Do I wake or sleep?

We have another building mixer tonight which will interfere with my preparations for the housewarming. I've bought a ton of stuff to prepare/make for Saturday including SIX seasonal items (all homemade, of course). Anyway I had to make something for tonight (no, I will NOT be buying a bag of chips like *some* slackjaw neighbors :) So I whipped up some pecan toffee. The recipe is actually quite easy and you don't even need a candy thermometer.

My Mom visited last week--she bought me a crockpot, very shiny and pretty and red. She's an amazing cook and is always encouraging me to cook more so together we cooked up a storm, including my making a chicken pot pie FROM SCRATCH. Believe it or not, I actually do not like chicken so when I make it again I will substitute scallops or something like that, and maybe some white wine. But most fun, on Sunday we made omelets and mimosas and ate them on the terrace!



Lookit! Brunch al fresco! On my very own terrace! SO MUCH FUN

So...my Dolphman team played our final game of the spring season, after winning our quarter- and semi-finals in dramatic fashion. Last week, when we were tearing into the birthday cupcakes, Alyssa (injured girl) especially liked the pumpkin spice one, so I promised her I'd make some pumpkin bread. So when I got up yesterday I actually didn't have that much time before I had to leave for softball (game at 4) and I needed eggs. Ran to the 7/11, and then stopped by a fruit stand and picked up some limes and avocados. Mmmm....

Anyway so I threw together a pumpkin bread batter, including nutmeg that I personally ground myself (I buy whole nutmeg and use the coffee grinder). The pumpkin puree, of course, was from the pumpkins I got last fall (frozen). The bread was done *just* in time for me to leave and get to the softball game, which we lost 2-1, and then I had to leave for soccer. Got there in plenty of time--some teammates wanted the bread then, some wanted to wait until after the game.

Again this week we had few players, although at least we had two female subs. Not for long! I let Haruko start because she'd missed last week due to asthma and I said "Nikki or I will have an eye on you if you need to stop." She twisted her ankle after about 10 minutes so she was down for the count. Now we just had 1 sub--but I've played SO much soccer lately, I really didn't need one. Last week was the killer, the marathon--4 games within 24 hours! This? Was nothing. We scored late in the 1st half and then just settled down--I was hoping to score myself and got off a couple of good shots, including one pretty cool one. The goalie kicked the ball but messed up and kicked it right to me. I trapped the ball and kicked it hard right back at the goal--and the goalie sailed out of NOWHERE and grabbed it. So, great save but darn it! That would've been amazing. Some of the guys complimented after the game on that shot. Anyway we ended up winning, and they were a great team. Just kind of lucky, we certainly didn't blow them out of the water. Alyssa afterward was all "aren't you guys excited?!" I said "honestly, last week was bigger for me. Two games in 3 hours? No subs, a player down? That was huge."

There was a consolation game after us--the two teams that had finished 9th & 10th. But one of them didn't show up, so the team that WAS there asked us if we wanted to play. Well, I was up for more soccer, so I said yes, and told my team I'd join them later at the bar. It ended up being 4 on 4, and I scored a goal. nice neat little pass to my left side, I trapped it and then had a nice hard shot with my left foot into the goal. I also did a cool pass!--a backwards pass, when I knew someone was behind me and an opponent in front. I told Sam afterward, he's one of the best ball handlers on the team. After the game, I shared what was left of the pumpkin bread and they devoured it. The referee was raving about it! Well, I take my baked goods seriously.

Yay, champions! Maybe we'll get the threepeat this summer! The field is at Pier 40 this time, a MUCH better field. I expect the games will be higher scoring (this field on the Lower East Side is horrible--very long and narrow and the goals are tiny--and a lot of the games have been scoreless ties).

I'm rewriting A Christmas Carol again--TTC is doing a smaller, version of it this year. It's going to be staged in the Hoboken Historical Museum which is an interesting space. Not huge but it has some cool features like a balcony and stairs. Anyway, we're doing it as a reading, so I have to figure out how to slim down the script and keep a good amount of music (it wouldn't be MY Xmas Carol without all that exquisitely Anglican music!).

I made apple-y stuff last weekend with the apples we picked--I found a great recipe for apple bread, very rich and sweet with walnuts. (Well, I played with it a bit, substituted some brown sugar for some of the regular sugar for which the recipe called. It made it VERY moist with a kind of streusel thing going through it.) The batter tasted fantastic, like cookies. I also made some applesauce. Tonight I want to make a pie--I took a quick peek for my glass pie pan in the cabinets and didn't see it but it must be there.

Oh, and Polanski update: Emma Thompson mercifully saw reason and is removing her name from the disgusting petition of support for Polanski, the rape-rapist. Yay for sanity!

It's kind of cozy right now--it feels like fall a few weeks early, and the view from my apartment window, with the river in the background and all these cars with their lights on in the rain, is evocative. It makes me want to curl up and knit and bake a pumpkin pie.

Speaking of which, at my Halloween get-together (where we'll all watch thpooooky movies), I intend to make some pumpkin pie ice cream (with REAL pumpkin puree, from scratch!).

God, I'm still so tired. I went to bed at a reasonable hour last night and woke up at 10:00 and still my eyes were dragging today. So tired of being tired.

Yesterday was just really nice. I woke up far too late but then redeemed myself by going for a hearty 4-mile walk around Medway (which is what we call the house--Medway was the name of the plantation or some such where Liz grew up). The countryside in this area of New Hampshire is so beautiful and perfect, it's just staggering. Everywhere I looked there was a beautiful rolling field bounded by stone walls, or a quaint churchyard, or horses quietly nibbling. Just mile after mile of rural New England beauty. I could never live here again--the weather is vicious in the winter--but one thing I love about New Hampshire is how authentic it is, at least in this area.

We had a lovely yummy meal with the usual side dishes. I'd made a pecan pie--my own recipe, with rum and creme de cacao and caramel--and everyone tried a piece. I've been on a pie-making binge lately--three pies in three weeks, thanks to my oven (my last apartment didn't have an oven). I've made two pecan pies and one pumpkin. When I get back, I'm going to knock out another pumpkin, and then maybe I'll try a chess pie. Chess pie is a Southern specialty; it's like pecan pie without the pecans, and it's clearer. It's damn good. Mostly I've had chocolate chess or lemon chess pie, but my grandmother would just make plain old chess pie. So, so good.

Liz has recently learned to knit, and Karine (my sister-in-law) and I are both experienced knitters, so the three of us have been getting together for knitathons. They're enjoying themselves, because they're using big needles and have these festive yarns, whereas I'm still slogging through Ryan's sweater. I can't wait 'til it's done. I feel like I'm being punished! We went to a knitting store today and I was looking longingly at these beautiful yarns and patterns. I did end up buying a sweater pattern that will look very pretty when it's done--it's an easy pattern and shouldn't take long.

We went to my favorite local restaurant today, Peter Christian's. It's this old taverny kind of place, with rough-hewn wooden tables, cozy booths and lots of mugs. The food is great here.

Thursday evening after rehearsal Sue, Jason, Paul and I went to a real divy place on 9th Avenue, between 42nd Street and Port Authority. Jason said the last time he'd gone there, they saw a drunk guy passed out on the floor who was being tossed out. Sounded good to me. The drinks were strong and relatively cheap, but no food so I trekked next door for some chips and Oreos. We chatted for awhile. Interesting--the more I get to know Sue, the more I can see the need in her to be...sort of "the one who knows," if that makes sense. She was name-dropping all over the place.

Friday morning I took the 9:30 shuttle down to DC and immediately had lunch with David Weinraub, of DC area dinner theater. He's gained weight, and his wife, Catherine, is pregnant, due in February. We had a nice chat about people we haven't seen in awhile and various shows. David cracks me up because he always says the right things but in this nasal, flat, unconvincing tone: "It's great to see you...I'm so glad you could do lunch..." You have to imagine this in a monotone. It's truly funny.

After that I napped, and then Mom and I went into Georgetown for dinner at the Old Europe, to celebrate Oktoberfest. The Old Europe is this ancient German restaurant that's been around since Mom was a teenager--all the waitresses dress in dirndls and there are stags' heads and coats of arms for various German principalities and towns all over the walls. Lots of bratwurst and dumplings and beers in steins (shipped especially from Munich every year for Oktoberfest). Mmm...

The next day was the only day I could sleep in, and I slept until 11:00. Eventually we left the house around 1:30 to hit Cox Farms, where I ran around jumping off piles of hay, eating hot, chunky, spicy applesauce, painting my face (with pumpkins, of course), riding on hay rides, sliding down slides, and jumping off the rope swing. I don't ever want to get old. There is nothing as much fun as jumping around on things. Eventually we went to the market, got our pumpkins and some other stuff (I also got a sour cherry crumb pie) and left. I love that about Virginia--the country is so close, it's so easy to drive down a country road and see the leaves and gaze at a newly-mown field.

Saturday evening I hooked up with Cami--we chatted about this and that. Good to see her.

Of course I had to wake up at the crack of ass the next morning, in order to make the 8:30 shuttle. There was no 9:30 shuttle (they often eliminate times on the weekends) and I thought the 10:30 was cutting it a little close in order to be at Ripley-Grier by 1:00 pm. I slept a bit on the plane, and then some more when I got home but I was still pretty wiped out. Rehearsal went--well, I wanted better. I should've had better. They knew they were supposed to be off book by Sunday and a few were not, to the extent that they had to hold their scripts. Huge surprise here...the worst (all factors considered) offender was Ehud *gasp*. He has the fewest lines to learn and made a fetish of appearing off book as soon as possible early in the rehearsal process. But that wasn't most annoying. Throughout rehearsals I've told him, several times (at least 4), to stop moving around in the blocking. Don't stray from the blocking, don't shift from leg to leg (he's pretty tall so it's very distracting)--just hit the mark and stay there. Well, yesterday I think he took some kind of anti-blocking drug, or maybe he has OCD. He was, literally, all over the place. Wandering here, wandering there...if this were January, he could bring a whole new meaning to Schubert's Die Wintereise. I wrote several times in my notes "STOP MOVING," my handwriting getting more and more violent. The best (worst?) was when he literally stepped in front of Elizabeth to greet Paul. Or maybe the worst was when he extended an arm in front of Sami's (?) face to offer the gnocchi. I'm starting to wonder if he made up his resume. I can't believe anyone with so little knowledge of basic stage technique actually made it through Stella Adler.

So after I gave them notes and I came down pretty hard on him. I said something like "I'm going to give this note one last time and I expect you to remember it. Stop moving. Stop wandering all over the place. Stick to the blocking I give you and don't move. You make the scene look like crap when everyone else is in these neat formations and you're all over the place." I hate embarrassing people like that but nothing else has worked. He was pretty taken aback although he still--still--tried to justify himself by saying "You should stop me in rehearsal when I do this." I said "No, I've given you this note several times--I am not going to stop a runthrough to give it to you again. We'd never get through it." After I finished with notes, he came up and again tried to make excuses--"I am sorry but you should give me these notes in rehearsal." I said, "No. Once I've given you the note--several times--it is your job to go home and remember it. [You know--like everyone else does.] I don't have time to go over this again and again." Jesus. What a fucking idiot. Get off my stage.

After that Duncan, Jason and I went back to my place and hung out. Duncan had brought his CD of potential music selections for the play, and I listened and discussed them with him. Tatiana was being her usual flirty self with them. While we were there Elizabeth called--she was supposed to be in the preview bit for the Festival we were doing, and was feeling very sick (which had been established at rehearsal) and could I do the lines? I agreed and then got dressed up for the preview. The three of us went over and hung out for awhile at the theater before we were to go on. It was actually really fun. Sami, Paul, Sue, Duncan and I were in the scene, and Jason was just watching us, and we were drinking wine and snarking on the other acts. There was one women who looked like a man--in fact, I corrected Sami because she called her a woman, and then as soon as she sang (badly) I knew it was a female. The witching hoooooo...ooooour... Duncan ran into Diana from As You Like It outside and dragged her in. We got a great reception from the scene--we had to hold several times for laughs. Always great to hear.

I cannot believe how exhausted I am. The hell? I slept pretty badly this weekend--I went to bed after 3:00 am both nights and the apartment is sooooo warm. But still. I'm still going to try to work out tonight but I have to take home my new! convector! oven! first. It arrived today at work and now I'm just quivering with excitement. Especially because last night I tried to make some chocolate-peanut butter chip bars and simply could not get them to bake all the way through, thanks to my old, piece-of-crap toaster oven.

Anyway--the weekend:

( Friday Evening )

( Saturday Afternoon )

( Saturday Night )

( Sunday )

A chilly, feels-more-like-late-November day today. But still sunny. I like it. Although I hate the cold, I like the change in temperature. I always feel so invigorated this time of year. I want to burrow down in my apartment and watch TV and make cookies and breads. Maybe this weekend---I'd like to make cookies for rehearsal or something.