In Which I Skin a Cat

I used the expression "There's more than one way to skin a cat" with one of my students today. He looked at me like I had suddenly sprouted gigantic green antlers and said, "Isn't that illegal? Why would you do that?" I think I scarred him for life.

After I finished laughing (in my head), I had to explain what that meant. This led to the observation that there are some truly disgusting idiomatic expressions. I love teaching kids that have autism.

In Which Christmas Comes to Town

Yesterday, Christmas came to town. I attended the 63rd annual Christmas Parade in the old part of town. It sounded like a fun, holiday-spirit thing to do, and I figured it seemed like a nice small-town kind of tradition. So at 9:30am, I drove into town,parked, and walked to the a spot on the parade route. There were a lot of people. Someone said close to 55,000, and I believe it. I found a spot right near the main stage, where all the dancers and bands stopped to do a 1-minute performance.

Surprisingly, winter also arrived in Virginia the same day as Christmas. At 9:50, I was wishing I had worn warmer socks. At 10:00, I was wishing I had brought heavier mittens. By the time the parade finally started at 10:18, I was downright cold. It was so cold, my digital camera refused to turn on. I have pictures on my cell phone. If anyone can help me figure out how to send them to the computer, I'd appreciate it. Then I can show you the parade.

It was very cool. There were over 100 groups marching, and at least 1/3 had floats. There were some really fun ones, like the one made by a middle school orchestra with broken instruments and Christmas packages. There were several dance troupes dressed in sparkly leotards and tights, shivering their way through their dance number. There was the Budweiser Clydesdales, which are really big. "Big" does not begin to describe how massive those animals are. The mayor marched. The local senator marched. There were men driving Harley-Davidsons decorated with tinsel and and Santa Clauses. There were two balloons. Marching bands in full regalia wearing Christmas elf-ear hats. The crowd was fun too, lots of families and children. bundled up in layers of lumpy coats and blankets, and everyone saying "hi" to each other and greeting people they knew in the parade. Stores lining the main street were all open and serving hot chocolate or coffee and cookies, enticing people to step in and warm up, and maybe do a little Christmas shopping.

I couldn't stay to the end. It got to the point where I couldn't get warm even in a store. I left just before noon, and the parade was only about half finished. Next year, I will dress warmer and bring a blanket. What a fantastic local event! The only thing that would have been better is if my family and friends could have been there too. Wishing you all happy holidays.

Thanksgiving!!!!

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I did. i went back north, and enjoyed the cold and snow. Really, I did. It was great to visit with my family and see a friend or two. I got to go see The Nutcracker ballet, always a holiday favorite of mine. I also went to the George Eastman House to see the gingerbread house display. Every year, people donate decorated gingerbread creations to auction off to raise money for GEH. Some are spectacular, and some are obviously by very young girl scout troops. Here a few of my favorites. And yes, that is a landfill.

In Which I Head North

Hi y'all. Yup, I've picked up a southern accent. I'll be flying north again for Thanksgiving. It will be strange to be cold. I need to find my boots.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

In Which I See the Capitol Building

Today I went into D.C. to the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall. (I must say that the Metro system is really convenient. The biggest problem is living 30 minutes away from it.) The weather was supposed to be rainy all day, but though it was certainly quite gloomy, there was a brief time when it was almost sunny. I took advantage of this and went to see the Capitol Building, which is about 1/2 mile from the museums. It was strange to see it in real life. I've seen it on tv and in movies, and there I was, seeing it for real.

I went to the Air and Space Museum, which was fantastic! First of all, it's free. Secondly, it has all these replicas of various space shuttles and stations. There is so much to see and so many buttons to push! I love pushing buttons. There also was a big exhibit about the history of stewardesses, complete with a panel of visiting retired stewardesses from the 60's. I must say, some of the uniforms from that era were crazy --- pink mini-skirts with paisley hot pants, orange ponchos, bright yellow mini-dresses.... Yikes! Anyway, as you can see from the pictures, it was impressive.


I also went to the Freer Gallery. It has a large collection of paintings by Whistler, of Whistler's Mother fame. It does not actually have that painting however, which I believe is in Paris. It also had a room Whistler's Peacock Room. Only at the Smithsonian would there be an entire room devoted to decaying green velvet, gilded peacocks murals, and shelves of blue Chinese pottery. I think it would have been more impressive 5 hours earlier in the day. The Japaneses screens were really quite beautiful, though, and I could have sat and looked at them for hours. I was also impressed by the variety and quality of Asian art exhibited. There were some exquisite pieces.

In Which I Hear Opera

I got an e-mail today from the Metropolitan Opera announcing that streaming video of HD performances from the Met are now available. I am very excited. I love opera. I don't get to attend live performances often, but over the past two years, I've been able to attend the Met's Live in HD broadcasts at a movie theater. Now that I have moved, that is not as easily done. This is not quite as good as going to the movie theater. However, it is much more convenient.

I highly recommend the performance of Eugene Onegin, which I saw two years ago. It was fantastic. I recommend skipping Peter Grimes. The voices were good, but the sets are dreadful. I am looking forward to watching The Magic Flute, one of my favorite operas. It has a singing parrot, a lost princess, a melodramatic queen-mother, a prince, and a stretch where the characters are not allowed to make a noise. How could it be anything but fun?

In which I go to church

I went to the battlefield park again today to see the fall colors. The weather was quite warm. I do like the weather here so far a lot better then up North. I saw a deer. I even got a couple blurry pictures (see above). It let me get fairly close. There was a family at the park flying a kite. It looked like fun. I remember going to the beach in New Jersey when I was a kid and flying kites.

Ah, and back to the title of my post. I went to church today. This is not note-worthy in itself. I usually do go to church. However, this is the third week I've gone to the same church. It's quite friendly. I put my name on the "Visitor" list, and last week and this one, a pastor has contacted me later in the day just to say, "Hello, thanks for coming to our church". I appreciate that. That's what churches should do. There was also a very large hornet in the sanctuary today. It made the sermon quite lively. If your church is in a rut, I recommend introducing a gigantic flying insect to liven things up.

I am sorry to say that I got not a single trick-or-treater on Halloween. It was disappointing. Now I have 3 bags of candy sitting on my refrigerator. If you ask nice, maybe I'll send you some.