Another victim of the economy? Sniff...

Yesterday my long-suffering husband allowed me to drag him to the new location of the local fabric mecca. What a shock! The new location has barely 1/3 the sales space of the old one, the notions department (ribbon, trim, buttons, other findings, etc.) was much smaller than in the old location, the selection wasn't nearly as nice or as well displayed. Given the reduced sales space, they had to display less; I wouldn't want to see them return to the model of their original location, which was so crammed with goodies you couldn't see half of them, and you could barely move. The less-appealing displays are probably (I hope!) due to the fact that they only just moved - they only reopened Thursday. Still, it was disappointing and very sad to see an old friend in reduced circumstances.

And the Chief had a disappointment when we then proceeded to his preferred home improvement store. The staff at this one was really bad - the ones near the check-out were copping an attitude with each other, it was hard to get their attention to get some assistance, and then they had to hunt to find someone who knew how to get the Chief his military discount.

So much for boot camp

Well, the Chief is sending his home improvement bootcamp Recruit home 3 weeks early. The plan called for a LOT of sanding and painting of the cabin's deck and other exterior surfaces, and with no more than 2 non-rainy days in a row since the Recruit arrived and the same forecast for at least another week and a half, the Chief reluctantly decided to throw in the towel. Tomorrow morning they'll be at the airport almost before the sun is up, and by early tomorrow afternoon, the Recruit will be back in the bosom of his loving family.

While they weren't able to do any painting, they did get a bed or two built on the slope alongside the addition. The Chief was pleased with his Recruit's work, so I'm looking forward to seeing it and installing some hellebores and ferns. I'll have to post pictures (if I can get the computer to acknowledge my camera).

Not such a bad weekend after all.

No, the roofer still hasn't called, and it absolutely POURED earlier tonight - flooding streets and flinging a few smallish hailstones, just for fun. The leak hasn't reappeared yet, but given the forecast - more rain the next coupla days - I figure it's only a matter of time.

The weekend wasn't a total waste despite not getting out to the cabin. I spent Friday night getting an alarm system installed (or reinstalled; another company took over from the one who did our original installation). Took 5 hours, mostly because the tech had so much trouble getting the wiring right. Ah, the joys of owning an older home.

Saturday, however, in addition to getting a few things done around the house, I actually got to have some fun - a friend and a cabaret performance downtown that I was actually able to attend because I wasn't at the cabin. Sunday evening I went to a G&S "cabaret" and ended up sitting w/ a friend and her friend. In fact, I was teasing her about packing the house because two of the next few couples into the house were friends of hers. The music was fun, so was the company.

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head...

We've been getting rain, sometimes quite a lot of it, 3 or 4 days a week for at least 2 weeks now. It brought with it the usual woes - migraines and creaky joints - but the last straw for my tolerance was when I got home last night to find that the roof had sprung a leak. And then found another leak this afternoon. Because of all the rain, our roofer's phone started ringing off the hook about a week ago, so as I told him when I called this morning, I wasn't expecting immediate service. No, I just hoped my position on his waiting list wasn't too far back.

The one ray of hope to which I cling is that he only lives a few blocks away; maybe he'll be able to swing by on the way to or from one of the customers further up the list.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that I had been planning to go out to the cabin for the weekend. Instead, I find myself sitting by the phone, waiting for a man to call. Haven't done that since the last time the Chief was deployed. :D

Still crazy

... and getting crazier. Tonight is my only night this week to get my stuff together to go out to the cabin this weekend. So what have I been doing? Wasting my time on the computer since dinner, instead of doing laundry, getting the recycling out to the bin, collecting the stuff to go to the cabin, paying bills...

Another crazy theater weekend

Got home from my conference, stopped at the grocery store on the way home from the airport, had about an hour to put away groceries and get ready to go right out again to work "box office" for a nearby community production of Measure for Measure. Nicely done, and the woman playing Isabel was wonderful - gave a moving performance.

Today it's off to see Man of La Mancha, done by a company that tends to do a good job in its small space. I've done a number of shows with the guy playing Don Quixote; I imagine they cast him as soon as he opened his mouth at auditions.

And I just reserved my ticket for a G&S "cabaret" next Sunday. Busy, busy, busy.

Weekend house party (or should that be "cabin party"?)

We had 2 couples join us at the cabin this weekend. We know 3 of the 4 people through theater, and enjoyed meeting B's wife, a bibliophile who was happy to answer all our questions about her Kindle. I've decided the best thing about a "house party" like this is that you can have nice, long uninterrupted chunks of time with your friends instead of chopped-up conversations - 10 minutes here, 5 minutes there. It was very gratifying to see the relaxed smiles on people's faces, hear them comment on how well they slept or how nice it was to be able to linger over dinner.

The Chief & I have sort of settled into a division of labor for these things - no matter which of us cooks (usually me, though he usually helps), he usually insists on doing the dishes while making coffee for those who want it. He loves playing host and I enjoy feeding people (having grown up in a big family, I loved having up to 7 of us around the table), so it works out well.

We didn't get fancy with the menu because I wanted to spend my time visiting, not cooking, but we didn't need fancy to have a good time. We're already talking about when we can do this again.

Smiley face

My sister forwarded this. The original offered it as a reason to do a full, 360-degree check in front of a mirror before leaving the house. Me, I'm more old-fashioned - a slip would have the added advantage of making the skirt hang better.

Recruit has arrived

My nephew arrived without incident and is now safely ensconced out at the cabin with the Chief, resting up for what my sister has dubbed "Home Improvement Bootcamp". The poor Recruit doesn't know what the Chief has in store for him, but he'll find out first thing in the morning. I wonder which project will come first on the list...?

Amazing!

This fossil, named "Ida" (pronounced EE-da), is amazing for its completeness! Not only a 95%-complete skeleton from a period when paleontologists get excited about finding more than 1 or 2 bones, but skin, fur, and stomach contents. I think the media description of her as a "missing link" is sensationalist hyperbole, but it really is an incredible find. Cool stuff!

More Ida info:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0521/1224247034331.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/19/ida-fossil-evolution

On the lighter side, see what abovetopsecret.com has to say on the matter:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread465091/pg1

And here's an a propos variation on the Google logo I got from a friend's blog:

Nice little surprise

They announced by e-mail this afternoon that they're letting us all take off 4 hours early come Friday! Hooray for starting my 3-day weekend at the cabin that much sooner, and maybe beating the worst of the get-away traffic! The Chief will be happy, too, because it means I'll be able to give him that much more help getting things ready for our weekend visitors.

More plants

The Chief and I spent the weekend at the cabin, starting to gear up for the company who'll be spending Memorial Day weekend with us there. In addition to decluttering, hanging pictures (how long ago did those picture rails go up in the new bedroom?!?) and running errands, we managed a trip to the neighborhood nursery. We were loading our buckets of compost, 2 ferns and 1 bleeding heart into the car when I saw something I wasn't sure I recognized and asked about it. Turns out I had spotted a very healthy section of hellebores, which they've just started selling. We ended up adding 3 of them to our haul. Because they're still a year away from blooming (seems they don't bloom until their 3rd year), we won't know until early next spring what colors we just bought. The Chief now has another project for my nephew to help with - a bed near the cabin's front door where we'll plant those hellebores. They assured us the deer won't eat them because they're poisonous, and they spread if the conditions are amenable, so I'm hoping our 3 little hellebores will become a nice, lush bed of them in a few years. Probably not as nice as in the picture, but we can dream...

Great weekend!

Just got back from a long weekend watching a good friend graduate. I'm so impressed by her accomplishment - single mother of many, working full time, yet she still managed to get her Bachelor's. As she put it, "It took me 31 years, but I did it!" Needless to say, those of us in her "cheering section" did our best to make ourselves heard when her name was announced and she walked across that stage for her hard-won diploma.

I'm so glad I decided to stay the extra day, as it gave us some time after Saturday's whirlwind of activities to have a satisfying chat and get caught up. Even better was the fact that my maid of honor not only managed to make it, but surprised us by bringing her parents! She had both the graduate and me getting a bit misty-eyed - what a lovely surprise! The three of us managed to do a surprising amount of catching up in the short 24 hours she was in town, and she shared my hotel room the one night she was in, which gave us that much more time to visit. The 3 of us are already talking about getting together for a "girls' weekend" at the cabin.

Yorkshire vacation!

Yesterday we bought our plane tickets and today we booked a B&B for a lovely week in Harrogate! We were able to find a fare that will run us at least $150 less per ticket than we thought we'd have to pay, and we'll be staying at very conveniently located B&B in this room. We'll be going in late October, so it'll be chilly and probably rainy but that's OK. I lived in Yorkshire for year (nearly 20 years ago!) so I know what I'm letting myself in for. We'll pack sweaters, rain gear and walking shoes and have ourselves a great time: introducing the Chief to my former landlady, taking one or both of them to Betty's tea room, exploring the local sights, perhaps touring a "stately home" or two - can't wait!

Pollen as bio-weapon

Saturday my allergies were so bad, I sat out that night's performance of Follies. I was in such bad shape (sneezing fits, eyes streaming, nose running, constant coughing) that I knew no one would want me anywhere near, let alone doing their make-up. I was so bad off, I was even getting an upset stomach, headache and sore throat.

Yesterday & today I'm still uncomfortable, but it's nothing like as bad as it was Saturday. According to the weather report on the news just now, that's because today's pollen count is 1730-ish, which is miserably high (the non-sensitive start feeling uncomfortable when it hits 200 or 250; those of us with allergies start feeling it when the count's at around 100 or lower). Saturday's count, however, was at 4539! When I was half-joking on Saturday that the count was in the Lethal range, I had no idea how close I was to the truth!

The news is full of swine flu symptoms - sneezing, coughing, itchy/runny eyes, sometimes diarrhea or vomiting. My first reaction was that it sounds indistinguishable from "pollen poisoning"!

All in

Yesterday I braved the pollen-saturated air and got the last of my bedding plants in the ground: one each speedwell, a pine-knot-strain hellebore or lenten rose, and elfin and limegreen thyme. They went into the same sunny corner as last year's phlox. And yes, the three budless plants are now starting to flower - white. And one last laggard is starting to come in with white-edged pink flowers. That corner of the front yard is now quite colorful - pink, violet and white phlox (the 2-tones are only just starting to open), blue speedwell and one or two random yellow dandelions. Now if the flowers would just fill in and cover that awful orange-red clay...

Blown away!

(NB: If there's a chance you'll be reviewing the show, read no further.)

Follies opened last night and all I can say is WOW! I was able to sit in the house for most of it and was blown away by the much-deserved audience response. Every number got a big hand and the production numbers were all very enthusiastically received. I suspect the only reason no one got to their feet at the curtain call was that they were too tired by then from the waves of talent washing off the stage, because they were certainly making enough appreciative noise! The show was not without its glitches, but they were minor; they certainly didn't seem to detract from the audience's appreciation.

This company has the luxury of a big stage - the whole floor of the building where I did Pirates last year could probably fit on that stage 3 or 4 times over; more, if you include the wings. Plenty of room for the cast of 45, and plenty of overhead, so they could put the showgirls with their 3-4-foot-tall headdresses on the top steps and they'd not seem the least bit cramped. The lighting designer did a masterful job of making the changes, features and highlights seem natural and flow smoothly, and some of the special touches do a brilliant job of enhancing the story-telling. And this from someone who always notices costumes first and lights last, if at all.

This is essentially a one- or two-set show, depending on how you count the large pieces that get moved in and out depending on the scene. The orchestra overwhelmed a couple of the soloists in a few places, but not severely, and their internal balance was very good. The singers are quite good, and there are a lot of "star turns" for several of the "Weiseman Girls" which are all very well delivered. The production numbers are incredible - beautifully executed and costumed - and the Act I bolero was like a scene from any of a number of old dance movies. Wonderful! In fact, all the choreography is the most ambitious I've ever seen in a community theater production, and generally well done.

And omigosh the COSTUMES!!! Some of the showgirls' headdresses are full of ostrich feathers and as much as four feet tall! The costumes are just as over-the-top. The Busby Berkely-style costumes for 2 of the production numbers reminded me of some of the first musicals, as did the choreography. The former Follies girls are generally in beaded or otherwise glam dresses, the wigs that most of the cast (even the men in one of the production numbers) wear at one time or another suit the costumes well - it's an incredible accomplishment and makes for an eye-popping stage picture.

My own contribution seems tiny in comparison - I'm doing the make-up for just one of the former Follies girls (she's legally blind). I have to age her a good 30 years or so, and am getting to be a dab hand at the age lines and creases. I'm still getting the routine down - each night the make-up designer tells me I need more shadowing or I've forgotten to line her forehead - but I joked with "Heidi now" (as opposed to "young Heidi") last night that by the time we close, I'll have it down to a science.

Earthworm in the kitchen

Yesterday morning I was going thru the usual motions when I saw a crooked something on the kitchen floor that looked a little too regular to be a stick. It was a dirt-covered earthworm! I can only assume it came from the flower boxes we had brought into the kitchen the night before because the overnight temperature was supposed to get down to the freezing mark or lower. The compost I'd used with the potting soil often has worms in it, so I'm guessing my little visitor was an escapee. I escorted it outside to a nice little bush, where I hope it's much happier and aerating the soil there.

More flowers

This afternoon I finally planted the flowers I'd bought for the flower boxes on the deck railing. Lobelia, violas, dianthus and (something) - some of them are not looking too happy right now, but I'm hoping they'll bounce back shortly. But wouldn't ya know, not an hour after I'd finished, the Chief told me we may have to bring them in tonight, as the forecast is for lows in the 20s tonight!

The first of our tulips opened today and the phlox is just starting to come into its own. A few of the plants are just a couple of days from their peak, though 3 of them still don't seem to have a single bud. I'm still hoping they're just a (much?) later-blooming variety.

Working the Fringe?

This will be the 4th year for the local "Fringe Festival", which I think is modeled on Edinborough's. For about 2 weeks in July, individuals and groups present a very wide variety of theatrical and other presentations. I just auditioned for one such production, a variation on the Christmas Carol theme.

It was an unusual audition in several ways. First of all, it was at the MD's house, not a classroom, church hall or other such venue. We also had to sing a cappella, as there was no accompanist available. I wasn't terribly thrilled with my singing - blasted pollen! - and I didn't go as high as I might have in my range testing, but I didn't see them cringing or wanting to put their fingers in their ears, so I guess it wasn't too horrible. ;-)

The reading was one of the more fun I've done, especially as we got to read each scene twice. I got to read 4 different characters: a stage manager who was less than pleased w/ the props, a bit player considerably less than pleased with her role, a sharp-tongued jealous fiance, and a somewhat insecure actor. All of 'em were fun, and I could hear them reacting with chuckles, but the best bit was when I was reading that last character. My friend & fellow actor is trying to reassure me that I'll be fine in performance and "offers" to bring in some kids as a distraction during a rehearsal. My character thanks him for the laugh, then asks "Tell me you're not serious!" I couldn't see the directors' reactions, as I was looking at the person reading the other character, but I sure did hear them laugh at my slightly panicked reading of that "Tell me you're not serious!" line. And doesn't every performer love to hear the audience react!

They have 2 more nights of auditions, so it'll be at least Friday before I know anything, but the director did tell me before I left that she definitely wants to use me. The big problem is that I've got that 5-night cabaret workshop that happens to run right smack in the middle of the festival, and the festival organizers won't announce all the performances dates & venues for another couple of weeks. In other words, the director won't know until then whether that workshop is a conflict or not. (I'm hoping & praying "our" performance dates don't fall then!) She & I had already discussed the problem last week, as I wondered whether I should even bother auditioning. She told me then and reiterated this afternoon that she's actually willing to consider double-casting me in a role. I find that both generous and flattering, especially as she told me this when I was one of the very first auditionees, and it would be so much easier for her to drop me from consideration so she doesn't have to deal with that uncertainty.