Baldur

This has been a grey, cool day at Boughbreak.
Baldur lit the fireplace in the afternoon to knock some of the chill out of the house. It rained for bits of the afternoon, on and off.
Shakira was not amused at having to spend most of the day indoors, but was less amused at the prospect of getting wet.
When she wants to be let in she will face the storm door and stand on her two hind legs with her front paws stretched up as far as possible over her head and lean on the door. She will stand there in that pose for quite a while until someone shows up to open the door.
Her unhappiness at not be let outside after dark is quite profound but with each passing day she tries a bit less to plead for her freedom.

marius

Baldur, am very much enjoying the continuing saga of Shakira and family. Thanks!

Now, Dragon and Baldur (tapping my foot and smiling wickedly) you two are way funny! Tee hee, one of the nice things about line-dancing is that it is brilliant relief for shy people and we all know, when it comes to dancing there are a LOT of shy ones.

Other nice things about line-dancing:
- It provides "steps" for those who aren't really talented at dancing.
- It avoids that awkward thing where one must either ask someone to dance or accept/reject such an invitation.
- It is not terribly difficult.
- No one is going to single you out even if you look like a robot because everyone looks that way and no one cares.
- For people who like to move to music and socialize ... line dancing is a blast!

marius first learned about line-dancing in the early 1990's at a conference. I was astounded because it was the first time the shy ones finally joined everyone else on the dance floor! There was a guy who was teaching steps and everyone had a great time.

One of my favorite "group dance" things happened at another conference, this time in Arkansas. A troupe of about thirty Arkansas male re-enactors came dressed in their Civil War "grays," complete with hats, shiny boots and gloves. MY they were dashing and oh how the could dance! One dance in particular was very easy, and funny too. It was an actual dance from Civil War era. Here's how it worked.

Everyone had to stand in a gigantic circle, holding hands, and every other person had to be of the opposite sex. The music was typical for that time period, fiddles and such. It was kind of like a square dance because there was a caller. Mostly he just had people move towards the center of the circle and then back out, but whenever he said the word, the men had to pass in front of the women and move to the place on the woman's right, i.e. the next "male" place in the circle. Now this was a very smart move for match-making because every guy got to meet every gal, and vice versa.

However, there was a trick. The men (poor fellows) had to give the women a compliment when they moved in front of them to the new place on the right. At first some of the fella's almost died with the pain of that compliment-business but the women were really helpful: "Your perfume smells lovely." "My what a pretty dress (or haha, pair of jeans)" and so forth. And, I'm telling you, it was a hoot to have a compliment from fifty-some men all in one night! I've never had such an experience before and probably won't again!

So thanks for showing us the conference videos Polenta: it brought back a VERY fun memory!

Baldur

They were re-enacting being Arkansasian males?
marius you have not made the entire scenario any less horrible.
Baldur has indeed experienced squaredancing. Way back in the 7th grade we had a semester of it back at Blessed Sacrament School in Providence.
Square dancing was less horrible than line dancing, that was certainly true.

Now I must firmly state that Baldur believes that those who aren't really talented at dancing are no more skillful at line dancing. Who are they trying to fool?

Some people just should not dance.
Does anyone follow the American version of 'Dancing With the Stars'?
Two words prove my point:
David Hasselhoff

Dragon

Baldur only had to endure 1 year of Square Dancing in school? Dragon was subjected to at least 4. I clearly remember doing it in elementary school and in all the years of Junior High. Strangely ours was done during gym class (or perhaps that's not so strange since it required the gym for space). Gym was probably my least favorite class in school and being a painfully shy and awkward teen throwing dancing into it did not make that class any more pleasant.
Did enjoy marius' tale of her first linedancing experience. I do think it would be fun to be complimented by 50 men in quick succession.

marius

First a clarification for Baldur, the re-enactors were all from Arkansas so they weren't re-enacting that. Guess I should have said that with their lulling Arkansas accents, Civil War gray uniforms, hats, gloves and boots, they were staggeringly charming. Quite a few were wearing their sabers too. Indeed, had marius been wearing a corset and dress with hoop-skirt, she might have pretended a faint so one of them would have to catch her. (Tee hee, maybe I've watched too many movies?)

Now what is that saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure?" Maybe dancing is like that. For whatever reason marius LOVES to dance and she practically salivated to read how much square-dancing Dragon had in school. We only had six weeks of it. Oh, I would have loved it if all two years of gym had been nothing but square-dancing, aerobic dancing, swing dancing ... but most of all ... the waltz.

Yeah, there isn't much chance to waltz around here. Spouse took an intro ballroom class with marius long ago. He's pretty good at the waltz so I put on music and he'll waltz around the kitchen with me. That's about all the dance I get now but I'm needing to work out again and my sister swears I'd love Zumba. Am thinking about it. : )

Now Baldur, as for your comment that "some people just should not dance" - this is so cracking me up. You see, I very much admire people who get out there and try to dance, no matter how badly they do it. I cannot help loving them for their effort and I love them more if they are having fun doing it. But, I CAN understand visual pain and it seems that is what Baldur gets when he sees bad dancing? Yes? (marius cannot tolerate Karaoke for a similar reason, she finds the auditory pain of people who cannot sing to be unbearable!)

Goodnight all and sweet dreams!

marius

Disclaimer: Baldur look at this at your own risk. Am pretty sure there is some less than stellar Zumba dancing going on. : ) However, for these eyes, there is sheer delight looking at ALL THE MEN! They are a hoot!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf0q6qtThF4

Baldur

What a can of worms this has opened...
Baldur did not have an enrire year of squaredancing, just one semester.
It was probably about 6 weeks.
This was part of the physical education program, and oddly it was kept completely secret until we showed up in class and saw the cowboy 'caller' and his beruffled female partner.

Zumba is not so much a line dance as a secret amd pervasive cult. Perhaps there are subliminal messages embedded in the music controlling those who are bombarded with the soundtrack long enough.

Baldur

from # 7807:
enrire - r + t = entire

Baldur

Happy Birthday to Zac Hanson, Spike Jonze, Shaggy, Jeff Goldblum, Deepak Chopra, Catherine Deneuve, Annette Funicello, Christopher Lloyd, Robert Rauschenberg, Timothy Leary, Joan Fontaine, Curly Howard, Alred Douglas, Franz Liszt, Daniel Boone, King John V of Portugal and Nadir Shah.

polenta

Marius, what you said is so right. Yes, it could be perfect for shy people... and maybe excellent dancers feel it restrains them from expressing all they are able to do.
Very interesting experience.
By the way, I'm not a good dancer so I found this linedancing exciting and especially surprising because I had never seen it at an academic seminar or conference.
TIMES CHANGE!!!

polenta

It DID open a can of worms!!!!

Why do people dance?

1 to have fun
2 to be seen
3 to do exercise
4 to be in connection with God
5 to connect with your culture
6 to connect with other cultures
7 to earn money etc. etc. etc.

And why DON'T people dance?
I think Marius gave some good ideas about the latter.

polenta

Oh... I forgot!!!

To meet the other sex......

Baldur

(or members of the same sex)

Baldur

Baldur did some yardwork this morning, incidentally we had the first frost of the season overnight.
The widow next door asked me to plant a few pots of chrysanthemums for her in her hillside flowerbed. That only took a few minutes.
Afterwards I removed the dying water hyacinths from the goldfish pond here at Boughbreak. We put either one of those or a single water lettuce in each Spring to help clean the water.
By early summer we are starting to remove the excess plants, they reproduce rapidly, and add them to our compost.
Being tropical the first really cold weather here kills them off for the season and signals the time to remove all of them from the surface of our tiny pond.
Today Baldur removed a heaping wheelbarrow full. Over the growing season I'd removed at least 6 full loads altogether. A great return for one tiny plant.

Then it was time to trim back the dead perennial stalks, this morning it was mostly echinacea.

Baldur

Since it's chilly I thought it a good day to do some baking.
Baldur has lost 50 pounds but still bakes regularly to have something on hand should friends drop in for tea.
Right now there is a delicious banana bread in the oven.
Here is my recipe:

Baldur's Best Banana Bread

Preheat he oven to 350 degrees Farenheit
Grease a 9" by 5" by 3" loaf pan and line the bottom with a piece of cooking parchment or waxed paper

1+1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1+1/2 cups chopped pecans (toasted.... optional)

1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
4 Tablespoons butter, melted

1 egg
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

In the measuring cup whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Put aside.

Cream the sugars and the butter together until smooth.
Add the egg, bananas, and vanilla extract, whisk until well combined. Whisk in the flour mixture until just combined. Fold in the pecans.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 50-55 minutes, or until the center tests done.
Cool slightly in the baking pan vore tuning the loaf out onto a rack.

Serve sliced with butter or whipped cream cheese, though it's wonderful plain.

Baldur

#7805
vore - v + bef = before

'All Baldur, All the Time'

Baldur

polenta, I am wondering if you are familiar with this type of recipe where you live.
In the United States, and I imagine much of the English speaking world this recipe is called a 'tea bread' or at times a 'quick bread'.
It appears more like a loaf cake, being sweet enough to be used as a dessert, and has a fine delicate crumb.
Banana bread is just one of many similar recipes. Others are made with applesauce, cooked mashed pumpkin or may be flavoured with lemon, orange, spice, chocolate, or be studded with blueberries, cranberries or nuts. There are many many variations.
This recipe is a great way to use up overripe bananas.

indigo

Hmmmmm....banana bread. Baldur, I must say your recipe sounds a thousand
times better than mine! I will try it!

I just purchased an interesting jigsaw puzzle from Mural Mosaic called
"Trust". The real mural can be found in Cochrane Alberta, maybe Dragon
and Hazer have seen this. It is absolutely beautiful and I wanted to share
this with TD friends.

You can check it out at www.muralmosaic.com

Marius, I really enjoyed that Zumba dancing....I love to dance and that music
is very good....I think that's just what I need to shed these pounds....banana bread first, Zumba after....LOL!

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LOL at indigo's final sentence. I too enjoyed the Zumba video, marius. Quite apart from the two lively ladies at the front, the person who finally held my gaze was the lady at the back, wearing black and white. She danced her heart out ... without moving her feet.

Dragon

I had not seen that mural before indigo (trying to remember if I've ever been to Cochrane, don't think so). It is incredible. Of course I've seen the Photomosaic posters before but what a clever idea to do one as a mural!

Must copy that banana bread recipe down, my boyfriend has been trying to find a really good banana bread recipe for several months now. I suspect he will substitute chocolate chips for the pecans (he doesn't care much for nuts in it but love choc. chips). Strangely Dragon loves banana bread despite the fact that she hates bananas with a passion.