Time for a new vacuum...

Last night the Chief and I moved the dining room table so the electrician could check the wiring for the fan (the power on one circuit shorted out last week). I wanted to vacuum the rug before we rolled it up out of the way - the deep-red carpet was almost pink in places, there was so much dust! - only to find that our vacuum doesn't suck. Even after we checked the bag and cleaned the beater brush, it still just moved the dirt around instead of picking it up. The Chief has been talking for a while about getting a new vacuum; looks like that's gonna hafta happen sooner than we thought.

Funny birds

Yesterday en route to rehearsal, I passed the huge swath of open space in front of the nearby university. As I approached, it looked like there were the usual flocks of Canada geese, but in "serried ranks assembled". As I went past, I could see a long, wide swath of green, presumably over a steam tunnel. That green swath was packed with geese over most or all of its considerable length. Those birds are no dummies - why freeze their tailfeathers sitting on snow when there was a warmer, green place to sit!

The other day I looked out onto the back deck to see at least 5 or 6 robins out there, sipping at the water dripping off the back gutters. Their feathers were all puffed up against the cold, making them look at least half again as large, and you could almost see the poor things shivering. I wanted to get a picture but something scared them off before I got to my camera. Or maybe they were camera-shy.

We're rehearsing again - hallelujah!

Last night we had our first rehearsal in two weeks, and it was SUCH a good feeling! We were all a bit disoriented, I think, and had forgotten a lot, of course, but it was lovely to get to run the music and blocking, review stage business, talk props & costumes, and generally try to get this show on its feet again.

Today we had a marathon 7-hour rehearsal in an attempt to regain lost ground. We worked through the entire show, fixing and tweaking here, reviewing and woodshedding there. Near the end, the director announced that we were in good shape, considering the unplanned hiatus, and that she felt confident we'll be just fine come opening night.

Tomorrow we work the Act I and II finales and one or two other numbers with more complicated movement. Then we have just 3 more rehearsals before the Sitzprobe next Saturday, load-in and cue-to-cue Sunday, then the marathon rehearsals.

Our costumer just learned she has to be out of town for work for part of Tech Week and asked me to help organize the costume situation in her absence. I said yes because I like that sorta thing, I've worked with her on several shows and know how she works, and - this is the most important factor - she assured me she'd get all the major pieces done beforehand and would send me a detailed costume plot. Wish us luck!

update on the once-and-future bathroom

The ridiculously heavy snowfalls slowed the work on the bathroom but didn't stop it entirely. The Chief and BT, our contractor, have now got all the "mud" on the walls, picked up all the moldings and trim, and have the picture rail and crown molding up on all but one corner, that being the corner that needs a bit more detailed cutting to turn the corners. BT apparently teased the Chief that once this bathroom is finally finished, we'll use it more than the back bathroom (the one right across from our bedroom) because it'll be so much nicer. The Chief was commenting that it's already warmer than the back bathroom because they packed the walls with so much insulation before they put up the new drywall.

The nice thing is that work is resuming in earnest. The electrician comes Monday to install the light over the shower, the heat lamp and the fixture over the medicine cabinet, and the painting can start as soon as the last of the molding goes up. I'm not sure at what stage BT will install the new framing around the window; hope it's soon, as that will go a long way toward making this look more finished and less like a construction zone.

Even though it'll be at least another couple of weeks before it's all done (the tiling alone will need at least 3 days, and the sink & toilet can't go in until after the tile is finished), I can finally see light at the end of that particular tunnel. In a burst of optimism, I even ordered color swatches for the new towels the Chief wants for the "new" bathroom.

And once the front bathroom is done, we start tearing apart the library so BT can replace the current closet with a properly built one and do that wall of built-in bookshelves. I'm hoping that phase won't take as long. Having to box up all my books and music for the duration will mean having to reorganize the books, which have gotten rather jumbled. I'll also want to figure out how best to organize my music, which currently is just grouped together in the same general area, with most of the church music together, possible audition or repertory pieces in the same stack, and so on. Ideally, once all is said and done, I might actually be able to find things without having to dig through a stack or shelf of random, loose sheet music. (I can dream...!)

Snowverkill

Since Friday we've gotten over 3 feet of snow. Feet. In an area where snowfall is measured in inches, usually 4 or less. Work is closed again today, which means I've missed the first 4 days of my 2-week class, and no telling whether they'll be dug out enough to open tomorrow. After all, even if you've got the equipment to get all this stuff out of the way, where on earth are ya gonna put it all? Even if you could get it to a nearby stream or other waterway, those waterways are already full to overflowing. At this rate, it'll take until at least April to get rid of all this mess, even if we don't get another flake, and Monday's forecast is for a 50% chance of additional snow.

I've done enough baking that I'm hitting bottom on both the flour and sugar canisters. We'll run out of milk tomorrow or Saturday, although we have enough of everything else that we're in no danger of starving. Good thing we have all these leftovers, as I'm actually getting tired of cooking and starting to look forward to a meal I don't have to cook or clean up after. (I hadn't realized how much eating out we do until we couldn't do any at all.)

Today will probably be a heavy-duty Grand Duke day - listening to all the choruses repeatedly, reviewing blocking notes, etc. Can't practice the choreo, as there's no room, between the construction equipment and snow removal gear, but I can mark it.

Uh oh...

In baking the apple cake, I realized I'm down to the bottom of our flour supply, and very close to the bottom of the sugar. No more baking from scratch until we can get out to make another grocery run. Yes, we could do mixes if we were truly desperate, at least until the eggs run out, and maybe I will pull out that box of gingerbread mix (lovely warm, with applesauce on top) but suddenly we feel like we're living close to the (baking) edge.

Shifting "domestic goddess" gears

In a slight shift of domestic gears, I only fixed a batch of Moroccan carrot salad (with this morning's infusion of carrots; the ones bought last week were long since gone into soup) and a batch of brownie mix. We're down to a single slice of mince pie, so I'll probably make an apple cake tomorrow with the apples we bought this morning.

In a switch from cooking to sewing, I made a petticoat to go under the dirndl-style dress I may be contributing to the Grand Duke costume mix. (The couple of pettis I already have are too long.)

Which has me wondering just how many pettis I've made over the years? I made at least two sets of tiered petticoats* when I was in the Hungarian folk dance troupe, and this is at least the 2nd petti I've made on my own initiative for a stage costume. If you add in pettis made to go under ballgowns for Merry Widow or Die Fledermaus, the number goes up considerably, as I've made at least 3 or 4 "bustle pettis".

Lest you think I'm still strictly housebound, my asthma is back under control at last, so I grabbed a shovel and excavated a path to the recycling and trash bins. Took a bit of doing, as I had to work past my car, which is still only partially cleared, and I discovered several bags of construction debris which were in the way, but now we can take the trash (and its smell) outside. While I was at it, I also liberated the lower branches of the dogwood tree on that side of the house. Poor tree was quite badly weighed down. Fortunately, it only lost a few small branches.

* These were some pretty substantial pettis. These had an upper & lower tier; the bottom one, worn closest to the body, had 4 yards of fabric in the upper tier and 8 yards in the lower tier. The next petti had 5 and 10 yards, and the top petti had 6 and 12 yards. And they only came to just above the knee. Check out that silhouette! (These are from Voivodina, now part of Serbia.)

Small victories

The Chief and I drove to the commissary this morning to restock a few things They opened almost an hour late because they had to wait for employees to get there to stock shelves and such, but they were open and they had milk, some fresh produce, and all but one other item on our list.

We also topped up the gas tank, bought gas for the snowblower, mailed off a coupla catalog returns, and found out just how poorly some of the roads had been cleared. Some major, 3-lane roads had only 2 or even a single clear lane, and one main artery was so patchily "cleared" that it was worse than some muddy dirt roads I've traveled.

Such a deal!

Finally got around to logging on to the Metropolitan Museum's catalog to buy some half-price Christmas cards, only to find that they've been further reduced - some of the cards that retail for $17.95 a box are now going for only $4.49. The 5 boxes I just bought cost only $30 shipped - gotta love it.

This kind of gray hair washes away.

The Chief was priming the walls of the once-and-future bathroom and managed to paint himself a little white stripe along the top of his head. He was busy in there today - did a bit of sanding, then the priming.

No, no more snow!

Oh just lovely. The National Weather Service warns that we've got yet another winter storm headed our way. They're claiming this one is likely to dump at least another 7" of snow, possibly as much as 10" or more, between Tuesday and Wednesday. Rehearsals for those nights have already been cancelled; this is getting ridiculous! We may have to lay on 8-hour rehearsals this coming weekend in hopes of making up some of the time we've lost. Pray for our director's sanity - she's probably bald from pulling her hair out!

The Chief is planning a grocery run tomorrow to restock the things we're running low on. I'm crossing my fingers that they'll have gotten deliveries of milk and such so that the shelves won't be bare when he gets there.

OK, Mother Nature, what on earth did we do to get you so pissed off and how can we make amends?

"Blue skies, smiling at me"

The sun is shining from a nearly cloud-free, blue sky and its light is just about blinding off all this snow. It'll probably melt at least a little - thank goodness the neighborhood shovelers got down to bare pavement, or nearly, yesterday - but I can't help but wonder how the roads are. Work is closed today and tonight's rehearsal is principals-only, so no need for me to venture out just yet. I would like to, if only to get some pictures - the icicles hanging off our gutters look like huge fangs. My asthma numbers are better, so I might bundle up and go out, if only to ease the cabin fever a little.

No surprise

No surprise that today's make-up rehearsal is canceled, given that we've all gotten over 2 feet of snow. Some of us live in areas with official totals over 30 inches, and none of us got less than 2 feet. I just hope things get dug out enough that we can get to a rehearsal tomorrow night. At least we'll have plenty of time to go over music and review blocking & choreography notes, since none of us can go anywhere yet. Well, assuming people aren't too worn out from shoveling...

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Actually, it's a gorgeous day in the neighborhood! Bitter cold (up to the mid-20s as of 11 this morning) but the sun is shining and sparkling off all the 2+ feet of snow the "blizzard of 2010" dropped on us.

The Chief is outside, renewing the attack with shovel and snowblower, along with a couple of neighbors, as they try to dig out cars, widen sidewalks, and make sure both ailing, elderly neighbors are dug out. We've been very lucky with our neighbors - most of 'em are conscientious and able-bodied and were out at least a couple of times yesterday to make sure the snowfall didn't get too far ahead of the digging out. And everyone who went out did at least at least their adjacent neighbors, which means our block isn't too bad.

The biggest problem with this kind of snowfall is a logistical one - when you dig out, where the heck do you put all that snow?!? Our yards aren't all that big so they're gonna fill up fast. The mounds along the driveways and sidewalks are already at least waist-high, and they're still digging out. Worse, the forecast for Tuesday night still includes snow, as if we haven't had enough, and more than enough, already.

The Chief was able to determine that our dryer vent is clear, so it's safe to throw his wet things in the dryer. Yesterday we didn't know that, so he had his many layers hung up in the bathroom and shut in with the space heater. My, that bathroom was warm & toasty! I just worry about all the snowblower fumes he's been inhaling; wonder if drinking lots and lots of water will help, or should he be doing something else...?

My asthma's still being uncooperative. I resent the way it's making me feel like an invalid, so I'm trying to make up for it by cooking like crazy - gotta keep my Knight in Snowy Armor well fed - and today will probably try to get some laundry done, now that I know it's safe to run the dryer.

In case anyone was wondering

Yesterday's cooking bout produced the following:

• a BIG pot of vegetable-beef soup with lotsa great oxtail stock from simmering on the stove for 6+ hours;
• a huge vat o' salad, so all we have to do is throw it in a bowl;
• rinsed grapes, picked from the stems and added to the collection of tupperware in the fridge;
• a single batch of hummus; and
• a double batch of salmon spread.

In finding a storage container for the salmon, I realized I had filled up all the larger containers and most of the fridge. (The veggie-beef soup had to go in the fridge in the soup pot.) I think we could feed the whole block with what we've got in the fridge now, though what's left of the pies (about 1/2 each of the mince and apple, the latter only an 8" deep-dish) is probably only enough for a sliver per person.

Hungry and don't feel like cooking? If you can get to our house, we've got plenty of food! :-)

Just keep praying...

We finally got a chance to talk to the Chief's brother today; the docs give their mom 3-6 months. They're arranging for in-home hospice care, but my BIL was waiting for a call back from the social worker so we kept it short. The Chief & I still need to learn whether there's anything we can do to help, what they can do for her, etc.

As if that weren't enough, I learned yesterday that my mom had a CAT scan yesterday in hopes of learning why the serious back pain she had in September is not going away, and why she's had such lingering fatigue since before Christmas. No telling how long it will take to get the results read, but we can't help but remember that this is how they found mom's lymphoma a few years back (long-term, unexplained pain and fatigue). As a result, my sister the occupational therapist (OT), who's working on her PhD in a gerontology specialty, is trying to make sure all 5 of us siblings have all the same information about our parents' health, their decisions about extreme medical care, burial arrangements, whether and where they'd want to move if they find themselves widowed... Not fun, but if we think about it now, when we have time to get details from Mom & Dad and make sure everything is written down and shared among all of us, that'll be so much better than having to make those decisions while trying to accept their serious illness or death.

With that news, and 2 feet of snow and counting, and my asthma trying to get worse instead of better, well, I could sure do with some spring right now! I had Beethoven's 6th on while assembling veggie-beef soup, but the Pastoral wasn't quite enough, when I can still see way too much snow out the windows.

This bathroom will be done eventually...

But it'll be at least another coupla weeks. The tiler won't be coming until the 22nd, and the tile laying is apparently a 3-day process - wall prepped day one, tile up and grouted day two, then finish work on day 3. And only once the tile is finished can the toilet & sink go in.

At least the Chief & our contractor can do other things. The electrician is coming this week to install the lights: one over the shower, a heat lamp, and the fixture going in over the medicine cabinet. Which will also go in sometime this week. Not sure when the new shower curtain rod (which we still have to order) will go in, but it hangs from the ceiling, so it can go in anytime after the ceiling paint dries.

The Chief plans to pick up the paint this week for the walls and moldings, of which we'll have 4 rows - baseboard, "chair rail", "picture rail" (don't ask!) and a little bit of crown molding. The baseboard will probably be a medium/dark blue with a lighter-blue accent, while the rest of the molding will be white. The walls will be shades of yellow: palest between the crown molding & picture rail, somewhat yellower between the picture & chair rails, and the yellowest paint below the chair rail.

Time to start that soup...

The oxtail package is no longer a brick. Now to start that pot of soup going and let it simmer for hours, until not only is the meat falling off the bone, but the bones themselves are falling apart. Just in time, too, as we're down to the last tub from last weekend's batch.

However, if this winter keeps dumping snow on us, I'm going to need to broaden my "storm soup" repertoire. This veggie-beef stuff is yummy, warming and a complete meal (protein, veggies, carbs from the barley), but a bit of variety wouldn't be a bad thing.

If I have to be snowed in while having an asthma flare...

... thank goodness the Chief is snowed in with me this time! The mega-meds are doing their work, but I can still feel the tightness and don't want to risk making things worse by trying to help get rid of all this snow. Per one of the local forecasts, we had 19" as of 7 a.m. and it's supposed to keep snowing for at least another 10 hours!

The Chief did roust me outta bed at 6:45 to help him bring the snow blower through the house - the snow was MUCH too deep for him to take it around the side of the house from the back patio. He did a bit of snow removal, came in to get some breakfast, and is back out again now. Took a few more passes along the sidewalks, though he couldn't get as far as he managed last night, and dug a path from his car to the street. He hasn't cleared anything off the car, but once he does, he'll be able to get it out.

We still have power so far, thank God! I guess that's one advantage to the winds - it blows the snow off the power lines and tree limbs so they don't get quite so overloaded. One of our neighbors said they had a holly tree come down. While they were sorry to lose a big, beautiful tree, he said he was grateful it fell into the backyard, not onto the house.

The plows have been through, but only making a single lane. They've been moving at a pretty good clip, too, for the conditions. I imagine they're probably all to painfully aware of just how much of this white stuff they have to move and from how many streets, many of them quite hilly.

At this point I'm assuming I won't be getting to church in the morning and am wondering whether tomorrow's rehearsal will go ahead as scheduled. Sure hope so!!!

I think I married a snowman

As planned, the Chief went out with the snowblower around 7:30 to do the sidewalks. He ended up making 2 passes on both sides of the block, and also did aprons (the bit of driveway between sidewalk and street) for our house and that of those neighbors with driveways. He also did our front walk. He did get some beer for his troubles from one neighbor; he was delighted, as he hadn't stocked up before the snow started and was down to one bottle.

By then the snow was coming down pretty fast & heavy. When he came back in an hour later, the top of his hat was completely white with snow, he had at least half an inch of snow on his collar and shoulders, the wrists of his gloves were full of snow, and he was very grateful for the wellies he bought in England, which kept his feet and legs nice & dry.

They're saying we could have 15-20 inches by morning, with the snow expected to continue into tomorrow night. Several area counties, including ours, are officially under a blizzard warning until at least mid-day tomorrow, as the winds started picking up around 7 or 8 o'clock. Several areas have lost power; I'm praying we don't join them! We'll be able to eat (thank heaven for a gas stove!), but oh, it'll get cold!

Cooking up a storm

Work let out early today so people had a chance to get home before the snow got too bad. I was shocked to stop by the cheaper gas station to find that they had NO 87 octane left! 6 pumps and no regular gas left. Long as the grocery lines were yesterday, I was glad we did our grocery shopping then, as the parking lots of the 2 grocery stores I passed on the way home were utterly packed. There was even a line to get into the lot of the store with the smaller parking lot!

Once home and lunch eaten, the cooking frenzy began. I started w/ pea soup, which the Chief loves. At his request, a mince pie was next (another item he loves and I don't touch), followed by a small apple pie. After all, I wanted to use up the pie crust left over from last week's pumpkin pie - couldn't bear the thought of letting it go bad! ;) Meanwhile, the Chief was making cranberry sauce, with two of the oldest apples thrown in for variety. Hey, if Ocean Spray can sell people on cran-apple juice, why not throw an apple or two into the cranberry sauce, right? I also plan to make another vat of vegetable beef soup, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow, as the oxtails are still frozen solid.

We still have enough tetrazzini left over for 2 more meals, a little bit of last week's veggie beef soup on hand, and even one last portion of pot roast. We've got plenty of our usual staples, so what with that, leftovers and soup, we're in no danger of starving, even if we don't dig out until Monday.

And it will be interesting to see how much snow we end up getting. The more conservative forecast of the two radio stations we had on in the kitchen was predicting 16"-24". The other station was predicting 20"-30"! Every forecast seems to agree that this storm will outsnow the one we had the week before Christmas, which was more than enough snow to suit me, thankyewverrymuch!

We're now missing 4 rehearsals in 8 days to all this snow - Saturday, Tuesday, tonight and tomorrow. They've added rehearsals the next 2 Sundays and this Wednesday in hopes of catching up. Given that we open 3 weeks from tonight, I earnestly hope we don't have any more snow, or at least nothing significant, until after we close the first weekend of March. Actually, if this were the last snow we get all winter, I'd be quite happy, although there are rumors of yet another snowfall Tuesday or Wednesday. No, please, no more snow!!! We can't afford to lose any more rehearsal time!

Update

Tonight we finished off the pumpkin pie. That's the last of the "real" pumpkin; if we want any more pumpkin anything I'll have to [shudder] open a can. Oh, the horror! ;)

We ended up getting 4 or 5 more inches of snow overnight; wetter than the stuff we got on Saturday, so I ended up starting my day by shoveling a path from the front door to the car at 0545. Bleah. Worse, they're warning us we've got another snowstorm headed our way that should start mid-day Friday, bringing 12-20 inches by the time it's all over, and someone at work today was saying he'd heard there's yet another storm behind that one, which could mean we'd get more snow around Tuesday. I guess we're paying for the past several winters during which we got maybe 6-12 inches all winter long. But ya know, I'd be just as happy to forgive that "debt"...

Because of the snow, we lost another rehearsal last night, and it's not looking at all good for rehearsals on Friday & Saturday. We've already scheduled make-up rehearsals for this Sunday & next Sunday, and if we actually get to rehearse next Saturday, I won't be at all surprised if we run long in an attempt to get caught up. Given that we open 3 weeks from Friday, I imagine our poor director is probably tearing her hair out over all these cancellations - we've got a lot of work still to do!

Asthma's no better, so my allergist has me maxing out on albuterol and taking prednisone. Poor Chief - I warned him he might want to find some friends to go stay with for a few days.

Heard from my sister that she's "safe - for now", but there will be more lay-offs later this year. Now we just have to pray that her husband's PSA test next week shows that they got all the cancer when they operated in November.

Had the tetrazzini for dinner tonight. The sauce was a bit runny; not sure if that's my technique or the recipe, but it's tasty enough that I'll keep making it, maybe play with it a bit the next time. We can probably get 2 more dinners out of it; not enough to get us through the snow we're supposed to get this weekend, so the Chief is off to the grocery store tomorrow to restock the larder with provisions to get us thru the duration.

The bathroom is making progress slowly but surely. The plumber has repiped the sink area and reconnected the tub, so the only plumbing left is the installation of the new sink and toilet (which still needs to be ordered). The drywall is just about done, including the braced hole where the medicine cabinet will go. Even the ceiling is just about done. The electrician comes back next week to install the light over the shower, the heat lamp and the light fixture over the medicine cabinet, and the tiler is due either late next week or early the week thereafter.

"Snow" is a 4-letter word

More snow. Yeah, it's pretty, but I really got it out of my system after shoveling 18" of the stuff back in December. Then we got 6" Saturday, and now it's snowing again, with 3-6 inches predicted (Will I get a snow day out of it? I'm not counting on it), so tonight's rehearsal was cancelled. And they're calling for more of the white stuff Friday and Saturday. Enough already!

And what's #3?

Tonight's been rather a night for bad news. The Chief's brother had to take their mother to the hospital last night for bleeding. He called tonight to tell us that she's got massive tumors on both lungs and at least one kidney. They can't really operate because she's nearly 90 and in fragile health; they're afraid she wouldn't survive the surgery. The Chief & his brother weren't on the phone very long, but it sounds like all they can really do is send her home & make her comfortable.

Then I saw my sister post on her FB status that her company is laying people off and rumor has it that those in her building may find out tomorrow whether they still have jobs. To add to the fun, her husband works for the state, which is also considering layoffs. He's the newest member of his department, so he's understandably nervous about where he stands.

Standing in the need of prayer!

What to say to someone we'll never meet?

The Chief wants to leave a letter in the bathroom wall before the medicine cabinet goes in, intended for some later owner of the house. I've got a line or two so far, just saying why we're remodeling. If you were opening a wall and found a letter, what would you want the previous owner to tell you? Price of gas or groceries? Who won the Super Bowl or World Series? Comments on politics, weather, the neighborhood? Ideas, please.

Feeding frenzy

You can bet the rent - if we get a snow day and there's any food in the house, I'll start cooking. Not only did I make that huge pot of soup Saturday (now decanted into several containers), but yesterday I did make that pumpkin pie, and a huge vat o' salad for the week's lunches. While I was slicing & dicing, I cut up some green peppers for the Chief to snack on. Oh, and I still gotta do something with the turkey breast I took out of the freezer the other day while it's still good.

The Chief split one of the containers of soup w/ the contractor today. This after sending over pot roast, mashed potatoes & salad when he was in the hospital, so his wife would have at least one meal she didn't have to do anything but heat. The Chief had also fed him some of the salsa I made a week or so ago so there'd be something easy & reasonably healthy for him. The contractor reportedly asked if I liked cooking. Um, ya think? :D

NaBloPoMo

Sorry, you won't find me signing up for NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) in February. C'mon, are you kidding? I have a Tech Week and opening weekend in February; I'll be lucky to see my Theater Widower much. Blogging will just have to wait until after opening weekend, and maybe even after the show closes, since I have two 2-week classes at work that run nearly back to back. (Watch out for flying brain matter, as mine may well explode before all is said and done.)

Snow day

Director decided last night to cancel today's rehearsal. Good call - we probably got 6" or so, and some of the cast would be traveling from parts of town where they tend to get ice rather than snow, or have to cross a lot of bridges and overpasses, where icing is also a probability.

While the snow meant our contractor didn't come by to cut more drywall for the bathroom (he does that outside in consideration of my asthma), it didn't stop the Chief & me from heading out to a matinee of The Young Victoria (GORGEOUS movie! loved the costumes!) followed by dinner at an "Irish pub". Before we left, I got another pot of soup started; after spending the afternoon in the fridge while we were gone, it's now back on the stove, simmering away. And if I don't get to pumpkin pie tonight, I'll definitely be making one tomorrow.

We came home to find that someone, perhaps a neighbor with a new snowblower?, had cleared the sidewalk the full length of our side of the street. That left the Chief with only the front steps and walk to do.

No spring show yet

Just heard back about Taming of the Shrew. I'm now 0 for 3 with my auditions for spring shows. Good thing there are still 3 more auditions on my calendar. The Chief keeps telling me to audition for straight plays, not just musicals. All well and good, but the problem is that straight plays have no chorus and thus a smaller cast. At least with musicals, you can take a place in the ensemble and let them see what you can do.

However. Three more spring shows to audition for - 2 plays and a musical. The musical is Bye Bye Birdie. Yes, I know I've already done it. The difference is that in this production, Mae Peterson gets to sing "A Mother Doesn't Matter", which was written for the TV special. That sits pretty low, though, and I don't have much of a belt yet. Maybe I could play Mrs. Macafee?

My husband the contractor?

Got home today to have the Chief tell me that "we" (he & the contractor) had finished putting up the moisture barrier and cement backer board in the front bathroom today. He's really enjoying this, learning all he can from the contractor, to the point that he's now ready to do much of the back bathroom himself. Not the tiling, electrical or piping, but the ceiling & walls and painting, and we already know he can replace a toilet. We may end up doing both bathrooms before summer after all. (Monday he was ready to postpone the back bathroom until fall, to give the bank balance a chance to recover.)

One down, one to go

I've already heard back from the Moon Over Buffalo director - I'm not cast. Not a huge surprise, as it's a very small cast, with only 4 roles for women and only 2 for women over 30. The surprise is that she got back to me so very quickly - the last night of auditions was only last night. I let her know that I do appreciate her responding so soon, and asked to be kept in mind for costumes, hair or make-up. Now that I've got this fantabulous Vintage Hairstyling book, I'd kinda like to do the hair.

I'm not too optimistic about my chances with Taming of the Shrew, if only because they got such a large turn-out, including a significant number of very talented folks who've worked with that company and director before. But as I said, if I don't get either of these, there are 3 more to try out for. No summer shows, though; I promised TW I'd take the summer off - from Memorial Day through Labor Day weekends, no rehearsals or performances. (Though I might try to get to the US leg of the international G&S festival - first US leg in a decade or more, to be held in Gettysburg, PA. Much cheaper and easier to get to than the UK festival!)

We have a sink

The new sink for the front bathroom arrived yesterday. We had spent literally hours searching on line for a sink small enough (the bathroom is only 37" from wall to wall, not including the shower). The one we settled on was nearly 3" deeper front to back than the old one, but when it came in, the Chief held it up to the wall and we were reassured that our guests will still be able to get past it to get to the toilet or shower. It also looks nicer than the old one, which looked like it belonged in an industrial park, and is wider, with a little room to set things down.

Our contractor was taking his turn with a stomach virus his family was passing around, but he plans to take the Chief to get drywall tomorrow.

This process is long and dusty, but I'm resigned to the mess, given how much nicer the "patients" will be once this is all finished. And when it is, we're planning to have an open house to celebrate, and to show off the spiffy new bathrooms and built-in bookshelves.

Fun with actors

Back-to-back auditions - last night was for Moon Over Buffalo, tonight was Taming of the Shrew. Both were fun, in different ways. MOB is a door-slamming farce, and I got to read both the deaf older woman and Charlotte, the theater veteran. I got to be all histrionic and over the top - quite fun.

In that setting, all of us auditioning were in the room together. Tonight, each pair or group reading a scene went into a small room to read for the director and her assistant, while the rest of us waited outside, perhaps rehearsing the scene we'd been given with our scene partners. I ended up reading 3 different parts (Baptista, parent to Katherina & Bianca; Hortensio, one of Bianca's suitors; and Kate, the shrew). With Shakespeare, you do need a couple of runs through the text before you read it for the directors so you can catch the wordplay, figure out the syntax, and pick up some of the subtleties. The linguist in me loves the language challenge, and it was fun playing such different characters.

Last night's director didn't expect to need callbacks and promised to let us all know "one way or the other" by the end of the week. Tonight's director said she expected to be telling people tomorrow whether to come to callbacks on Thursday. I find myself hoping I only get cast in one show; I'd hate to have to decide between them. And if I'm not cast in either one, there are 3 more shows to audition for over the next month.

Prayers, please

As the Chief & I were on our way to the tile place this morning, I answered his cellphone. It was our contractor's wife - seems he'd passed out that morning and she was getting ready to call an ambulance for him. "He says he's fine and that he's still coming over but I told him no", with which I heartily agreed. The Chief called back this afternoon and learned that B had been admitted, that the docs had done 2 tests so far which had both been normal. So we pray for B's quick return to health.

We have tile

The Chief and I were at the tile store at 9 this morning, where we bought all the tile for the front bathroom. We ended up settling on the same glazed ceramic dots for the pinwheels in both bathrooms because the iridescent stuff costs almost six times as much! Which is OK - I think the navy will look quite nice. The pinwheels are kinda funny - you buy a "blank" which means a 12" x 12" sheet of pinwheels (4 rows of 4), with the middle bit missing. The missing, square tile is referred to as a "dot"; that's what we're getting in navy. If you've ever been in the bathroom of an old house, you've seen this tile with a black dot; we're just getting a slightly fancier version.

The shower will get plain ol' white tiles, spiffed up with an accent row at the top that will consist of 2"x2" squares of glass tiles bordered above & below by long, narrow (7 3/4" x 5/8") tiles. We got 4 colors of glass tiles, and the way it's sold, what we ordered should be enough for both bathrooms.

We ended up taking everything but the tile for the accent row. For some reason I thought we'd be schlepping great big, very heavy boxes - not so. It took a while to figure out how much we needed of each tile, and then to write up all the paperwork (separate forms for the special-order and stock tiles), but we were still home shortly after 10 - quite the productive morning.

Full day tomorrow, and it just gets more so...

We've known for a few days that we'd have the plumber & electrician as well as our contractor tomorrow. Among other things, the plumber will take a look at the pipes under the wall-mounted sink to see whether he can rerun them so they're close enough together to accommodate a pedestal sink. The electrician will be putting in the electrical box for the new lights (we're adding an overhead light in the shower and a heat lamp in the ceiling), moving the box for the lights over the medicine cabinet, running additional wiring for the new lights, and repositioning the switches for it all. The contractor will be taking the Chief along to get drywall and cement backer board for the new tile to go into the shower.

My contribution to all this will be to go back to the tile place to get dimensions on the one tile for which we don't have any (Johnson Tile, why don't you have that info on your website? tsk tsk tsk), and see about getting samples of everything so the tiler will understand what we want. Yes, I could sketch it out on a piece of paper, but the Chief wants samples, so samples I'll get.

I also need to take my digital camera in to the camera doc. It's definitely not a battery problem - no matter what I do, I get nothing but a black screen and a few of the function icons when I turn it on. In the meantime, I have way too many pictures trapped in there. At least I got the Williamsburg and Yorkshire pictures transferred to the computer before my camera quit, but the Locks of Love Before & After pics? Trapped in the camera.

Going shopping with my "design consultant" sometime tomorrow. We had a good session today, as she went through my closet to see what we could use, what wardrobe gaps most need filling, and on and on.

I would like to swing by and help paint the Grand Duke set, but the scene bay is nowhere near any of these other errands (in fact, none of them are close to any of the others), so I might not manage that one.

I also need to sit down and total my mileage for rehearsals, performances and other deductible driving, as the Chief has already started to work on our tax return. The energy credit on the new windows will help our refund more than I'd expected, and we had rather more deductions than usual in 2009, so the Chief wants to get that return in asap. Every penny of that refund is going toward the remodeling, so the sooner we get it, the better.

Oh, and I have rehearsal tomorrow night. Neither of us remembered until this evening to pull something out of the freezer for tomorrow, so it'll be a diner night. At least the diner is en route to rehearsal.

"Stupid welcome dance" *

The Grand Duke includes a wild & crazy welcome dance about halfway thru Act II. We set it last night, tweaked it a little this afternoon, will probably continue to tweak it once we have everyone present. It includes a little "walk like an Egyptian", a bit of cancan, a little "Grecian urn"... Pretty energetic, and will probably leave the audience, especially the patrons in the first rows, stunned into silence. "What on earth was that?" "I don't know, but let's hope that was all of it!" It's fun!

* "Stupid welcome dance" is how the director described it. The stage directions call for it to be "wild" and "reckless", leaving all the dancers exhausted at the end. "Stupid" because our characters are a bunch of actors who fancy ourselves to be dancers, not real dancers, so what "we" come up with ends up looking kinda dumb.

On to the next

Got a call this evening from the artistic director of the company holding Mikado auditions. They'd had a mezzo drop out of their February show and would I be willing to fill in? "No is an OK answer." Well, since Grand Duke runs in February, "no" is exactly the answer I gave. "Oh, and by the way, we cast another Katisha." Someone with a "huge" voice, I was told.

Which is OK. There'll be other Mikados, and not getting this one means I'm free to take a work-related seminar being held in my hometown. I'd be able to tack on a few extra days and spend some time with family practically for free. I think it's probably a safe bet that my folks would be willing to let me use their spare bedroom, and maybe even feed me a stray crust of bread or so. I'd be paying only for the extra days on the rental car and the meals while I'm on my own time, not for the airfare.

Not getting Katisha also means that I'm free to audition for several other shows this spring - I've got 6 on my list, in fact, so if I'm not cast in the first one, there are several more auditions just waiting for me to show up.

Six Ways to Help Haiti

Dooce posted this link to a post by Chris Sacca on Six Ways You Can Help in Haiti. God knows they need all the help we can send them!

Update: Several commenters on Mr. Sacca's post have provided links to other charities working on Haiti relief, and Habitat for Humanity (habitat.org) is also gearing up to provide housing there.

Another audition behind me

Auditioned for a production of The Mikado tonight. I wasn't too sure of myself going in, both because today was my first voice lesson in nearly 2 months and because I'd battled another migraine earlier in the day, which rather wore me out and it never helps to audition tired. Oh well, no choice in the matter, since this was the last night of auditions.

In the little space on the audition form where you tell them what role(s) you'd like, I entered both Katisha ("an elderly lady" of the Mikado's court) and Pitti-Sing, one of the Three Little Maids from School. Given that I was the only auditioner in the room tonight who was obviously out of college, I hope the directors have a good chuckle over my requesting Pitti.

My singing didn't start out as well as I would have liked, but I think I finished pretty well, and they didn't ask me to do any vocalises, as they did some of the others auditioning. When it was my turn to read, I got to do the scene where Ko-Ko tries to persuade Katisha that he's in love with her. Great fun - the company's artistic director read Ko-Ko with great relish and I had a blast reading a thoroughly histrionic Katisha.

I don't know who auditioned last night, and I only heard two other women sing, but I think I held my own. No dance audition, but I had fun reading, so not a bad night. Now the waiting - I do hope they contact me even if I'm not cast.

Pinwheels

Looks like we'll be going with pinwheels for the tile on the bathroom floor. The Chief hates, loathes and despises the traditional version of this pattern, with the black center squares, but when he realized we could get other colors instead of black, well, that made a difference. Current plan is for a blue "dot" (though I don't remember at the moment which blue we decided on).

We also plan an "accent row" of pinwheels in the back bathroom's shower, with all 3 blues (blue topaz, sapphire and navy) in turn. Should be pretty.

The discombobulation continues

Today we finally got around to dismantling the bed in the guest room and draping it and the wardrobe with plastic in a probably too-optimistic attempt to reduce the dust accumulation. The little rug in there will desperately need cleaning once this is all done, and the Chief has already vowed to give the room a meticulous scrub from top to bottom to get rid of the dust. It'll need it - we already have extra dust accumulating in every room in the house (and yesterday I found small chunks of drywall in the dryer, which is directly below the bathroom currently being overhauled).

Oddly enough, we also seem to be getting more dustbunnies than usual. The Chief claims they come from God, just like regular bunnies.

This could be a brutal winter.

First snowfall in early December, 18-24 inches a coupla weeks later, temps that barely get above the freezing mark - we don't get hit like this until January or February! In 30 years in this area, I think this is the first time we've ever had this much snow or bitter cold in December, yet we've already had another light snowfall (inch or two), and we'll probably get more before April. We've got 2 shovels at the house & 2 at the cabin, but I want to get 2 more, for each of the cars, as well as a bit more ice melt, just in case. I think I need to pack the freezer with provisions too, against another snowed-in day or few.

We've been running the space heater in the kitchen pretty much all our waking hours and have the thermostat bumped up a little, yet the house is still cold. Makes us wonder if there's much insulation in the exterior walls. (That's one of the reasons the Chief wanted to open up the bathroom walls - to pack 'em with insulation.)

I just hope the temperatures moderate a little between now and Tuesday; I've got an audition that night and sub-zero temperatures make singing a lot more work.

Call him Demo Daddy

The Chief has been doing the demolition in the front bathroom to save on labor costs for the remodeling (and he'll do the same in the back bathroom once we get to that stage). I've been coming home to find him in raggedy clothes, unshaven, dusted with plaster and other debris and generally pretty pleased with that day's progress. His hands are pretty battle-scarred by now and look pretty painful, but he claims he can't get the same control of the crowbar and other demolition tools with gloves.

He's enjoying this process: discombobulating the adjacent rooms to reduce their exposure to all the plaster dust, pushing me to gut the contents of the bathrooms and closet to be remodeled (last night we threw out an amazing amount of expired meds; some expired in the 90s!), discussing the hows and whys with the contractor - heck, he's ready to sign on as the guy's assistant!

"And the walls came a-tumblin' down"

Our latest project for the house involves remodeling both bathrooms (in sequence, not at the same time - we're not that crazy!) and overhauling the library closet and installing built-in bookshelves along one wall. In order to get the front bath ready for its make-over, the Chief has ripped out the (old, yellowed) plastic shower surround and is in the process of tearing out all the drywall, getting down to the original lath and plaster. After only 2 or 3 days of that, we already have dust everywhere, assorted hunks of demolition debris piled up in places, and a need for more dropcloths.

Oh, and to make room for the contractor's equipment, the Chief has taken most of the stuff outta the guest room (to be the temporary equipment room), with the bed to be dismantled in the next day or two. Which means everything we had stored under that bed is now in the basement, dining room and living room, and we aren't even finished yet.

This is easily the worst part of any remodeling project - the huge disruption of the house. "Where is X?" "Um... Did you try looking ____?" And the dust, and looking at ripped-open walls, the drafts from said walls, and the toilet on the back deck, and plans and fixture catalogs all over the kitchen and...

I just keep a white-knuckle grip on how much nicer everything will be once this is all over.

Didn't do too well

A year ago I ginned up a list of "maybe possibly kinda sorta" goals for the end of 2009:

• hang some pictures at the cabin - the Chief & I got several hung over the summer
  
• hang some pictures in the living room at the house - nope, not a one
• expand my crockpot repertoire - oops, forgot about this one
  
• start dancing again, at least a little bit - too much theater to squeeze this one in
  
• maybe start using the gym at my new building - did start out with this one, though it only lasted until April
  
• expand my musical/theatrical horizons - nailed this one - learned that "woodgrain" technique, learned age make-up, performed in a new musical for the Fringe Festival

This shows you why I don't generally bother with "resolutions". Pictures in the living room may happen this year, but not until the dust has settled from the 2-bathroom-1-bedroom-closet remodeling project. Heck, once that's finished, we may go on a picture-hanging spree, since we'll be rearranging furniture anyway.

New crockpot recipe this year? Maybe - I'll hafta ask the Chief to go thru my crockpot cookbook and pick something he'd like to try.

Maybe I'll try yoga - I know a fair number of people who love it, and the neurologist even suggested it for migraine relief (although simply cutting out caffeine has already done wonders).

Just when you start to get really cynical about people...

Was out & about yesterday making some food deliveries to seniors and while I was reminded about the challenges the city faces in clearing away so very much snow (my little Civic handled it like a champ!), I also saw:
- a gentleman in a city-issued dayglo-yellow vest very carefully helping a woman who was struggling through the plow drifts with a cane and 2 laden shopping bags. She was floundering with every step, yet he didn't seem to be rushing her at all.
- a bus driver who tried to signal traffic to stop so a walker-using passenger could get safely across the street after getting off the bus.
- the lady who had a Christmas card for me when I brought her delivery by.

And I got to be a little bit of a hero because I was able to "fix" one woman's electric can opener. I've never owned an electric one myself - a regular one is cheaper and takes up much less space - but I finally managed to get it to work after wiping every surface I could manage with a paper towel. I was a little surprised by the fuss the organization folks made over my success, but of course a working can opener was a big deal for this woman. After all, what good is canned food if you can't get the cans open?

Blizzard!

It started snowing Friday night and didn't stop until late Saturday night. This morning I measured 18" in the front yard, and that wasn't even a drift! Things I'm grateful for, given the way we got clobbered by this storm:
- that the Chief had made a grocery run early in the week;
- that he managed to get out of the area before things got too bad;
- that we didn't lose power (and heat!);
- neighbors who helped me dig my car out (the snowplow ridge came to within 6" of the door handles); and
- the friend who called to see if I needed anything, knowing the Chief was out of town and assuming my asthma was a concern since I didn't make it to church; and
- a day off work tomorrow so my "shoveling muscles" can recover a little.
Would be nicer if I were snowed in with someone, but the phone works just fine, everybody and their brothers seem to be spending a lot of time on Facebook updating their status and such, which gets pretty entertaining, and I've got 4 new movies that just arrived a week or so ago.

I spent too much time doing what I always do when "the weather outside is frightful" - I cooked! Lemme tell you, simmer oxtails on the stove for 7 hours and you barely have to look at 'em to get the meat off those bones! The recipe calls for frozen mixed vegetables, of which we had none, so I added frozen peas, green beans, and sliced up some carrots instead. I took some of that soup over to the neighbor who made chicken noodle soup for the Chief when he was so sick with the flu.

I also pulled some pumpkin out of the freezer and made 2 loaves of pumpkin bread, one of which I took, still warm, to the shovel-wielding neighbors. Still some thawed pumpkin left, so I went online and found a recipe for pumpkin pancakes. Three guesses what I'm having for breakfast tomorrow, now that I get to sleep in and can have a nice, leisurely breakfast.

I also cooked some turkey for dinner last night, and have pre-snow leftovers. Add that to the cooking-frenzy output and I now have way too much food for one person to eat before it starts to spoil. I'm hoping to get a friend or few to come by for a meal, will take the rest of the pumpkin bread to work on Tuesday, already gave half the grapes to the shoveling neighbors, froze half the soup I didn't give away, but I'll have to do more if I don't want all this food to go to waste.

If you suffer from holiday stress...

Saw this strip cited in someone else's blog: if you hate the holidays, or even if you just find them stressful, check it out.

Surfacing briefly

Taking one night off in the middle of over 2 weeks of rehearsals & shows. Mother Goose opened Thursday. Not a perfect show, but none of the glitches was serious and the audience didn't seem to care. It's been an education (and fun!) doing panto, in which the audience is almost another character among the dramatis personae. They boo & hiss the bad guys, cheer the good guys, warn them not to listen to the evil queen or that there's a ghost behind them - kinda weird to be booed, not applauded, when you finish a number, but when you've just finished being all creepy and spooky, that's a good thing, at least in panto.

Got to my first blocking rehearsal for Grand Duke and was reminded why I enjoy working with this director. She got a lot of movement and business roughed in very quickly, ran it a few times. This is gonna be fun.

Thinking about what to audition for next. One local company is doing Mikado; I'd only do that show again if a miracle happens and they offer me Katisha (I anticipate some stiff competition). I wouldn't expect them to consider me for Pitti-Sing - they'd have no trouble finding young mezzos. Moon Over Buffalo also sounds like fun; three roles I'd go for, though I have no idea how stiff the competition would be.

TW came down w/ the flu Wednesday. Because we've both had our seasonal flu shots, we're assuming this was swine flu. He wasn't too miserable at first, but by the time I got home Friday (after getting a swine flu shot & a Tamiflu Rx), his fever was up to 103.6! This was at 5 p.m.; I ended up missing the first half of Act I because I wasn't about to leave until TW's doctor's office called back. Fortunately, he didn't need to be seen, so I changed the sheets, made him put on clean pj's and set him up with plenty of fluids and such before I left. By yesterday, thank God, his temp was down to 99.x, and when I got home from work today, it was finally, blessedly normal! Tonight he even ate a full meal, after having little or no appetite even yesterday.

A friend is having a reading of her one-act tonight but I opted to stay home. Nice to have a night at home for a change, instead of racing home, inhaling dinner, and flying off to the theater an hour later, or even having a more leisurely dinner before heading to rehearsal. And given that I have choir practice tomorrow and then Mother Goose performances thru Sunday and another Duke rehearsal Monday, if I didn't stay home tonight, that would be 17 days without a break! I really need one night when I get to bed before 11 p.m.

Goin' decaf

I've now been caffeine-free since Tuesday. After being awakened around 4 a.m. 5 days running with nasty headaches, my doc referred me to a neurologist, who told me that pattern was classic for "rebound headaches", when the body finishes metabolizing caffeine. Four in the morning?!? When I hadn't had much caffeine, and none of it after 10 am? Apparently so. This is particularly weird because mine isn't a big caffeine habit - I fill the cup halfway with milk, then top up w/ coffee, so I'm getting no more than the equivalent 12 oz. a day of straight coffee; less caffeine than in a 12-oz can of Mountain Dew.

Since Tuesday morning I've had no caffeine that I know of - only herb teas or decaf coffee, haven't had any chocolate. The "withdrawal" headaches have only been an occasional nuisance, not the constant I'd feared from seeing others go cold turkey from caffeine, though yesterday's did segue into a migraine.

The doc recommended a couple of books, one of which outlines a "migraine diet", which I'll definitely try. He also said yoga has been shown to help, and there's a yoga studio near our house; guess I'll check out their class schedule. It's much too soon to tell how all this will affect my migraines, but I've got my fingers crossed.

Why is this so complicated?

I've wasted a bit of time this weekend trying to find someone who'll cut my hair for my Locks of Love donation. The first two times I donated, I just went in, got my hair cut, and done. This time? Not so easy, for some unknown reason or reasons.

Attempt #1: Called the salon around the corner, which I haven't patronized in lots & lots of years. I thought I had made a 4pm appointment w/ Matilda, but when I got there, I was told Matilda had already gone home for the day. I took in the spanish-language program on the tv, looked around & realized I was probably the only person there not a native speaker of Spanish, saw how many people were waiting (for their turn? for the person they'd brought there?) and realized that perhaps the person who took my name didn't understand "appointment", only the time I was asking about.

Attempt #2: Called the salon I used last time, where the woman had done a particularly good job (20 miles away, which is why I didn't call them first). I was told that donation cuts are done on a walk-in basis only; probably because they do it for free, so paying customers get first dibs. Fair enough. So I drove over there after church this morning only to find a different salon there! I tried to reach TW to have him check the address (which of course I'd left at home, along w/ the phone number), but no luck, so I went into the salon anyway. The gentleman working alone had obviously never heard of Locks of Love and couldn't take me anyway, so I drove back home, having wasted nearly 2 hours in the process. Once he realized what I was trying to accomplish, he did say that what I was trying to do was nice. I wish now that I'd had the presence of mind to give him the donation instructions I'd printed out.

Plan C: Call the place again, find out exactly where they are, landmarks and all, and try again next weekend.

Still alive

I've just been grossly overscheduled - Mother Goose rehearsals Monday thru Thursday, then my February show had its first read-through last Friday and a chorus rehearsal Sunday. Tonight I have the night off, then Grand Duke rehearsals tomorrow & Sunday, Mother Goose Monday and so on. Load-in is the day after Thanksgiving, set build that Saturday, then it's Tech Week. My poor husband really will be a theater widower for a while there, as Mother Goose has a pretty heavy performance schedule - Thursday thru Sunday for 2 weekends, with 2 performances on Saturdays. And since I put in for my end-of-year time off before I even auditioned for Mother Goose, I can't really take any time off to recover.

As if my Tech Week schedule weren't full enough, I have a class at work that Wednesday and am called for jury duty on Thursday.

So if you don't hear from me for a while, I'm probably at work, in a theater, asleep or perhaps in a padded cell...

Enough comfort food for several people

Spent a good chunk of yesterday in the kitchen - made a big pot of veggie-beef soup, this time w/ some oxtails. The oxtails were disappointing: 1) They were supposed to thicken the stock but that didn't happen; 2) I had to trim a LOT of fat off the pieces; and 3) the meat was very tough and difficult to get off the bone. The soup's still good, mind you; it's only that the oxtails were not a particularly successful experiment. The only problem is that TW bought 3 1/2 lbs of the stuff, which I had divided into 4 smaller portions; 3 of those are still waiting in the freezer. Maybe I need to look through our cookbooks for an oxtail soup recipe so I can use that stuff up.

The pea soup I made for TW turned out every bit as thick as he wanted. He was insistent that it be "thick!" so I made it w/ 8 cups of water instead of the 12 cups the package instructions called for. This stuff was so thick, it would make traditional oatmeal seem runny; I dubbed it "pea sludge". TW was delighted with the results, though I did have to add back quite a bit of water when I heated it up for dinner tonight.

Let's say "Thanks!"

In honor of Veterans Day, go to http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home1024.html and pick a card design to send to some servicemember stationed overseas. You don't get to pick who gets it or even which theater it gets sent to, but someone somewhere will get mail out of the blue letting them know their service is appreciated.

"The Sack Lunches"

From my e-mail. I've seen this before, but it's particularly appropriate today. Thank God for all those down the years who've served, whether conscripts or volunteers; God bless them and their families and friends.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned seat. It was going to be a long flight. 'I'm glad I have a good book to read. Perhaps I will get a short nap,' I thought.

Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding me. I decided to start a conversation. 'Where are you headed?' I asked the soldier seated nearest to me. 'Chicago to Great Lakes Base. We'll be there for two weeks for special training, and then we're being deployed to Iraq.'

After flying for about an hour, an announcement was made that sack lunches were available for five dollars. It would be several hours before we reached Chicago, and I quickly decided a lunch would help pass the time. As I reached for my wallet, I overheard a soldier ask his buddy if he planned to buy lunch. 'No, that seems like a lot of money for just a sack lunch. Probably wouldn't be worth five bucks. I'll wait till we get to Chicago.' His friend agreed.

I looked around at the other soldiers. None were buying lunch. I walked to the back of the plane and handed the flight attendant a fifty-dollar bill. 'Take a lunch to all those soldiers.' She grabbed my arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with tears, she thanked me. 'My son was a soldier in Iraq; it's almost like you're doing it for him.'

Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and asked, 'Which do you like best, beef or chicken?' 'Chicken,' I replied, wondering why she asked. She turned and went to the front of plane, returning a minute later with a dinner plate from first class. 'This is your thanks.'

After we finished eating, I went again to the back of the plane, heading for the rest room. A man stopped me. 'I saw what you did. I want to be part of it. Here, take this.' He handed me twenty-five dollars.

Soon after I returned to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he walked. I hoped he was not looking for me, but noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my side of the plane. When he got to my row he stopped, smiled, held out his hand, and said, 'I want to shake your hand.' Quickly unfastening my seatbelt, I stood and took the Captain's hand. With a booming voice he said, 'I was a soldier and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never forgot.' I was embarrassed when applause was heard from all of the passengers.

Later I walked to the front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A man who was seated about six rows in front of me reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.

When we landed in Chicago I gathered my belongings and started to deplane. Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man who stopped me, put something in my shirt pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a word. Another twenty-five dollars!

Upon entering the terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their trip to the base. I walked over to them and handed them seventy-five dollars. 'It will take you some time to reach the base. It will be about time for a sandwich. God Bless You.'

Ten young men left that flight feeling the love and respect of their fellow travelers. As I walked briskly to my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe return. These soldiers were giving their all for our country. I could only give them a couple of meals. It seemed so little...

A veteran is someone who at one point in his life wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America' for an amount of 'up to and including my life.' That is Honor.

Gonna hafta make this quick

Yeah, I know, long time no see and all that. Maybe I'll get caught up, but in case I don't - TW and I took a nice, long vacation in Yorkshire, where we had surprisingly decent weather, saw a bunch of really cool old stuff and I gorged visually on the lush scenery. We got home Thursday, then hared off to the cabin Friday afternoon to try to recover.

Panto rehearsals kicking into high gear - runs starting tomorrow night, load-in the day after Thanksgiving.

Got a comprimario role (i.e., named chorister) in Grand Duke, which starts Fri/Sat/Sun rehearsals this Friday. That means that, unless the chorus gets a bye somewhere, I'll have a rehearsal EVERY DAY between now and Thanksgiving! =:o So if you don't hear from me, it's because I'm at work, at rehearsal, or trying to get a little bit of sleep. Pity my poor theater widower - he won't be seeing much of me until the panto closes Dec. 13th.

Fall was particularly colorful this year, and the sugar maples were downright spectacular.

I'm sure there's more, but I need sleep.

Been a tough few weeks

My sister-in-law's mother had been living with her, my brother since they bought their house over 13 years ago. Docs didn't think she'd survive to see them married 6 months later, but she defied the odds and lived long enough to see my bro & SIL bring home and start to raise not just one but two kids, who doted on their Granny. Granny finally succumbed to her many serious health problems a couple of weeks ago. My poor SIL is having a really rough time of it, given that as a nurse, she was the primary caregiver and for the last year or two, had made it a full-time job. Worse, she buried a beloved aunt the day after her mother died. Pray for the family, please.

And after not having much time to follow FB or friends' blogs, I started getting caught up tonight and learned that a friend lost his girlfriend's mother, then the girlfriend herself, barely a week apart! They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, but given this kind of double whammy, who wouldn't prefer to be a weakling! Please pray for G, too.

But life goes on. L&D became grandparents again yesterday morning - bouncing baby girl, 7 lb. 10 oz and "long" (the beaming grandpa didn't say how long, just that she's tall).

Comfort food

Yesterday the remainder of the Jonathan apples became applesauce (too long on the counter instead of in the fridge had them getting a bit mealy) - oh, how wonderful the kitchen smelled! It was a team effort - I cored the apples and threw 'em in the pot with some cinnamon, nutmeg & ground clove (no need to add sugar), and the Chief ran the results thru his food mill to sieve out the skins and most of the seeds and things I missed when I was prepping the apples. Yummy stuff!

Today our errands included a fill-a-few-holes grocery run so I could make chicken tetrazzini. Now we've got a big pot of the stuff in the fridge, all ready for tomorrow's dinner. We also picked up a big slab of salmon on a big, fat sale, so dinners this week will probably alternate between the salmon and the tetrazzini.

The tetrazzini takes a while to assemble, even if you don't count the time to cook the chicken or turkey for it, and the cream it calls for (I substituted half-and-half) isn't exactly heart-healthy, but after all the raw weather we've had lately, I really wanted some comfort food, and the Chief isn't big on soup.

Oh, and I bought my very first bottle of sherry for the tetrazzini. I had no idea there were so many options - very dry, medium-dry, cream... I haven't tasted the stuff yet, but I suppose I'll do that eventually, if only out of curiosity piqued by reading so many novels that mention the stuff.

New front-loader

Tuesday the Chief & I ended up ordering a new washer & dryer from Sears; front-loading washer, so we splashed out on the pedestals for them so we don't have to bend over quite so far when loading & unloading them. The new items came today; with the pedestals, they don't clear the ductwork by very much at all! (Our basement has a low ceiling, which means the ductwork is so low that a 5'6" person can't walk under them on tiptoes.) We were told that the doors for the washer & dryer would swing in opposite directions so you don't have to work around the doors to transfer laundry from the washer to the dryer. Well, yes, they do open in opposite directions, but because of where the water & gas hook-ups are in our basement, we'll now "get" to work around both doors. Ah well, it's not as though we're doing laundry for a big family; we usually do only a couple of loads a week.

The old dryer is still in place because today's deliverymen aren't certified or authorized or whatever to do the gas disconnect/reconnect. They did do a great job of getting the 27"-wide machines down the stairs and into the basement thru the 29 1/2" doorway with nary a scratch, however, so we're happy.

The new machines, like all the machines on the market these days, have electronics running the show, so they chirp and sing as they go about their business. Until we have a chance to put them thru their paces, though, we won't know whether we'll be able to hear all that upstairs, nor whether we'll find it annoying, soothing, cheery or just different.

The Chief just put a "test" load in the washer to see how it works. We may have to relearn how to do laundry, since everything we've read says a front-loader takes longer to run, but spins out so much more water than a top-loader that you don't need to run the dryer nearly as long. As long as it does the job, though, I'll be happy.

OBX

The Chief & I just got back from a lovely long weekend with friends in the Outer Banks of N. Carolina. I now understand why it's such a popular vacation spot - it's lovely, and not as heavily commercialized as so many of the popular beach towns along the Maryland/Delaware/New Jersey shoreline. We got to see lots of pelicans, herons & egrets in flight, as well as the usual shorebirds.

Our friends have a place down there which they rent out during the high and shoulder seasons and which is nice and airy. Not on the water, but you can see both the ocean and the sound from it. The Chief has always wanted a place near the water, and while the cabin had satisfied his wish for a vacation place, now he's talking about selling it to finance a beach place. As always, he picked up a few real estate magazines, and we'll probably contact our friends' agent. Friends of ours at church also have a place down at the Outer Banks, so we'll be asking them a few questions about their experience too.

Now the latest plan/pipe dream is to retire to somewhere between Williamsburg and the Norfolk area, with a beach place at the OBX. However, if we vacation someplace else appealing, all that could change again...

Go to Plan B?

I just learned that auditions & callbacks for the show I want to do next will be held while the Chief & I are on vacation. I've already e-mailed the director & MD about scheduling an audition, but I might end up having to sit this one out, or just doing chorus (since I've done shows with both of them before, they'd let me do that without auditioning). I know I could get into the ensemble, but I want to do more than that. It would be ever so much fun to get the character mezzo role, but now that I won't be able to audition alongside the other contenders for that role, well, let's just say I don't fancy my chances.

On the bright side, though, if I don't do this one, that frees me up for other shows running at about the same time.

Spending too much money on the house

We got new, casement windows installed in the blank wall in the kitchen last week, and replaced the narrow little sash window over the kitchen sink with a larger, casement window. The lovely thing about casements is that when you open them, you get the benefit of the full window opening, not just half of it, so they bring in all kinds of wonderful breezes. We also had the same contractor replace the siding on the back of the house (the addition the previous owners had put on). Looks much better now.

The painters started scraping old paint on Monday, started priming yesterday, and the first of the actual paint went on today. Even though they're still priming. I'm not sure what they're methodology is, but as long as they do a good job, we aren't going to worry about it too much.

As if we weren't spending enough money, the transmission in the washing machine died on Sunday. I went down to transfer the first load of wash into the dryer to find that it was still sodden - the spin cycle no longer spins. Monday a repairman came out and diagnosed the bad transmission. The machine's too old to make it worth the cost of the repairs, so last night found the Chief & me in Sears checking out washers. Such a romantic date! :p

Avoiding duties

... and catching up here. Another apple cake just came out of the oven about half an hour ago, so the house smells pretty darn good. The Chief made chicken soup with the carcass from the roast chicken from the other night, and he whipped up a batch of Moroccan carrots with a little coaching (and some cumin-hunting - the bottle had fallen off the spice rack).

Got another audition, for G&S's The Grand Duke, in a couple of weeks, trying to pick something to sing. One suggestion, the fan song from Mirette, is reminiscent of one of the 2 big songs of the role I'd like, but a) I only heard it for the very first time last night and 2) the song doesn't really grab me. Ah well, I have a few other possibilities and 1 or 2 more lessons between now and then.

Got some nice feedback at panto rehearsal the other night. We were going over all the chorus' music (I really like a couple of the original songs - well written both musically & lyrically), one of which starts with us rather than the accompaniment. The MD said we'd probably need it led by a chorister with a strong ear - looking & pointing directly at me. Some of the music has some tricky syncopations and intervals, really testing whether you're paying attention. I was sitting close to the piano, where I could hear the accompaniment readily. Apparently our accompanist could hear me, too, because as we were leaving, she said as she passed me that it was nice to work with "real musicians". I don't usually consider myself a "real musician" as my only music education has been what I've picked up in choirs and voice lessons, but I guess it's enough that I can hold my own in these rehearsals.

A new recipe and an old favorite

Made an apple cake this afternoon with some of the 1/2 peck of granny smiths the Chief brought home last week. Didn't make the house smell as good as usual only because it's a gorgeous day and we have all the doors & windows wide open.

I also tried Beth's Oatmeal Cookies. The batter was rather liquid, so after the first 2 cookie sheets when into the oven and I saw how much the cookies spread, I added probably 1/2 c. of flour to the remaining batter. I wasn't thrilled with the results but they aren't bad, and the Chief thinks they're just fine. However, I also have an Outrageous Oatmeal Cookie recipe I cut out of the paper this summer which it says was adapted from a Starbucks recipe. It calls for a variety of dried fruit - regular & golden raisins and dried cranberries. The Chief is a purist about his oatmeal raisin cookies, so if the first attempt turns out otherwise OK, I may be asked to omit the cranberries in future.

Part of the cake will go across the street to a neighbor whose birthday is coming up on Wednesday and who loves this recipe as much as the Chief does. The cookies will go to the beach with us next weekend, to share with the friends who will be letting us share their beach house for the weekend. I'll also make another apple cake for the weekend - I went ahead and cut up the necessary apples while I was prepping them for today's cake - especially as she's the one who gave me this version of the recipe, which has become my favorite of the 3 versions I've tried.