Week in Review

 On Sunday, we went out with Colleen, Rigo and Liana to a new pizza place in town, where Lucas is now working. 

Later, Stace and I went to help our friend Christina at her nonprofit, which helps young adults who were part of the foster care system. And then, we went to see a Christmas play at a church with my other friend named Christina. 

It's December, and the girls (even the young adult) are happy to still have their Advent calendar chocolates to count down the days until Christmas.

Cora's also celebrating the end of her college English class this week. She didn't enjoy it, or the teacher, so it's good that it's over. She had kinder words to share about her other two online classes, and her fall semester theatre experience.

Violet has another week of school left, but she did attend a Christmas party with her online school ASB (student government).

We bought a tree this year through a Catholic charitable group that donates proceeds to Christina's nonprofit and Cora's old school. After buying more string lights, we decorated it after Stace played soccer on Friday. 

Evie helped...

...as did Winston. 

(Despite the funny cat videos we've seen, our cats don't mess with the tree. Winston will occasionally bat an ornament, but rarely.)

Violet and I went to Castaic for one of our evening walks. 

It was fun to see the deer prints in the mud.

I checked on these cuties once this week while my parents were both out all day.

I also went to watch Christina's daughter Melanie in a theatre production of Alice in Wonderland. She's second from the left, playing the Queen of Hearts. Off with his head!

Finally, I made sourdough bread for the first time, after getting starter and tips from my friend Lydia when we went out to breakfast this week.

There's room for improvement, but not bad!

Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

Cora appeared in her college debut, "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui," by celebrated German playwright Bertolt Brecht. The play is an allegory about Hitler's rise to power, in a story set around 1930s Chicago, with gangsters taking over the cauliflower trade.

Cora had about eight different roles, several of them key parts. She was a very different person each time. 

Here, she's a Chicago vegetable seller.

Here, she's playing Bowl, an accountant who witnessed shady dealings. Arturo Ui, the Hitler-esque gangster, is very interested in his testimony but has him killed on the way to the investigator's office. 

Here, Cora plays young Dogsborough, son of the city councilman who gets himself into ethical trouble. The play featured clowns throughout.

Cora is the investigator O'Casey, when Ui and his lieutenant, Roma, walk in. 

An adjudicator (like a judge) from the national college theatre festival came out and chose these three actors to compete in the upcoming regional festival in February!

O'Casey isn't buying what Ui's selling during the investigation.

Here, Cora is a newspaperman in Cicero, a nearby area where Ui wants to expand his empire. Here, Dullfeet (Cora) is chatting with a florist/gangster friend of Ui's.

Final bows - it was set in the black box theatre, with a simple set.

It was raining on Opening Night, and the cast greets guests outside. 

Cora's West Ranch people all came out to support her on Thursday.

Grandma and Grandpa came to a show, and Grandpa took all the top photos during a photo call.

We didn't manage to get a family photo with Violet, because she came Friday night, when Cora ran out to say a quick hello but had to rush back in. That was the night the adjudicator came, and was giving them her opinion.

Thanks, as always, to the other friends who came, who I wasn't able to get photos of: Melanie and Nick, Heather and Maggie, Sue and Betsy, Christina, Coach Greg, Mrs. Hawthorne, Moira, and Colleen, Rigo and Lucas.

Weekend Fun

Nick brought Ellie over for a couple of hours Friday, and she helped me make a new recipe for healthier peanut butter cups. 

 

Pretty tasty! And nice knowing the ingredients are all decent.

In the evening, Stace went to Pocock Brewery for a coworker's goodbye gathering, while I went to Hart High School to watch the musical Little Shop of Horrors, as I knew several of the kids in it.

Also this week, I had my final meeting of the West Ranch Parent Advisory Council, as the group held elections and replaced me on the board. 

I processed our pumpkins and used some of the puree to make my own pumpkin spice protein latte, with vanilla protein powder. Yummy, and so good for me.

Stace and I went to a theatre performance at the church I grew up going to on Saturday night, and it was great! Very high quality production of an entertaining story, set in the late 1940s in New York City. One of the leads (in the top hat) is a radio talk show host I like listening to, so it was fun to see him in a different element.

It rained all day, and Violet and Stace drove around admiring our rivers. Meanwhile, Cora had a daylong tech rehearsal for her college play.

On Sunday, Stace and I celebrated our anniversary a bit late, with a steak dinner at a local favorite. We'd waited because of Stace's dental work. 

A real date!

Oh, it was delicious. Twice-baked potato, 14 ounce ribeye steak, and coconut shrimp to start.

We shared everything, and still brought a bit home.

We made sure to save enough room for dessert - a shared slice of mudpie.

This was a special meal; thanks to Sue and Gord for the money!

We finished the day with a family rewatching of The Princess Bride; it was kind of a perfect day for me.

Romeo and Juliet

 Cora took on her second job, working for her old high school's theatre department over the weekend. I helped by writing the press release and volunteering in the box office for "Romeo and Juliet," while Cora did all sorts of work to help things go smoothly.

Cora's friends Mackenzie and Lucas played the leads, and did a great job! Cora would have loved to perform in a whole Shakespeare production; hopefully someday.

Week in Review

 And, this week, Violet's summer vacation came to an end! My, that felt fast. It always does. Cora has a few more weeks until her college classes start.

Violet got all registered at her online school on Monday. Although it's online, there is a small campus and registration happens in person. 

She's a sophomore! First day of school was Tuesday. She's taking honors English, honors history, business, PE and algebra 2/trig online; and Advanced Placement art and chemistry in person.

This is not a normal position for Evie, so it made me laugh (and grab a photo).

Through the co-op I buy our wheat, honey and other goods from, I bought peanuts for our homemade peanut butter.

Seb has been having trouble, urinating in the hallway. It happened enough that I took him to the vet. Turns out he has crystals in his urine, so we've switched his food to a special food for the problem.

We went to Placerita Nature Center Tuesday afternoon, and the rattlesnakes were looking very friendly. Violet talked with Ranger Frank about volunteering at the center.

We have a new store in town that sells Amazon and Target returns and overruns. Lots of random stuff, in big bins on long tables in rows. 

The store gets stocked on Saturday, and everything costs $12. The prices drop each day until the cost is $1 per item on Friday.

I went for the first time on Tuesday, when items were $4 each. There was a lot of stuff to look through, but I found these four things. I later looked up their current prices on Amazon: the 8-pack of better-ingredient chips were $16.50; the 20-pack of electrolytes was $16; the bag of caffeinated mints was on sale for $26 (!) and the book was $9. So, I did pretty well!

A sunset walk in Castaic...

Also last week, Colleen and I went to see the Cinderella musical at the Canyon Theatre Guild, so we could see Carla (center) as the fairy godmother. Carla has taught Cora vocals for the past few years.

Liana stayed at our house with Violet, and Cora took them all to the resale clothing shop and a Japanese bakery.

Days Out: Carpinteria and the Theatre

 This summer week's highlights were two special trips, one with each daughter.

On Wednesday, Violet finished up her schoolwork for her summer class, so we celebrated with an afternoon in Carpinteria. 

We didn't make it a "beach day" with bathing suits and towels, but we did end our evening with a lovely stroll on the sand. 

We came across this struggling butterfly that had gotten wet. We tried to help it out.

After getting tacos, we found boba and a coffee at Reyes Market, a Hispanic market that had really good drinks from the counter. We'll return when we come back to Carp!

We started our afternoon walking around the downtown boutiques, galleries and antique shops, where we saw this wall of old glassware we knew Cora would have liked.

Another highlight: on Friday evening, we met up with Cora's friends and one of the moms, and caravaned to North Hollywood for a musical. 

This one, called The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, was put on by a group that is a favorite of all these teens - Starkid Productions. Cora has loved their work for several years, and this was the first time she's seen them in person.

I'm glad she wanted me to go along, and I enjoyed it very much. The best part was watching Cora have such a great time.

I'm thankful to Heather for inviting us! And it was great for these teens to hang out, as Heather's daughter Rowan will be going back East to college later this month.