Pickles

I am late to the lime pickles this year, but when Roger’s Produce had pickling cucumbers available last Saturday, I grabbed twenty pounds of them and started the nearly-annual process. Monday morning by 8.25 a.m. = 5.5 quarts. Another 5 or more will be cooked up on Wednesday morning. Many of these half-pint and half-cup

Over

Summer is over. Even though I’m on sabbatical, I’m in get-er-done mode. These next seventeen weeks will fly by, especially with a some vacation days, the NATS Central Region conference, Spencer’s cabaret in NYC, and two different NASM visits. So I have set out a daily schedule that I hope will help me not come

Final show

The Muny Teens 2023 performed their final show of the season last evening. Several Teens are already away to university, including my Noah. Spencer Jones has spent more than half of his life at the Muny. He’s played Young Tarzan and a young prince of Siam and Flounder and Chip, all on the main stage.

Quad Cities

I spent most of the last two days en route to/from/in Quad Cities, specifically Rock Island and Moline, Ill. Mariele took me on five different freeways each way. Deborah Gover (Luther College), our NATS Central Region conference chair, and I met for a long working dinner, and then a Friday morning site visit to Augustana

Food

Contracts began at Webster this week. I’m on faculty development leave this semester, so did not need to be at the office on Monday. But I did on Monday do three hours of sabbatical-related reading and note-taking for projects that are on the agenda. And then I treated myself to a home-cooked ribeye Hasselback steak,

Noah

This one is off to college today. Noah Macam has been a voice student since early in his first year of high school at MICDS. We had senior recital on Sunday, where he sang His last Muny Teens performance was Monday night. Between Noah and Spencer, I’m sending to others now students who have an

Generations

I finished this book on Sunday: Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America’s Future is an awfully important read, if you ask me. I understand my students better for having read this book, and frankly, I understand me better too. And I’m fearful for

BBQ tour

My BBQ tour of Saint Louis and environs continues. Saturday I lunched at Sawmill BBQ Pub & Grill in Des Peres. Service was fast and quite friendly. And they are a Pepsi establishment, thanks be to the cola goddesses! The brisket was lean, tasty without too much rub, and fork-tender — almost melt-in-the-mouth. The beans

LLC

After years of running my voice studio as a sole proprietorship, I have finally organized as a limited liability company, or LLC. As of Saturday last week, the studio is Jeffrey Richard Carter Studios LLC. This changes nothing except for some legal protections. And I have to file an annual report and fee with the

Tom Jones

Tom Jones has died. He was lyricist, with composer Harvey Schmidt, for the longest running musical in the world, The Fantasticks. With Schmidt, he also wrote I Do! I Do! and 110 in the Shade and more. He was 95 years old. Here’s Jerry Orbach, who originated the role of El Gallo in The Fantasticks,