Saturday: part 2.2 The Alabama light fixtures

I took a lot of pictures of the light fixtures.

SO, I figured I'd give them their own entry.

upper level balcony

balcony wing, near the stage

view from the lobby, looking up to the first level balcony

view from the first level balcony, looking down to the lobby

the lighted dome in the center of the theatre

women's restroom, basement. yes. really. (also known as the ladies lounge to class it up a little)

the lobby

the ticket booth area

Saturday: part 2.1, The Alabama Theatre

(I'm breaking this post into 5 mini posts so picture loads will be faster)

Husband and I decided the first Christmas we were together (we were engaged at the time) that we'd go to The Alabama Theatre to see It's a Wonderful Life every year. Well, it's been four Christmases and we've only been twice (kids will slow you down).

Regardless of how often we get to go, we LOVE The Alabama and its Mighty Wurlitzer Pipe Organ. Husband wants to start taking Daughter to weekend cartoons there eventually, so we thought this would be a fun way to introduce her to the theatre. (and Son too)

Daughter enjoying a cookie in the main lobby. She had to put her punch down before I let her in that chair! This is when we first got there and were hot and sweaty from The Lyric. Refreshments were in order.

The view coming up from the basement. I liked the lighting.

Daughter first walking into the theatre and choosing a seat so we could listen to the Wurlitzer.

Her seat. She was amazingly attentive.

Husband and Son's seats, across the aisle

ever so patient. He's a rock. (and a little tired)

Daughter making her way up to the lower balcony

relief work on the staircase

This is when we're preparing to leave. headed back down to the lobby

Of course, one more helping of refreshments were called for. Making this a true Part-Day.

Saturday: part 1, The Lyric Fine Arts Theatre

The Lyric, in downtown Birmingham, had an open house Saturday along with The Alabama. It was free. We were there.

The Lyric Fine Arts Theatre (please click the link, the pictures are amazing. plus it gives a much better history than I'm about to tell) opened in 1914 as a vaudeville theatre. It's been vacant for 50 years and restoration is now underway (AND YOU CAN HELP!) Also, according to a handout I was given, it was the first theatre in the south where blacks and whites could see the same show at the same time for the same price.

It was amazing. amazing. It would've been a pretty fun date if our third and fourth wheels didn't tag along, but it was great regardless. It's important to remember, it's not just a fun place to tour while it's dirty and broken down, but it's going to be an amazing theatre and office building again. And the city will benefit.

Saturday was probably the first day I really wished I had a Canon Rebel instead of my silly little point and click Canon Elph. I took over 100 pictures and here are the ones I think you'll enjoy the most:

This is a view of the stage from the middle balcony (mezzanine, I suppose)

the marble floor in the entry way.

the crown molding in the entry way

the crown molding in the next room (closer to the theatre) same features, different paint

Daughter making her way to the stage. All the seats on the main level have been removed.

She didn't want to preform on the stage at the Lyric Fine Arts Theatre. There was a cute tour guide that kept trying to talk to her and she got shy.

Son, the picture of patience. He accepted that he would not be able to get out of his sister's umbrella stroller to get covered in dirt and behaved accordingly.

wall to the left of the stage.

crown molding under the balcony

The water fountain at the back of the theatre. An elderly gentleman pushing a lady in a wheelchair saw me take this picture and told me he was well aquainted with this water fountain - it was where he walked during scary parts of movies!

Daughter making her way to the mezzanine. marble steps. (Someone with a Canon Rebel asked to take her picture right after I snapped this one ... good eye)

part of the balcony railing, separating top and bottom

the only chair remaining on the mezzanine level. The lady who got cut off in the picture was a tour guide. I wanted to stay and listen to her entire speech, unfortunately Daughter didn't let that happen.

In one of the offices, looking like an orphan.

showing me how much dirt she accumulated. YES, we had to go to the car and change her clothes and gives her a baby wipes bath before she went to our next stop. I'm glad to announce the dress has been laundered and looks amazing and clean once again.

The view from one of the office windows. The Alabama Theatre across the street.

downstairs, in the office area

the top balcony. the only place where most of the seats where still installed

the best shot of the front that I could get without crossing the street. lazy, I know.

church sign ... er, mural. Hunstville, Alabama

eggbeater Jesus

play-doh is more fun when you don't eat it

I'm so glad Daughter doesn't try to eat (much) play-doh anymore.

It makes playing with it a lot more fun. (I like not having to say, 'get that out of your mouth' and 'we do not eat play-doh. we play with it,' OVER and OVER again)

black, white, yellow, pink, green = fun times with Daughter.

Food Day Friday: freezing fresh basil

We love eating pesto.

Last year I had all these grand ideas about the multitudes of basil we'd have in the garden. and all the pesto we'd be whipping up in the kitchen. not a single basil plant survived in last year's garden. no multitudes of leaves. no leaves at all.

This year I planted 4 basil seeds instead of 2 ... Then just to hedge my bets, I bought 2 basil plants at wal-mart. There was no room in the garden so they are in a planter in the driveway (optimum spot for exactly 6 hours of sun a day -- I'm dreaming of multitudes of basil again)

We currently have 2 healthy growing basil plants in the actual garden (from the seeds I planted) AND almost 6 from the two pots I bought.

the planter basil needed a harvest. so I made basil butter. that helped.

a few days later ... lots of big leaves ready to be picked.

I decided to pick everything that was ready and I'd freeze them.

This is the method of freezing I decided on.

I picked and rinsed all the leaves to get any dirt off them (this would be a good time to have a salad spinner) I ended up having 8 loosely packed cups. Perfect. That's how big my blender is - 8 cups.

This is what the plants looked like 3 days after the great harvest. You can tell there are already a few leaves that could be picked.

I put 1 tablespoon of olive oil in for every cup of basil. Next time, I'll probably use less olive oil. (maybe. I haven't decided yet)

puree.

I put the puree in my baby food freezer containers. (score. I'm so glad I still have those) If you don't have baby food freezer containers you can use ice cube trays and cover with plastic wrap. My 8 cups of basil and 8 tablespoons of olive oil produced almost 8 ounces of puree.

freeze. remove puree from tray and put in freezer bag.

I'm sure all of these cubes will be made into pesto. (Our Sam's Club has a great buy on pine nuts) Now I just need to start looking at pesto recipes for my already proportioned quantities.

EDIT: this is what a friend does with her basil and pesto. Good alternative if you don't have ice trays (or baby food trays)

I freeze pesto in muffin tins (spray with cooking spray first) and put the "pesto muffins" in freezer bags.

The large muffin tins are a good size for a dinner and the mini-muffin tins work great to pop into a pot of tomato sauce or anywhere else you want a blast of basil.

I had a dream last night ...

... that I went to the garden and picked 2 dozen eggplants! Sadly, when I went to check the garden this morning, I did not find 24 eggplants. I found about a dozen eggplant BLOOMS ... and one baby squash!

Here's some garden highlights:

One of the 12(ish) eggplant blooms. I'm also happy to announce that as of right now, there are more healthy flea beetle bite free leaves than there are bitten ones. YaY for Sevin Dust.

This is the Star of David Okra seedlings. I decided to start them in containers to give them a little more protection while they were still tiny. I planted 10-12 seeds and only 5 have sprouted. But it's only been 3 days since the first one came up. I'm hoping there are some late bloomers in there.

This is the much sought after spearmint. (If you follow me on twitter, you read a lot about how hard it was for me to find a mint plant! Whole Foods was where I finally snagged one)

The mint is flanked on each side by the amazing basil. Husband even commented yesterday how surprised he is about the fast producing basil (... I talk to it.)

squash bloom and ACTUAL squash!!

two of the stupices. These will probably be used for salads, sauces ... fingers crossed, canning. I probably won't have enough to can alone, so I'll probably end up making lots of sauce and then freezing it for later. I haven't really decided yet ... ideas?

12 of the Juliets (look hard, it's at least 12) I think I'm going to "sun dry" most of these - except I'm going to use the oven. There's a Dried Tomato Pesto recipe in Animal, Vegetable Miracle that I'm waiting to try on our tomatoes.

the blackberries aren't quite black yet ... but they aren't green anymore either.

FINALLY, a couple of blooms on the strawberries. hurray. I had Husband take them out of a planter and put them in the dirt one night last week at about 10pm because I was worried the planter was stunting their development. (it probably wasn't)

2 of about 10 muskmelon vines. All of the vines have multiple blooms ... I think we're in store for lots of melons. (exciting) I'm going to be the old lady pawning all her melons off on her friends. (ignore all the grass ... I need to pull all that up, it's embarrassing)

one of the muskmelon blooms

I take pictures of the garden so much because Husband gets home from work at 7pm. In our new nightly routine, he hurries and changes clothes so we can go run/jog/walk for about 30-40 minutes and then take the kids to the park (if they are good during the run/jog/walk) by the time we get home it's about 8:30 ... dinner time followed soon by story and bedtime. He doesn't get to see much of the garden in the sunlight. He'll enjoy this post.