and it turns cold again

 today it turned cold again. yesterday it was 59 degrees, and this evening it went down to 28.

the sky was beautiful, with the clouds fat and low down and catching the sunset. this is sixth avenue and washington place.

wednesday work and play

we talked about square numbers and triangular numbers this morning and used our stones to visualize the patterns.

discovering triangular numbers was interesting. 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36, 45, 55, 66, 78 . . etc . .  add 3 stones to make 6, then add 4 stones to make 10, 5 stones to make 15, 6 stones for 21, 7 stones for 28 and continue going up one and adding that number to the triangle to make each next triangular number.

we also made a pyramid of square numbers beginning with 5 squared (we didn't have enough blocks for 10).

it was interesting for me to see the numbers square themselves into a shape. i've always had trouble visualizing math; making pictures in my head to solve number problems. for me square numbers were always a strange language. picturing blocks piled up on top of each other adds a piece to life's math puzzle for me.

after babysitting for tsamaret and moriah in the early afternoon, and ballet classes in the late afternoon, chanda and i met morgana at the muffin cafe for a sandwich and then we walked to the met opera house to see:

see the little boy in the hat on the bottom right of this picture? that's our friend gael, and he was working as a child extra for the show.

gael had three costume changes and even got to be onstage for the bows at the end. he was wonderful and it was a lot of fun to see him. the show was rather spectacular! the costumes were beautiful, the set was idyllic and the singing was incredibly moving. anna netrebko sang the part of adina, and matthew polenzani sang the part of nemorino. everything at the met is always rather lush. you can see an excerpt of act i here (you can actually get a glimpse of gael in this scene if you look on the right for a boy in a straw hat and brown pants . . at the end you can see him walking off upstage with everyone).

tuesday ice and dinner

we went ice skating this morning, and it was very warm! we've gone from 20 degrees to 59 degrees in just a few days.

 

the ice that accumulates each winter on the fountain by the rink was starting to melt.

for dinner i made pasta carbonara with whole wheat fusilli. see the new pasta bowls?
i found them in "sur la table" in soho. i went in looking for a new tea kettle (since i burned my beautiful copper one to a crisp) and instead found pasta bowls.

monday on the mend

 no sooner did i get caught up with posting, then i was laid low with a stomach bug tuesday afternoon after ice skating. i didn't get up until friday, and then i did too much which slowed me down for the weekend. and it was a busy weekend as chanda had a string concert at third street, and korrina and morgana had the family matters dance concert at new york live arts (dance theatre workshop). 

 i poked my head out of the water today . . very slowly. morgana was more energetic and dived right into her guitar practice and essay on the pythagorean school. korrina felt well enough to get out of bed (she missed stage managing yesterday as she had a high fever), but stayed home from her guys and dolls rehearsal to try and get her strength back.

 morgana's essay . . 

 chanda practiced violin as she has another music hour this coming saturday, much to her dismay. it's for the second movement of the vivaldi piece.

we have two bouquets up on the windowsill. it actually felt nice not to be overwhelmed with flowers this weekend!

family matters!

it was a great weekend for ellen's shows. chanda and i missed the saturday show, but morgana said it went really well. and it went well for korrina also. today didn't go as well for korrina since she woke with a very bad sore throat, a fever and a headache. she was very sad and had to stay home and rest in bed while chanda and i ushered both shows and morgana danced. the shows were fabulous. ellen always puts together a special program.

saturday morning string stravaganza

this morning chanda and i were out of the apartment by 8:45 as she had a string stravaganza at third street music school.

handel's theme and variations in g major.

the twinkle theme . .

afterwards, she read the fellowship of the ring while waiting for me to finish talking with other parents.

up and running . . sort of

i got out of bed this morning and said i wouldn't do too much. ha. i did laundry, animals, vacuuming, dishes, lunch, shower, dinner, and then went with morgana to her tech rehearsal for family matters at new york live arts. first, however, hermione greeted me from the sweater pile.

morgana worked on her guitar and chanda on her recitation.

oh. well. i even sewed a little on the patches for the flannel duvet cover (madeline used to eat holes into our linens and clothing and we're still trying to catch up with the mending).

hmmm . . jack managed to go back to his chair for an all day nap after having his morning walk. wish he could do some laundry or dishes or vacuuming. he should make himself more useful!

sheesh . . what a life.

we had fennel for lunch and leftover asparagus soup.

 

morgana at her tech rehearsal.

she worked with phil, the lighting designer, to get the ending just right.

 

backstage with korrina who is stage managing.

we walked home from the theatre through a light snowfall! it was very pretty.

dinner tonight was orange lentil soup with yogurt and sauteed spinach with garlic.

i even managed to change the table cloth. i was very tired after this day.

day two pics from bed

this is a dance morgana choreographed for her character class. all the girls in the class have had two weeks to work on it. when did they all begin? today!!! when it was due!!

pics from bed

yesterday afternoon, around 3:30 pm, it was my turn to succumb to the stomach bug. i spent today in bed and the girls revolved around me. first thing we did in the morning was to watch the inauguration.

korrina bundled up to go out into the bitter cold for ginger ale and bananas for me. they were the only things i felt i could swallow.

morgana and chanda worked at the table on math and handwriting.

jack kept me company!

the cats' grass is sprouting! (i think chanda took this pic).

my breakfast and lunch.

this was a different view for me of morgana practicing her guitar.

chanda worked on her synopsis of jason and the golden fleece. the book she is looking at here is peter green's translation of apollonious' argonautica.

we then reviewed it before putting it into the lesson book.

the book i'm reading these days. it was nice to lie in bed and read . .

i actually didn't work on this today. i just took a few pictures for the ravelry file.

dinner without me.