18.365 Simplifications

January 18, 1856 "This is a very mild, melting winter day, but clear and bright, yet I see the blue shadows on the snow at Walden. The snow lies very level there, about ten inches deep, and for the most part bears me as I go across with my hatchet. I think I never saw a more elysian blue than my shadow. I am turned into a tall blue Persian from my cap to my boots, such as no mortal dye can produce, with an amethystine hatchet in my hand. I am in raptures at my own shadow. What if the substance were of as ethereal a nature? Our very shadows are no longer black, but a celestial blue. This has nothing to do with cold, methinks, but the sun must not be too low." - The Diary of Henry David Thoreau


Title: Winter Blues / Explored
Flickr User . : : v i S H a l : : .

and the dish and silverware search begins.....

If you remember last year's exhaustive Great Matching Nightstands search of 2010 - then it will come as no surprise that we have now begun the exhaustive Amazing Adventure in Search of Matching Plates and new silverware. As all shopping decisions with Dave - it requires multiple trips; meditation; strategy and well - me taking pictures of everything. :) Dave has thought all this out of course, with answers for every single one of my impatient questions. Dishes first, silverware then to match. He's cleaned out some of our storage unit to house the existing appleware when we box it up (and perhaps sell it on ebay). He was prepared for the predicatable angle of my approach. "Such a serious decision can't be made on the spot - you need to think about, visualize the dishes in our home - and most importantly visualize the dishes fitting in the dishwasher" - which required photodocumenting each choice with measurements so - he could then approach the lower tray of the dishwasher with a tape measure and make sure our dishwasher could accommodate the dishes properly. (*chortle*) He is so damned adorable when he's in "project mode." :)

The picture above is my favorite so far - it's called "Yardley Red" - and if you like this sort of shopping adventure - - check out the photos so far. It's clear that I like things a little more on the artsy side than Dave. (but Dave sent me the Yardley Red set this morning via email as a peace offering... and said he liked them too) Here's the photoset on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thoreau_in_boise/sets/72157625852927338/with/5366755709/

The 39 Steps

David and I went to see "39 Steps" tonight at Theatreworks. Theatreworks shows have either been fabulous and right on the mark or "meh" - and tonight was a real winner. A hilarious, high-speed spoof of Alfred Hitchcock’s silver-screen classic, this irresistible Broadway smash hurtles a notorious fugitive and a spellbound blonde from a London music hall north by northwest to Scotland’s most remote highlands. Will they save Britain from a den of devious spies? An ingenious homage to the master’s greatest films, it creates trains, planes, moors, and more in a wildly funny flight to the heights of theatrical invention.

The quartet of Rebecca Dines (as the fem fetale) & Mark Andersen Phillips in the lead as Hannay - are just hysterically funny. and rounding out the quartet of actors are Cassidy Brown & Dan Hiatt - who play a dozen or more characters - changing sexes and accents on the fly. What makes this such a great piece of theater is the pacing - it doesn't stop for a second - throwing everything at the audience at breakneck speed. Running gags like sound effects going off 30-40 seconds after the action on stage and back lit "puppet" shows sending up other Hitchcock classics make this 2 hours of nonstop jokes and gags - with a thinly veiled Hitchcock plot. It's the most fun I've had at a comedy at live theater in a real long time. :)

I highly recommend the production.

http://theatreworks.org/shows/1011-season/the-39-steps