Random Bits and Pieces

Fin was buried today in a brief ceremony, comprised of some flower-scattering and a song J made up, the lyrics of which were “Fin, Fin, Fin, Fin. . . .”  I would share the tune, except that it was  pretty tuneless.  I had attempted to press M into playing something on the recorder (it would have been Hot Cross Buns, since that’s the only song the third grade has learned so far), but she was not inspired.  There was more crying, but not much more.

After I made my weekly listing I received an email with a whole bunch of Halloween-related events at Albany Public Libraries that either had not been on the calendar before or I’d missed, pretty much completely.  In fairness, some of them are for the weekend, but it’s worth checking out.

A reader wanted to make sure that folks know about The Dance Experience in Delmar.  She reports:

My daughter just started a Creative Movement class there and loves it.  Her teacher is very down to earth and great with kids. There is no requirement to do the end of year recital if your child isn’t ready for that type of performance, as long as you notify the studio before costumes are ordered in December.  Tuition works out to about $8 per class, which I think is pretty reasonable.  There’s still space in my daughter’s class, so please spread the word.

Heck yeah, $8/class is pretty reasonable!  How about everybody else,  by the way?  Has anyone started their kids in a new activity that they love-love-love or perhaps, alas, an activity that you suggest people might want to avoid in the future?

Also, some of you may have noticed that I’m finally updating and revising my categories a little bit.  The biggest change is that when I started, a weekend listing would have tons of categories (ie. Books/Storytimes, Museums, Sports, Art, Nature) just because an item would be listed.  Now, I’ve just got a Listings category, which is time-sensitive stuff.  Then the only items that get, say, an Art or Theater category are when I wrote at least a couple of paragraphs about the topic, and something that remains relevant over time.  And, in a nod to the complete narcissism which is blogging, there’s a whole new parent category called Me, Me, Me, and My World.  Anyway, hopefully it will make it a little easier to find items–assuming that someone, sometime, wants to find something.  But I know this is boring, so before you nod off and start drooling on the keyboard. . . .

Cute W was gone tonight, and I was all set to be lazy and do a little Annie’s Mac & Cheese when I realized that I didn’t have any in the pantry.  Bummer.  Luckily, I had the makings for one of the girls’ favorites (and a W non-favorite):  we call it Chickpea/Gnocchi/Cheddar.  It’s from a cookbook I love, 366 Healthful Ways to Cook Leafy Greens.  Now the sad part is, my kids don’t actually eat the greens (it calls for collards) in this recipe.  But the good news is that the recipe works with practically any leafy green vegetable, so I managed to throw in 3 different little baggies of who-knows-what random leftovers (there were definitely some beet greens in there) from previous CSA weeks, and I enjoyed eating it.  So I cleansed my intestines and my freezer at the same time  Yay, me!  Except, of course, that there are more dirty dishes than I had anticipated.