awww, now i'm all weepy and schmoopy.

a few weeks ago, i had posted about the passing of frankie manning, one of the pioneers of lindy hop. well, this weekend was a big event in NYC for what would have been his 95th birthday (every year a different city hosts frankie's birthday party, which is a long weekend filled with dancing around the clock at different venues). i couldn't afford the $600 for the ticket, but over 2,000 lindy hoppers did, and the videos that have already been coming out of the weekend have been awesome. the one below especially brought a tear to my eye, it's wonderful... it's people all over the world doing the "shim sham", a really fun swing line dance. some of the clips are laugh-out-loud funny. enjoy.

between this video, a jaunt to whole foods to get nummy gazpacho ingredients, and a couple of hours of weeding in the garden, i'm feeling much less cold-y now. perhaps healthy food, sunshine and exercise, and a good laugh was all i really needed.

other today stuff

i'm finding that i really enjoy watering the new landscaping. i have to water all the plants every day for the first 2 weeks, and that 1/2 hour or so (it's a lot of plants) is a really peaceful time for me to enjoy the fresh air and get lost in my thoughts. only a few days in, i can already see changes in the plants -- the lilac has a few teeny blooms on it, a couple of the catmint plants are hesitently poking out some purple flowers, and some of the ornamental grasses are expanding by sending out these shoot-like things in wacky directions. it's fascinating. i can only imagine what the gardens will look like next year, once everything's had a year to take hold and spread out.

speaking of spreading out... i bought a small ice cream maker today. jack and i have been spending a small fortune on little weight watchers ice cream cups, it gives us a chance to have something sweet but portion controlled... i figure it'd be fun to try making some of my own, using splenda instead of sugar and using fresh fruits in season. then i can get some of those little reusable containers in the supermarket to split up the batch, so i still have the portion control. the challenge will be making it edible without the high amounts of fat and sugar that make regular ice cream as awesome as it is... and without all the chemical fillers the big food companies use in low-fat foods to mimic the taste and feel of the real thing. it'll be fun trying.