Birthday Music

Big Muddy M-2 factory 2nd mandolin

I turned 42 yesterday, which as Douglas Adams fans know, is the answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. The day was mellow and rainy. I met a friend for lunch and then took Lucia out to dinner. With my blessing, Bede went to Emerald City ComicCon to sell his art. After all, there was a year in which I had two storytelling gigs on our wedding anniversary, as we decided that we had to go with the opportunities when they presented themselves.

The night before, Bede took me to Dusty Strings to buy a solid-wood mandolin for my birthday. I had thought that a mandolin of my own was many months away, as it is much more challenging to find a decently-good mando than a decently-good guitar an affordable price. This "entry-level" Collings MT A style mandolin, for example, retails at $2700 USD. I had on my wishlist a factory-2nd Big Muddy mandolin that had a few surface blemishes on the back of the neck (which lowered the price significantly), but was structurally sound, beautiful to hear, and accessible to play. Edited to add: I got the Big Muddy mandolin on my wishlist.

One of the highlights of that evening was when the man who helped me choose the new love of my life* demonstrated one of his new favorite mandolins. The other mandolins on the wall reverberated in response. I was reminded of what one of my teachers at guitar camp last summer said: the audience is important because every human is a resonator. He said that you might get a recording that's almost as good as a live performance if you have particularly good acoustics, but there is no comparison to the sound you get with a live audience.

I will wait to post a recording until I become decent enough to listen to. (Ukulele is relatively easy with the "decent enough to listen to"learning curve. Mando is harder!) I'm working on a simple version of an Irish reel called The Musical Priest, and plan to learn Eel in the Sink, too, just so I can say, "Hey, let's play Eel in the Sink" as casually as someone might suggest You Ain't Goin' Nowhere. I dream on....


 *I love all my instruments. Gentle suggestions to let some of them go are met with puzzled frowns until someone politely changes the subject.

The Big Climb to 40

For last year's Big Climb Seattle, I ascended the 1,311 stairs of the Columbia Center as an untimed climber. This year, I went as a racer. Last year, I passed a number of people on the stairs. This year, I stepped aside in the landings for the faster people. I didn't share my goal with anyone, but now that it's over, I can say that I wanted to make it up the stairs in less than 20 minutes. My time: 17 minutes, 19.04 seconds.

Bede and Lucia did the Big Climb this year as untimed climbers. Bede said that Lucia went all the way up without complaining. At the top, she said, "I am so proud of myself." This utterance is not the result of the Too Much Self-Esteem generation, but of being teased for being the slowest runner in her class.  She is welcome to invite all of those faster runners to join her for next year's Big Climb.

Tomorrow, I turn 40. When I was a child, I thought that by the time I became "middle-aged," I would have to wear yellow polyester shirts, beige polyester pants, and Dr. Scholl's wooden sandals with socks. My hair would have gone completely grey, and I'd wear it up in a bun with a lot of hair escaping to create a frizzy effect. I suppose that in the 1970s, some people did look that way. I can't say now if those people were middle-aged or not, as 12 seemed practically grown-up to me.

I'm in better shape than I was as a teen, or for most of my twenties. I plan to continue my fitness plan, and introduce strength-training so that I don't lose muscle as I age. And age I will. I'm not resigned. Despite all evidence to the contrary, a part of me still thinks I'm going to beat this concept of mortality.

At the very least, I want to be around when humans land on Mars!

Happy Birthday, Eight Year Old Girl

Today, Lucia is eight years old. We had her immediate family + godparents celebration on Sunday (i.e. Mother's Day) because today is a choir day rehearsal. Here, Lucia blows out the candles on a gluten-free chocolate cake with coconut buttercream frosting (both recipes from the Gluten Free on a Shoestring cookbook):



It feels as if the years are speeding up.

Early May Catch-Up

Here's the thing: ever since I opened my doll shop on Etsy, I've been a lot busier. Things have been going really well this first week, and I'm having to work hard to list more dolls in the shop without getting into an assembly-line mentality. All the while, I'm conscious of how far behind I am on reading blogs, and I feel badly, because you all have been so supportive. I don't want to disappear into a sea of textiles! I realize that when I catch up on blog-reading, I have to start from different places each time. If I always start out with a wrung sponge and Amish Guitar, I will never get to What Adrienne Thinks About That and Yorkshire Pudding in the same evening.

This past weekend was Lucia's 6th birthday celebration. We got to attend a mother-daughter tea on Saturday, and then celebrate her birthday on Sunday, May 10. Rather than open up presents all at once, we spread them throughout the day. When she woke up, she found this handmade princess doll from Silver Acorn.

After breakfast, Lucia went out to the playhouse where she found a snow maiden marionette her teacher made for her in trade for a daffodil nature table doll I had made last month:



After lunch, Lucia opened up the package my niece sent, which contained a book of Russian fairy tales including the "Snegurochka" snow maiden story and this dress that my niece made:



You read that right, my niece made the dress! She makes her children's costumes and sews their Easter dresses. Yes, she's awesome. Last May, when we visited the family in California, Lucia was smitten with the "exiled princess" blue and white dress of one of her cousins. This purple dress is sewn in that style.

There were other lovely presents, too, and a festive gathering later on that afternoon. It was Mother's Day yesterday, and Bede and Lucia brought me tea and toast plus a hand-made card. I got to sleep in a little, and then work to clean up the house for guests. The house has become more of a shambles in the past couple of weeks. For now, it's clean. Would that it would stay clean!

I'll close with two phtoos. One is of the shade garden in early May:



The other is of a ladybug doll I made on Saturday, was featured in a treasury of ladybug related listings, and then sold on Sunday along with the Fuchsia doll:

Feast Day of St. Alkelda

March 28 is the feast day of St. Alkelda. According to legend, Alkelda was an Anglo-Saxon princess in 800 A.D. who was strangled to death by pagan Danish women. According to my research, there is no documentation of this saint until the late Middle-Ages, and her name may simply be derived from the Saxon word haligkelda, which can be translated to "holy well" or "healing spring." Alkelda has two churches dedicated to her: one in Middleham, and one in Giggleswick.

March 28 is also my birthday. Today I am 37, and while birthdays aren't quite the big deal that they were when I was a little girl, I'm still self-centered enough to think of it as the real first day of spring. On March 20, the daffodils were still closed, but now they are in bloom, as are the violets. The trillium in my garden have just begun to unfurl their petals. Speaking of trillium, I am currently at work stitching up a trillium boy doll (nature table action figure!) for the Etsy shop opening May 1. I've already stitched up a red sunflower and a borage doll. I feel a bit wistful about selling them, as it's different from making dolls for friends on commission or as presents. When I told my mom about my ambivalence, she said, "Your grandfather always felt that way about his paintings."

Five Year Old Girl

Five years ago, Lucia was born:


It is appropriate to share the school rhyme that all the children in her class know (but I just learned yesterday).

When Lucia was one, she had just begun:


When Lucia was two, everything was new:


When Lucia was three, she said, "I am me!":


When Lucia was four, she ran out the door:


Now, Lucia is five, and she is bright and alive:


We hosted a lovely birthday party with six girls from school. I sang songs and told stories for the entertainment. For the finale, one of the dads brought out his guitar, and we played "Yellow Submarine."

An abundance of John Greens

Hank Green's secret birthday project for his brother John is probably old news to you Brotherhood 2.0 Nerdfighters, but I was offline for most of last week and didn't get to see the completed project until last night. I was pleased to see that my submission made the cut:



Just think of what I could have done with a video camera. I often think of what I could have done with a video camera-- perhaps Ulric's and my audio plays would still be around to embarrass us. If we'd really desired one, I'm sure we would have obtained a video camera by now, rather than spending our money on guitars and concert tickets.

Birthday tears

Briefly happy before setting out for school

I wrote today's post about Lucia's birthday last night. Of course, today is much different from last night. Lucia has had a hard time at school ever since class picture day (the photographer was a bit odd, and the camera flashes were too much). Yesterday, she was so weepy that I had to pick her up early from school. Today, I was the parent helper for all of 90 minutes before I decided to take her home. She just wanted to be held and cuddled, and cried if I wasn't doing it. Up until now, clinginess is not characteristic of Lucia, so something is going on. She may want the coziness she had before she was born, she may feel wigged-out from the change in weather, or there may be something else going on that we just don't know.

Sigh.

In other news, I've done something constructive with the patch of dead lawn we accidentally smooshed last Autumn:



I'll visit blogs later today and comment on the posts. Right now, I'm just beat.

Update: the evening fared much better than the morning.

Stuffed grape leaves and a Nasr-ed-Din story

Lucia’s fourth birthday is today. I asked her what she wanted to bring to class for the special snack, and she said, “Grape leaves.” I made a batch of stuffed grape-leaves from a modified recipe in Claudia Roden’s The New Book of Middle-Eastern Food. The bare-bones, least-you-need-to-know recipe for stuffed grape-leaves is this:

1) Cook 1 1/3 cups rice (I prefer brown).
2) Sprinkle your favorite yummy savory spices and herbs in it, plus a little olive oil and lemon-juice. Toss in a handful of pine-nuts, too, if you have them.
3) Wrap portions of the rice in grape-leaves from a jar pickled in brine.
4) Cover stuffed grape leaves lightly with olive oil and let them mellow for a few days.

You can get fancier than that, if you like. Go wild. Here is a link with photos on how to roll the grape-leaves. I rolled them a bit differently because I was in a hurry and thought I didn't need to consult the directions.

There are three reasons why The New Book of Middle-Eastern Food is my favorite cookbook. The first reason involves the delicious, easy-to-follow recipes: megeddarah (lentils, rice and caramelized onions), spinach pies, dolma (stuffed grape leaves), lahma bi ajeen (meat tarts), and more. Some recipes may take time to make, but they are rarely complicated. Some of the recipes are definitely meant to be made in a community setting: pinching the dough together for a plethora of spinach pies is much more enjoyable when people have conversations.

The second reason why The New Book of Middle-Eastern Food is my favorite cookbook involves the folktales and anecdotes scattered throughout. For example, here is the story called “The Loan of a Cauldron,” taken from Tales of Nasr-ed-Din Khoja, translated by Henry D. Barnham:

One day the Khoja asked a neighbor for the loan of a cauldron. After he had done with it, he put a small saucepan inside and took it back to the owner. When the man saw the small saucepan, he said, “What is this?” and the Khoja answered, “Your cauldron has had a baby.”

“That’s good news!” said the man, and accepted it with pleasure.

Another day the Khoja wanted to borrow the cauldron again and took it home with him.

The owner waited a long time, but he noticed that the cauldron did not come back. Then he went round to the Khoja and knocked at his door. When the Khoja came and asked what he wanted, he answered, “I want that cauldron.”

“Accept my sincere condolences!” said the Khoja, “the cauldron is dead!”

“What!” said his neighbor in the greatest amazement—“dead? Whoever heard of a cauldron dying?”

“Strange!—strange!” replied the Khoja. “You could believe that the cauldron had a baby, and yet you do not believe that it could die!”

You’ll find variations of this story all over the Middle-East, in both Muslim and Jewish cultures. I first learned it as “Yankel the Schnorer (Yiddish for ‘moocher’) and Lazeh the Miser.”

The third reason why The New Book of Middle-Eastern Food is my favorite is because the original edition was a family mainstay. My father's mother cooked from it, my mother cooked from it, and now I cook from it. Someday, Lucia shall cook from it. At least, I presume so, since she likes so many of the things I make from the cookbook.

Happy Birthday, dear Lucia! I hope your classmates at least take a taste of the stuffed grape leaves.

Happy Birthday My Friend

Edit 05/07/07: I'm still working on this song. Among other things, I wrote the notes down wrong, and I wrote down some wrong notes. Onward I go...


Anyone is welcome to tweak this song (especially if you're comfortable writing music notation, which I'm definitely not). I'm not sure the song needs all those quarter notes.

Some time ago, I promised you a new Happy Birthday song. Unlike the traditional one that is in the chokehold of You-Know-Who (Voldemort?) as far as copyright goes, this little song is my gift to the world. If you like it, sing it. Don't worry about performance rights, as they are completely, totally free in a non-profit context. If you're a small business, you can use the song without paying me, though I would be happy with a nod in the direction of attribution. If you're a big business and you use the song in a peformance, you need to give sizable donations to Heifer International and something local in your area that specializes in services for disadvantaged children. If you want to record the song, you need to pay me royalties, and I'll give the money to Heifer International (and something local in my area that specializes in services for disadvantaged children). I've already conducted the imaginary interview in my head for when I'm relatively successful because of this one song:

***
Announcer: Welcome to this week's edition of "Three Seconds of Fame!" Today, we speak briefly with Farida Dowler, a.k.a. Alkelda the Gleeful, the darling of children's birthday parties everywhere. What, you've never heard of Alkelda the Gleeful? Maybe not, but you sing her song all the time.

[Zoom to interviewer and subject]

Q: Mrs. The Gleeful, are you ever bothered that your one hit song, "Happy Birthday My Friend," was one in which you could have made millions in royalties? You could have been rich beyond imagining, and yet you gave away all of your profits to charity.

A: Pshaw.

Q: But really-- other compositions like "Superhero Teaparty" and "Song of the Planet-Hoppers" found a small, loyal following but never quite launched you into the big time the way "Happy Birthday My Friend" did. Do you ever worry that you're a one-hit wonder?

A: I'm too busy singing and telling stories to worry about such foolish notions [smiles winningly for the camera].

Q: What is your response to the rumors that They-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named are furious with you because people no longer sing the traditional birthday song, and therefore no longer have to pay a disgustingly large amount of royalties?

A: After they get over their fury, I hope they become chagrined. I mean, really.

Q: Well, that's all we have time for, Mrs. The Gleeful. Thank you so much for talking with us, and we look forward to hearing about you and the band on future birthday party cross-country tours.

A: Rawk and roll. Oh, I can't believe I just said that.

Thirty-Five Things I Know About Myself

I've just finished my birthday list of thirty-five things I know about myself. They're not as sparkly as the thirty-four things because, to be honest, I am not feeling sparkly about anything right now. I'm fine with having a thirty-fifth birthday, but I am not fine with still feeling sick after three weeks. (It sounds as if my brains are sloshing behind my ears, if you must know).

Thirty-Five Things I Know About Myself

1) My ideal afterlife experience would be to sleep under cozy blankets and dream about people.

2) Acting with courage does not guarantee accolades or thanks. In fact, it usually doesn’t. Do it anyway.

3) I am worried that my Christian faith involves checking common sense and intellect at the front door. I trust that faith and intellect are not mutually exclusive, but there are times when I wonder.

4) When I was four, I thought it was strange that my parents had silly names like “Mama” and “Papa” when other people had normal-sounding names like Michelle and Robert.

5) Just because someone older and smarter than I says something is true doesn’t necessarily mean it is true.

6) I resent it that movie-makeovers always involve the replacement of eyeglasses with contact lenses.

7) I am frustrated that many of my beloved children’s books contain aspects of racism.

8) The first book I ever read with an African-American main character was Striped Ice-Cream, by Joan M. Lexau.

9) I can finally eat mushrooms and eggplant, but not liver or green peppers.

10) I think the reason I’ve not traveled as much as I’d planned is because of my abysmal grasp of languages. Tant pis.

11) I like blues but not jazz (unless I can dance to it).

12) Despite my earlier scorn, I suspect I might be a country music fan after all.

13) For four years, I was a vegetarian. I stopped because I wanted to be able to eat what other people offered me.

14) People should be called what they want to be called, pronounced the way they like it.

15) I love my daughter so much it hurts.

16) Fundamentalism in any form (including atheism) is tedious and leaves no room for actual discussion. I like to talk about things and find out what other people think.

17) I used to think that if I ever did marry, I’d probably end up with someone who made me miserable. I am so fortunate I married Bede instead. I am the lucky one.

18) I want to do good things for the world, but I don’t want to be overly inconvenienced by them. I am not proud of this admission.

19) I don’t worry about my writing career anymore. It’s liberating.

20) My dream house has a turret. Also, there’s a gazebo in the back-yard. We can sit under the gazebo and drink our tea in the rain.

21) I enjoyed the films of The Lord of the Rings more than I enjoyed the books. Sean Bean as Boromir was a plus.

22) I didn’t enjoy attending school until I went to college.

23) However, I flunked American Sign Language in college (see #10).

24) Languages studied: French, German, Yiddish, Latin, American Sign Language. Language fluency: zilch.

25) I love having an actual daughter much more than the theoretical idea of having a baby.

26) When I was eleven years old, my favorite historical romance was The Phantom Lover, by Elizabeth Mansfield. The best bits took place in Cornwall.

27) Times I’ve read The Scarlet Letter: 5. Times I enjoyed reading The Scarlet Letter: 0.

28) Ulysses really is a wonderful book. I just needed a key. My key was The New Bloomsday Book by Harold Blamires.

I'm also fond of Ulysses for Dummies (click on the link! It's not what you think).

29) I think I would have loved math had I been allowed the time and room to learn it at own pace. This year, I plan to (begin to) amend that flaw in my education.

30) I get really grouchy when I hear about “Native American culture” or “Native American spirituality” as if Native Americans/American Indians were one large group containing teepees, dream-catchers and feathered headdresses. I don’t think I have any actual roots to Native American nations, and I don’t know a lot about individual groups, but the generalizations still irk me anyway.

31) Whether or not we actually have Free Will, I still think we need to act as if we have Free Will. It’s part of our responsibilities of being human.

32) I need all the help I can get.

33) Half of me is stoic, and half of me is a hypochondriac. Those halves are constantly in conflict with each other.

34) I get very silly when it comes to baby animals, especially those with fur or feathers.

35) I don’t actually believe I’m 35. Sometimes I didn’t think I’d make it to 18. Then again, at one point, even 12 seemed like a long way away.

My birthday is tomorrow

Tomorrow is my birthday. To commemorate the event, I'll post a list of 35 things I know about myself. Last year, I posted 34 things I knew about myself. Today, you might be interested in reading the answers the interview meme that BlueMamma and HipWriterMama supplied. LoneStarMa, don't think I've forgotten about you! I know that you are dealing with a misbehaving home computer, so it might be awhile.

Update: Here are LoneStarMa's answers.