If you're not into the whole club-scene, why not check out something a little geekier?

There is going to be a sing-along screening of the Buffy Muscial, Once More With Feeling for Pride here in Toronto.

The screening is as follows:

Sing-Along with Buffy
Once More with Feeling
part of the Pride Toronto festivities
Saturday, June 28th, 2008
10:00PM
Paul Kane Parkette Stage
(Wellesley Street, Just west of Church) (Map here.)
Toronto, ON.

What? Toronto Choral Society Spring Concert: The Sound of Austria, including Bruckner's Te Deum, a bunch of Brukner motets, and works by Mozart, Hayden, and Schubert.

When? Wednesday, May 28, 2008; 7:30 p.m.

Where? Eastminster United Church, Danforth and Chester

How Much? If you buy tix from me or zingerella before the concert, $20. If you buy them at the door, $25. If you volunteer to help the choir as a volunteer usher or front-of-house person, free, and you get to wear a snappy green sash.

Why? We're a choir. It's what we do.

Oh, you mean why should you attend? Well, assuming you're free on that evening, you will have the opportunity to hear some truly lovely music, and to find out what zingerella and I have been up to on Wednesday evenings (good, wholesome choral-music fun). I do think this will be a good concert—I'm quite pleased with how it is coming together. So if you like large-scale Classical and Romantic choral works, you could do worse of a Wednesday evening.* There's a Big Bloody Crunchy Fugue! There are Grand Pauses! There's a really good baritone soloist (I suspect the other soloists are also good, but I haven't heard them, yet)!

How Can I Obtain a Ticket You can let me know that you want one, and I'll ensure that there's one waiting for you at the door. At some point, you can pay me for it.

How Do I Get in for Free? You let me know that you'd like to volunteer, and I put you in touch with the volunteer coordinator.

Will zingerella Be Wearing That Skirt? You'll just have to come to the concert to find out.


Obligatory link for more information. Or you can ask me.


* Except, you may want to leave after the Schubert, if you can sneak out quietly. The last three fluff pieces are ... fluffy... schmaltzy, even. I guess they're fun.

I'm done, and the week hasn't even started yet.

After I got home this morning, I was super cranky.

While chopping leeks for dinner tonight, I managed to take a goodly sized chunk off the tip of my thumb. (Not entirely off, but damn close.)

Shock isn't fun.

And because I have a massive white ball of tape and gauze on my left thumb, I can't do anything. I can't knit. I can't cross-stitch, it's hard to type.

I'm afraid to take off the bandages to see if my thumb has stopped bleeding or not.

And I'm just done.

I made this up, riffing on a recipe from the intertubes. (And finally, I have an appropriate entry to use this icon with.)

( Mushroom & Kale risotto )

BONUS EVENT: Craft Materials Swap, 3:30 - 5pm Sunday, February 24
Brought to you by the workroom and City of Craft...

Start your spring cleaning early! Craft supplies of many sorts are welcome, but for this first swap, we have a sense that fibrous stuff will take centre stage (fabric, yarn, textiles...). It's also a give what you can, take what you need kind of set-up so don't worry if your contributions are low. We have a bunch of fabric and yarn graciously given to us by Laura-Jean at Fresh Baked Goods and Haley at Knitomatic that will surely get the wheels rolling. Leftovers will go to local charity groups.


The Workroom is a cool space down at Queen & Dufferin (Well, Brock, but Queen & Dufferin is the closest major intersection.)

So, last night was another New Recipe Night at the Edumatorial Eyrie. We had a lovely group of people, enough food to feed, well, us (although there was leftover soup,) and I think we all had a good time.

I made Dried Mushroom and Barley Soup, and it was a rousing success. I'm recreating this from memory, since the cookbook got left at the Eyrie. Also, I modified the recipe a bit. This is from the Moosewood Low Fat Cookbook (and I cannot for the life of me remember the actual title of the book.)

( Dried Mushroom and Barley Soup Recipe )

Just in case Food Network takes it off the website.
( Recipe! )

The latest brainstorm from the PTBs at LJ is going to be loads of fun.

The whole "flagging of posts/journals/communities" is ridiculous. As some of my friends have pointed out, this can (and will) be abused, especially by people who don't "approve" of specific content.

So, in the interests of keeping my LJ visible to the people who I want to be able to see it, I'll be going mostly friends-only. I've already done this in large part, but I'm going to try to be more conscious of it now.

Also, as I said elsewhere on the topic, I'm doing this so that only people I trust to not be asshats will be able to see my posts that might be considered 'adult content'.

Happy birthday, curgoth, my monkey-love. May your year bring you joy, love, happiness, and lots of evil fun.

I love you.

Well, I hope they do, anyway.

We need to get some bodywork done on our car.

Does anyone have a body shop in Toronto that they recommend? Or, if you have a place you go to regularly, or that you trust, (that's not in Toronto) could I trouble you to ask them if they recommend anyone in Toronto?

I've figured out why my stockinette knitting was twisted!

I was knitting continental, but purling english!

Now I know better!

DVD Pictionary: Let the DVD do the drawing for you!

Doesn't that completely ruin the whole point of Pictionary?

curgoth is allergic to our bed.

This isn't a good thing.

Especially since his inhaler has expired.

I didn't over-caffienate today. I had less caffiene today than I often do.

And yet, I can't fall asleep.

Ugh.

Tomorrow will be painful.

Beyond San Francisco, that is.

For San Fran, I know what my goal is (3.53 or faster; to still be walking at the end of it; and to handle the hills well.)

But SF is only 3 weeks away. There's a lifetime after that.

So, my long-term goal is to run the half marathon in the Waterfront race next year.

My shorter-term goal is to run-walk the 5K Resolution Run on New Year's Eve. I've just registered (as a walker), and I'm going to do this.

To do this, I'll be out 3 or 4 mornings a week past SF. Once it gets colder, I'll switch up outside and indoor (treadmill) training. After the Resolution Run, I'll switch to indoor training at the gym until the weather gets better - I have breathing issues in serious cold that makes training indoors much more comfortable and realistic. Also, it gives me a better idea of pace and time.

Wish me luck!

(I think I'm addicted!)

I managed a negative split in my marathon!

This means that I did the second half faster than the first half.

Which means that I paced myself well at the beginning, and kept enough energy, and fueled myself well enough, to still have energy left to burn at the end, to push through to the finish line.

I rock.

I'm exhausted.

My body aches.

My head is a sieve - nothing is sticking to it or in it.

I'm really looking forward to seeing people tonight, but I hope that folks aren't expecting much from me.

So, I was scared before the race.

Now, I've found my motivation again.

My goal for San Fran? To finish in the same time.

Yes, that is a goal, and it'll be a challenging goal - the Waterfront Marathon is a really fast course - it's flat. SF is hilly - not dreadfully, but enough so that it'll be challenging to match my time in TO. (This is a PDF of the SF Course, with an elevation chart. This is the map and elevation chart for the Toronto Marathon. The comparison is kind of scary.)

So, my task for the next 3 weeks is to work on hills. Luckily, there's a great hill about 15-20 minutes away from here (walking - a good warm-up!) so, starting on Wednesday (I can't move today, and I don't know how I'll be tomorrow,) I'll be heading out in the mornings again, and focusing on the hills. I'm not so concerned about my stamina - I was pleased with how I felt throughout the race. But I'm a bit worried about the hills, so that is what I'll focus on for the next 3 weeks.

Saturday night I had a bit of a meltdown, but curgoth came and saw me through it. (Apparently it's a good idea to eat during the day. Who knew?)

Sunday morning, my alarm went off at 4.30AM, and again at 4.35AM.

I rolled out of bed at about 4.40AM, and started getting ready. I had laid out my clothes and shoes and stuff the night before (phone charged, ipod charged), and just had to get into my clothes and go.

I called a cab at just about 5AM on the dot, and was down at the Holiday Inn on King by 5.30. (I saw sarcasma and sanityclause walking home, presumably from Nuit Blanche, just north of Casa Loma on my way down.)

The Team was in the hotel lobby, and we got in some trouble from the desk staff for being too rowdy at stupid o'clock.

Shortly after 6AM, we wandered over to Metro Hall, and found the TNT tent - it wasn't nearly purple enough for my taste, but there were balloons and stuff, so it was noticeable.

dendritejungle arrived shortly after I did, and curgoth arrived a few minutes after that, so I got some time with my sweeties before I had to go and line up and find my way through the 12 thousand people who were racing to my approximate start corral. It was a bit insane.

At 7AM on the dot, the first runners were off, and within another minute or so we started moving.

I crossed the starting line at 7.06.23(ish), and we were off.

The first few kilometers were a bit slow - I was walking with L., one of my Team-mates, until about the 4km mark or so. Then she slowed down to talk to someone (or something...) and I took off.

Not super fast, but steady.

And I managed to keep that pace for the entire race.

There were a few rough patches - heading out Lakeshore toward the turn-around point at km12 or so, I started flagging a bit, especially when I realised that they were rolling up the course after me, essentially. Not entirely, but pretty damn close.

But I kept going, and just kept going, and finished strong.

Strong enough that, after going to the Team tent, and going and sitting for a bit and getting a 15 minute massage (heaven!), I walked from Roy Thompson Hall up to Yonge & Queen (I essentially zig-zagged through - I was looking for a cab, and couldn't find one.)

( My official results! )

I am a half-marathoner!

I will do a more full race report either later on tonight (unlikely) or tomorrow (more likely,) since we have to go out to curgoth's parents' place tonight for Thanksgiving, and I need to shower.

Under 4 hours, baybee!!! (Yes, it's slow, but it meant that I was walking at a little over 5kms/hr, for 4 hours.)

I have the race medal, and I'll be wearing it for the forseeable future. I'm just so damn proud of myself right now.

Since a number of people are asking me, the race details are as follows:

Start: 7AM at Metro Hall (Wellington & John.)

Route: This is the map. This is the description of the course. (I'm doing the half marathon.)

End: I'm expecting to take between 3.5 and 4 hours, so I'll be finishing between 10.30 and 11AM, and the finish line is at Metro Hall again.

There are 12,000 people expected to be doing the marathon, so it's going to be a crazy crowd. I will have my cell phone, but depending on how things are going, I may or may not answer it - the best bet is to either leave me a voice mail message, or send me a text message, and I'll get them when I'm done.

If there is someone that you miss dearly, for any reason, post this exact sentence in your journal.

S&B is on for tomorrow, Monday.

7PM until I kick you out (10PM or 10.30PM.)

(If you haven't been here before, directions are linked from my info page - both TTC and driving. If you're driving, there should be free parking.)

And yes, there will be the season premiere of Heroes.

And today, I am very much a weeble.

I've been wobbling all day long.

I haven't fallen down, but it's been close a few times.

This came across my screen earlier today.

I'm, frankly, boggled.

Also, amused.

And horrified.

Stitch & Bitch is on for tomorrow (Monday) evening.

7PM until I kick you out. (10PM or 10.30 or so.)

There will be tea, and possibly sweet snacks, depending on whether I get up the energy to bake this afternoon. (I'm feeling very domestic today for some reason.)

And for those of you fighting the plague, there will be hot honey-lemon-ginger stuff, with brandy available as well.

There are few things as delicious as waking up on a fall morning tucked into bed under a duvet, feeling the cool air on your face and luxuriating in the warmth of the bed.

I really am a hedonist.

Tonight, 7PM.

Beta Colony. (Directions and address linked from my user info page.)

There will be tea. Oh, the tea. :)

Watching "Home" (Season 1 Episode 9 of Supernatural), and Dean calling his Dad, and the tears, and the angst, and...

*dies*

Damnit, I need a Supernatural icon.

(eboniorchid, could I convince you to indulge me?)

It's time for a sexy party!

Who is bringing the drinks?

This is me.

I'm watching Skin (S1Ep06), and it's all Evil!Dean and Sam being tied up and all I can think of is fic, and the boys doing dreadful things to each other.

Also, really really nice knives.

Stitch & Bitch has been rescheduled this week, to tomorrow.

Wednesday.

7PM until 10 or 10.30PM.

Come and watch me swear at trying to cross-stitch on black linen.

I thought doing this pattern on linen was a good idea, once upon a time. Now? I'm not so sure...

Stitch & Bitch will not be happening on Monday next week, as both curgoth and I will be out of town.

However, I may throw open the doors on Tuesday or Wednesday, if folks are interested.

I'm tired, but I don't think I'm sleepy.

This isn't good. I really should go to sleep. But I need to drink a lot of water first, and hopefully once I've done that, I'll be able to go and read my book until I pass out.

I hate feeling this way.

Stitch & Bitch is on tonight. Doors open at (or slightly before) 7PM, and I'll kick you out sometime around or shortly after 10PM.

Knitters, crocheters, cross-stitchers, origamists, sempstresses, and conversationalists are all welcome.

Also, I will be placing the Knitpicks order tomorrow. the_nita, I've got your order for the Options needles. carynb, you mentioned needing some Palette? Anyone else?

I'm thinking about placing an order with KnitPicks.

Does anyone who is local want anything from them that we can throw together on the order?

Let me know.

Last night's Stitch & Bitch was an absolute laugh riot.

mycrazyhair, zingerella, and sabotabby were in attendance, and we were all laughing for a good chunk of the evening. Many funny stories were told, much progress was made on the various projects we were working on, and a good time was had by all.

Those of you who weren't there missed a fabulous time.

Happy Birthday, dendritejungle!

May the coming year bring you fun and friends, lots of stories about the boys, and new skills.

Virtual *smooches* for you now, and real smooches tonight!

S&B is on for Monday night.

7PM until I kick you out.

Doctor Who will be watched at 8PM, most likely.

Richard Bradshaw, general manager, conductor, and artistic director of the COC, has died. Apparently it was a heart attack.

He will be missed in the cultural community in Toronto, and in Canada.

The operas that Bradshaw conducted were always well done musically, even when the productions were not well done artistically.

So, I'm running low on books to read.

(OK, not really. I have 20 out from the library (1 going back tonight), 2 on hold waiting to be picked up, and another 23 on hold waiting to come in.)

But I'm bored.

I remember somewhere, someone, posting a link to a 'literature map' linkage thing - if you type in the name of a favourite author, it spits out a whole network of names of other authors who are in some way similar. Anyone have the link on hand?

Also, if anyone has read anything particularly interesting or thought provoking or enjoyable recently, let me know, please?

And damn, was it worth it.

I'll be out late again tonight, although probably not quite as late. And it will also definitely be worth it.

Naptime now?

Tomorrow (Monday) night's stitch & bitch is on.

The door will open sometime around 7PM, and I'll kick you out sometime after 10PM.

I'd love to see people.

I just hope it's not too hot.

I'm all about the power songs these days.

These are the songs that, when they come on, you just want to start moving, or start moving faster. They're the songs that make you want to get up and dance. They're the songs that keep you going when you're dragging.

What are your power songs? As my walks get longer, I'm going to need more of them, and my current power song list is only 2.5 hours long. Not nearly long enough!

I might be crazy.

I just walked across the apartment singing "I like watermelon, I like watermelon, la la la la la!"

(I just had about 1/3 of a small watermelon for breakfast. Mmmm, watermelon.)

1. Leave me a casual comment of no particular significance, like alyric to your current favorite song, or your favorite kind of sandwich,maybe your favorite game. Any remark, meaningless or not.
2. I will respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. Update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in your own post.
5. When others respond with a desultory comment, you will ask them five questions.

( Questions and answers )

Not only did I wake up at 5AM (again - I have no idea what's going on with that,) I was out of bed before 6.

One of my Team in Training-mates is coming over, and we're starting our 14km/15km (somewhere in there) walk at 7AM, rather than at 8.30.

Hopefully, this means that we'll be done by/before 10AM, so that I have some time to do other things. Also, the hope is that it won't be quite as stinkingly hot.

I woke up at 5AM this morning.

On my day off.

I was able to go back to sleep, but only until 8AM, when I woke up for good.

Today is going to involve some running around (St. Lawrence Market, new glasses, pedicure, and banking) and lots more just sitting around. Some tidying of the house, but mostly, just relaxing.