Finally, the Colorado StarBall is Here!

It's finally here - The Colorado StarBall.

(Ellie is wearing slippers because her feet were tired of the dance shoes. It is really pretty funny and interesting to see the odd combinations people wear between dances. You see slippers, bathrobes, satin boxing robes with lots of splashy embroidery, leg warmers, winter boots, elegant dresses with polar fleece jackets, etc.)

We had a blast on Friday. If you like anything that is glitzy, glamourous, sparkley - you've gotta be here. To get registration you walk through the vendor's area. Oh, what a sight. There are amazing dresses in what seems like endlesss combinations of colors and designs. I tried to look at everyone. But I was sure not to touch any of them. Most of them cost well over $3,000. The rhinestone jewelry was something else, too. If you like glitz and sparkle, you need to find your way to one of these events.



We cheered our studio team mates on. Well, actually I gave them complimentary comments when they practiced in the hallway. I did not buy a ballroom ticket for Friday, only Sunday.


This is one of our dancers. She did really well, making it to podium for each of the three dances she did on Friday.

The day was filled with classes. It started out with "The Mysteries of the Heel Turn" which was really very useful. (The title of the class makes me laugh just a little. I imagine a very serious conversation going on between a couple of world renowned dancers in which one remarks on the others remarkable heel turn. The other humbly replies a thanks and the first encourages her to teach a class in it. "Some day," she might reply,"once we are no longer competing against each other." Next up was the "Creating a Beautiful Rhythm in Waltz." I think that was the general favorite of the day between the girls. The last dance class was "Injury Free Dancing" in which they learned about how to move gracefully so as to not hurt yourself. Marodi devises funny things to keep them clicking. After reviewing what they learned in the session she played "stupid party games" that were a hoot. Things like, what weird thing can you do with your body and what animal would you be if you were not human.

The kids are "on" the whole time we are here. That is great fun for the extroverts. It will be fun, but taxing for the introverts.


I spent part of the morning working and part of the time helping the organizers unwrap rubbery flashing party rings that every person will get later in the evening. I had fun visiting with a young man who is in college in Utah.
He, like many others, traveled with his studio team to be part of this event. He teaches dance 7 hours a day and still loves it. He hopes to transfer college and get a balldance scholarship from BYU. They have a serious team, or rather, several teams. I hope that happens for him. He seeed like a really nice young man.


Here's what we packed for today: (pictures to be loaded soon)




Make-up: nearly white eyeshadow, a dark grey eyeshadow, lip stain (because lipstick gets on your teeth)bronzer, concealer, mascara (two kinds because Heavens knows one does not do it all), fake eyelashes (with adhesive), fake fingernails with a French manicure (but they did not end up working - back to doing your own nails!)bobby pins, hair ties, a flower for her hair, make-up remover, fingernail polish, fingernail polish remover, cotton balls, spray-on panty hose (because regular panty hose make your legs look fat and glowy with the kind of light you find on the dance floor).

Clothing for today: A summery evening dress for the evening dance party, jazz shoes, ballroom shoes, ducky slippers (for when your feet start to hurt.)a sweater, if you can find one, jewelry, if you have some to match your dress.

Food for the daytime - They will be dancing a ton since they have Dance Camp each day, not to mention the formation practice inbetween things:
Vanilla Protien drink (Odwalla), Lemon and Mozzarella Pasta Salad, nut bars, an apple, Swedish fish candies, Cheezits crackers and water.

A View of My Garden - As My Husband Sees it (and two recipes)

My husband has such an artistic eye. Here's how he saw the garden recently:

The bees seem thankful for the lovely Salvia. I have several colors of them blooming happily in the front garden.

The Bird's Eye Veronica is a sweet, unassuming plant that adds a delicate touch to my front garden. I am planting more of it very soon.


These deep, bright pink mini tulips grew from some of the bulbs I planted last winter. They add such a cheery note.

These are from my hosta garden with is a shady, wet garden -

A hosta with water droplets.

The water droplets look lovely on the leaf of a Siberian Iris, especially the the red begonias in the background.

Here's another lovely hosta leaf. Hostas are some of my favorite plants.

The tiny blue flowers seem to hoover over the leaves of the Russian Forget-Me-Nots.

The Begonias look nice against the dark leaves.
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In between stints of writing I managed to do a bit of stress relieving baking lately. I am trying to recreate the artisan breakfast sandwiches you can get at Starbucks. I think this ciabatta bun is pretty close, though much lighter and less chewy than the Starbucks version. The recipe comes from the King Arthur Flour website. Their recipes are ALWAYS reliable. If they ever come traveling through your town and offering baking lessons, be sure to make time to attend.

Extra Light Ciabatta
via King Arthur Flour

Sponge
1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

Dough*
sponge (from above)
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon nonfat dry milk
1/4 to 1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons olive oil

Mix the sponge ingredients, in a small bowl or in the pan of your bread machine, until well combined (program the machine for Dough, then cancel it once the ingredients are mixed, after a couple of minutes). Let the sponge rest overnight, covered, or for up to 15 hours.

Mixer Method: Place all of the dough ingredients into the bowl of your mixer, and beat it at medium speed, using the flat beater, for 5 to 8 minutes. The dough will never completely clear the sides of the bowl, though it'll begin to acquire some shape. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours; it will get very puffy.

Bread Machine Method: Place all of the ingredients into the pan of your bread machine, program the machine for Manual or Dough, and press Start. Examine the dough about 10 minutes before the end of the second kneading cycle; it should be very tacky, but should be holding its shape somewhat. Adjust the dough's consistency with additional flour or water, as necessary. Allow the machine to complete its cycle.

Transfer the dough to a well-oiled work surface. Lightly grease a large cookie sheet, and your hands. Using a bench knife or your fingers, divide the dough in half. Handling the dough gently, stretch it into a log about 10-inches long, and place it on the baking sheet. Flatten the log with your fingers till it's about 10-inches long and 4 to 5-inches wide. Repeat with the remaining piece of dough. (I made squarish buns so I divided my dough into eight pieces.) Lightly cover the dough with heavily oiled plastic wrap, and allow it to rise for 1 hour; it'll become quite puffy. Oil your fingers, and gently poke deep holes all over the dough. Re-oil the plastic wrap, re-cover the dough, and allow it to rise for an additional hour.

Dust the dough very lightly with flour. Bake it in a preheated 425°F oven, throwing four or five ice cubes on the floor of the oven as you put the bread in. Allow the ciabatta to bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until it's golden brown. Turn off the oven, remove the ciabatta from the baking sheet, and return the loaf to the oven, propping the oven door open a couple of inches with a folded-over potholder. Allow the ciabatta to cool completely in the oven; this will give it a very crisp crust.

* This bread begins with an overnight sponge, which means the finished loaf has just the barest of sour tangs. As the sponge ferments, it creates certain acids that not only give the bread flavor, but affect the gluten, making the bread chewier. The use of a sponge will also increase the loaf's shelf life.

Carol Field, in her wonderful book The Italian Baker, claims that this dough is one that simply can't be kneaded by hand; it's just too sticky. Keep this in mind when you're preparing the dough. During the winter you'll need to use the greater amount of water in the range indicated below. In the dog days of August, when your flour's been in a humid kitchen all summer, you'll use the lesser amount. Your goal is a dough that is very sticky, but holds its shape; when you scoop it out onto your work surface, it will settle into a flattened mound that is best approached with oiled hands and a bench knife or bowl scraper.

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When I was checking for that recipe I noticed that the King Arthur blog was featuring BBQ Brisket sandwiches so I searched for a good recipe for that one, too.

BBQ Brisket
via My Fiance Likes it, so it must be good blog

For the Brisket:

4 lb. beef brisket
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

For the Barbecue Sauce: (I did not have time for this, but I will try it next time. I just used bottled sauce instead.)

1/4 to 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup crushed tomatoes (or you could use ketchup also)
3 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon Sriracha

Coleslaw:

3 cups red cabbage, shredded
3-4 carrots, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar


Sourdough Rolls, for sandwiches (I used the ciabatta rolls I made using the recipe above.)

To prepare the brisket: In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, salt, cumin, paprika, oregano, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Mix well and then rub mixture all over beef brisket. Cover brisket with plastic wrap and let sit in fridge overnight.
On the next morning, preheat your crockpot onto high and add brisket (you may have to cut it in half to fit it all in there!). Add about 1 cup of beef stock to crockpot and cover. Let cook for about 6 to 7 hours, or until brisket is fork tender.

To prepare barbecue sauce: Combine desired amount of apple cider vinegar (the more you add, the acidic the sauce), tomatoes (or ketchup), brown sugar, mustard, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, and Sriracha. If using crushed tomatoes, run the immersion blender through your mixture until it is smooth, or at your desired texture. If using ketchup, no need to worry about that step.
You can use the barbecue sauce on the side, or like me, add it to the crockpot with the brisket and let it meld for about an hour longer.

To prepare the coleslaw: Combine the mayonnaise, vinegar, and sugar in a large bowl. Add cabbage and carrots and mix well. Let sit for about 30 minutes at room temperature before serving.

To assemble sandwiches, toast your sourdough buns and add a decent amount of pulled brisket on the bottom half (the messier the better!). Top with desired amount of coleslaw (or you can always eat that on the side) and top with remaining bun half.

Dig in and enjoy. You might need a fork for this one - and plenty of wet naps!

"KIller Queen" Cover by Freddie Gredde Video

Here's something fun my family found:

Stressville and The Colorado State Time Trial Championship and Coalminer Classic

Ellie in action racing a Time Trial style.


Ellie and Lawanna (usually known as Lou). The photo is by Carrie, Arian's mother. She is a talented photographer. She also took the TT photo and the close-up of Ellie in this post.
Where have I been? In Stressville - and it is all my own fault. Last Monday I could have been the mayor of Stressville, but each day it is getting a bit better.

But first, let's talk about the weekend. It was a big one in the biking world in Colorado since it was the Colorado State Time Trial Championship on Saturday.

Ellie was awesome. She came in second place. She was cool with that since the girl who came in first, Marta, has been winning or coming in second place in the Womens 4 category. Many people remarked that it was great to see how happy she is this year. Last year was a rough one.

After the race she hung out with the kids from the team. Ariana had Ellie, Stephen, Maxl and AJ over to her house to jump on the tramp and hang out.




On Sunday she raced the Coalminer's Classic (a crit.) in Louisville and won.

While I was waiting for the kids to come around each time I looked for other interesting things to photograph. I thought these milk weed puffs were kind of neat.


Ethan spent all of Saturday at an airsoft battle. He and Tom have such fun doing that. They meet a whole group of guys who like to battle as well. When he came home he was completely spent - happily.

On Sunday he went to a meeting with Larr and then the two of them spent some time with a water rights man. A friend of ours needs to resecure her water rights and get some parts of the ditches cleaned up. Ethan will take that job on later in the week.

He is growing up and becoming so independent that I don't get many opportunities to have photos or direct stories of him on this blog. That is just how it goes. I miss my time with him, but I know that he is enjoying himself and doing what he needs to do as a young man.

In the spring I was offered the opportunity to write two online professional development courses. Now, this is a really cool offer and a rare one. Of the thousands of teachers in my district, only about may 20 or 30 of us teach online courses. Currently there are only about 7 of us who are invited to write the courses that will be offered. It made me feel pretty special. :)

My original plan was to write one session (there are six sessions) about every three weeks. That did not happen. To make a longer story short, I put it on the back of my priority list until about two weeks ago. Mari and I had plugged along nicely with the other one and got it done without the stress. This one, the online credit recovery course, is another story. I had it all outlined, so I thought it would go pretty fast. However, once I REALLY started to work on it, I found that it was much slower. It took me a very long time, about 1.5 days, to get my head around how I wanted to structure it and what the main readings would be. At this point I was down to 1.5 days to write each session. I needed that for sessions 1-2. Sessions 3-4 each took about a day (and I mean a full day working from about 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. with very few stops). I had worked myself into a headache frenzy. Session 5 is going along very nicely and will be finished today.

Here's the deal. The courses are due on Wednesday. I could ask for an extension, but I don't want to. Katie, Jill and Sherry say that Mari and I are their favorite course developers and I would like to keep it that way. I am enjoying it, but I know that this is not something I would want to do full time.

We Know Summer Has Arrived When It Is Time for Hammer In

Ethan's Photoalbum: Canyoneering in Utah, May 2010

Click here to view this photo book larger

Colorado Star Ball Dress Rehersal

Tonight Ellie's dance studio held a dress rehearsal for the Colorado Star Ball that is coming up in two weeks. It was pretty cool.

Most of the dancers showed up dressed to the nines and strutted their stuff. The teens were up first so I stuck around and took a few photos.

The first formation dance was a variation on the Rumba done to "Sing" by the musical cast of Glee.


The second dance is a variation on the Foxtrot done to "I'm into Something Good" by Herman's Hermits. It looks like that it is a lot of fun. Ellie gets to dance with Jake and Sam. This dance a story of sorts. It is about a group of boys who move into the neighborhood.

At first all of the girls think they boys are cute and fight over them. Then the boys dance with all of the girls.

In the end the boys go around to try and get a girlfriend but the girls refuse since they've tried out everyone. It is really kind of funny.

The little kids and the adults also did their dances. The little ones were very cute, of course.

After the dancing was over it was time for dinner and games. People were at tables. One was the Rumba table, another was Swing and and one more. They played Jeopardy style game with three categories: Your teachers, dancing and the Colorado Star Ball. Each table had a cow bell. The question was asked and you had five seconds to answer it after you rang your bell. They had to answer a question. Sometimes you could take a challenge. One challenge involved sitting back so that your face is flat. A cookie is placed on the person's forehead and they had to use facial muscles to move it to their mouth and eat it. Another challenge involved two rolls of toilet paper, one for each hand. The goal was to unwind them in 60 seconds or less. The last challenge involved trying to stack three golf balls and keeping them stacked 3 seconds. (These are all from "Minute to Win It." They also ate dinner, chatted and listened to the funny speech that Marodi gave about the dancers.