Category: Activities

Average Jane Goes Out

I've talked about going out for First Fridays before and as last night was another one, I decided not to let the fact that I was entering my third month of being sick hold me back from a little fun.

After work, I grabbed a fresh bag of cough drops and my husband and I headed back to the area near my office to see what was going on. We'd hoped to hit up the food trucks for dinner, but it must have been a little too cold out for them this month.

The galleries were in full swing, including this odd performance piece we spied through a window as we walked through The Crossroads.

Instead, we ended up grabbing food at Grinders before ending up at our planned destination, Midwestern Musical Co., where Dream Wolf and The Quivers were playing.

The Quivers recently recorded a four-song EP in my husband's studio and I was looking forward to seeing their live show.

Both bands were great and I was really glad I'd gone out. Since the shows were early, we actually got home at a decent enough hour to be able to watch "Grimm" before my bedtime.

I have a fairly relaxed weekend planned (by my usual standards, anyway). Tonight I'm attending a Pinterest-themed potluck and I'll be making pita bread, a layered Greek dip and "apple nachos," which consists of apple slices drizzled with marshmallow, caramel, chocolate and nuts.

Tomorrow morning I'm participating in an Art Aperitif salon discussion, which should be fun. You can see my pre-interview here.

Later in the day, I have a book club gathering to discuss Jane Austen's "Emma," which I'm about half finished reading. I should have no trouble getting it finished today or tomorrow morning.

So that's my current status. What are you up to this fine weekend?

March 3, 2012
Average Jane Goes To the Theatre

Last night my husband and I went to see Avenue Q at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City. The performance came highly recommended by someone who had also seen the show on Broadway and said that this one was quite comparable.

If you're interested in going, there are five performances left and the tickets are only about $20 each. We sat in the third row despite the fact that I'd only bought my tickets a couple of days in advance, so Thursday night is obviously a good choice.

It was nice going out and doing something other than sitting in front of the TV, as we tend to do on most nights that we're both free.

Tonight for 11-11-11 we're considering going to the Screenland Crossroads to see a showing of This Is Spinal Tap and a Spinal Tap tribute band. Then again, we might just watch the DVD at home. As much as we enjoy getting out and about, our budget only stretches so far!

November 11, 2011
Average Jane Goes To A Party

All last week I looked forward to Friday night because Cagey was hosting a Bridesmaids viewing party. I ordered a batch of white cupcakes with white buttercream frosting and dug my yellowed wedding dress out of the closet to be part of the decor.

I'll bet you can tell which dress is mine! In my defense, it is from 1965.

Other women brought their wedding photos and other memorabilia. It was fun to reminisce about our weddings. Mine was almost 17 years ago, but I've never gotten around to having the dress cleaned and packaged. Maybe I'll get on that before our 20th anniversary.

My friend Allison is there on the right, wearing a maternity bridesmaid dress. Classic.

Some even ventured to wear their wedding shoes, which is something I could not do because I disposed of those uncomfortable suckers at the first possible opportunity after I was finished wearing them.

There was a great turnout and lots of delicious snacks and drinks.

I'd never seen the movie, so I got the chance to enjoy it for the first time with a raucous group of women.

I stayed out way past my bedtime that night, so obviously a good time was had by all. The next day I did a bunch of volunteer work with cats and got the first coat of paint on the walls of my bedroom, which is going to look fantastic when it's done.

I was going to finish painting on Sunday, but then…something happened. It turned out that the the party's Bridesmaids theme had one more twist, specifically related to the notorious scene in the dress shop. Yes, several of us who had attended the party came down with same intestinal virus on Sunday morning.

It didn't take long to figure out the connection, thanks to misery-laden Facebook posts and tweets. It was pretty much a 24-hour thing, but that certainly isn't a 24-hour period I want to revisit anytime soon (or ever).

Fortunately I didn't ruin any couture, but I did throw up in my front yard while I was walking Toby. I hope none of my neighbors saw me, but the odds are not in my favor considering that it was a beautiful day outside.

The one-day gap between the party and the illness served to keep the fun memories intact, even though it is obvious in retrospect that we had a Patient Zero situation going on at the time. I highly recommend seeing the movie if you haven't. I liked it in every respect and it got extra points from me for featuring Chris O'Dowd.

I'm back to feeling fine now and although I'm a little behind on my painting, I think I can get it finished up on Tuesday night and start moving the furniture back in as soon as the trim dries.

How was your weekend?

October 24, 2011
Average Jane Is Old Enough To Make Jelly

"Now, Ann had not forgotten when her birthday came, for that meant a party and feasting and dancing, but she had quite forgotten how many years the birthdays marked. In a land where people live always, this is not considered a cause for regret, so we may justly say that Queen Ann of Oogaboo was old enough to make jelly—and let it go at that."

— L. Frank Baum, Tik-Tok of Oz

I've been old enough to make jelly for some time. When I was growing up, I recall helping my mom make strawberry and peach jam on numerous occasions, and one year I took the initiative and made cherry preserves when we had an unusually vigorous crop from our cherry tree.

Until yesterday, the only canning I'd done as an adult was a batch of strawberry jam a couple of years ago when I belonged to a CSA. Still, the process has remained pretty much the same over time, so I was eager to help out when my friend, Christy, invited a group of us over to make jelly and jam out of wild Sand Hill plums.

They look a lot like cherries, don't they?

Four of us got together yesterday and began cooking down fruit for the first double batch of jelly around 11:00 a.m. Christy had all the necessary tools and supplies:

That 25-pound bag of sugar was empty by the end of the day.

We started out by making as much jelly as we could from the juice of almost 10 gallons of plums, and then strained the pulp from the remaining cooked fruit for a couple of batches of jam.

You may recognize Cagey there on the left. Our non-blogging friend, LuAnn, is on the right.

For the second batch of jam we added some regular plums from the grocery store because we were coming up short on pulp. Whereas the earlier jam had been almost pumpkin-colored, this batch was a brilliant ruby red.

The whole process took about six hours (not counting all of Christy's extensive prep work before we arrived). All told, we ended up with 48 half-pints and 9 full pints of jelly and jam.

It came out beautifully, don't you think?

Even if it was a rather messy process…

A big thank you to Christy for a fun afternoon and especially for providing all the supplies and letting us take home some jelly and jam. I'm looking forward to my next opportunity to do some canning.

July 24, 2011
Average Jane’s Foodtacular Birthday Celebrations

My birthday was Thursday, which means I am by no means finished celebrating yet. However, most of the celebrations that have taken place so far have involved cake. That is a situation that definitely meets with my approval.

It started out on Wednesday when I co-hosted a taco dinner with another friend who shares my July 7th birthday. I bought two dozen giant cupcakes from Takes the Cake Bakery, six each of four different flavors, and they were all delicious. I think my current favorite is the almond cake with raspberry buttercream icing.

Don't judge the squooshed-looking red velvet cupcakes in the back. I dropped the box while I was trying to open it.

The next day I went to work even though my company lets you take a day off for your birthday. We were doing a company field trip to LIVESTRONG Sporting Park and I didn't want to miss it. It's good that I went into the office because a co-worker made me a batch of tiny chocolate cupcakes that were sitting on my desk when I arrived. Woohoo!

Later that evening, I attended a Social Media Club of Kansas City board meeting and look what the prez got me:

Hashtag, Twitter handle and everything. Yes, the underscore is missing, but I'm sure the grocery store bakers were confused enough as it was.

The pièce de résistance of my birthday celebration plans was a trip to the first annual Westport Food Truck Festival last night. I'd told my husband that I wanted to have my birthday dinner there, so I threw the invitation open to all of my friends and we ended up with a core group of seven, wandering the festival and trying the deliciousness.

I ended up having a mini meatball sub, a tamale, two limeades, two beers, half of a rootbeer cupcake and some hummus that I partly aspirated and almost choked on. As you can imagine, I was finished after that.

It was a beautiful evening and I kept running into other friends throughout the festival. We took it at a slow pace and spent the majority of the time relaxing outside and chatting. It was a very pleasant way to finish out a day that was supposed to have been my day off but ended up being a full workday after all.

Tonight my sister is having a game night at her house, so the celebration will continue. Which segues nicely into a little discussion of my birthday gifts. My aunt sent me a game called Literati Challenge, and I can't wait to play it. I treated myself to the Awkward Family Photos board game as well. I can never resist a blog tie-in.

My husband's gift to me was a bottle of Kate Spade Twirl perfume, which I'd discovered in last month's Birchbox shipment.

One of my best gifts was a blog post that Cagey wrote for my birthday. It was SO nice, even though it makes me sound way more interesting than I actually am.

So that's my birthday so far. Yes, all the cake is probably contributing to my middle-aged weight struggles, but I'd rather be happy than thin this week. I can worry about my food intake next week as I settle into my new age.

July 9, 2011
Average Jane Wears Herself Right On Out

I'm notorious for cramming activities into my weekend days, but yesterday may take the prize in perpetuity.

I slept a little extra in the morning because A Librarian and I talked ourselves out of our usual 3.4 mile morning walk. However, I more than made up the distance later in the morning when @ThatSusan and I met up and registered for the Urban Photo Safari.

We had three hours to wander around downtown and midtown Kansas City in a fairly wide corridor and take as many photos as we wanted. Some people drove around for the event, but we chose to remain on foot and explore wherever our whims took us.

I took more than 90 shots of anything and everything that caught my attention. I think this one may have been my favorite:

Our boundaries ended up being Crown Center to the south, Oak to the east, 18th Street to the north and Wyandotte to the west. Our perambulations took us to the Freight House district, inside Union Station, all over the Crossroads, and through the beginnings of the Chalk & Walk Festival outside Crown Center.

I even bought my husband a Science City t-shirt at the gift shop in Union Station. We also took a nice break around the 2-hour mark to have mimosas made with sparkling hard cider at Grinders West.

If you'd like to see the whole photo set, they're here.

The event wrapped up at noon and we grabbed lunch at Hamburger Mary's with fellow event participant XO. After that, I went home to take a quick nap that ended up lasting longer than I expected.

When I woke up and realized the time, I quickly changed shirts and went to Petco to help another volunteer deep-clean the cat area for the next two-and-a-half hours. I can still smell bleach on my hands…and I was wearing gloves.

Speaking of the animal rescue organization for which I volunteer, they are desperately trying to raise money to move to a new facility. They've been renting kennel space but that facility was cited by inspectors for various violations. They're trying to get funds to move and also find homes for all of the dogs that had been staying at the kennels (as opposed to living in foster homes). If you can possibly donate, please visit The Animal Rescue Alliance (T.A.R.A.). Thanks!

My final activity of the day was very low-key: a nice dinner with a group of friends. I mixed up a pitcher of my new favorite summer cocktail: 1 can of frozen lemonade, 1 can of lime-flavored gin, about 1/3 can of water, and top off the pitcher with the lemon-lime soda of your choice. Very light and refreshing.

We all sat on the hostess' back deck and enjoyed the summer evening. Unfortunately I couldn't hang around particularly late because I was so tired, but it was a great way to finish out the day.

I managed to sleep until almost 9:00 a.m. this morning, which is a record for me these days. Today I'll be doing a bit of grocery shopping, making a lasagna for dinner and otherwise relaxing between laundry loads the rest of the day. I've never been so happy to see an empty calendar square!

June 19, 2011
Average Jane Previews America: Now and Here

This seems like a Kansas City-centric post, but not really. It's about a very cool event that may very well be coming to your town, too!

Tomorrow evening is the official debut of the America: Now and Here traveling multimedia art extravaganza. I had the good fortune to get a sneak peek at some of the exhibit tonight at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center and I was blown away at the quality and variety of art on display.

The exhibition will remain in Kansas City through May 28th and there's a full schedule of free special events that includes music performances, movies, demonstrations, hands-on art activities, yoga classes and much more.

If you're going to First Friday tomorrow in the Crossroads, be sure to check out the America: Now and Here kickoff activities.

Here are some of the photos I took this evening. I apologize for not making note of most of the artists' names, but I hope you'll get the chance to come and see them yourself.

I liked this one because the woman looking at the child beauty queen is herself dressed up with a fancy hairdo.

These sculptures are by Kansas City artist Peregrine Honig.

Be sure to go to the basement to see some installations suited for the relative darkness there.

If you get a chance to experience America: Now and Here either in Kansas City or as it travels around the U.S., definitely take advantage of it! Just look for the distinctive 18-wheelers.

Disclosure: I got the chance to check out this exhibit early because of my company's relationship to the event. However, my opinions are my own.

May 5, 2011
Average Jane, Ghost Hunter

Last night I spent the evening sitting in the dark in a Civil War-era home, surrounded by infrared cameras and digital voice recorders. It was part of a "Ghost Hunting 101" class put on by Kansas City-based Premiere Paranormal Researchers.

My husband heard about the event on Facebook and I signed us up because he loves that kind of thing. My entire worldview revolves around skepticism, but I figured it would be interesting to see what the whole ghost hunting thing entailed.

We all met in an outbuilding of the John Wornall House at 5:00 p.m. and the researchers gave a presentation about the various tools they use in their investigations. They're all hobbyists with an interest in ghosts and the supernatural, and they attempt to measure physical phenomena such as electromagnetic shifts, temperature changes, images visible on camera, and EVP, electronic voice phenomena, which seemed to be the basis of many of their "success stories."

Here's Cassi, Mykala and Valerie, wearing their "Got Ghosts?" t-shirts.

They gave us a rundown of the history of the house, including the fact that the Battle of Westport during the Civil War was fought on the grounds and the house was used as a hospital.

After the introduction, they set up all their equipment in various rooms of the house.

In addition to the three ghost hunters, we were part of a group of ten curious onlookers. We divided into three smaller groups and spent time sitting as quietly as possible in various rooms of the house, each accompanied by one of the researchers.

You'll never believe what happened in the children's room upstairs! Well, maybe you will because nothing happened. That was supposed to be the most haunted room, even according to a couple of employees of the estate. We also sat in the other bedroom, the living room, the kitchen, and the upper level of the carriage house. Nada.

Maybe ghosts are like fish and they get shy when you have too many chatty fishermen in the boat.

A couple of the people at the event were rather fixated on the "orbs" you could see with the infrared camera, but it was easy to tell that they were just dust kicked up when someone moved around or the furnace kicked on.

There was some interest in a blur that could be seen on camera in the kitchen, but it seemed to mostly correspond with when someone opened or closed the door. The electromagnetic readings in the kitchen were rather high, but electrical wiring was the most likely reason for that.

I was neither surprised nor disappointed that we basically spent the whole evening in a warm, dark, quiet place. It was really rather peaceful. The brick walls of the house were a foot thick in every direction, so it was amazingly soundproofed. I wish my house were so silent.

We wrapped up at about 10:30 p.m. and the evening was declared "quiet." Another couple we know had come with us, so we ended our evening with a hearty breakfast at IHOP.

So for now my skeptic hat remains firmly on my head. I know lots of people have great ghost stories (heck, I thought the house where I grew up was pretty creepy), but I'm pretty sure most of them are the product of our own perceptions.

But if you have a good, scary ghost story, I'd love to hear it.

November 7, 2010
Average Jane Drives Across Kansas

My trip to the 140 Characters Conference was bookended by three-hour drives across the Kansas prairie. Most of the drive looks like this:

Ignore the dusty dashboard.

If you're lucky, you get to see some cattle, horses or sheep. I also like to play "spot the hawk."

My biggest fear was that I'd hit a deer, which is why I chose to stay overnight on Monday rather than drive the mostly two-lane, unlighted highways after dark. The only deer I saw on the trip were dead on the side of the road. There were many equally unfortunate coyotes, raccoons and skunks to be seen as well.

I brought my trusty road companions, Pete and Inga:

Pete didn't have much to say, other than occasionally shouting, "K-A band!" when we were approaching a highway patrol speed trap. That's basically his only job, but he's good at it.

Inga is a lot more talkative (and sometimes a bit snippy), but on these trips she got to save her voice because after "continue 95 miles," there's no room for color commentary.

When I first started out, I thought it might be nice to just travel with my own thoughts instead of playing the radio, but I gave up on that as soon as I started feeling sleepy. The landscape is pretty hypnotic.

Hey look! Cows!

So I turned on the radio and scanned around to find anything that wasn't country music or a preacher. Ultimately, I ended up listening to light rock most of the way. The next time I take a long road trip, I'm loading up on CDs that contain distorted guitar.

I didn't stop at all on the way to Hutchinson. I'd packed a peanut butter and cheese sandwich, a banana and an apple, which fortified me until I got there.

On the way back, a water and snack break was called for. I had quite a few opportunites to stop, but I held out until I reached the Flint Hills One Stop in Strong, Kansas, where I happened to run into Guavalicious and her husband.

The trip back seemed faster than the trip out, but I'm still a bundle of sore muscles from the drives. It's trips like this that make me wish I had cruise control.

Still, I always enjoy hitting the open road and the freedom of driving my own car to a travel destination. I'm thinking my husband and I need to plan a road trip vacation next year sometime.

November 3, 2010
Average Jane Drinks Locally

Over the weekend, I ended up patronizing both a local brewery and a local winery.

Saturday morning's jaunt was to Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City, Missouri. I met up with A Librarian and some of her friends to take a tour of the production facility. It had only been six or eight months since I last went on the tour there, but it had changed rather significantly in that time. I really enjoyed the addition of informative videos at various stops, interspersed with commentary from the two tour guides.

At the end of the tour is a stop in their tasting room. Each tour attendee receives four special bottle-cap tokens to redeem for juice-glass-sized samples of Boulevard's offerings. However, because I had a headache, I only drank a single glass of their Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale. My companions were only too happy to take the additional tokens off my hands.

During the tour, one of the guides was describing the various beers available in the tasting room and kept asking who had tried each one. After I'd raised my hand about five times, he called me out for saying I liked them all. But it's true – I've tried their entire line, including almost all of their Smokestack Series high gravity beers. What can I say? I support my local brewery.

On Sunday, I had a book club meeting at Holy-Field Winery in Basehor, Kansas (about 30 minutes outside of Kansas City). We didn't take the tour, but I've taken it twice before.

We had planned to sit on their deck, but because the weather was chilly and damp, they allowed us to set up in their indoor event space. Several of us purchased bottles of wine to share; I chose a red that was far sweeter than I usually like, but it worked out well with the cheese, crackers and fruit that other people had brought.

Holy-Field is run by a father and daughter, so it definitely has the feel of a family operation. As we discussed Catching Fire (a small-group discussion before the main book club meeting started) and The Help, the various winery dogs kept wandering in to visit. One even hopped up onto an empty chair to make himself more easily pettable (and get a good look at the food on the table).

In general, I'm not a huge fan of Kansas and Missouri wines because they're notorious for being very sweet. However, Holy-Field has done a good job of diversifying their wine varieties, and they have some medium and dry options that are quite good.

Next, perhaps I need to take a tour of The Roasterie…

May 18, 2010