I am late!

Last week I plumb forgot about this and this week I am late in the writing and posting. Sorry about that. 

My meager offerings for this week, is this practice run with Fire Alpaca and 'new to me' tablet from a good friend. I really like the airbrush tool as it turns out and I should probably not be so in love with it. It's hard, dusting off my novice drawing skills. There's a frustration in wanting to be better, to know how to draw hair and faces, trying to figure out what my style is, hoping I can pull off Moe and Bishi manga art eventually (both are so pretty). But I will get there and it takes time and practice.

I have been working on the world building of my novel and I thought I had finished my character bios. But I was watching a Brandon Sanderson fiction writing lecture on character this week and I have a few more questions to ask myself and make notes for a couple of characters. Shouldn't take me too long and should help me in the long run of writing process. 

Still doing Taiko, although I missed last week due to a nasty fibro flare. I've been studying some of the videos the leader of the group sent me so I could practice at home. I don't know if it is helping. But I can't get too annoyed with myself, I've only been twice. 

Lastly I thought I would share a vegetarian recipe I made up for Amanda, Enchilada casserole. It;s super simple and pretty quick to make.

What you need is one large can of red or green enchilada sauce (prefer red but Amanda likes green better), six yellow or white corn tortillas, 1 small bag of mozzarella cheese, and 1 small bag of a frozen southwest medley veggies (ours has mix of corn, onions, red bell peppers, and black beans). Oh and a small baking dish. I used a glass bread loaf dish but in hind sight probably should have used something a little larger.

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees f. 

Tear the corn tortillas however big or small you prefer.

Ladle a thin layer of enchilada sauce on the bottom of the dish. Next put down the majority of the torn tortillas to make in a good layer. After that add the frozen southwest medley veggies and a light layer of mozzerella cheese. Nexxt layer the rest of the tortillas and ladle sauce over it. You might need to gently shift the dish on your counter to get the sauce to seep all the way through. Lastly, layer a thicker layer of cheese on the top and when the oven is preheated, put the dish in for 30-40 minutes. And that's it. Take it out when the cheese has melted and its warm all the way through. 

That's it. 

And that's it for me this week.   

  

I did a thing last night!

In middle school, I  was lucky enough to sit right in front of the percussion section being a trumpet player. That was just how we were arranged in my advanced band class. I say lucky, because I like percussion instruments, of curse back then it was mostly the listening that I liked since banging on anything generally pissed my Mom off (although how I got to be a trumpet player instead of a clarinet like I wanted is a story for a different day). Anyway, I loved it and I love listening to drums. I can't even pick between bass, timpani, and snare, which is my favorite. 

So when we went to the Perry Street Fair a couple years ago and stumbled on the Spokane Taiko drummers I was even more excited! I love Taiko drums! That's where we first saw the group. The second place we saw them was at KuroNekoCon last year. They were doing a demo and letting people try. I got really shy and didn't go up but Amanda and Marilyn did. And they had contact info if you wanted to go practice with them. We did of course! However, we didn't get to it until last night.

The group is small and full of really nice people who are very welcoming. There's a sort of hesitancy I picked up from them and I think it is they are waiting to see if this was a one time thing for us or are we hooked and going to stay? I'm hooked, if they will let me play, I'm there! They want and need more people so they can play other songs. And they aren't bitchy about when I messed up. And I do mess up. I may be a little ambidextrous but I am left hand dominant, so I lead with my left hand. Most parts in Taiko lead with the right hand, so switching is something I will have to get used to. What I found interesting is for the parts that you're supposed to lead with the left hand, I switch to my right. *facepalm*  Also, I have got to get used to extending my arms. I've spent so much time trying to make myself as small as possible so I am not in anyone's way, that having my arms out and doing certain motions, is kind of scary. I'll get there. I told Amanda that we need to make a practice drum. the group had some made of big round buckets and clear packing tape. That's a really good idea!  Of course when I got online to look up prices on Bachi Sticks (the drum sticks) I found a kid's toy taiko drum for super cheap. So, I don't know which I will use, the cost to make might be slightly cheaper. And the Bachi sticks are reasonable. There are, of course, some that are super expensive, but I don't need something like that. 

Also, you wouldn't think drumming would be as motion involved, but it is. Standing a certain way and different motions, especially ones you aren't used to- my back was trying to seize up during the practice last night. And strangely, the arches in my feet were giving me grief. Amanda and I came home already hurting. I ended up falling asleep watching a movie and it was hell trying to get myself up and then upstairs to bed. Today sucks but still worth it. 

Here's a video of a Spokane Taiko performance.