deerhurst

Despite the storm warnings still active in the Muskoka area, we arrived safely at Deerhurst yesterday afternoon. Some of the roads were a little scary (we passed at least three incidents where cars are slid off the highway or into other cars because of the slippery conditions), but Jeff's newish SUV didn't have any problems navigating the steepest of hills. Yes, he was pretty pleased. :-)

Sara and Annie asked if they could ride up in the car with us. They sat in the back seat, side by side in their car seats, and kept up a pretty steady stream of conversation the entire way. My tendency is always to drift off the sleep on long car rides (ok, maybe even short car rides...conditioning from childhood because I tend to get motion sickness pretty easily), but tried to stay awake during this trip.

Annie and Sara seemed to have an uncanny sense of when I was falling asleep.

"AUNTIE DEBBIE!" I would hear 4-year-old Annie call from the back seat, in what I considered frantic tones. Alarmed, I'd jerk awake and turn around. I'd find her looking at me earnestly.

"I rode in a real orange school bus once," she'd say.

"Wow," I'd managed to reply without sleep-slurring my words. "That's great, Annie."



I took a short nap after we got to Deerhurst; the others went "tubing" (tobogganning on rubber inner tubes) and skating. Played with Annie and Sara after they got back. Jeff had bought them a Arwen & Frodo figurine set, and we had a number of exciting adventures with them, almost always with Frodo being kidnapped by a Dark Rider (simulated by Frodo's empty cape) and having to be rescued by Arwen. Eventually Frodo ended up actually being lost (Annie had hidden her but forgot where she had put him)...I ended up finding poor Frodo underneath the kitchen sink.

After dinner, we all went skating. I haven't been skating in about fifteen years; Jeff and I rented some from the winter sports desk. It took me about ten minutes just to climb up the hill to the rink, and succeeded only because Jeff let me hold onto the back of his coat and dragged me up. :-)

Sara gave me some skating lessons, but for the first twenty minutes or so I could barely stay on my feet. I've never been that coordinated at winter sports (except for tobogganning, when all I had to do was hold onto the sides of the toboggan and scream)...even skating as a child, I was always more the type who spent more time holding onto the side of the rink.

But y'know, after about a while it started to come back to me. I stopped worrying so much about falling on top of Sara and squshing her flat, and started focusing on improving my technique.

"You're doing GREAT, Auntie Debbie!" Sara would yell encouragingly as she zoomed along beside me.

We're going downhill skiing today. I'm going to try hard not to break anything, or at least not an arm...else I won't be able to play guitar and flute at Ad Astra next weekend. :-)



Blatherpics

- Annie enjoys her McFlurry at McDonalds on the way up north.

- Upon arriving at Deerhurst, Sara tests out her bed.

- Sara plays hockey for the first time.

ut musings

Jeff and I are taking off in a few minutes (we're going to spend the weekend up north with my sister and her family), so I don't have time for a proper Blather today.

Instead, I'd like to include a posting that Allison made in Blatherchat last night that I found deeply touching and further evidence of why I feel so lucky to be part of Urban Tapestry:

"OK, we just finished UT practice and I'm going to follow up on Deb's comments on UT's musical chemistry, but I'm going to tell you stuff she never would. I'm going to tell you about how her voice transformed UT forever.

A few years back UT was visiting with Mark Osier and Kathy Cogswell out in Rochester. Deb, Jodi and I were upstairs in a sitting room going through some songs. It was one of those times where Debbie and I were into nostalgic, campy 70s songs, a trend that horrified Jodi, but she was always a good sport about singing with us. I remember clearly that we were singing The Partridge Family's "I Woke Up In Love This Morning" when Deb decided for the first time ever to add a third harmony to a UT vocal. Up 'til then she'd insisted that she couldn't sing. It was one of those magical moments, soon as I heard the three-part blend I knew UT would never again be the same. Our potential just opened up wide. That extra voice has meant everything to the evolution of UT as musicians since then. I made us sing "I Woke Up In Love This Morning" several times that weekend just so I could keep hearing those harmonies .

Tonight we finalized our version of Enya's "May It Be" from "Fellowship of The Ring". Jodi and I had worked on it over a few weeks and Deb took it away last week to work out a flute part. She wrote us tentatively last night and said she had worked out a third vocal part to the chorus and was that OK? Jodi and I wrote back to say sure, amused she would even ask. So, she added the third harmony tonight (and a lovely flute part) and we taped it and listened back to it. And it was magic, just like when Deb first added her voice to that Partridge Family song, it made me misty because the vocal blend with the added third voice just took our cover of the song to another level and I was so, so pleased. I keep listening to it on the Walkman and it just thrills me (I'm awfully happy with the final arrangement of Deb's "Waiting For Frodo" we finished tonight, too). And after nine years, that's pretty cool."

I know I've posted today's Blatherpic before, but it's one of my favourite Urban Tapestry photos. :-) Many thanks to Godfrey Joseph for taking it at Didgeri-Douze in the UK.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

snow

'Tis a snowy day in Toronto (see above). Forecast is for ice pellets this afternoon, freezing rain tonight. Yuk.

I'll be going to Richmond Hill tonight for Urban Tapestry practice; hopefully the subway won't be too crazy because of the weather. The version of Enya's "May It Be" (used in the soundtrack for Lord of the Rings) that Allison and Jodi have worked up for Ad Astra is great! I've added a flute instrumental and added a third vocal harmony to the chorus. I'd opt for penny whistle instead of flute if I was good enough, but I'm worried about it sounding too strident with the gentle melody.

I've also added a third vocal part to parts of Waiting For Frodo. Was horrified last night to find that I had transcribed the wrong chord in the bridge section, writing a B chord instead of a Bb...I play it via a barre chord, and had miscounted the frets when figuring out the name of the chord. :-)

I know I've raved before about how fun it is to do music with Allison and Jodi, but I feel compelled to rave again. Our musical partnership has really spurred all three of us to push ourselves in terms of songwriting and performance boundaries. Ten years ago, I would have rather eaten bees than sing or play guitar in public, let alone attempt to come up with vocal harmonies. I also would never have imagined being able to take a song I had written, including some counterpoint harmonies, and (in one sitting) having someone else able to learn the song well enough to record a decent version on tape.

After working together for about nine years (ack! has it really been that long?), Allison, Jodi and I have developed a strong musical chemistry in our songwriting and performances...we sometimes joke about our "UT telepathy". :-) But it makes for an immensely satisfying working relationship, and it also helps that the three of us are good friends as well.

Anyway, I'm excited about the practice tonight so we can try out some new material we've all been working on. And Allison's come up with some cool counterpoint stuff for Waiting For Frodo, yay! Can't wait to hear it.

A good Marketing Day yesterday. Found some potential new markets to research before querying, sent off three queries (one snailmail, two e-mail), got one acceptance (they need it in two weeks!). So now I have four articles to write, ten queries circulating, waiting for response from one article submission.

I've gotten in the habit of always querying one top-paying magazine market every Marketing Day. I suppose I could only query the top markets, but then my worry would be about how large my rejection pile would get before I could make a sale. Realistically, I think I need more published clippings before breaking into that market. There's always a chance, though, which is why I send some anyway. :-) I've picked about five target magazines in that category and plan to keep sending them queries (waiting until I get the rejection, then sending them another) until I finally break in. And I will break in, eventually.

Wish me luck. :-)

LINKS/UPDATES

Like Junkyard Wars? Then you'll like Ultimate Machine Combat even better! :-)

Augh, it's Deep Impact all over again! Well, maybe just a 7,000 pound satellite instead of a humungous asteroid, and it's falling onto the ocean instead of Tea Leoni's head. Source: Wired. I was going to make a rude comment about the Bruce Willis/Liv Tyler asteroid movie, but can't for the life of me remember the title.

Video on demand via the Internet? A great idea, but taking way too long.

Contrary to popular belief, Richard Dawson is not dead. But what about Red Buttons? Bob Hope? Dick Sargent? Life begins at 80 for some stars on the Web, according to Reuters.

cooking

Today's Poll: How often do you jaywalk? Do you tend to cross on yellow lights? Will you cross a street on a red light if you don't see any cars coming, or do you wait for the green light? As a driver, do you get ticked off at pedestrians who cross on a yellow light? Answer in Blatherchat

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So I'm finding that I actually do enjoy cooking. As some of you already know, I have been a non-cook for years now. Sticking a President's Choice frozen dinner was pretty much the extent of my culinary knowledge (but hey, those President's Choice entrees are pretty good!).

I used to cook a lot when we lived out in the country, but after I got on the Internet in a serious way, this part of my brain got taken over. Mainly because once I got online, everything else faded into the background, including pots of cooking food on a hot burner. Did I ever tell you about the time I burned SOUP when Allison came for dinner and that we ended up ordering in pizza? It takes real talent to burn soup, let me tell you.

Now it seems that that part of my brain has grown back. Or that I'm paying attention to it again. Before, cooking seemed like a waste of time, time I could be online. Now I try to arrange my day so that I do have some extra time around 5 or so, and I'm also remembering to (*gasp* defrost stuff in the morning if needed.

Earlier this week, I made Spinach and Mushroom Crepes, a recipe from my beloved Moosewood Cookbook. Last night was curry chicken as well as cauliflower with potatoes (both from Indian cookbooks). It's sort of fun, chopping stuff up and throwing it all together and seeing what comes out.

Enlightening, too. I had no idea that a real curry chicken recipe didn't actually use curry powder, that the curry taste is actually a combination of different spices (curry powder is a short cut). I still use garam masala pre-made, but plan to start making it from scratch. The curry chicken I made last night was a "quick" recipe which took an hour, and spices included fresh garlic, fresh ginger, cinnamon stick, bay leaves, cloves, cardamoms, chili peppers, coriander, garam masala, turmeric, pepper. The fragrance in the kitchen as the chicken simmered was incredible, yum.

I'm almost ready to try out some of my cooking on unsuspecting friends. :-)

One of the reasons I don't mind spending an hour in the kitchen doing prep and cooking is because I'm not obligated to do it, of course. Jeff and I have an understanding that if I ever prefer writing until the last minute (because I'm on a roll), that we can always order in, or that he cooks. So far, this has worked out pretty well.



I've decided against using cascading style sheets for my new journal layout. As much as I love what CSS can do, I was troubled by the fact that the test blog I set up using Movable Type's bare-bones template looked really wonky in both Netscape and Omniweb. I'm going to still switch to Movable Type, but will stick with the limitations of regular HTML.

I also had always planned to stick with the UBB Blatherchat, too, in case some of you were concerned about the Javascrip pop-up comment feature in Movable Type.

Today's Marketing Day! I forgot to mention that I got an article late last week, so I'm working on three articles. My goal is to send out three more queries today; I still have eight circulating.



BLATHERPICS:

Today's Blatherpics are some pretty old Urban Tapestry photos.

	Kylea and Allison eating donuts in Winnipeg during a visit years ago. I just heard from Kylea in e-mail, and she got me all nostalgic about that visit, especially our visit to Toad Hall Toys. Kylea did the penny whistle part in "The Lady" for our CD, "Myths and Urban Legends".
	Ookla The Mok about to record one of their parts for our CD. Note Luis's drum set. Note that this is in Allison's living room. In retrospect, I am amazed that no neighbours complained (she did give them a nice warning, so I'm sure that helped).
	Dave Clement and Tom Jeffers recording their parts for "Sex and Chocolate" on our CD. Note the high tech level of our recording equipment. The things in front of the faces (not the mikes, the other things) are pantyhose stretched over coat hangers, to reduce microphone "popping".

a little bit crazy

Okay, so I confess that I spent more of yesterday playing around with Movable Type than I did writing. I did get it completely installed, have a test blog working, am laying the foundation for moving Blatherings over. Reid says he might be able to figure out a way to export all the Livejournal archives I worked on into a format acceptable to Movable Type, so I'm crossing my fingers very, very hard.

I figure it's also about time I revamped the layout a bit; I'm getting tired of the current format. Playing around with some new graphics for the revamp, too (see illustration at the top of page). I actually do have flannel pajamas with clouds on them like the one in the picture. :-) I've also started going through a Webmonkey tutorial on CSS.

I was inspired by checking out the nominees for the Second Annual Weblog Awards. Some of these blogs are sites I already check on a regular basis (like Cory's BoingBoing and Wil Wheaton's journal).

Anyway, I'm going to force myself to ignore Movable Type for most of today so I can get some solid writing done. Three articles to work on today, and 1200 words of my novel.

(pause while Debbie forces herself to close the browser window with the Movable Type user manual in it)

And no cascading style sheets, either.

(pause while Debbie forces herself to close the browser window with the Webmonkey tutorial)

One of the toughest part about working at home is self-discipline. Some days are easier than others...I'm inspired, have to force myself to get away from my computer in order to get proper exercise and meals. Other days (fortunately these are in the minority), distractions are the norm. And they're always almost-valid distractions, like housework that needs to be done, the call of the fridge, personal e-mail I've been needing to catch up on, prep that needs to be done for dinner that night, even working out at the gym. Again, all these ARE valid in the right context, but I'm also well aware of when I'm using them as an excuse.

I may be on the way back to my office after a washroom break, for example, when I notice the dust on the piano.

I'll just grab the duster and get rid of that, I think. It won't take a minute. A minute turns into several more, however, when I figure that I might as well dust the bookshelves in the living room while I'm at it. And the bedroom. And geez, look at that dust bunny! Gotta get out the vacuum cleaner and hoover that baby out of existence. And while I'm here, might as well get the sheets off the bed and do some laundry...

Ahem, you get the picture.

In general, however, I'm far more productive working at home on my own than I ever could be at the office. I know some people are the opposite. They prefer working with externally imposed deadlines than ones they set themselves.

Here are a few common personality traits in writers:

- You're somewhat of a loner. You can work for hours at a time without talking to a single soul, or feeling the need to talk to a single soul.

- When you come up with a fantastic story idea, your first impulse is to write it down rather than tell someone about it.

- You love people-watching.

- You prefer spending more time doing actual writing than you do talking about writing.

In addition, I think that anyone wanting to be a published writer has to have at least a tiny exhibitionist streak in them. Ditto for anyone who has an online journal. If we didn't, then we'd be keeping our journals private, away from the public eye, like any sane human being. :-) We wouldn't be sending our precious stories out to total strangers, exposing ourselves to (likely) rejection, ego-bruising criticism, and the cruel vagaries of Canada (or U.S.) Post.

We must be mad, at least a little. Hm...perhaps I should add that to my list of personality traits.

But enough about writing about writing; time for me to upload this thing so I can get back to more of my own. :-)