All posts by hannahviolin

I am a violinist. I also enjoy running, working out, reading, and hanging with my friends and cat.
Food

Giveaway winner and a question about korean tacos

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I used a random number generator to pick a winner for my giveaway post the other day. The winner was comment #15, Sarah M—congrats! I’ve notified her via email. Thanks to all of you for entering, sharing your cookie ideas and cat pictures!

I didn’t take too many pictures over the weekend (bad blogger!) but I had a great weekend. I only had to play one wedding at the Jewel Box and otherwise was able to do stuff around the house, run, and hang out with friends.

I’ve been using RunKeeper to track my runs. The other day I was doing a run where I ran for 1:45 and walked for 1:15 (I’m working my way back up to longer runs, and this is where I am right now.) I generally run around the same kind of route with a few variances, so I generally know where the first mile is, and I heard it WAY too early, which confused me.

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You can see that my “fast” intervals seem, well…Olympic fast. Note to readers: I do not generally run 4 to 6 minute miles.

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Ah! Mystery solved. That red line is the supposed route I took. I was actually running in a quasi straight line, not zigzagging like a crazy person and doubling back on my route every few seconds.

If nothing else, this run really shows me how inaccurate the satellite can be. I hate when people say that a race course is short or long based on their satellite reading…it isn’t always that precise. And sometimes it can be really wrong!

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I have a question about Korean Tacos: are they are a real thing in Korea OR did the Koreans invent them for we Americans since we love tacos? I could probably google this but I’d rather ask you guys. The above tacos are from Kim Cheese, a Korean place near the school I used to teach at (which has since closed)—so yummy! Those are the spicy pork tacos. I will be back, and I’m kind of glad I didn’t discover the deliciousness of this restaurant until I no longer teach there as I’d probably want to eat there too often.  They have more than just tacos too.

Random thoughts

Why is it so cold outside

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1. Thanksgiving is just around the corner… I can’t wait. I am really looking forward to getting out of town…and finally meeting this little guy (the black cat. The other one I already know. Yes that is two cats.)

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2. Related: that picture really makes me want to get another cat for the fatness to cuddle with.

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Mini blinds and cats are a terrible idea. So far these are surviving, but for how long.

3. I made this recipe for mushrooms, onions, spinach and goat cheese polenta last night for dinner. I think it didn’t need as much goat cheese and the onions take longer than the recipe says, but it was a great idea and inspiration for future meals. I didn’t take any pictures though, but it looked much like the pictures on Natalie’s blog.

4. I probably should have saved those pictures for Caturday…oh well! There are always MORE!!  *maniacal laughter*

5. Pumpkin Spice Eggo Waffles are pretty good. Also, use real maple syrup. It’s great. No butter needed. I didn’t take a picture recently, but you can imagine Eggo waffles right? (spellcheck is suggesting ego or ergo, but I’m pretty sure that’s correct. Ergo waffles?)

6. So far Season Four of True Blood is better than Season Three. In my opinion. Suggestion: Less Tara. She annoys me to no end.

Don’t forget that I am running a giveaway through Friday. Enter to win if you haven’t!

Performing, Random thoughts

It was probably the Last beautiful weekend of the Year

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And I spent most of it inside. That’s okay. I did do some stuff outside…

Saturday: I ran! Tower Grove Park was absolutely gorgeous with the leaves turning, the sun shining, and the weather was about 60 degrees. It could not have been nicer weather. And yes, that’s mainly all I did outside. But it was almost enough.

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I love fall. Especially when it’s not too cold.IMG_8183

Saturday night I went to my friend Melissa’s bassoon recital at the Tavern of Fine Arts. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the entire program! She sounded wonderful and the repertoire she and her pianist chose kept us interested and entertained. It was a fun evening and I’m really glad she played her recital in St Louis for us—she had already performed it twice in other cities, but it worked out to do it while she was in town for Opera week.

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Sunday was our last opera performance. Long week of rehearsals and performances…done! I had plans to hang out with a friend tonight, but I ended up crashing on the couch for an hour or so after the show and then just put on my pj’s and spent the evening catching up on my television (White Collar and How I Met Your Mother)…yeah, I am pretty awesome. I figure I’m resting up for the week ahead, and I hope to really get caught up on the stuff that got lost this past week.

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During opera weeks I really try to limit my outside practicing, for instance, so I’m looking forward to getting back to regular violin practice…I was completely inspired by Melissa’s recital and started really wanting to play a recital of my own soon. I’m hoping my friend Jennifer and I will be able to do something in the next year (fingers crossed!) but either way I’m looking forward to rehearsing some this week.

Speaking of being inspired, I was also inspired by my friend Kate who ran the Skippo 30K this weekend. I ran the race last year, but missed out this year. I’m hoping to be back next year! My biggest obstacle now to getting back into shape is pure laziness. I am not busy enough to make that an excuse—I just get lazy and get caught up reading instead of just putting on workout clothes and going out the door. At least I’m reading? And blogging again, semi regularly. I love blogging, and the biggest issue sometimes is just…opening up windows live writer, uploading the photos I’ve taken, and starting to write. Writing is fun, running can be fun, and they are both frankly more fun than sitting on the couch reading articles about thigh gap.

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Then again, she does make it hard to move from the couch—being so cute and cuddly and furry. *sigh*

How was your weekend? Anything exciting going on this week?

These are what I want for Christmas. Leslie texted me this picture from Target. Cat’s pajamas!

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Don’t forget that I am running a giveaway through Friday. Enter to win if you haven’t!

I hear there is snow in the forecast for us tonight…fingers crossed!

Giveaways

Minted Giveaway—Feeling Generous (closed)

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Okay readers: I have a giveaway at the end of this (short) post, because I’m feeling generous and kind towards you all.

First you must look at some pictures I took this week.

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I love polka dots.

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What it looks like in the pit where I spent much of my week. Or at least it felt like it. Tonight and Sunday afternoon, performances with Winter Opera St Louis.

Okay now that I’ve bored you (and seriously, did I only take two pictures this week? I’ve been crazy busy, evidently…)…(…)

Remember my post the other day about minted.com? Well, in exchange for that I got a code for a $75 credit to the site. However, this year I’m not planning to sending photo cards, so I thought, HEY let’s do a little giveaway. I’ll email the code to the winner and you can have $75 of cards to send for Christmas, or to use for anything you want on Minted.com.

How to enter: (giveaway closed! winner announced soon!)

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite type of Christmas cookie.  (If you can’t figure out how to leave a comment, make sure you click on the title of the post so you are looking at this post on it’s own, not as part of the main page.)

2. Email me at hannahviolin@gmail.com with a picture of your cat to be included in a Caturday post in the upcoming months. I would love more kitty pictures! Please leave a comment saying that you have done so. (If you’ve already sent pictures you can send more OR leave a comment saying that you did so in the past.)

So that’s two chances to enter—and be sure to leave TWO comments if you want to have both chances. The contest runs from now until next Friday, November 15 at noon CST, and I will randomly choose a winner at that time. Winner will be notified by email. Good luck!

Food, Weddings

Weekend and such

My usual (ha) weekend recap post is late. Yesterday was a very busy day for me, and although today is too (this is all due to Winter Opera St Louis rehearsals and practicing!) I’m going to write a quick blog post while I digest a delicious lunch.

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I had a bunch of weddings over the weekend. This was taken while I was stopped in traffic on my way to the one Friday evening. It’s the Old Courthouse in St Louis and on my right hand side was the Arch but I was way too close for a good photo of that.

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Saturday’s first wedding was at St Anthony of Padua church, which I had never played at before. I was amazed when I walked in the door—the church was SO beautiful! It’s kind of sad to me that I’ll go to an old church in what is often a pretty lousy run down (possibly crime-ridden) neighborhood and then there is just a gorgeous church, beautifully decorated and that probably cost tons of money and man hours when it was built. We just don’t make buildings the way we used to.

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My second Saturday wedding was at the Sheraton City Center in the fifth floor Atrium. I thought it was very cute, and I tried to get a picture to give you an idea of the scope, but I found that challenging to do surreptiously!

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If I were staying in the hotel in one of those rooms overlooking the Atrium during a wedding I’d be tempted to do something really weird, like watch in my pajamas or something.

You’re probably saying, well that’s great, but what did you EAT?

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Dinner at Meskerem Ethiopian restaurant. I’d only had ethiopian food once before. It was great!

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Breakfast one day. Eggs and waffles on my favorite snowman plate. Well, only snowman plate. I needed to run the dishwasher. It did make breakfast feel more festive.

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Cookies at a good friend’s house. I did not eat all of them, nor did I eat as many as I wanted to. They were getting stale this morning so I figured two of them made a pretty good breakfast—they’ve got eggs in them, right?

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I’ve been quite sad because my good friend Melissa no longer lives here (well she lived here part time, but it was enough!) so I am thrilled that she is in town this week playing for the opera. We met for lunch at Stellina and it was great. I ordered the Il Capo sandwich, which had roast beef, prosciutto, something else, and an olive tapenade. The olive was a really unique part of the sandwich and I liked it, though it was perhaps a little heavy handed. The side of mushroom soup was really good too.

When I wasn’t playing a wedding or rehearsing over the weekend I was watching various TV shows on Netflix. A friend and I are currently obsessed with True Blood, and are well into the third season. It seems to be going downhill, but I still want to see what happens to Sookie (as annoying as she is well…most of the time.) I’ll tell you, I’m glad I don’t live in the south with all those vampires! I also spent an evening watching a mini marathon of Chuck at my friend Sarah’s house (where we ate the cookies and loads of popcorn)…I think we managed five episodes that night? Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

I tried to include a picture of me and the fatness, but it keeps being upside down and when I turn it it gets shorter and shorter. I’m still not loving Windows 8 but I’m learning to live with it, as it’s my only option.

And now I’m off to practice. I have a “big” solo in the opera so I’m a little stressed about it. If you are local, come see the performances of Faust this weekend with Winter Opera St Louis! I’m in the pit, of course, as I’m a violinist, not a singer, but you’ll know I’m there.

(Unrelated: I was going to run this morning but it was raining and my bed just seemed more appealing. Tomorrow, I promise!)

Product Reviews

Holiday Cards and a Quick Caturday

If you are a long time reader of my blog, you know I love this time of year. Thankgiving and Christmas are my favorite holidays. Now that doesn’t really make me special, in fact, I imagine that you probably also love this time of year. Vacation days, parties, baking, delicious food, gifts, time with friends and family—what’s not to love?

I recently was contacted by Minted.com which is a website that sells holiday cards (other cards too, but hey, it’s Christmas card time, isn’t it?). I’m no stranger to photo Christmas cards as it’s my favorite card to send and receive, and this site has a great selection!

From the company: 

MINTED; the world’s premiere marketplace for crowd-sourced independent design and art. Artists and aspiring designers from around the world have their work featured on Minted. We believe in providing the best service to our customers and uphold that ideal by using only the finest materials and products. Minted is dedicated to the celebration of life’s most important events – whether birthdays, weddings, or reunions – we’re there every step of your life’s journey.

Though the cards are more expensive than some, I think the designs are generally really beautiful and artistic! If you have had a new baby or a special event this year and want to showcase your photos to share with your friends and family, I’d definitely take a look around the site—they have so many varieties of cards in various shapes, sizes, and paper options that you are sure to find something you love. Visit the website to take a look around.

(I was offered a merchandise credit in return for sharing Minted.com with you guys, but I do think they look like a great site to get quality cards.)

Minted.com currently has a discount code for a short time. If you use the code BACKERFS (only until Nov. 4 so act fast!) you can get free card backers and free shipping on your order. I’m betting after that expires there might be another code too…

Oh, let’s see, I promised you some Caturday too…remember, send me your pictures to be featured! I have a few that I’ll save for next time, but my sister Leslie sent me this awesome one of her cats that REALLY makes me want to get a kitten for Fatty to play with…or murder…

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I presume that Catalunya (black cat) survived the attack.