In dress rehearsals for Last of the Boys. It is going well - interesting show - I like parts of it better than others, but the ending makes me cry - every time. Let's hear it for wonderful actors!
The first day of dress rehearsals one of the lead actors came in with a broken big toe - special shoe thingy on his foot. Ouch. Next night - yesterday, we had three violent thunder storms in a row. At about 4:30 the director had to leave to remove the tree that had fallen on part of his house. After he left, the second part of the storm came, and as I stood watching it, half of a maple tree next to the theatre just broke off and fell across the neighbor's driveway. This huge tree was apparently rotten through the core, so there was no loud crack, just a lot of swaying and then, thump.
If the first two days were like this - do we really want to know what is in store for tonight's final dress?
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Growing up
Today my four year old went to a party - without his parents - and it was an "away" party. His friend had a party a a Chucky Cheese (sp?) which was about an hour away. He rode in the car with his friends and went to the arcade and had a great time! He was so excited! He is "all grown up"!
Afterwards, I had to go to the theatre for fittings for the show I am working on. As my husband is out of town, I took the kids, a picnic lunch/dinner, a complete change of clothes for each child, two gallons of wash water, three quarts of drinking water, baseball caps for all, and a frog trap (old plastic fish tank for our beta) and let them play in the frog pond behind the theatre while I dressed actors. They had a great time - were the happy trappers of 6 frogs (all released), were covered in pond muck and slime, stank to the high heavens, and were very happy.
After sluicing them with the hose from the theatre - they'd used up the 2 gallons of water before I got there, I had them change in the car and we headed home. After about 5 minutes of tickling me with a bullrush, my four year old fell asleep.
Such a busy day for a little man. When I carried him in from the car, I realized he may be all grown up - kindergarten in the fall - but he is still my baby...
Afterwards, I had to go to the theatre for fittings for the show I am working on. As my husband is out of town, I took the kids, a picnic lunch/dinner, a complete change of clothes for each child, two gallons of wash water, three quarts of drinking water, baseball caps for all, and a frog trap (old plastic fish tank for our beta) and let them play in the frog pond behind the theatre while I dressed actors. They had a great time - were the happy trappers of 6 frogs (all released), were covered in pond muck and slime, stank to the high heavens, and were very happy.
After sluicing them with the hose from the theatre - they'd used up the 2 gallons of water before I got there, I had them change in the car and we headed home. After about 5 minutes of tickling me with a bullrush, my four year old fell asleep.
Such a busy day for a little man. When I carried him in from the car, I realized he may be all grown up - kindergarten in the fall - but he is still my baby...
Thursday, July 15, 2010
So busy
Back from Baltimore where we finished clearing out my mother-in-law's house and closed on it. All done. Of course we brought home another two car loads of "stuff" - some last minute things that we needed until the end like lamps, brooms, buckets and so on, and a lot of other things like books, mementos, etc. Our house looks like a tag sale exploded in the lower floors.
When my dear husband finishes the run of this play, we may have a week or two to try to cull and organize before having to turn our minds to the next school year. I have dress rehearsals for the show, The Last of the Boys next week. If anyone has a good web site for understanding what pins/ribbons/patches were worn on class A uniforms for Spec 4 soldiers in Viet Nam, please let me know. Thanks.
Can't wait for the show to be done as it have a small break before starting the last show of the season. We bring in a package musical for the third show, which I do not have anything to do with, so I can think of other things. This show is interesting - two vets in 1999 with differing perspectives on the war - we see Robert McNamara, a dead soldier, all sorts of good things.
The garden is growing fabulously - the heat has made the curcurbitae leap into a growth spurt. We have winter squash and cukes climbing the trellis, the summer squash are finally setting blossoms, and the watermelon is still trying. Cucumber salad is on the menu for tomorrow night. As I suspected, the lower garden bed which was washed out soon after planting has an interesting pattern of growth. I found some red iceberg lettuce growing on the edge of the lawn, carrots are sprinkled through out the bed. and one tiny clump of basil held its ground. The big stuff is fine - the squash, cucumbers and tomatoes, even the borage did well and stayed put. Just the tiny seeds floated around to make a serendipitous garden emerge. Need to get out there with a hoe - I have been weeding a handful at a time, and the weeds are winning!
The cotton is an interesting experiment. The cotton in one bed has basically given up the ghost - the ground there is pretty awful - hard and full of rocks. Some in another bed is doing okay, but it is getting too much shade, I think, as the hops vines are overshadowing it in the afternoon. I have three in pots and two have gotten much bigger and are looking good, one is not doing as well. The ones in the plastic pots are the best. Things to remember for next year...
When my dear husband finishes the run of this play, we may have a week or two to try to cull and organize before having to turn our minds to the next school year. I have dress rehearsals for the show, The Last of the Boys next week. If anyone has a good web site for understanding what pins/ribbons/patches were worn on class A uniforms for Spec 4 soldiers in Viet Nam, please let me know. Thanks.
Can't wait for the show to be done as it have a small break before starting the last show of the season. We bring in a package musical for the third show, which I do not have anything to do with, so I can think of other things. This show is interesting - two vets in 1999 with differing perspectives on the war - we see Robert McNamara, a dead soldier, all sorts of good things.
The garden is growing fabulously - the heat has made the curcurbitae leap into a growth spurt. We have winter squash and cukes climbing the trellis, the summer squash are finally setting blossoms, and the watermelon is still trying. Cucumber salad is on the menu for tomorrow night. As I suspected, the lower garden bed which was washed out soon after planting has an interesting pattern of growth. I found some red iceberg lettuce growing on the edge of the lawn, carrots are sprinkled through out the bed. and one tiny clump of basil held its ground. The big stuff is fine - the squash, cucumbers and tomatoes, even the borage did well and stayed put. Just the tiny seeds floated around to make a serendipitous garden emerge. Need to get out there with a hoe - I have been weeding a handful at a time, and the weeds are winning!
The cotton is an interesting experiment. The cotton in one bed has basically given up the ghost - the ground there is pretty awful - hard and full of rocks. Some in another bed is doing okay, but it is getting too much shade, I think, as the hops vines are overshadowing it in the afternoon. I have three in pots and two have gotten much bigger and are looking good, one is not doing as well. The ones in the plastic pots are the best. Things to remember for next year...
Friday, July 9, 2010
Autism woes - or is it puberty?
Tonight we had another blow up. I thought we might make it through the entire night without anyone yelling foul obscenities or hitting anyone - but I am silly to dream like that! Our eldest feels the need to interject himself into any disagreement (or perceived disagreement) between his two younger siblings. Now tonight it wasn't even an argument. My daughter had a water gun and the younger son wanted to know if he could have it. She said no, he said okay he'd get the other one and our eldest decided this was a place for hitting so he pounded his sister's shoulder. She, being armed, squirted him with the gun and all Hell broke loose! The profanity that came out of my eldest's mouth and the venom with which he says it are stunning. Thank God our neighbors are tolerant (and one set is on vacation) or we'd have the police out here on a weekly basis!
And people wonder why we do not entertain more often, nor travel for vacations anymore...
And people wonder why we do not entertain more often, nor travel for vacations anymore...
Jamming things into the summer.
I do not know if it is the oppressive heat and humidity or just a lack of overall focus, but my list of summer "to dos" does not seem to be any shorter. I bought six gallons of paint during a fabulous sale at Home Depot last spring - they were phasing out the Ralph Lauren paint for Martha Stewart, so it was on sale - on top of that there was a bigger sale happening, so I grabbed paint for the kids' bath, the kitchen and the Dining room. Well, furniture being what it is - heavy and stacked to the rafters in our house now - we probably won't see a re-do of the wall in the DR until next year - but a bathroom - easy.
I soaked all the tub toys in bleach and got them out of there. I think the funky smell we've been hunting may have been from mildew inside a bath boat (and I had been blaming the boys' poor aim)! The curtain rod is now bare, waiting for spackle to set so I can smooth the edges, and then we will go from builder's beige to bright blue! My daughter is very excited about the change in colour. At our last house we took the bathroom from a sick seafoam green to a deep eggplant purple. I think the name was actually midnight eggplant. That with the 1940's tiling was really lovely. This will be less dramatic, but at least it is a colour of our choosing.
Bit by bit we are taking the house and turning it into ours - I have gotten rid of two bedrooms worth of wall paper, and a kitchen and two bathrooms worth of borders. One bathroom was repainted last year - as well as retiled, new sink and cabinetry. I am longing for the day when dear hubby breaks down and let's me rip up the rest of the NASTY wall to wall carpeting in the LR and foyer, but we know (after having ripped the dining room carpeting up) that all the floors will need to be refinished - and I know he is not feeling up to that!
Finally put the super on the second hive - this is the blue hive which we started this year from a nuc. The girls seem active and happy, but I haven't officially checked them in a couple weeks. This super has non-wired foundation in it so we can try harvesting it as chunk honey - or crush and strain. I can rent an extractor from my local bee guru, so I may use that for harvesting the honey from the flower hive. I spent part of Wed afternoon getting the frames built - on my kitchen floor.
This foundation is so light and fine, the breeze nearly bent the top layer in two as I brought it to the car after buying it. Here is the shot of my youngest and I painting the super - a left over greenish blue from his Dr. Seuss bedroom mural mixed in with exterior white - and, Voila! the blue hive!
I soaked all the tub toys in bleach and got them out of there. I think the funky smell we've been hunting may have been from mildew inside a bath boat (and I had been blaming the boys' poor aim)! The curtain rod is now bare, waiting for spackle to set so I can smooth the edges, and then we will go from builder's beige to bright blue! My daughter is very excited about the change in colour. At our last house we took the bathroom from a sick seafoam green to a deep eggplant purple. I think the name was actually midnight eggplant. That with the 1940's tiling was really lovely. This will be less dramatic, but at least it is a colour of our choosing.
Bit by bit we are taking the house and turning it into ours - I have gotten rid of two bedrooms worth of wall paper, and a kitchen and two bathrooms worth of borders. One bathroom was repainted last year - as well as retiled, new sink and cabinetry. I am longing for the day when dear hubby breaks down and let's me rip up the rest of the NASTY wall to wall carpeting in the LR and foyer, but we know (after having ripped the dining room carpeting up) that all the floors will need to be refinished - and I know he is not feeling up to that!
Finally put the super on the second hive - this is the blue hive which we started this year from a nuc. The girls seem active and happy, but I haven't officially checked them in a couple weeks. This super has non-wired foundation in it so we can try harvesting it as chunk honey - or crush and strain. I can rent an extractor from my local bee guru, so I may use that for harvesting the honey from the flower hive. I spent part of Wed afternoon getting the frames built - on my kitchen floor.
This foundation is so light and fine, the breeze nearly bent the top layer in two as I brought it to the car after buying it. Here is the shot of my youngest and I painting the super - a left over greenish blue from his Dr. Seuss bedroom mural mixed in with exterior white - and, Voila! the blue hive!
I am a blur here, but look at the concentration on his face! I love the focus children can have.
I made the black raspberry/ red currant jelly and it is good! Of course, my pot was just a touch too small so when I hit the rolling boil, look out - the smell of burnt sugar still lingers in the air!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Independence Day and beyond
Fourth of July weekend plans were made - and unmade. I had expected one of my sisters to visit - she hasn't been up to my house in nearly 2 years - but her pipes started to leak Friday evening, so no go. We just ate the salads and such ourselves. However, the chance to slow down a little was also nixed. When there are "other" folks at the house, we actually tend to slow down a little and socialize - but instead we spent most of the time building bookshelves and unpacking five more boxes of books from my mother-in-law's house. You can never have too many books - well - I used to think this, but I may be on the verge of changing my mind!
Because I am stubborn, and because I think stopping to celebrate - even a little - is important, we made a couple of the salads we usually don't bother with except for get - togethers, and my daughter made a cake. It was yummy and very patriotic, if not (as she noted) historically accurate!
Had my last spinning class yesterday. We dyed the yarns we had plied two weeks earlier. I was aiming for olive green, but it went more dull green - needed a bit more yellow, I think, but here is the result.
Because I am stubborn, and because I think stopping to celebrate - even a little - is important, we made a couple of the salads we usually don't bother with except for get - togethers, and my daughter made a cake. It was yummy and very patriotic, if not (as she noted) historically accurate!
Had my last spinning class yesterday. We dyed the yarns we had plied two weeks earlier. I was aiming for olive green, but it went more dull green - needed a bit more yellow, I think, but here is the result.
I wish I could take the next spinning class, but the Sat. schedule for that does not mesh with my summer schedule. Another time I'll take it and learn Navaho plying.
For now I will take the new bats of purple wool I bought yesterday and sit with a fan at my back and spin. These blisteringly hot days are good for activities that do not require a lot of outdoor activity.
I hope it is warm and sunny where you are, and the breeze is enough to keep you cool.
Ciao!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Things to do today
Summer is the time of relaxation - no teaching. However, so many things need to be or want to be done now. It makes for busy days.
On today's agenda we have:
Tomorrow I have to do some of the same things - laundry never ends, does it? The big ones for tomorrow are:
On today's agenda we have:
- make blackberry currant jam
- bake bread
- kiss the children
- clean living room
- grocery shop
- water and weed gardens
- sew youngest son's new shorts
- sew daughter's skirt
- lang laundry outside
- put boxes in attic
- go for a drive to see if the blueberries are ripe at the local blueberry farm
- get ice cream on the way home from aforementioned blueberry farm
- make dinner (with bread and jam to go with it)
- welcome home hubby after a week away
Tomorrow I have to do some of the same things - laundry never ends, does it? The big ones for tomorrow are:
- tend to the bee hives
- mow the lawn
- take the kids swimming
- pick more blackberries
- unpack the van which will be full of things from my mother-in-law's place
- kiss hubby
- kiss children
- watch fireworks
- recognize the work that goes into giving me the freedom to do these things I like (and don't like) in this wonderful country I am privileged and blessed to live in
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY to all in the USA
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