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By kilax, January 30, 2017 12:36 pm

So many things are making me happy this Monday:

• Gina and I planned out a March get-together! Yay! And it’s in KC so we’ll see Steven’s family, and my snis and Will and baby William!
• I just signed myself and FIVE family members up for a 5K in my hometown in April. And since it’s in Iowa, it was only $109 TOTAL to sign up six people. New goal 5K?
• Steven’s brother said he’s in for RAGBRAI Day 7 this year! He finally gave in after three years of asking, woot woot! My dad, Will, and Gina have all confirmed they’re in too.
• The sun was out for my run today! I forgot what’s that like. It was in the low 20s, but the sun and low winds made it feel awesome to be outside.

• I got to pet a pony during my run! And the neighbor (who I just met for the first time today) the pony belonged to said I was welcome over anytime to ride her horses or exercise her pony.

In conclusion, planning time with friends and family, nature, and animals (all still) make me happy.

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By kilax, January 26, 2017 11:27 am

• We took Khali to the vet today and it went really well (Snow had an appointment too, but he ran off in to the woods when we tried to put him in the carrier). She was super chill in the car and at the vet. I’m impressed. Khali is now chipped (as Khaleesi OurLastName), has all of her vaccinations, and is confirmed FIV free. And she has an appointment to get spayed. She was (is?) definitely in heat which has made for some x-rated interactions with Snow recently. Sigh.

• File these two studies under “duh, but good reminder” (and as with most studies “questionable research methods”) -“Facebook can actually make us more narrow-minded” (pdf here) and “Get Up and Move. It May Make You Happier” (pdf here). Like I said, both very “duh” statements, but ones I have been thinking about lately – how one-sided most of the social media I follow is, and how while I LOVE working from home, that all that sitting around is BAD for my mood. Bad, bad, bad.
• Milky Chance’s second album comes out in March! I wonder if I will love it as much as the first. I am not digging the first single, but I think it’s because it was accompanied by a music video – watching music videos often ruins the song for me.
• Did anyone else watch Beware the Slenderman on HBO? The stabbing happened close (well, within 60 miles) to where we live and it’s something I’ve followed since. I didn’t care for the documentary though and was somewhat shocked the girl’s parents agreed to be in it.

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 124

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By kilax, January 25, 2017 12:15 pm

… and it doesn’t bother me!

I love dreary, overcast days and don’t mind that we’ve had them for, what… almost two weeks now? I’m actually more productive and motivated when it’s like this.

But I could do without the weird weather shifts giving me headaches!

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By kilax, January 24, 2017 6:23 am

We have a tarp draped over the side of Khali and Snow’s temporary housing, and we place their food under the tarp when we feed them, so that they have a dry place to eat.

Apparently this tarp is very inviting. (Just kidding, I know it’s the food that’s inviting.)

Last month, when I went out to give them their nightly meal, both Khali and Snow were outside of the tarp, but when I stuck my hand under it, there were glowing eyes in there. Um, wth, is there a third cat now?

Um, no.

I quickly learned to always check before I put food back there. And sure enough, he returned.

Usually picking the tarp up is enough to make him go, but he wouldn’t budge this time. We gently tapped him with a (plastic) shovel and he still wouldn’t move. Scraping the shovel against the deck got him to go.

Just to have this guy show up.

It’s interesting to me that the cats give zero f*cks about these visitors. Who knows, maybe they invited them.*

*I know we did, by putting food out. Ha.

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By kilax, January 21, 2017 7:24 am

The performance of Mozart’s The Magic Flute we saw last night in Milwaukee was a great introduction to opera for me. The presenters mostly stuck to the original story line (which Steven and I had learned about in advance to know what was going on) but translated a lot of it in to English, using colloquialisms and modern language. A few of the songs were still sung entirely in German, and the program had translations (as well as a helpful synopsis and breakdown of the acts by songs, which I used to follow along).

I was expecting to recognize some of the music, and I did! But not from where I was expecting – I’d heard it before from Trans-Siberian Orchestra! One of my favorite songs of theirs, “Queen of Winter Night” is a rework of The Magic Flute, particularly “Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen.” (If you listen to :28 and :46 here and here you can hear it.)

The singers/dancers/musicians (yes, some did all three!) were amazing. I was expecting the production to be cheesy based on the program cover, but it wasn’t (thankfully)! It was playful and funny and the cast was FANTASTIC. They were great singers but the Queen of the Night really outshone everyone.

The opera was performed in the Tripoli Shrine Center, a nationally registered historic place whose design is based off of the Taj Mahal and is home to the Milwaukee Shriners… which is interesting for this play, because The Shriners are Master Masons and there is a lot of Masonic symbolism in the original version of this opera. And… that is as much as I will pretend to know about the meaning of the opera, from what Steven and I learned before going.

The opera was performed in the space under the dome, and had action going on on the main level and balcony. It was an intimate performance – we were only a few feet behind the musicians and the performers went by us countless times! Their use of the space was clever and created the scenes without any backdrops.

Photo from here, showing the Queen of the Night

Their costumes were neat, but what really amused me was their use of props. When Prince Tamino is shown a “portrait” of Pamina they used a view-master! And there was a pause in the performance of that song for the First Lady to hand Tamino a new slide reel. That cracked me up. They used hand puppets for a scene where Tamino is traveling in the forest and has to use his magic flute to tame the animals (that is what I interpreted was going on), and they had an impressive huge (paper-mache?) dragon for the end scene.

One of the singers sometimes did her scenes on roller skates, zipping around the audience and musicians, which impressed me. She could sing, dance and skate at the same time. Like I said, it was extremely playful and we laughed a lot! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

And it was fun to dress up! We didn’t need to AT ALL, but wanted to.

I rented my dress, earrings and clutch from Rent the Runway, and got my hair done at a local favorite salon, which was a treat and fun for date night!

I did my own makeup, and remembered, less than an hour before it was time to go, that I threw out most of my makeup when we moved to the rental house at the end of 2015. Oops. Quick CVS trip to get lipstick!

We ate at the Palomino Bar in the Bay View area before the show. This is one of my go to places with vegan options in Milwaukee. We all ordered dessert to enjoy after the show and I dug in to mine as soon as we got home (well, after finishing my leftovers)! I needed sustenance to stay up for a few more hours playing games!

And, as I am up writing this, I’ve gotten three and a half hours of sleep. Totally worth it for a fun night! (And I totally see a nap in my future!)

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By kilax, January 20, 2017 8:07 am

Khali has walked in to the house before, but this is the first time Snow did. And Khali is getting much more comfortable and walking in further!

And what did Data think?

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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By kilax, January 19, 2017 6:09 am

• The RAGBRAI (The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) route announcement party is this Saturday! I’m excited to see what this year’s route is. And I’m hoping it doesn’t end in Keokuk (the southern most Iowa city on the Mississippi River). We’ll likely ride the last day, and I doubt it will work if the route goes that far south!
• Bobbi checked in on Data, Khali and Snow while we were in Kansas, but she never saw Snow. He’s a bit of a scaredy cat and was hiding every time she visited. I wasn’t worried, and figured he’s show up the next day. He did. At 4:00 am. Howling at the back door like a banshee, wanting to be fed. What a dork.

• Did anyone else watch The OA on Netflix? Man, that ending. I’ve had to read up about it online to try to wrap my mind around it. And to read all the the clues I missed.
• Since I’ve had a coupon code for the Wisconsin Half and Full Marathon for the past several years, people are asking me for one this year, not knowing I am not an ambassador anymore. I hope the generic code that I got in an email and have been giving them works!
• Christina had professional photos taken of Baby William on Monday and this sneak peek is SO STINKING CUTE! AHHH! I can’t wait to see them all!

• My fave coworker saw some of the cherry hearts I love at Tarjayjay and hooked me up with four bags. Aww yeah! These should last me a while… right?!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 123

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By kilax, January 18, 2017 5:06 pm

Today when I was sketching layout options for a client by hand, they said to me “Wow! You’re really good at this!” (and “You should come design my house!,” ha ha).

I thought “wow,” when they said that. Wow, it’s nice to feel useful*. Wow, it’s fun to work with a client who’s excited about their project. And, wow, that made me feel good.

My bosses at both of my jobs are great about positive reinforcement, but there’s something special about it when it comes from a client. It satisfies that deep human need to be noticed for the hard work you do. And that need to be noticed, at all.

I hope you get a chance to be that person doing the praising and noticing, and that it comes back your way.

*for my particular set of skills

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By kilax, January 16, 2017 7:52 pm

Thankfully the huge ice storm that was predicted for the Kansas City area never materialized and we were able to get there safely on Friday to meet Baby William (and able to get home safely today, although we took a different route than normal to avoid storms in Iowa!).

Since my snister’s baby arrived my heart was aching to meet him as soon as possible. I appreciate Christina and Will opening their home up to us (and my parents, who had been there since he arrived) when the baby was (IS!) so new! We met him when he was only six days old!

Our weekend consisted of lounging around, eating, watching movies, and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, baby cuddling.

William is a sweetheart and we’re both grateful we got to spend time with him this weekend. And it was awesome to see my snister and her husband and their new role as parents – they seem like total naturals. The love they have for him is infectious and it makes me feel such joy for them, and whenever I think of William!

It was hard to leave, but of course, I already have my next trip in mind!

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By kilax, January 12, 2017 6:18 am

• Steven and I both got the TDAP vaccination on Sunday, and man, were we sore from it! I finally felt better yesterday, but Steven’s arm is still tender. Ouch.

• Besides this awesome score at Tarjayjay, I found my FAVORITE Valentine’s Day candy. It’s been years since I’ve seen this candy in stores – I usually have to buy it online! I bought the last three bags that were left. And I hope I find more. Brach’s did not sponsor this, but if they want to send me free candy, I’d accept!

• My snister gave me a return address stamp for Christmas and I love using it! You can totally tell what it looks like, right?! Ha.

• And a new picture of baby William! We’re planning to meet him this weekend, but the weather is supposed to be extremely horrible so please cross your fingers that we can get there safely!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 122