Facebook....

I gave it up.

Perhaps crazy, perhaps not, but I think I got tired of being perpetually connected to a bunch of people who I don't really know. Anyway, this is perhaps my new place to post my stories. So follow me HERE, not on facebook!

Woodworking!?!

So...as many of you may have noticed, I have been in desperate need of a hobby. However much I love school, teaching voice lessons, and reading a lot of books every day in preparation for writing every day. (BTW, May 1st is my goal to have a first draft of my dissertation done! Crazy, you say? I agree!). I decided that I would probably really like woodworking, my grandpa on my mom's side made all sorts of awesome gadgets and gifts for us, and I would love to follow the tradition. So my big requests for this Christmas included tools. I got an awesome set of basic tools from my brother, and my father-in-law gave me some absolutely awesome tools. That, together with a great gift card to Home Depot from Santa, prompted me to use the rest of my break to start my (hopefully) long career as a woodworker!

We needed a shoe bench, particularly with the crazy snow and the salt that got tracked regularly into our living room. I decided that would be a good place to start. Its basically a one shelf bookshelf, right? It turned out pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. You can't quite sit on it, but it holds shoes fantastically!

The unfinished shoe bench

Another angle: I added a little lip halfway through construction!

(actually the result of my not being able to cut straight on the other shelf pieces)

After I had built this one, we decided that we needed another end-table/bookshelf typed thing to go between our new chair (purchased on New Year's Eve) and the couch. So I used the same

plans, made it about half as long and a 1/2 foot shorter.

The great story behind all of this was the things that I learned about staining. I only remember staining one other time in my life (I think it was a door with Dusty) and I'm thinking I wasn't very successful at it. So I was excited to try again with my new 28-year-old sensibilities. Turns out they're not all that sensible:

Lesson 1: No matter how cold it is outside - even if you don't have a garage, or a back porch, or a basement - DO NOT stain in your kitchen. Even with all the windows open, you and your wife will end up with really bad headaches and not be in very good moods. Your wife may even retreat to the bedroom, shut the door, and fall asleep for several hours. (You'll be glad to know I came up with a way to make our laundry room - a small hut at the back end of our complex - into a "garage" without causing too many problems for the launderers in our complex.)

Lesson 2: When the can says to wait until the first coat has completely dried before adding another coat, they mean it. I got a bit impatient with the shoe bench and did the second coat while it was still a bit sticky. We ended up with some REALLY uneven spots (see pictures below) and an overly dark color, but it still looks very nice!

This is a close up of the horribly uneven part of the stain. Looks pretty bad! Fortunately a pair of shoes is always on top of it!

The smaller one. This is how it should actually look when one waits the entire time before doing the second coat of stain!

I'm going slow, and doing things that actually make sense for us (seeing as we don't actually own a home yet), but I think I'm going for a kitchen table next! I've got some ideas for how to do it, and it doesn't seem TOO horrible! Here's hoping!

Sick Day

Man, I hate these days. It started hitting me yesterday evening (AFTER we had selected our first Christmas tree) and it took control of my life all day. We're thinking I caught it from Whitney, since she's had a cold since almost the beginning of the week.

I find that sickness (besides a great time to catch up on all the fun television shows) somehow makes me look at my life in a little better (albeit somewhat delirious) perspective. This particular sickness got me to realize how lucky I am, I have a wonderful wife. (Who, by the way, even though she felt under the weather, still took care of me, made me meals, even gave me a back rub!! What a woman!) I have family that cares for me, a great job, a great plan for my future career, a wonderful ward, great friends.

I've spent so much of my life trying for something more, something better, even with myself. On one level, I don't think there is anything wrong with that, but I think in some ways it has really dominated my life to the point that I am unhappy with wherever I am. Now I want to see what is wonderful and then patiently working on making it more wonderful!

Here's the tree! First fresh one I've had in awhile!

New Conducting Post

Be sure to check out my most recent conducting escapades!

mortensenconductor.blogspot.com

The Last Days in Illinois

I know, its been nearly two months since I left Illinois, but its kinda' been busy, and I just learned how to get pictures from Whitney's camera (which I borrowed after mine got drowned in the Caribbean) onto the computer.

Over the summer I decided it would be nice to see some of the cool Illinois birds, so I bought a bird feeder for us to put on the tree in our backyard. I also learned about a little sock-like bird feeder that would attract finches. We had a cardinal that came regularly to eat (Jenika named him Charlie) that I tried for days to photograph. Finally I took a book and the camera out to the porch and read until he started eating so I could get a picture without moving much. Here are my best shots of the finch and Charlie!



At the end of the summer, my good friend Becca Anderson wrote me saying she needed another priesthood holder for the Young Women's fourth year something or another. (I still don't completely understand why these girls got to go, but it was a small number of women, and it was a few weeks before Girl's Camp). First off, you Young Women have much more spiritual campouts than I ever had in Young Men's! You read your scriptures! Together! Daily! And then you talk about it meaningfully! I was baffled and inspired, what a wonderful weekend!

My most proud moment was in the morning when we heard the thunder of a rainstorm coming, and my best strategy for keeping the fire going was to build it as high as I could and shelter the ashes with big logs. Miraculously, after the 15 minute rainstorm (with thunder overhead that sent the girls running for the cars) the fire was still going and we had a wonderful breakfast!

Here are a few of the pictures I took. Although I missed the real rough experience of mountainous hiking, this was a wonderful weekend!

I know its sideways...give me a break...

Some Concert Recordings: Allerton Vocal Chamber Music Festival

So...I finally got around to learning how to upload video onto YouTube, which means that then I can post them here! I am so excited to see what you think of these.

What we have here is Woodstock High School. I got to conduct them at the Allerton Vocal Chamber Music Festival in February of this year. (I know it took me awhile....) We spent a weekend together (Friday night and Saturday morning) and worked on two songs for several rehearsals. This is a recording of their performance Saturday afternoon. Enjoy!



Johannes Brahms: "Nachtwache no. 1"



Sergei Rachmoninoff: "Bogoroditsye Djevo"

Also!! I have started a new blog to post all of the videos of me conducting/rehearsing! Please check it out! mortensenconductor.blogspot.com

Americana!

Well, last Friday night was the University Chorus Concert out here at the University of Illinois, which went really well! We had a great time and made some wonderful music before, including four pieces (arrangements) that had never been heard before (Three by Danny McDavitt and one by me). It was a really rewarding experience!

The program got the title "Americana" because it was all somehow tied to the Americas. Beginning with a piece that was close to home (written by a composer from Chicago) then moving out to Latin America for a few fragments from the Mass. Then over to England, when Elgar did two settings of pieces by Tennyson, then back to the United States for some standard compositions and some folk music. All in all, a pretty good program, I think!

The picture on the poster above was taken by Whitney, and as many of you can imagine, is not even remotely a picture of Illinois! But it sure looked Americana, right? Whitney also came out for the concert (or my birthday....still not sure which...) and she took some wonderful pictures of our last rehearsal on stage before the concert began! Thanks hun!

P.S. If I get super ambitious, I may even attempt to put some audio clips on here....we'll see.

A fantastic pianist, Colin Leslie

Looking "out" for the slower of the folk songs (thanks to a little micro-geography)

This might be my favorite part of the concert! There was quite a bit of percussion in several of the pieces, and the best box I could find to carry it all around was this one! It held together quite well!