From Twitter 02-15-2010

( Cut to spare the uninterested )

Tweets copied by twittinesis.com

Local production of Arcadia this week

Southwest High School is putting on a production of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" this week. I think it's being shown in their small black box theater. Shows are Tuesday through Friday at 7:00 p.m., Saturday at 2:00 p.m. Fiona and I are going tomorrow night (Wednesday). The tickets prices are nominal, I think (?) $5.00?? [Edited to add: I checked with Fiona; tickets are $5 for students, but $10 for adults.] EAnyone else interested in coming? elisem? pameladean?

A wonderful Valentine's Day

Rob got home safely from Florida on Valentine's day morning. We found him asleep in bed when we got home from church: apparently, HPEF board of director meet ups do not include sleep. We had our traditional heartboxes with chocolate and cards for Valentine's day lunch instead of breakfast. Somehow the tradition survives, despite that small change. And Rob brought me roses.

In the evening, we went to a gathering at drewan and rvrjoe775's house. This was at the instigation of minnehaha B. and K., who had the bright idea of having a party on Valentine's day where everyone brought yummy hors d'oerves and shared exotic cocktails, instead of fighting the crowds going out for dinner in restaurants.

Really, it was wonderful. I had a lot of fun looking through my cookbooks and selecting a couple of recipes I had never tried before. I brought two: one was red pepper hummus on cucumber rounds, topped with feta cheese and olives. The other was easy, but tasty and people said they really liked it: I took large Medjool dates, pitted them, and piped in a mixture of chevre goat cheese and nuts. Then I wrapped them with a 1" x 3" strip of dough cut from crescent roll dough and baked them, finishing them off with a drizzle of orange powdered sugar glaze. This was a crowd that included quite a few devoted foodies, and so quite a few other offerings were truly magnificant: there was a pulled pork topped with apple chutney on toast rounds, steamed scallop dumplings and shrimp, cheese fondue. I ate much MUCH too much, but oh, it was so worth it. minnehaha B. made a wide array of cocktails, with fascinating and exotic ingredients. I loved the ginger liquer that they brought back from London. Afterwards, a number of us went to a performance at the Heart of the Beast theater by Kurt Hunter, a marionette master. It was charming, although both Rob and I yawned quite a bit throughout. All that yummy food, plus the cocktails, just tuckered us out.

It was a truly lovely evening, a highlight of our entire winter, despite the fact that Rob's car broke down on the way to the party and we had to have it towed. (It's fixed now, although my pocketbook is about $250 lighter. It was the alternator. Sigh.)

When kids are empowered

Here are two great stories I found through Twitter today about kids making a difference. The first is Evan Ducker, who founded an organization to educate kids about vascular birthmarks:

Read more about Evan's project at Do Something here.

The second tweet told me about a project looks like it's just getting started. The website Students Rebuild just went live today to challenge schools to start fundraising to rebuild Haitian schools:

Join Architecture for Humanity, the Bezos Family Foundation and Global Nomads Group as we rebuild schools in Haiti.

Your challenge: Create a team at your school to raise money – which will be matched dollar for dollar – to rebuild schools in Haiti.

Your opportunity: Help us rebuild better, safer schools in Haiti now. Stay connected through interactive video, conversations with building professionals and conversations with Haitian students. Learn first-hand how people can work together in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake to rebuild communities and lives.

My girls have been involved in many similar projects, such as participating in Feed My Starving Children and various mission trips, the biggest one, of course, being the annual trip to Mexico to Casa Hogar Elim. Community service is a strong emphasis and part of the requirement of the program in the International Baccalaureate program that Fiona attends.

Tell me about something that your kids have gotten involved in to make the world a better place. Did your child lead the way on his or her own, or was it a school, synogogue, church, etc., that got the child interested? In what ways has your child been a role model for you?