at least other people are up to something interesting

I just spent what seemed like an eternity cleaning out my basement and hosting a garage sale.

Every single one of my childhood neurosis are set off by garage sales.  I have had panic attacks at the prospect of visiting a garage sale.  Having my own brought enough crazy out that I wore out my family and now they will have no sense of humour left for that midlife crisis I was planning for the next decade.

I won't waste either of our time with hashing out the details of the horror show, but since I have nothing creative to show from the past little bit, I will share with you the creativity of a others that I have enjoyed recently.

This first picture is lawn border of a house at the end of my street.  It is made from headstones. 

Why and how, I have yet to find the courage to ask.

This reminds me, I need to take some pictures of the house a little further up from this one adorned with animal skulls to show you.  I have considered going to knock on the door to ask if I could buy their house or, at least, take a little peek inside.  I bet it's amazing.  I only have two skulls outside my home (a horse and a cat).  I have skull envy.

Some sweet graffiti on a downtown dumpster. 

Thank you to public artists, please don't stop.

I've been listening to girl child memorize and practice the narrative from this video this week.  It's a little surreal to hear your eight year old go on about crotch unicorns and bad boys but overall, I believe it is an educational experience for her and all of her friends she has been performing for.  

And dear books, where would I be without you?  Whenever the dunging out of the spider infested basement got too much and the sorting of a decade's worth of fabric scraps threatened to crush my soul, I could find comfort in the fact that at least I didn't have to try to chop a path through the Poplova Forest with a dull machete and eat worms.  Instead, I could sit in my comfortable house, eat cookies and drink tea, and curse my good life.  I am grateful for this.

science with grandpa

Happy Father's Day, dad.

Rapunzel. Is. Done.

Two hours a performance.  Eleven performances.  Ten days... all done.

Thirty peasants, six children of the gentry, five witchy fashion statements, four sweetie birds, one tubby little king... all done.

I had a moment early in the morning midweek while helping girl child prepare for that day's double shows for school children when I yelled out, 'Nobody should have to have to braid show hair at seven thirty in the morning!'

Truly, if the birds are singing their dawn chorus, one's fingers are more like fat, clumsy sausages than graceful braiding tools.  Stage hair and make up is a cruel task.

But now, four full day rehearsals and seven performance days worth of painful French braid learning experiences... all done.

Costumes have been collected, sorted, and stored back in the vault.

The emergency of live theatre... all done.

For now.

With the last four performances being completely sold out, I think this one went off rather well.

Deep collective breath...done.

But then, Alice in Wonderland in the fall...  Wonder what song girl child will want to use as an audition piece?

Not so done...

my fwp

This week is one of those when I don't know if I am coming or going.

Girl child's play has been running through - seven shows down (three last weekend, four during the week) and four more this weekend.  I've mostly worked myself out of the job in costumes although I still need to be there for small repairs (and sometimes major malfunctions) and Sunday night, after the final performance, we'll be working until late as the children (forty of them in this production) return the costumes, have them sorted to be cleaned or returned to the costume vault.

I have moved from attending part time derby practices back to full time, which means about three nights a week practice plus a game on Saturday.  This Saturday I am reffing down in Calgary and, given that it's almost two hours away and being a double header, it takes up a good portion of my day and all of the night.

Have I mentioned that I have completely failed to get dirt for my garden boxes yet, my house needs a fire hose to clean it and The Man has had to cook supper meals for two weeks because I haven't had the wherewithal to do it?  And I'm starting to whine (like right now) and my fuse is super short, which means that I have to spend precious time apologizing for my beastly behavior.  And the driving back and forth to the theatre, to derby, to school, to the bloody grocery store during construction time.  Ack, don't I know that my vehicle emissions is killing the planet and gas prices are super high?

Plus, (don't laugh) I am attempting to reprogram my genes by radically altering my diet and lifestyle.  Withdrawing from sugar, caffeine and grains is not easy at any time.

Sigh.  So much for simplicity and minimalism.

I'm going to watch this again for a laugh and some perspective.  Hope y'all are having a great week.

the books of May

My reading this over the past month.  You will notice I read only one book that was intended for adults.  The rest are all young adult and children's literature.  So, it was a good month!

Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban by J.R. Rowling.  Girl child and I are working our way through this series during coffee breaks and at bedtime.  And the books are getting thicker as we go.  It may be autumn before we move onto another topic... bear with us, as the rest of the world knows about how it all ends, we don't and are moving through it all with wonder.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick is a novel written with both text and illustrations.  I enjoyed the story although I still feel a little unsure about the illustrations, feeling they did not advance the story as much as throw in a jangled note when someone else's imagination bullied out my own.  It was nice and fat, though, lovely to hold.

The Humming Room by Ellen Potter was an interesting rewriting of The Secret Garden.  I enjoyed Potter's style very much and subsequently took out her Kneebone Boy.  I love this one very much, with several intersecting mysteries and an interesting setting.  I will be looking for more Ellen Potter next time I visit the library.

Cornelia Funke's Ghost King was funny and dark ghost story.  Funke also wrote Inkheart, the sequel to which is sitting on my shelf.  Funke has a knack for creating villains with only the most tenuous grip on sanity.

The Book of the Maidservant by Rebecca Barnhouse was an interesting historical fiction, written from the perspective of Dame Margery Kempe's personal maid who served on Kempe's pilgrimage to Rome.  Kempe was a medieval holy woman who essential wrote (or, more likely, narrated it to a literate monk) the earliest autobiography that we know of.  In addition to being well written and funny, having concurrently designing costumes for a medieval times based play, it was a wealth of great historical knowledge. 

I can't say enough good things about Neil Gaiman and The Graveyard Book was Gaiman awesomeness squared.  Loved it and I wish he would write more graveyard stories.  Did you know that graveyards are different from cemeteries in that they are always attached to a church?  You won't learn that in The Graveyard Book but it will change the way you see both cemeteries and graveyards.

Susan Juby's memoir Nice Recovery chronicles Juby's alcoholism as a young adult.  Again, as all good books about substance abuse, it was painfully awkward and terribly funny.

Leven Thumbs and The Gateway to Foo by Obert Skye is the first in a tremendously popular fantasy series.  I admit, though the characters, particularly the bad guys, were well portrayed and the storyline interesting, I didn't quite get into it.  Fantasy as a genre isn't appealing to me (excluding Terry Pratchett's Discworld Series, of course), and I lost the trail quickly moving through the book's menagerie of imaginary creatures.  I did enjoy the sketch of the character Winter's mother, though, quite a bit.  She put me in mind of Roald Dahl's Matilda's Miss Trunchbull.  Reminded me to threaten the children with The Chokey, something we all get a good giggle out of.

I found Lissa Evan's Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms in the mystery section of children's fiction.  A delightful, quick read, I'm looking forward to reading the second in the series soon.

The Joy of Spooking: Fiendish Deeds by P.J. Bracegirdle has an adorable heroine that I'm sure that any of us who grew up bookish and strange can identify with.  It simultaneously chronicles Joy's misfit activities, the cruelty of 'normal' kids, and how interestingly strange the world can be if you just pay attention.  

Picture the Dead by Griffin Adele and Lisa Brown is another novel written in both text and illustrations but this one I found quite captivating.  Set during the American civil war, it deals with the horrors of a country at war with itself and delves into the blossoming spiritualism movement people were turning to as a way to heal their grief.  Historically interesting and beautifully written.  Not for the youngest of children.

I believe that is it for the May but it seems to me that every month that I post these lists I forget to write down a book or two.  Oh well, chronicling every tiny detail ends up a bit boring anyway, as girl child found out this past month of trying to keep a point form diary.

Please share if you post your own reading list or have any recommendations for me.  I have found a good number of great authors thanks to the readers here and I appreciate it greatly.