They’ve Got a Point

I have reduced my time watching the soccer matches these days, although today was special, since Brazil played. It was a terrible game. Brazil only needed to tie order to come out in first place in her division. Her three best players were benched for various reasons. It was a boring, boring game, that ended 0x0. So Brazil moves on to the do or die rounds (a sort of sweet sixteen deal) and will play Chile.

Isn’t it funny that we call this sport “soccer”? Makes no sense really. It really is “football”, like the rest of the world calls it. The game Americans call football, is really “handball”, since there isn’t all that much using of the feet. And the football, isn’t really a ball, with that crazy shape it has. I know American “football” is a derivative of Rugby and the word Soccer is a nickname that comes from the word “asSOCiation”, but I still can’t figure why it’s never made such a hit in North America. It’s a great sport. So the rest of the world has a real point in loving it and calling it FOOTBALL!

The USA is holding her own and in fact her games have been a lot more exciting to watch. We are up against Ghana tomorrow in a rematch with the team that kicked us out of the World Cup 4 years ago. And I have an 80th birthday party to go to during the game. I am glad my hubby has a cell phone TV that I can (discretely) watch, just like I did at the wedding two weeks ago!

The only good thing about the game today was since there were no goals, there was less cheering and horn blowing and Mia was somewhat less nervous. I did get her some natural tranquilizer to put in her water (it’s herbal, made for cats) and hopefully that will help her get through this tough time of year for her. She is a nervous Nelly when it comes to loud noise. And of course she has just come out of the long, long treatment for her corneal ulcers, which was so stressful to her.

While the looooooong and boring game went one, I worked on a new colored pencil painting, this time of a long-haired orangey tabby. It’s got a million layers to go. I liked my white cat a lot better. Did I show her to you all finished? She is a winner! 

I really want to specialize in children’s water color portraits and also cats in colored pencils. The water colors are a lot cheaper and quicker to do, that’s for sure, but the cats are so beautiful and no one gets so insulted if it doesn’t have just the right expression!

I need a vacation

I am tired. I need to go on vacation. Today I have been glued to the telephone and the computer. I am in the process of trying to get people to do the children’s message during the 5 Sundays I’ll be gone (don’t forget that’s 2 services per Sunday). I only lack 3 more services of the 10! If you know me, you know I am telephone phobic, so I have to screw up my courage to make all those calls.

In addition, I had to write both teacher and student lessons for my Sunday School class and find 5 people to teach that class as well. I now have four lessons ready and four teachers. So only one left to go…

What else, you say? Well I have to tie up loose ends on my responsibilities for our women’s “get-away” day in October. I am excited about the event, but there is much to be done for such an event. I am on the program part of the arrangements, so today I worked on the emails to our speakers (who I had previously had to call and invite to speak), in addition to sending out emails to all the committee members so that they are all up to par on the program arrangements. I am also speaking at the event (I am doing the opening and closing so as to save money on inviting more speakers) , so I also tried to hammer out my outline, so that I could share that with the  group leaders. It’s always good to avoid overlap.

This event is really a big deal, as it’s kind of a first. We are trying to attract those women who don’t normally participate, especially our younger women. We are meeting at a hotel for the day, near the beach. We will be closing with a fashion show! Our publicity is to the left. We are hoping for 200 women. We have begun accepting fees and already have a number of women who have paid. We may have bitten off more than we can chew, but we are excited. This coming Sunday we are having another bake sale (these bake sales help us to raise funds to pay for those women who can’t afford the event). So today I made up the dough for about 15 dozen chocolate chip cookies. That was the fun part of my day!

After I finish this blog, I need to update the blog and facebook page for our women’s event. If you want to take a look at our blog, you can see it by clicking on the screenshot of the page (it is in Portuguese, of course). 

Unfortunately someone used my credit card, or tried to use it online at an international site, and it had to be cancelled, a major hassle. I am grateful that the credit card company picked up on the fact that I don’t use it on the internet like that and they called me. But today I had to do the paper work on that. Again, fortunately they have already sent me a new card and was able to activate that today as well.

At the same time, I also had to renew all our banking info, with new passwords, cards, checks, etc., since our bank fused with another one and all the account are different now. I am actually glad that took place now and not while we were out of the country, as everything was frozen until I got all that done. The nice thing was that all was frozen on last Saturday when the fusion went official and I didn’t get the new account information until Wednesday. How much money do you think the bank made on that  deal with their millions of customers?

My suitcases are out and I am throwing in a few things gradually. I worked on getting finances straightened out for travelling, too. Poor Sissy is stuck at home, paying the cleaning lady, taking care of the cat, paying bills, on our behalf. She deserves a vacation, but looks like that isn’t happening, as she will be taking a “summer school” (although here it is actually winter school right now)class during the school break.

So I am tired. I didn’t even watch any soccer matches or go to the gym today. Too much to do to get ready for vacation. My poor husband has to do the same, as he had to arrange to fill the pulpit and make sure all the other events, like business meetings, worship planning, bulletins, were all taken care of. Is this normal? Do some people actually just pack their suitcase and walk out the door on vacation without having to spend days preparing people to substitute for them?  I need a vacation from getting ready to go on vacation!

Overdose

I have seriously overdosed on soccer. I have watched so many matches that I am really starting to understand it. I am even screaming at the referees. This is not good. I am jumping up and down. I have been blowing that crazy horn like they use in South Africa. I have even kept track of every game on a chart, recording the scores and keeping stats on who will go on to the next round.

I used to be a nice normal person and have been transformed into a world cup junkie. HELP!!!! Today I tried to get away from it. I went to the church to check out a few things and then walked home. It was only about 3 miles, so about an hour’s walk. On the way home, I stopped into a bakery to get a snack for the evening and there was the television, showing Argentina winning their game. For those who don’t know Argentina is the “arch-enemy” of Brazil. It looks like they are going to give us a serious run for our money!

I’ll give you one thing, with all these horns, it’s certainly been a noisy time. João and I have even learned how to play this stupid thing (admittedly he does a lot better than I do). I think Mia would agree with this cartoon. She spends the big game days hidden under the bed. Maybe that’s what I should start doing, instead of raising my blood pressure screaming and yelling for or against my favorite teams and arch enemies. But then, there is tomorrow. If we can just win this game, we will move on the next round! GO USA.

Who knew?

Really, who knew the World Cup would inspire me to draw again? As I’ve mentioned, our country goes nuts at the World Cup Soccer matches. Since it only happens every four years, it is reasonable (or not???). Streets are painted yellow and green and streamers are hung everywhere. Our building is decorated with yellow and green balloons around all the columns and pillars. Those who are even somewhat enthused dress up in Brazilian colors. Those who are a little nuts, even dress up their animals.

Ok, I’ll admit it, even a few years back I didn’t really “get” it. I was raised on basket and baseball. Soccer was confusing to me. Over the years I’ve learned to cheer and appreciate the Brazilian enthusiasm. And they really are enthusiastic. So much so, it’s even rubbed off on me. I could hardly wait for the start of the games and have watched almost all the matches (which is the more correct term). I was the most popular woman at the recent wedding, since I “borrowed” my husband’s cell phone that has a TV and was able to watch the US and England match. Because the bride was conveniently 90 minutes late, I saw (make that “we”) the whole shooting match and was so thrilled with the tie (which is actually a win for the weaker US team). Tuesday was Brazil’s game and boy was I anxious.

To keep my mind half-way engaged elsewhere, I decided to start another drawing. Glad I did, as it was a less than stellar game. Sketching out the cat and choosing the colors and sharpening the pencils took most of the game. Brazil should have clobbered North Korea, but instead they managed to hammer out a pitiful 2 x 1 victory. To my dismay, it appears that Germany and Argentina are the best teams. Still, we are only beginning the second round of games, and we all had the shocker of seeing France defeated by Mexico (which is great), Uruguay beating out S, Africa (I felt sorry for them) and Greece managing to win over Nigeria (how did that happen?).

Since it’s hard not to want to see the games, I have given up the pretense of NOT watching them. I put on the TV, try to do useful things like cook and iron and today I worked some more on my white cat. So despite what I said in my last post, it appears I will complete more art work in the next week. I actually have a long way to go on this cat. A white cat is most challenging. I am using a lot more colors than on the tabby cat. I’ve used yellow, cream, gray (in various intensities), several shades of blue and pink, as well as some browns and umbers. She’s a gorgeous cat. Soon I hope to move on to doing cats I actually know. If anyone has a really good head shot or close-up of a cat to send me, do so! I don’t make any guarantees, for I am still figuring out how to shade and develop colors with the pencils. It’s surprisingly fun, though, despite the tediousness of it, as well as the expense. You wear down a pencil really quickly (I use the waxy Prismacolor pencils) and since they aren’t cheap, I easily spend quite a bit doing a “practice” drawing. I suppose there are worse things I could spend my money on. You know, like soccer uniforms for a cat…

Clowns and a Cat

I have finished my tabby cat painting done with colored pencils. I am pleased with the results. I could have done more touches here and there, but one must simply quit “messing” with the image at some point. As you know I haven’t been to classes for a while, but the other night I dropped by to see how everyone is doing and the interesting thing is that one of the women who has a style very similar to mine has also gone back to colored pencils, that we both found the most challenging of all the mediums. This is most certainly my last drawing for a while, as I will be really busy getting ready for vacation. I have to secure substitutes for my Bible study (in addition to preparing the lessons for the teachers and students) and for the children’s message. In addition, I have a study to prepare for a magazine and a message to prepare for the Baptist World Alliance in July, Then there are bags to pack and the house to organize and bills to pay, etc. Leaving the country for 5 weeks requires lots of preparation. And we will be travelling in exactly 2 more weeks. But then who is counting?

This past weekend we attending a most unique wedding. Our children’s pastor was married on Saturday. I was not seated in a place where I could get a photograph, but surely wish I had been. He and his new wife met through children’s ministry and are active in clown ministry. So guess what? They had two clowns at the wedding! It was so much fun and SO reflected their personalities. I really enjoyed it . This photo I “borrowed” from someone’s online album shows the end of the wedding and I think you can see their joy. It’s great to see two of God’s servants uniting their lives and think of their potential for changing lives together.

And that’s my news for tonight. See you round the net.

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!

I know everyone doesn’t love pizza. I recall one time my sisters made pizza (I think it was one of the kits in a box) and as they pulled it out to show my dad, he almost got sick. It seems there had been a disturbance down the street and he went down to see what it was all about and he got there just in time to see them pull aside the sheet and see the dead man’s face practically blown off by a gunshot. Of course it’s not like everyone has such a dramatic story for not liking pizza.

While I know pizza is definitely not on the list of health foods, I can’t help enjoying a good pizza now and then. Especially Brazilian pizza with the super thin crusts and all the varieties.

The other night, I was with João when he picked up Sissy at school. Usually it’s about 10:45PM or so, but it was her last night of classes for this semester, so it was around 9:45 or so. I was hungry, and she said she wasn’t so much, but when he offered to take us out for pizza, neither of us was about to say no. We went to a “rodízio” of pizza, something common here, but not so much elsewhere. It is a pizza restaurant that serves you slices of pizza at your table, as often as you wish and of all varieties imaginable. It really is a pizza lover’s dream.

You start off (or at least I did) with the cheese type pizzas, and I had at least 4 types (very small slices). There was provolone, bacon, cream  cheese, and jerked beef. I turned down such exotic fare as cream cheese and chicken, stroganoff, hamburger, egg, sausage, pepperoni, tomato, olive, sardine, tuna, etc. At least that I can recall.

The real “tour de force” are the dessert pizzas. I have never ever seen so many dessert pizzas. It was almost impossible to resist the ice cream pizza, or the almond bar pizza, french toast pizza, strawberry/chocolate pizza, banana and cinnamon, and fruit salad pizza. There were a lot more actually, I just can’t even remember them all.  

I settled on a strawberry pie pizza and also the fruit salad that was absolutely wonderful. The waiters were a riot and the three of us laughed ourselves silly. We had a great time. I thought of how much my friends in Canada and the US would enjoy a place like this. We got home late, of course and none of us had a hard time sleeping.

Come and visit us here in Rio and we will take you out to the Pizza & Grill for the pizza rodízio.

 

Adventures in the Forest

 

I forgot to mention our exciting Sunday night program at church! I’ll try to explain the whole thing, but you can look at the pictures, too, as they are self-explanatory.

Many years ago, João wrote the lyrics to a children’s cantata, but he never found anyone to compose the music for it.

About 6 or 7 years ago I began work on a VBS program here in Brazil. As it progressed, I began to wonder if it wouldn’t be possible to work around the cantata. As I consulted with my editor and publisher, she felt it would be a good thing, since the cantata fit perfectly with the theme.

The cantata, that originally bore the title of “THE FALL”, was re-entitled “Adventures in God’s Forest”, also the name of the VBS. The music was written by a friend, who made an effort to write VERY Brazilian type music. The CD and book were published in 2008. They have since sold out. I received reports from many places in Brazil where the musical was performed. The concept was to study God’s creation and also learn about God’s redemption of creation. The musical tells the story of the perfect creation and all the love, and of the serpent’s temptation, mankind’s fall and how Jesus is the way back to Paradise.

I dreamed of the musical being done at my church. It finally happened, on a small scale at the end of last year. With the advent of our children’s minister, the decision was made to “upscale” the production and present the musical on a Sunday. This was the Sunday.

It was a cold evening on a long holiday weekend and we felt sure there would be few people. The church was packed, and that was amazing, especially since so many were small children who take up so little space!

The set design was amazing. The band that accompanied them was wonderful. The lighting and everything else, like costumes were perfect. The children in the choir were amazingly well behaved for such a long performance. I was impressed. And surprisingly I was emotionally moved by the story I know so well. When Eve came in like a bride with flower petals falling from the ceiling, singing “my love song”, I cried. When the nasty serpent (played by the state WMU leader!) tempted them, I hissed and called out for Eve not to fall for that line.

When they were all banned from paradise, and the wars began, I was so sad. It was a triumphal experience for me to see the “old, old story” told in a very new way. It was a dream realized and I was walking on air when it was over.   

I don’t have a lot of dreams anymore, so the few I do have are precious to me. It’s great when I see one of them actually happening while I am awake. I wonder how many more moments like this I will still have along the way?

Back to the Drawing Board

For several months now I have stopped my art work. I have a lot of excuses (oops, reasons, rational explanations?), but you know when you break a good habit, it’s hard to get back on track. When I stopped attending classes, I stopped producing. I probably shouldn’t have done that, but on the other hand, maybe I needed the break. I trust that when I get back from vacation in August, I’ll get back on track. The other day I did a drawing for the children during my children’s message. It was a kid’s drawing, and all upside down at that (on purpose), but it made me “homesick” to have pencils in my hand. So I picked up my colored pencils and started working on a cat portrait from my book “Realistic Pet Portraits”. 

It felt so good that on Friday the hours slipped away as I worked on the drawing. I am about half done, and on the hard part now, doing the background and the small details of the fur coloration, especially the ears, but thought I’d share my creation with you. If I get the details right and blend everything correctly, I think I will be pleased with the results. I really think the two things I love to do are pet portraits in pencil and human portraits in water colors. There are still many hours ahead on Miss Tabby, and then she will be filed away in my portfolio, but someday I would like to offer to do portraits of people’s cats, especially those who have lost their cats, so they can have a memory. But it’s funny, you also need to be either a good sketcher (which I am NOT) or a good photographer to catch just the right expression. I think I have a bigger chance of learning to be a better photographer than sketcher! I am working on that one, by practicing on Mia.

The good news on Mia is that after a thorough examination on Saturday, the ophthalmologist said she is finally well from her corneal ulcers and is off all meds. What a relief for the both of us. I am hoping she will now be willing to come back in sit in my lap again. She is very wary of me, since she knows my hands carry all the meds to torture her. It's been a long four months!

Speaking of Mia, isn’t she a cutie pie all decked out for the World Cup? For my American friends, The World Cup (soccer) is MUCH bigger than the Super Bowl. For one thing, it lasts an entire month and involves every continent in the world. For my Canadian Friends, it is much bigger than the Stanley Cup, because, well for the same reasons. Brazil goes nuts. The streets are painted in yellow and green. Horns and tee shirts and banners are everyone, ready for the opening ceremonies this week. During Brazil’s games, everything shuts down, stores, banks, business, etc. The only thing that happens is the GAME. I don’t plan on painting my face yellow and green, but I do plan on watching the games all dressed up for our team. You know, of course, that Brazil is the only team in the world who has won 5 times and is going for a 6th championship. Only Italy comes close, as a four time winner. Germany has three. In addition, Brazil is the only country to have played in EVERY world cup since 1930. So come on board and cheer with us. HEXA (six time champion) all the way.