The Taunting 2010 - Mulligan

The Poppets and I are just not ready this year. We would like a do over.

This might be the Time Travelling Taunting - Candles were lit, Giant New Computers were set up, fried foods were ordered in, there was gelt, and papers due the next day were written around midnight.

My Perfectly Normal Mother in Law went in for Very Serious Surgery yesterday, it was planned, but it was spinal surgery. It was a long day and we were all worried for everyone (Perfectly Normal Husband was his usual strong competent together self but obviously nervous-ish) Unfortunately her brother and One of My Favorite In-laws also went in for triple bypass surgery. That was not planned, and perhaps at their ages they should be over sibling rivalry.

So the really good Channuka news is that everyone did very well with their respective surgeries and they will both be able to walk properly and keep their hearts beating regularly and have their families lovingly tease them even though the Taunting is not their holiday. If they don't have dietary restrictions I will be making them lemon squares for theirs.

If they do I'll modify the lemon square recipe until I can make lemon squares for them. I'm pretty good at that sort of thing.

So while the Poppets and I were not really on top of things a friend of ours found this - most channuka stuff is kind of lame, especially song rewrites by hipster jews or actual religous types - but this is an acapella group that has found the perfect balance and thus created an awesome "Smile Out Loud" moment, instead of the usual cringing thought of "Really is that the best we can do?" sort of thing.

Thank you Maccabeats for being on key and really entertaining; Merry Channuka - the Poppets thought you were neat and they were sick of Adam Sandler!

Not dead. . . . I promise

But things are very, very complicated for me right now. I believe I am doing the right things.

I hope I am.

But I'm not sure I'm processing any of them.

V-Day - Learning About Why Sweet Potatoes like Whiskey

So here we are on recipe #3 - Glazed Sweet Potatoes

His final menu was

• Tangy Citrus Chicken
• Glazed Sweet Potatoes
• Spinach Leek Tart
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Mousse Terrine
• Virgin Mojitos
• Cappuccino

The links go to the recipes already written about in case you missed them and the tale of The Boy cooking a Valentine's day dinner for His Girl

So here's the thing about Sweet Potatoes. I love them.

And until recently I was the only one. You'd think they would be an easy sell when kids are little but no. I couldn't convince the children that they were delicious, even though the same children devoured things with pumpkin and were at least neutral about things with squash. The Perfectly Normal Husband comes with a few quirks as well and one of them is a distaste for sweet potatoes. After various failed attempts to lure them in culinarily, I took to buying single small sweet potatoes and baking them when I was making baked potatoes as a side dish. And making them for company, and for any large gathering where I was asked to bring a side dish.

But at home I was all alone. Until this summer.

I don't know what went on in that camp kitchen overall, but either the other choices were so egregious that The Boy decided sweet potatoes were worth trying, or the camp chef was magic and convinced The Boy that resistance was futile.

Either way he came back voluntarily looking for sweet potatoes. But I was still surprised when he put them on his menu.

And you may have noticed a pattern of which Poppets like to help in the kitchen.

You may remember that you last saw the Pumpkin Spice Poppets with another recipe - my Tzimmes, which Brings All The Boys To The Yard. It seems that whenever I cook with sweet potatoes they show up to assist. I kind of expect them now.

It's because they care.

At least about the sweet potatoes. I think they like us too, but I'm kind of happy they don't want to make sure we are cooked properly, with appropriate flavor.

The original plan had him making the glazed sweet potatoes on Saturday night so it was one less thing to do on V-Day, but after Shabbat ( that holiday thing where you're not supposed to do work that happens every Fri/Sat) the grown ups in his life decided that they were going to get together and eat chocolate and drink port instead. Because we had all been snowed into our respective residences for about four days and some of us were starved for adult conversation.

So for humanitarian reasons, he decided that he could just start early on Sunday instead of late on Saturday.

INGREDIENTS FOR GLAZED SWEET POTATOES

4-5 lbs. sweet potatoes, peeled

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) margarine

1 cup of dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/4 cup of whiskey or bourbon, such as Jack Daniels

When we read the ingredients during the planning session we discussed the whiskey issue. I've cooked a few dessert recipes that called for Jack Daniels in my life and they're pretty good but I don't keep it in The House. We have a kind of "one sip" teaching exposure rule to alcoholic drinks, so if a grown up is drinking a wine or a cordial or something and the child in question would like to sample it they get a sip which usually ends up with wrinkled nose and disinterest.

Wine is in the house weekly for Sabbath, beer is usually for guests or sausage dishes. Most of the liquor in the house, Grand Marnier, Kahlua, Creme de Cacao, Vermouth, vodka, chambord - those are all cooking ingredients. I never had much alcohol in my house until I got a subscription to Bon Appetite. Then all of a sudden I was getting close to a fully stocked bar.

I also cook with a lot of rum. Especially bread pudding. And mocha butter rum frosting. And chocolate rum Mexican wedding balls. I've also got a great recipe for a rum punch that I make in the summer for parties. Like Jack Sparrow, I find myself always wondering why the rum is always gone.

So my kids have grown up with alcohol demystified, people who are drunk defined as "targets" instead of "people having fun they can't remember" and first hand exposure to alcohol as a kind of ingredient that can also be enjoyed on it's own - like chocolate.

But still, this recipe required that I go out and buy some whiskey for my 15 year old for Valentine's Day. And because of the 1 sip standard and the fact that whiskey and scotch are used for very specific blessings in religious observances over the year The Boy knew for a fact that he hated whiskey.

But he knew enough about both cooking and chemistry to stick with his choice. So pre-blizzard whiskey shopping went I.

I hate whiskey too. So I was looking for the smallest possible bottle, but then I also realized I have friends who don't hate whiskey. I was going to have whiskey left over, so I would serve it to friends as an after dinner drink at some point and I didn't want it to be poor quality. Of course I had no idea what good quality was and I wasn't willing to spend a lot of money on it.

I got some help. While I was staring helplessly at the state store, a friendly connoisseur discussed the finer points of cooking vs. drinking and then confided he like whiskey a bunch after recommending the Jim Bean over the JD for cooking with. I asked him if he would be happy to be served the Jim Bean at a dinner party and he told me that he'd be quite happy because it was like drinking a decent 11$ bottle of wine with a good dinner even though you also drink really ridiculously expensive wines. Price doesn't equal quality in context. Context is very important.

Always.

So Jim Bean was going into the glaze, and if you visit and drink whiskey, it's what will be offered to you. Probably for the next year. This was the smallest bottle I could find that wasn't a sample size.

The arrival of the Jim Bean drew the attention of a Poppet who doesn't usually assist in the cooking adventures.

Directions for Glazed Sweet Potatoes

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch slices.

Now just to set the record straight. The Boy can cook. He can fry, saute, bake, follow a recipe, make a reduction sauce and plan a meal. However he does the practical thing and except for main courses, tends to use semi-processed foods or frozen vegetables for side dishes. Most of his "from scratch" stuff is baking.

So it was with some awareness I asked, "Have you ever peeled potatoes?"

"No."

"Well, you're going to now."

I confessed to him immediately that he should not accept my teaching as the definitive word on it. I am a terrible potato peeler. I've got a lot of decent kitchen skills but frankly, I suck at this. I'm slow, potatoes slip out of my hands. I understand that a stint in the armed forces or being a Boy Scout leader would rectify this deficiency, however I am willing to do neither of those things. I usually delegate it to the Perfectly Normal Husband who is a peeler par excellence, and has been my sous chef on many a food based performance project when he was just my Perfectly Normal Accountant.

I showed him how to hold the potato, the peeler, initial safety tips and told him to take his time. Like the eggs I did the first one and let him do the rest. I told him not to stress about it and go slow and maybe someday someone would teach him the secret that I lack to getting it done quickly, but properly.

After the experience of peeling with the peeler (Good Grips - great for peeling klutzes like me) he took a look at our knives and immediately took out a paring knife wondering if you could use that to peek the suckers. Well yes, yes you can. And that's exactly the knife you'd use, but if you think I'm bad peeling with a peeler well I'm just an impending ER visit waiting to happen with a paring knife. Maybe Grandpa will teach him next visit.

He peeled all 4 lbs.

Cut the sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch slices.

Yeah, about that. Uncooked sweet potatoes have the consistency of balsa wood. I have very good knives but I usually cook the potatoes to soften them first and then slice them for presentation but the recipe was really clear. This was the only task I took over for The Boy, for the sake of my knives and my nerves. Also, having taken The Girl to the ER for her shoulder the week before I wasn't interested in doing that when all the downed trees and shoveling based heart attacks were going to fill up the ER.

Steam the sweet potatoes for 10 minutes or until soft but not mushy.

So The Boy learned what a vegetable steamer was.

He laid the sweet potato disks around the edges and center to open up the steamers "petals" as wide as they would go, there was about an inch and a half of water at the bottom to produce the steam.

He managed to get them all to fit without compromising the steamer. Covered it and started timing the steam from the water boiling - to get them "soft" took about 15 minutes.

Remove the potatoes from steamer and set aside.

We just moved them off the heat and set them aside on the counter still covered.

Now it was time to make the glaze; certain Poppets were very happy about this.

In a small saucepan, melt the margarine over medium heat. Add the brown sugar, vanilla and salt stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the whiskey or bourbon ( which the gentleman at the store told me is the same thing) and cook for 5-10 minutes or until slightly thickened. Stirring occasionally.

The Boy likes, and is pretty good at chemistry. He made sure that the margarine was melted and thoroughly stirred before adding the sugar and did that again with the sugar before adding the whiskey.

10 minutes is a long time and he felt stirring frequently was better than occasionally so he pulled up a chair and tended the glaze for the 10 minutes.

This is what it looks like when it is the right consistency.

While the glaze is cooking you should spray a large 9x11 glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Place sweet potatoes in the pan

and drizzle the sauce over the top when it's done.

Bake uncovered for 1 hour. Baste with the sauce every 10 minutes to keep the potatoes from drying out. He used the turkey baster after trying the basting brush. The turkey baster worked much better.

When they were done we re-plated the potatoes into a baking/serving dish for the dinner for the two of them and sampled the finished product.

The whisky made it fuller, the glaze was sweetened but not sweet. The outer portion of the disk had a soft crispness and the inside was soft. It was definitely savory. If the whiskey weren't in the recipe it would at best be bland and at worst be cloying.

The whiskey was definitely the thing that knocked this recipe up to a higher level. Sweet Potatoes and Whiskey - perfect together - as long as they've been cooked for an hour or so.

And as the boy would say, "Tasty".

We were already looking forward to when we were going to eat the leftovers.

But it was getting close to noon. His Girl was due at 5.

The Skeleton Poppet Who Wants a Flower Shop showed up with a bunch of vases, three different types of flowers and fill and some florist shears.

Bustling around and checking color, cut and health he insisted that The Boy use his time between bastings to learn how to arrange the flowers for the table himself.

"Seriously?"

Dead Serious.

We are really going to have to break the Skeleton of his penchant for bad puns.

The Taunting - Cheapass Edition - Dramatic Recreation

OK, I may be spectacularly late in posting the summary of the Taunting but my Terrible Tardiness is matched only by my Magnificent Single Mindedness - I just kept feeling like I couldn't move forward with anything else unless I could manage to finish this. It would be like admitting defeat in the face of things that kept happening in December. And then January. Things were beginning to threaten February too but I'm gonna show those pesky Things what's what.

Also, I realized that the holidays started for me in September and kept coming every single weekend until the first week of January. It was like an avalanche of Holidays. And when I got to the bottom of them I collapsed.

Whew. And now NEW holidays are happening - because time keeps moving forward. Which is, frankly, a little annoying. Things are happening for the big Hallmark Holiday coming up and it's not right to write about them without giving the last major holiday it's due.

So we left off (or more accurately I left you off) here.

Where I mentioned that since the Taunting had snuck up on me I didn't handle the display the way I usually did - so I did something else. Even more Tauntingly. It ended up that the makeshift wrapping system fit absolutely every present for every night. So I put all of the presents in two suitcases and every night before the candle lighting went upstairs wrapped the evenings clues . . .I mean presents into the scarves with the really cool paper that Uncommon Goods used instead of styrofoam and handed the tied scarves to the Children.

So every night sort of looked like some variation of this:

As you can see, the Poppets from Taunting 2008 were helping to supervise, and they were curious as to how a non-Poppet based taunting works.

So the First Candle had given the Girl recycled kimonos that held things together and the Boy got a timepiece that looked a bit like a spaceship had landed on his arm. It's in the link I put up above.

The Second Candle the Children both got bento boxes:

Bento boxes are magic, that's why the Tiny Wizard wanted to show them to you. The Ronin Panda is for the Girl and the "Lunch System Black Box" is for the Boy. The paper that is surrounding them is the wonderful un-styrofoam packing paper. Bentos end up being a really good way to keep your sandwiches from getting squished in your backpack. And you can pack salted cashews without having to use a lot of little ziplock baggies.

Using bento is green too.

Now there were two nights - the Children were not yet willing to hazard guesses.

You remember that there is always a theme right?

Third Candle came.

We lit the candles, sang the songs, and the Children opened their cheapass - I mean "green" wrapping on their gifts.

The Ninja is by the Nom Nom Nom insulated lunch bag, and Choco Poppet is by the Happy Bees lunch bag making sure that they each go to the right Child.

The Children were willing to hazard a guess that the themes had to do with food, but were slightly confused about how kimono based shoelaces fit in with that.

Fourth Candle came and then things changed up a bit - The Girl got a bag of Zen and the Boy got a Sonic Screwdriver and this really cool Tardis T-shirt.

Well neither of those things had anything to do with food. Now they were confused.

I should take this time to point out that one of the advantages Hanukah not having a Hanukah Fairy or anything similar means that when your Children are not quite childish anymore there is some room to maneuver. The Girl had wanted something that was artisan made and quite expensive and basically the equivalent of her entire Hanukah budget. So we obtained the artisan made thing for her with the understanding that it basically was her Hanukkah present - but you cannot stop the Taunting!

So she was Taunted regardless . . . which means she knew the gifts all led to something specific. And she started throwing out some ideas for the Boy's Theme, but wasn't willing to guess at hers. But gentle readers, you may start noticing a bit of a disparity in the gifts moving forward and I didn't want you to assume favoritism.

Fifth Candle - the Boy's gift is being shown by the Skeleton Who Wants to Run a Flower shop doing his impression of James Cameron.

It's a globe that floats - he's wanted a globe for some time.

The Girl got a handmade Peace bracelet made by Pammy J. So as you can see there are also nightly themes where their presents relate to each other and back to the bigger themes for each of them. So Fifth Candle was a gimme - It was World and Peace. Although the Poppets did point out that the Children hardly ever disagree with each other, but they didn't really seem like they could spread World Peace around.

I told the Poppets it was OK as long as they tried. And they managed to try it without using nuclear technology.

The Sixth Candle brought the Boy a Donegal Tweed hat with an Asian Dragon and the Girl got a Lucky Cat coin purse from Japan. Orange and Violet approved. They both figured that they weren't going to get it until Eight Candle at this point.

And on the Seventh Candle The Girl got a Djinn, trapped in a sweatshirt and the Boy got Time trapped in gears under glass. "But wait" you say. "Didn't he get a watch at the beginning of the Taunting". Why yes, yes he did. You see, we have all sorts of important milestones in out family for girls marked with a piece of real jewelry that can be kept or handed down to future generations. But there have been nothing BUT girls born into our family for four generations until the Boy. The jewelry given to the girls is to learn things about trust from your elders, taking care of things, learning the differences in material value and craftsmanship and maturity. We have markers for the first real ring, (usually engraved with an initial, that the child picks themselves at a real jewelry shop) when you can pierce your ears. (6th grade for me and the Girl - younger for my sister and my niece).

When the Girl turned 16 I gave her the gold necklace that my parents had given me on my 16th birthday. And when looking for the first sports watch I realized that there was no equivalent tradition or items for the Boy. Who was going to need a dress watch. So the First Candle was a sports Chronometer, but the Seventh Candle was a Sturhling Winchester Skeleton watch in Rose Gold. Because the Boy has excellent taste in Jewelry for others and he like to make things work.

It's a really cool watch.

And he also got a copy of Electronic Gadgets for the Evil Genius - 28 projects to build for yourself.

It's a great book, but some of the projects are actually illegal in some states, so build with caution.

And then finally it was The Eighth Candle - this is when the Big Presents are given.

The Girl's Eighth Candle was actually acquired in the summer, long before the negotiations over very expensive artisan made things. So all of the things she had received were actually the lead up to her receiving a Zen Poppet.

There are only 5.

I have one too, so we own 2/5 of all the Zen Poppets in the world. Someday I shall take a picture of them having tea together.

The Girl really needs some Zen, and Poppety Zen is the best kind of Zen.

The Boy has now reached the same height as me. I am not exactly short. And he has wanted a leather duster for a long time. I happen to have a leather duster. It hits us mid calf.

The thing the Children love about my duster is that it doesn't look fashionable, although it can be. It just looks like it's Mine. I've worn it to the desert, to the symphony, thrown it on the floor in open space rehearsals, worn it to Europe slept on it in tents in the rain. It's weathered. It's mine like the pointy hat is Elphaba's. It doesn't matter that they weren't originally made for us, once they were Ours there were no other defining characteristics. Oh that's the Witch's Hat. Oh that's Drinne's Leather Coat.

And ultimately, that's really what the Boy wanted for himself.

But my duster is black, and the Boy is not dark, and he is young. There are people who signify THINGS when they see young men in black leather dusters. And those are none of the THINGS that belong to the Boy. He is not interested in playing with other people's symbols.

So I found a vintage full length Dark Brown leather trenchcoat from London. Because it matters that it was long, not that it was black. and it looks smashing with the Donegal hat with the Asian Dragon and it has an inside chest pocket that is perfect for holding the Sonic Screwdriver. It's like it was meant to be. And now the Boy has exactly what he wants and doesn't look like anyone else.

I'm sure you've guessed the themes by now.

It only took about an hour for it to be His.

Which is the way it should be.

And that, finally, is the tale of the Taunting of 2009.

Better late than never.

The Ambassador Celebrates the Fourth with Me

Yesterday I was happy. It was a very good day and it was uncomplicated.  Light and water and music and fire danced together at the end of it. Conversation was pleasant, food was sublime, pace was unhurried, the world was Outside. My Very Dearest Friend said that was a side effect of spending the afternoon walking around enjoying Pierre Dupont's back yard.  He is an eminently wise man.

We had planned to spend the day at Longwood Gardens which has a wonderful music program and world renown lighted fountains that have fireworks during the summer synched with their musical program. It is a perfect solution - there are only three thousand people permitted on the grounds, you get to spend the full day in the gardens and conservatory and there is excellent food on the premises with many of the ingredients grown on the grounds. This was our second trip for the event and for the gardens and like all things seconded, you learn from the firsts. 

Of course when you do things the second time you get new firsts too. Like fresh blueberry lemonade. It's a wonderful first. 

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We decided to start our day there at noon more or less and asked which Poppets would like to join us. The Most Adventerous Red of course was all for it but the Ambassodor felt he didn't really understand the holiday enough to know what to do at the Embassy so he'd really rather be a guest if we didn't mind. Of course we did not. Winter thought it would be lovely to look at all the flowers, maybe there would be something they could use in Poppetropolis or the garden for the House. When we got to the grounds we stopped at the cafeteria which amazed us with the food and sat down at the outdoor cafe with the map to plot our course and stake out the best spots as soon as we were allowed to put down our blankets for the fireworks.

The Most Adventurous Red was slightly distracted by the fresh berry parfait and the most amazing creme fraise I've ever had including in Paris.

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The Poppets were thrilled with the idea that there was an Idea Garden, so My Very Dearest Friend, my Perfectly Normal Husband and I all set off with the Poppets to see what the Idea Garden meant. 

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The Idea Garden was actually 14 kinds of wonderful, it was put together by the professionals at Longwood but was meant to be able to give you usable ideas for your gardens at home.  Some of the ideas were fun, like interactive water features in your backyard. You can make them yourself with some effort and some help. 

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Some of the ideas were BIG! Like sculpture and intricate hedge grooming but with minimal elements to keep it reasonable to maintain.

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Some of the ideas were small. Like potted gardens for places with concrete, balconies and patios.

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Then we wandered past ground covers and perennials, annuals and sustainment gardens. We discussed in depth the issues of entropy and irises and appreciated the immensity of the Idea Garden while moving on to the the Chime Tower, the Topiary Garden, the Flowered Walks. We stumbled on a Garden full of angles and built around Time. 

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We climbed cathedral treehouses overlooked meadows, studied trees as per our invitation to do so. We turned a corner thinking we knew what type of thing we were going to see and saw this instead:

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We decided that there are somethings that wouldn't make being ridiculously rich seem like such a bad thing. The Italian Water Garden at Longwood it one of them. Lest you think that it is a rich man paying for copies of things he aspires to you should know that Mr. Dupont was a chemical engineer and graduate of MIT and he designed and engineered all of the waterworks himself. When you go there you are participating in his version of kinetic art. He most likely inspired Disney since his waterworks predate the parks. 

We dined at the Terrace Gardens and fell in love with the Mushroom and Leek soup. If you ever have the opportunity to participate in a tasting menu with wine pairings after several hours of perusing the achievement of years of passion, planning and effort, I strongly recommend you put yourself in the chef's hands and say "yes".

It's odd, how last week I got a tiny bit of myself back in the city, surrounded with the peices of myself that get softened for people outside the city, and this week it was the gardens, not really nature but the collaboration between man and nature that Longwood represents. I wished for it to be slightly less populated so the garden could be walked through peacefully, but I loved all the languages and accents and clothing passing us in the gardens, women in saris and the new maxi dresses looked so lovely and real.

I am terribly patriotic, although I know how unfashionable it is to express it through joy instead of anger. I loved that people from all over the areas my son had studied were in these gardens in Pennsylvania waiting for sound and light and celebration for this country where me and my children are welcome, when there are many other places where we are not. Even now.

For hours the numb didn't even threaten, the peaceful joy you don't have to stretch for was there. Even the battery of the camera running out did not deter the Poppets from having their adventures. They have them even when no one records it, they find them in the least expected places living only in the memories and stories of those of us who travel with them. They found this in the conservatory . . . . 

,

And then with the realization of the absence of pain, we joined our 3000 fellow celebrants. One of whom sitting near us recorded the performance of explosions and ingenuity. The music was beautiful, the sentiment was unifying and I had a day I can hold on to when the grey threatens again. 

The video is a bit long and the camera shows the smoke a bit more than we saw it live but you will get the idea of the piece, so Thank You to our neighbor on the benches.

I smiled like a 10 year old through the whole program. I felt connected, having met one of the Fireworks designers earlier in the day when we bonded over mushroom soup.

And then it was time to return home. However Winter and the Ambassador had found the very thing that had been plaguing us at Poppetroplis. We have finally found the perfect conservatory for the Skeleton for his flower shop. An epic effort was made to reclaim it from the gift shop with the press of 3000 people all trying to exit through the same area the shop was in. Our six month quest now over, it has met with Skeletal approval and is being examined for modification. He is almost as happy as the Tiny Alien was with his exosuit. It's Independence Day for him!

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I have no faith in my ability to hold one wonderful day, so I fought all my practical instincts down and composted them.  Plants need a mix of things in their soil to thrive - my PH balance may come from cities, but some of my roots need beauty and sunshine as well. I joined the Gardens, they are an hour away, but they will be worth it for more days like yesterday. 

Sometimes I really do love civilization, for all it's faults it has great good as well. And Mushroom Soup too. And Poppets on the 4th of July.

Life's not bad at all.

Entropy and the Landscapers

I am overwhelmed by what I do not know.

Sometimes in the most literal sense. 

  

As of this morning you could not see this path. It is a path I am responsible for, yet here you can see it and this morning you could not. This picture was not so very long ago. Two Moons and fifteen thunderstorms ago. It has been overgrown by Mountain Laurel, in the blink of rain soaked eye.

What I did not know about growth overtook me even as I took joy in the entropy of irises.

* 

If I am not careful my planned entropy will overwhelm my order, and then there will be no irisies, entropic or otherwise. 

I grew up around concrete. There were trees that were placed to perfection every 500 feet where you walked carefully and avoided stepping on cracks out of respect for your mother's bodily integrity. But growth is ordered to it's own plan, and so concrete met entropy when I was young and roots raised the concrete and branches brushed the buildings. The trees were stronger than the sidewalk.

Inexorable branches and roots claiming my city. Declaring that some day there will only be brownstones and trees, and if you let them, the trees will claim dominance. You only get to have order if you maintain it. If you want to maintain it, then you need to know the nature of both trees and concrete.

I know concrete well. Trees and grass and flowers, I love them but still do not know their nature outside of books. 

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It would be lovely to be the kind of person who breathes with the grass and the flowers and the cycle of seasons.

But I am not that person and I am not willing to be the person who does only what's needed. I know the concrete and I know it's relation to the trees. Out of respect for both, and the desire for beauty, I did what I do know best, and called the people who love green things and know their souls. 

They've been here before and helped me take a step closer to knowing, but I lost the path. 

It was covered in ways I never expected were possible. The Foreman will bring my path back and try to teach me not to lose it. It's not a battle you know, it's a dance. 

I was in over my head I had to call in a Dancemaster.

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I'll have my flowers and my bricks all balanced out soon.  The Foreman will help me keep the entropy in check. I wish I were the kind of person that didn't need him, but he loves the plants with his whole being. I can see it when we talk about them, when we walk around the house address each one and it's place at the House. At least I am kind of person that makes sure to bring someone like him to the Ball.

Maybe he'll teach me some more and next year I'll need him a little bit less, but this year he is a gift to the things that grow around the House and therefore a gift to those that grow inside.