just another day

we just got a hardwood floor vacuum cleaner and washer.  i hid out in the bedroom to escape fumes whilst ryan cleaned, when suddenly thunk and yowl, like a cat being skinned, assualted my blissful puttering.  i opened the door, and artemis was clinging to the bedroom door frame, above my head.  i guess she didn't like the vacuum cleaner, poor minx.  luckily, she and the doorframe are okay.

back to aristotle.  i'm all ready to start actually writing thesis, and i have to go finish aristotle.   . . . the demands of responsible scholarship . . . 

song in my heart

it is good to know, even with barack two-face obama now in office, that beauty is not completely ignored, that it can still touch people's souls.  my dearest husband took me to hear dvorak's New World Symphony.  it has been one of my favorite pieces of music since high school band, dumbed down and badly played as it was.  my first sememster in college, when i ended up on the "whore floor" at the state school and all the girls were blasting their booty music, i picked up a copy of this piece and blasted the 4th movement.  several girls stopped by my room to ask, not turn it down, but, "what is that?  it's awesome!"  that, my friend, is real.

hearing this piece performed live (and professionally) has been a little dream; it's so delightful and refreshing to have those little dreams fulfilled.  and it's so delightful to hear live music!  nothing can replace the humanity of that experience:  the stiff-shirt symphony master and the pompous, made-up assistant; the last-chair cellist, a little man in his 50s, perhaps even early 60s, who has a sort of anxious look that he's not sure he's really quite good enough even to be last chair, but he's going to play his heart out; the whisper of strings on bows; the anxiety, delight, and intense concentration on the look of the musicians.  even the slight mis-timings are thrilling, because it indicates the flawed humanity, reaching with its whole being, for something so glorious.  the whole piece was just as incredible as i had hoped and desired it to be, and when those intense, suspenseful notes of the 4th movement began, shivers went up my spine and something pricked at the back of my eyes.  it was superb.

what have we done to ourselves that we replace this magnificent experience, of appreciating the talent of long-dead composer, real live musicians, and the striving of the human soul with these segments of made-up reality?  no video game, no movie, no television show, no internet gimmick, can replace this interplay of audience and artist, beholder and creation.  let us rejoice in the good things God has given us!

and if you've never heard this piece, take 15 minutes, tops, of your day.  turn out the lights, close your eyes, and listen to the 4th movement of dvorak's 9th symphony.

Christmas in the north country

Christmas cookie decorating, a family tradition

(burlesque snowwoman courtesy of my mum)

every year, tree decorating is accompanied by eggnog.

this year, the eggnog was homemade and so tasty, and

the decorating was also accompanied by a very excited boy

in super mario galaxy pajamas.

the stockings i made for us:

it was a very long process,

but they turned out alright.

my sweet husband and my sweet horse:

the perfect combination

the trouble maker standing

in the snow, which i was so excited to see!

(both snow and trouble maker)