Our friends had an Oktoberfest party. (The party I made the apple kuchen for.) Unfortunately the party was on a Sunday, and I was busy till evening and also had to get up early the next day to teach, so we only got to stop by for a bit. The invitation had said to wear your best lederhosen. Well, unfortunately neither of us had lederhosen, so we decided to order fancy hats off the internet instead! Never underestimate the power of an awesome themed hat.
Very festive!!
The chicken hat doesn't look as good on me, but this is a better view of the hat. (I was doing the "zoolander" pose.)
Doesn't Chris look dapper?
We have several more parties next weekend. I love bringing food to these gatherings, so I have been doing quite of bit of brainstorming/research for ideas of new things to make. Next on the docket: something pumpkin based ;).
October is flying by…my busy schedule certainly helps. Lots of teaching, workouts, and some lovely chamber music rehearsals (finally some real music!). No orchestra on the horizon…it’s weird how longs it’s been since I’ve played in orchestra. (It’s also amazing how much the people who actually get to play in orchestra around here complain about it, but that’s another story!) I “just” teach children now 🙂 Naturally many people assume that means I am not a performer…otherwise surely I would be doing that. But one of my good friends here said it best the other day…we do what we can to be as happy as possible. I’d rather be here with Chris than somewhere else, so I do what I can 😉
A few weeks ago someone said to me “oh, you wouldn’t know good playing, you just teach beginners!” (paraphrased, as some time has gone by…). It still bugs me that some people think those of us who teach beginners wouldn’t know good advanced playing, OR that we don’t know how to teach a beginner so that SOMEDAY that beginner could end up being a wonderful well-rounded musician (perhaps even a nice person, able to maintain relationships!). The thing is…I prefer teaching older kids/more advanced kids. I’m hoping in the near future that will be the case more often 🙂 But when I teach beginners, well, I sure make the most of it, because I know (not to sound totally cliched) that they are our future, and they should love violin/music because if NOTHING else, we need to pass on our love of classical music to the younger generations. So I try to remind myself of how important a teacher is, and try NOT to let the naysayers and negative Nellies (even the ones in my head!) bring me down. After all, none of us would be where we are today without good teachers in the past. What I do impacts many people every day.
I teach one day a week at the St. Louis Ballet School. (I teach violin, not ballet!). It’s a nice place to teach–the people are very friendly and welcoming. They are expanding soon and I’ll have a new room!
It usually takes me about 45 minutes to 1 hour to get there (in traffic) as it is in West County, out Highway 40. It only takes about 30 minutes to get home after rush hour.
The exit sign!
The school is located in a HUGE strip mall. Every store you can imagine is in this strip mall. Walmart, Target, Sam’s Club, Best Buy, OfficeMax, etc.
I have been teaching in the Artistic Director’s office for the past year or so. Starting in a week or two I’ll have a new room. Here is where I am right now:
I set up here, facing the student
Student stands in this area
Piano for me to accompany the students!
That’s my room now. I spend only a few hours each week there. I am excited to see how the new room compares–I think I might lose my piano, as the piano teacher will have a different room (though can probably borrow when I need to, as we teach on different days for now.) But I know there will be more windows, and it won’t double as an office, so that’s great. I’ll post again with pictures of the new room when I get there.
We were invited to an Oktoberfest Party on Sunday night. I wanted to bring something in the Oktoberfest spirit to eat, but couldn’t think of anything other than sauerkraut, sausage, or bratwurst. Naturally I turned to the “google” for help. I found a delicious looking “Apple Kuchen” recipe. Basically it’s a cake with apples on top, but was delicious (and very German)! The crust turned out a bit hard and stuck to the bottom, but I brought home an empty pan, which is always a good sign.
Not the prettiest dessert ever 🙂
Ingredients
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1/4 cup margarine, softened
1/2 cup flaked coconut
4 large Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup sour cream
1 egg
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan. Peel, core, and cut each apple into 8 wedges. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine the cake mix, coconut and margarine until crumbly. Pat mixture lightly into prepared pan, building up the edges slightly to form a crust. Arrange the apple wedges on top.
Mix together the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over the apples and the cake mixture. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and sour cream. Drizzle over the top of the cake.
Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until the edges of the cake are golden and the apples are tender.
As you know, I ran my first 5K on Saturday. I chose this one (Pumpkin Brew Run III) primarily because it was close to my home and as a bonus, I didn’t have to get up early! The race started at 4:00 pm. I convinced Chris to come along and cheer me on as he had been unable to attend the half-marathon.
We headed over to the starting area around 3:15. We were supposed to meet at a bar called Amsterdam, which is known for showing all manner of soccer (or “futbol”) games. Chris knew exactly where it was as he had watched several early morning World Cup games there in the summer. We parked a few blocks away and walked up. There were lots of people milling around already.
Waiting to start!
There was going to be a costume contest, and people were encouraged to wear costumes. I didn’t think that would be a good idea for me as running is enough of a challenge, but I wanted to be in the proper spirit, so I found that delightful t-shirt at Target. I saw several other women wearing the same outfit, so I felt like I really belonged 😉
It was a bit warmer than I had hoped for a mid-October race (I really dislike the heat) but it wasn’t terrible–probably just over 70 degrees. I lined up towards the end of the pack as I did not anticipate being super fast, nor did I plan to run the entire distance.
Lining up to start
I moved a bit closer to Chris (who was waiting on the side)
Finally they counted down “3, 2, 1, GO!” It took a little while to get going, but no worries as I had my timer attached to my shoe. After about 30 seconds of slow walking, we were off!
It was pretty cool running through my (basically) neighborhood with so many people. The police had blocked off Arsenal to traffic as we crossed into Tower Grove Park. The first mile was pretty easy, especially as it was primarily downhill. Of course, that meant later parts of the race would be uphill, and I knew the course would be fairly hilly from running there other times. I did stop to walk a few times, and there was one water set up between miles 1 and 2. Finally I was coming back across Arsenal and heading towards the finish line! My leg was a bit sore/hurty (right leg towards hip has been bothering me), but I pushed ahead, knowing Chris would be waiting for a picture 😉 I managed to somewhat sprint towards the finish line, and thought I saw something around 37 minutes.
The home stretch!
Glad to be done!
Afterwards all I wanted was water and to stretch. Originally I had thought I might want to hang out with Chris at Amsterdam as I could get free pumpkin beer and there was going to be costume judging and live music, but I was completely worn out. We just walked to the car and went home instead, like old people 😉
My official time was 36:15 chip time (36:48 clock time) which means the time from when I crossed the start line to finish line. I averaged 11:40 per mile. I was in 331st place out of 438, and 27th out of 45 in my age group (30-34 women). Not too shabby for my first time, I don’t think! I may try another race in two weeks…
