am wondering that right now.  

I returned to college and received my degree in communications with an emphasis on Public Relations and Psychology.  Perhaps PR would be a good opportunity.  

I also learned to produce television specialty programs and found I was very adaptable, although I have a lot to learn in that department.

I have also worked in retail, and while I enjoyed interacting with the public, I didn't enjoy the frequent schedule changes.

And I dally in commercial and corporate voice-over work.  This gives me great pleasure, although it is not exceptionally lucrative at the moment.  If I knew how to turn this into a financially productive enterprise, this would be a lot of fun for me.

What would YOU do?