Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Dec 23

It's almost Santa time, just a few more sleeps. Is it kind of spooky that moving the N from the middle of Santa, to the end gives you Satan? Kind of apre poe, when you consider the greed and commercialism that goes into the season I guess.
My gifts to my neices and nephews will all be late this year, since I haven't finished making them yet. In fact I've only just started...late I know, but better late than never....they're coming. Just gives them something to unwrap a few days after the big giftfest.

We spent the majority of the weekend cleaning our pigsty. It still has a long way to go. Being busy with the show and work, and having a bunch fo other projects on the go, has really made the housekeeping very low onthe priority list. Couple that with ripping the kitchen apart to install a dishwasher, and the mess I made painting, and it is one big intimidating disaster. It has finally gotten to the point where I don't feel overwhelmed by it any more and can actually see a light at the end of the tunnel. We will be using our break to get it all spick and span once again. I have some cabinet work to do in the kitchen now, to fill the space beside the dishwasher, and I want to install some lighting in the livingroom before I finish painting...but now I have time to do these things.

We don't have any hard and fast Christmas plans as yet. I got a turkey so we will do a dinner with the Bonds, and maybe Laura and Ray if they can come down, and Bertis and Colin if they're around.

I moved my baby clownfish into the fifty gallon grow out tank we set up for them. There are 14 that survived from the two batches of eggs I raised and they are all doing very well. I put a small anemone in with them and they took to it immediately. These guys are Clarkii Clownfish from our mated pair inthe 65 gallon reef tank. We have a pair of Tomato clown in the 135 gallon tank and yesterday they laid eggs, so next week I will try to raise the larva that hatch (if the eggs make it that long and don't get eaten by something else in the tank, or some such other disaster). The male and female do a pretty good job of defending them, so they should make it to maturity.
Here's some pics of the little guys in their new home. The largest of these guys is about and inch and a half long, so they're smaller than the images in the original sized picture...lol
Day 126 002

Day 126 003

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Very Disturbing article

OKay I just read something very disturbing and frightening reguarding our money and it's security on Garth Turner's blog. Since I can't figure out how to post it, I'll just copy and paste it.

From: http://www.garth.ca/weblog/

Toxic Cash

While the government cowers and the opposition squirms, while Stephen Harper licks his wounds and Stephane Dion contemplates rejection , while the economy disintegrates, houses devalue and Parliament is dark, there is something else for you to worry about. Something big. Disturbing.

Do you know what’s backing your money? You should. Because in the last 90 days this has changed drastically. There’s a big gamble been taken by politicians which was never explained, never debated, never questioned, and yet could affect us all.

Here is the way the system is supposed to work, and until this autumn, did.

* Our money’s printed by the Mint and backed by the Bank of Canada. The central is expected to hold assets equal to the amount of cash in circulation, which is more than $50 billion.
* Because our nation no longer owns gold reserves, our money is backed by the safest of securities, long-term government bonds and Treasury bills. This is what gives our money true value. At least, until recently.

But in the last 90 days, without public notice, the Bank of Canada has sold off more than $11 billion of those secure T-bills, plus cashed in billions more of its bonds. As stock market researcher John Paul Koning discovered last week, the central bank now lists on its balance sheet a stunning $32.4 billion in “other” assets, which comprises a whopping 42% of everything it owns.

That means more than two-fifths of the total assets backing our money supply is – what, exactly?

Well, let’s flip back a month to the middle of November, when finance minister Jim Flaherty announced the federal government was purchasing $50 billion in residential mortgages from the Big Six banks, following an earlier deal to buy another $25 billion in mortgages. “At a time of considerable uncertainty in global financial markets, this action will provide Canada’s financial institutions with significant and stable access to longer-term funding,” he said, adding, “with no additional risk to the taxpayer.”

So, the “other” assets the Bank of Canada has swapped for secure, near-cash holdings appear to be tens of billions of dollars in high-ratio mortgages. The money to buy those assets apparently came from the central bank, through CMHC, and ended up in the vaults of the Big Six banks. It’s also believed that the Bank of Canada has been buying up other commercial bank liabilities, such as credit card debt.

In fact, the central bank was at it again yesterday. On its web site, the Bank of Canada announced its buying another $1 billion in “private sector money market instruments” on Monday.

So, what are these mortgages with tens of billions that now stand behind a good chunk of our money? They are loans given to people who bought houses with little or no money down, many of whom purchased before October 15th, when it was still okay to buy a home with a 0% down payment and to take out an amortization of 40 years. The government, under intense criticism that these were Canadian equivalents of the disastrous US subprime mortgages, chucked them two months ago.

So, here we are. The Big Banks have unloaded tens of billions of dollars in potentially toxic assets to the Bank of Canada, which cashed in ultra-secure investments to hand over cash. The federal government orchestrated this in order to make the commercial banks more secure. But in doing so, what’s it done to our currency? As Koning wrote in an article in the Financial Post last week, “Our central bank has swapped a sure thing: a large chunk of liquid and non-volatile AAA-rated government debt, for a slew of ‘other’ assets whose nature remains uncertain to everyone but bank insiders, assets which are inherently more volatile and less liquid than government debt.”

That this compromising of our money supply could happen is alarming. That it could take place without citizens being told is shocking.

Why didn’t the finance minister explain his actions? Did he understand them? Where were the opposition watchdogs? What happens now if unemployment and falling house values turn some of those mortgages worthless, as happened in the US?

Let’s hope this comes to light on the floor of the House of Commons.

Oh wait. It’s been locked.

Friday, December 05, 2008

Sad Day for Democracy

The weasely little coward managed to get his own way after all it seems. The Governor General gave permission to Prorogue Parliament until near the end of January. This set a very dangerous president in Canadian Politics, because it sends the message that if the Prime Minister feels his government has lost the confidence of the house and is in danger of falling he can simply close down parliament and regroup.

Now the coalition has 6 weeks to implode, which will happen since the Liberal Party is already trying to back away from it. They have a leadership convention coming up and are in no way ready for an election (which seems to be the common thread for the survival of the minority Conservatives) so they will not bring down the government in January...it's pretty much a guarantee. If they were to topple the Government in January it is far enough away from the last election that the Governor General may call another one, and the Liberals know they can't win with Dion as leader. In fact Stephen Harper would probably end up with a majority government if that happened and nobody wants that.

What I don't understand is why the coalition didn't play their hand a little closer to their chests and keep their bloody mouths shut about their plan. Churchill didn't go on german Radio and say, "We're planning to hit the beach early next week."

If they had just made their agreements and shut up about it, they could've arrived in Parliament and when it was time to vote, everyone could've stood up against the bill and brought down the government nice easy. No fuss, no muss, and just like that Stephen and his merry band of idiots would've been sitting on the other side of the room next time parliament sat. Instead they have to hold a press conference (in front of the Canadian Flag) and give the game plan away so Willy the Weasel could find a way out of the predicament. Honestly....I think they may ALL be too stupid to be in charge, and Canadians should be very concerned.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Coalitions and Governor Generals, and Prorogueing...oh my!

The show has been over for nearly two weeks now, and I haven't had my post show depression, which isn't entirely surprising since we have been insanely busy. In fact I was in the middle of editing the OBAs during the run of the show, and had to finish that up in the early part of the week following, so I didn't have time to miss the show. I was actually relieved to have my evenings free to decompress from work. I have some projects at home that I need to get back to, and finally have the time, plus it's time to break out the sewing machine for Christmas stuff, so busy busy busy. All in all same old, same old.

Even if you don't follow politics, how could you not right now? This is about as exciting as the Government of Canada has ever been. Although, if the Governor General grants Harpers request to Prorogue Parliament, which she probably will, it is going to get very muddy in the coming weeks. There will be some serious slinging as a desperate man tries to cling to power, and I say desperate man, because basically that's what the conservative party has become "the Harper show". He wields all the power and is merciless with anyone who doesn't agree with him, just ask Garth Turner or Bill Casey.

I find it laughable that the Cons are calling the Coalition undemocratic, when it is the most democratic thing that's happened in Canadian Politics in Decades. This isn't a bunch of appointed senators or judges who haven't been elected trying to sieze the government. These are democratically elected Members of parliament, doing their jobs and following the rules of Canadian government forming a coalition to govern this country cooperatively. This is wonderful, it is what the Canadian Public have been telling the government for three elections in a row, by electing minority governments. We have been telling them, we don't want one party to run the country, we want want you to compromise in our best interests, and the Conservatives have been completely unwilling to do that. Stephen Harper has run this country like he has a majority. He has been like a playground bully who grabs your wrist and smacks you in the face with your own hand. He buries legislation that he knows the opposition can't support in legislation that they would have to support or look bad, then makes it a confidence motion. This worked in the past because the Liberals weren't ready for an election and wouldn't bring down the government so they were forced to abstain from voting and Harper got his way. He tried to do it again, and make them cut their own throats with an economic package that did nothing to address the current economic crisis (which the Cons contributed to by blowing a 32 billion dollar surplus trying to buy votes, and introducing no money down 40 year mortgages that contributed to a housing crisis similar to the US) and cut much needed funding to the parties, only this time the opposition wasn't going to be bullied, and in an historic move they sat down and came to a compromise. This is what we've been asking them to do ever since Cretien left office - work together, compromise, put the best interests of the Canadian public ahead of Party politics.

For the first time in a very long time, Canada will have a government that consists of MPs working together for Canada ahead of the interrests of their party. Isn't that what we want? MP to represent us first and foremost. This is the definition of democracy.

Let's face it Stephen Harper has lied so many times he doesn't deserve to run this Country anymore. He said his government wouldn't tax income trusted if they were elected, then once they were elected he did just that and thousands of seniors who invested in them based on his promise lost their life savings. He blew a huge surplus and promised that there would be no deficit while campaigning, now they project a deficit just a few weeks later. He broke his own law (which he teamed up with the Bloc to push through) by having the most recent election in the first place because he knew this economic crisis was set to boil and the Liberals were still not ready for an election, and by the time the fixed election date rolled around we would be deep in the throws of an economic crisis due in part to the Conservative mismanagment of the economy. Now he wants to Prorogue Parliament so he can stay in power for a few more weeks. He's hoping the opposition will lose their momentum and cracks will form during the break. There will certainly be a lot of mudslinging and lies coming from the Conservatives in the mean time, there already are.

The first lie is that the Bloc is involved in the coalition, which they are not. They have promised not to topple it within the next year if there are votes of confidence on three issues mostly dealing with the economy, that is all. If the coalition missteps on some other issue there is no such guarantee from the Bloc. By the way, Stephen Harper tried to form the exact same kind of deal with the NDP and the Bloc to bring down Paul Martin's minority government and seize power. Stockewell Day also approached the Bloc when he was leader of the Alliance Party to form a coalition. Talk about your hypocracy. Then when Stockwell Day was confronted about it in question period he denied any knowledge of such an offer until hearing about it just then, so either he is lying, or someone was making offered on behalf of his office without his knowledge which makes him incompetant. Liar or incompetant, which do you prefer?

I could rant on and on, but suffice to say the Harper Conservative are governing with only 36% of the popular vote, the remaining 64% rests in the oppositiong, so having a coalition government, actually means we will have a group that more people voted for representing us. Again that sounds pretty democratic to me. Now Harper can sulk like a spoiled child or he could actually do the right thing and try to find a way to participate in the government and compromise for the sake of Canada. I'm afraid that just won't happen in his case though, as he has already deomonstrated that he is a controll freak, a bully, a liar, and a narcissist. If this government falls, it's a pretty safe bet he will not be leading the Cons for very long after.... Ever notice that the Conservative starts with Con?

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

November 18

Last night was the longest night in history. Well not really but it felt like it. I had to be up at the ungodly hour of 6 am (and before you say..."I have to get up that time everyday".... I don't...so it was too damn early as far as I'm concerned) so I could be in town and at K100 to meet up with Katie, Matt, and Stephen for our interview. It was a fun segment and the people who heard it said it sounded really good. I went back home afterwards to pick up Darrell and then we came back into town for work. I was feeling pretty good until 11 am, when I realized I was very tired and it was still only 11 am. It made for a very long cue to cue for me.

Our call was for 5:30 so I headed straight to the theatre from work, had mic check and 6, and then, since I don't come on until almost halfway through the first act, there was nothing for me to do , but pace around and sit here and there, and pace around some more until about 9:30 when they finally made their way to my scene. If only I could've found a nice place to curl up and have a nap, but unfortunatly cue to cues tend to jump around, and you need to be present in case they start a scene then skip to the end of it without running the whole thing. We got finished at midnight and managed to get through the majority of the show. There will be some touch up to be done tonight at the Dress and tech...but there always are, so we are right on track for opening night tomorrow. I can't believe it's already here. I can't wait to hear some response from an audience who are hearing it for the first time and haven't been at rehearsals watchig for two months. Tomorrow's "opening" night is actually our student dress rehearsal, but it has been opened up to the public, and the last graph that Jen had for seat availability showed very few yellow chairs, so it will be very much like an official opening night. It should be interesting as well, because student night tends to get laughter in places you don't expect, and no laughter in places you do, so combining them with the adult audience should make for some very interesting responses. I would advise you to get your tickets while you still can, already on nights like Friday they are mostly sold out. There are seats available if you want to go, but don't expect to sit together if there's more than one of you.... That shouldn't be a problem, since it's not like you're going to be having a conversation while the show is going on anyway...Right?

Here's a little photoshop fun with one of the images fromour Rob Roy photo shoot.

Chicago Image

Friday, November 07, 2008

November 7

I haven't posted on here in a long time it would seem. I have been insanely busy. There is a rehearsal every weeknight and every afternoon during the weekend. Plus I am still teaching two evenings a week, and working my actual job during the day.....very very busy. I knew it would be like this going in though.

My theatre curse is alive and well. Last Friday, some kind of stellar alignment or universal something happened and I found myself with the day off work and rehearsal. It was strange. I decided to use the opportunity to clena up some of the mess I made of the house while painting. I washed the floor and was moving the big concrete pot that contains our Canary Island Date palm back into place when my sandal slipped onthe wet floor...and you guessed it I kicked the pot with my barefoot and hurt my toe. Same toes I dropped the cabinet door on during Cabaret, on the same foot I dropped the end table on during Christmas Carol. So I'm hobbling slightly, but not too badly, and will be in fine form come show time. I am also battling a cold that came upon me a couple days ago. I'm kind of glad I got it now, so I can be over it by next week. The show is going great, and rehearsals are on shedule. We sing through with the band tomorrow morning, which I am really looking forward too. I love hearing everything come together for the first time. I've been resting my voice as much as possible because of the cold, so I hope to be in full form tomorrow. Lisa and Emily were intot the office yesterday and we recorded Lisa singing "All that Jazz" as backup music for the commercial on K100. a little later, Katie, Anthony, Emily, and I went to the station to voice the commercial...it was quite fun. I'm excited to hear the final edit on the air. We also had the Here magazine people in to do a story and take somepics of us all in Costume earlier in the week. We had a really good time with that as well. I think that will be in Thursday's Here magazine. We also got to see some of the images from our photo shoot with Rob Roy, and there are a few I really like. I can't share those with you at the moment however as they are for promo stuff and top secret at the moment...hee hee. Make sure you get your subscriptions soon, then deadling for draw prizes is closing in.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Long Time no Blog

I haven't been doing a good job of keeping this thing up to date. I've been too busy. In fact you'd think I'd have a tonne of stuff to blog about, being so busy and all, but I don't.
Thanksgiving weekend was good. We had dinner with Brian and Helen on the Monday. I got a lot of paitning done at home, and there was a lot of rehearsing. The following week was hectic, with work, school and rehearsal. Everyone had Friday off from rehearsal, and I had hoped to finish painting the living room, but that fell through. Instead we met Brian and Helen and Yorkie up at the dog park. it was Tiff and Elton's first time there, and they really enjoyed themselves. They were even photographed for a broshure of some kind. No surprise there...they are beautiful dogs.
In our aquatic kingdom things are good. Darrell contimues to wage war on the bryopsis algea, and the baby clown fish are growing becoming more and more like little fish. I had an unfortunate miscalculation that cost me nine little babies, and I'm not entirely sure what it was or why it happened. I put a foam filter into the tank that had been curing in the main tank. I noticed the next day that there was an aptasia anemone attached to it. Either that anemones killed the little babies (which it shouldn't have been able to do, being clownfish and all) or the hieghtened levels of magnesium that Darrell has been using to combat the algea had something to do with it, or there was just something not completely right about those particular fish and the timin of the foam filter was just coincidence. Either way I am down to 11 from 20 as a result.
Sunday Katie, Lisa, and I had a promo photo shoot at Rob Roy productions.It was a lot of fun. Sandra Directed, someone was there from wardrobe to help us with our costumes...and she's gonna kill me because I can't remember her name at the moment (I'm such a tool when it comes to people's names), and Dre showed up and did our make up. Big thanks to all of them for their help. Then we ran the entire show for the first time. It was evreything you would expect the first run of a show to be. Those of you who know, will know and that's all I'm saying. The first run of the whole thing is to give the director, music director, and choreographer a sense of what stuff needs the most work, and what stuff just needs polishing. based on Sunday.....this is going to be a fantastic show and you should be getting you're tickets quickly because they are really moving.
Last night we finished the choreagraphy for "All I Care about is Love"...and it is sooooooooooo good. Jenn is amazing! Also, I gotta say - Sarah Dever is perhaps one of the most amazing women I have every met. She is stage managing this show, and is present for every single tiny little event there is. She is at every vocal rehearsal, dance rehearsal, acting rehearsal, production meeting...you name it she is there. If there is scheduling to be changed she's on it. She has managed to work around everyone'conflicts and still keep them informed and up to date....plus the woman is a very busy Lawyer by day. I don't know how she does it, but I'm glad she does, because she is making this a very smooth and organized production.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Thursday, Oct 9.

There's not a lot to blog about right now. I'm busy busy, but you know that already. Work is busy, with two large projects on the go for me, plus I am still setting up my new animation computer the way I want it. There is also the addition of a co-op student to my Friday mornings to get used to. He hasn't started yet, but I'm already trying to figure out how I'm going to work him in, teach him to use the programs, and still get things done. Thankfully we are not signed on for a full co-op program otherwise he would be here every morning, and that just wouldn't work in this little space. I wish we were set up to deal with it, but we aren't and that's just the way it is right now.

With the combination of school and rehearsals, every evening of my calendar is booked with something. Since I'm the one with the biggest scheduling conflicts, Sarah and Stephen have done their best to work around my schedule, which I wam very grateful for. Of course that means my nights off from the school are taken up with rehearsals, with the except of last night. I'm not going to comment too much about the rehearsals on the blog, because I don't want anyone taking anything out of context or reading more into it than is there. So far everything is right on track and there is a lot of energy and excitement from cast and crew alike. We are working hard, and having a lot of fun as well. Get your tickets now, because they are selling fast, and this is going to be a good show.... you have my personal guarantee.

We took advantage of my night off last night, to have Brian and Helen over to watch "Iron Man." I loved it just as much the second time around (I saw it on my birthday in Calgary.)

I am still not finished painting the kitchen/dining/living room. The paint I used went on fine, but when it dried there is a veining pattern in the paint, with little darker streaks all through it. I have half a mind to go down to Ritchies and pour the remained of the second bucket all over the person who recommended it. I've painted a lot of walls over the years, and know what I'm doing, so it is obviously the paint. I'm hoping to get the big wall done this weekend. I'm saving the wall in the livingroom with the popout (it's the only way I can really describe it) for later. I want to run some wires from the light switch and put some pot lights up over the plants in the window, plus I have to do the drywalling around the window, so I want to make sure everything is done in that area before painting. This is the problem I have....I get doing something simple, like painting, then see something I would like to change like the molding around the windows, and end up creating this huge job out of a simple project. Granted, it looks 100% better, and the time to do these things is before you put the new coat of paint on... but I really need to learn to keep simple things simple.

Tomorrow is my yellow lab, Elton's, birthday and he will be 9. I can't believe my little puppy is already 9. He still acts like a puppy.

Friday, October 03, 2008

What's New.

I spent the better part of the weekend Painting the kitchen and rehearsing Chicago.
The new Theatre building is making it so easy to rehearse and feel like you're part of a big production right away, because there is so much space that there can be more than one type of rehearsal going on at once. We can be in back running lines with Stephen while another group is dancing with Jenn, and another can be downstairs singing with Richard. What an assett to the company and the arts community in general to finally have this space where everything can happen at once. Plus having it three doors down from our office makes it very convenient for me as well.

I got most of the kitchen painted and the windows are looking awsome, except there was one fly in the ointment. I started off with a can of Taupe that I had left over from the basement, and got a couple new one from Ritchies, only to realize after finishing that the colours don't quite match. I will have to go over all of it again this weekend to even it all out. Gives me the oportunity to touch up the drywall around the windows that little bit more anyway.

My second batch of clownfish larva are in the process of morphing into little fishes now, and already I have twice as many as the first and more still to morph. You can't count until after the morph because many don't survive this stage, but once they get through it they are hardy little fishes that are a lot easier to care for. My original three from the first batch (Huey, Dueym & Luey) are all doing very well and are abotu an inch long now. They recognise me as a source of food, and swim up to the surface when I approach the tank eagerly anticipating a treat. Still waiting fo rmy tomotoe clown pair to settle into the act of laying eggs. I know they are not far off from their behavior, but so far nothing.

Tuesday we were off to Harbour Station with Brian and Helen to see Elton John...... it was AWSOME, with a capital HOLY SH!T. One man and a piano and there were time my whole body vibrated from the music. He's had a few throat surgeries, and is 60 years old now, so he can't hit some of the old notes from some of his old songs, but he still sings beautifully and doesn't rearrange or wreck any of the old stuff. Sometimes, like in Crocdile Rock, where he can'thit the notes, he just doesn't bother and is a good enough entertainer to get the audience to do it for him, and somehow it doesn't seem lazy like it woulod from another performer. Mostly because he does such a good job of everything else, you can happily overlook it. Of course I blew the back account and got myself the $40 t-shirt (But how often do you get to see Elton John?). We also picked up the DVD. There was a shirt Darrell liked that was $75 dollars and he decided not to get it, so I snuck back to the table before the concert started and got it for him. I snuck it back to my chair under my shirt and then tucked it into the arm of my jacket so he wouldn't see it. Before the concert we stopped at the airport and checked out his private jet, and then as the last song of the encore was ending we moved toward the doors so we could rush out of there, and hightailed it back to the cars and out to the airport hoping to catch him. We figured we had it nailed too, until we got there and were told by a couple who happened to be at the airport when he arrive that we had missed him. His plane was still in the same place and started to pull away a few mintues after we arrived, so we watching it take off so, "We could see the red tail light, headin for Montreal. And Maybe Elton was wavin' goodbye.... Oh I miss Elton, oh I miss him so much."
Anyway....we went back to the house and let the dogs out. While Darrell had the dogs outside I took the opportunity to sneak the shirt onto his pillow, and then we went down to the Irving to for milk shakes with Brian and Helen. The concert started at 7, so it was still pretty early.
The week has been very busy so far, with lots to do. Between School and Rehearsals, nearly everynight of my life is booked up until the end of November. I also have a co-op student coming in to train with me once a week starting next Friday. I just met him today and he's a pretty shy guy, but seems eager to learn. He ultimately wants to work for Pixar, so here's hoping I can get him started in the right direction.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Tuesday

Soooooo tired today. The premiers of just about all my must see shows were on last night and I had to do some time shifting to watch them all. My comedy block started at nine with "The Big Bang Theory" (Which I am loving more and more each time I see it), "How I Met your Mother" (fantastic show...if you aren;t watchig it you're missing out.), "Two and a Half Men" (One of the strongest comedies on TV right now), and the series premier of "Worst Day" (Should never put Worts in the title, it's like "Super Bad" why watch the movie, when they've already told how it's going to be?)- not really feeling this one. It is trying, but didn't grab me. There was also some dialog lifted right out of an episode of Roseanne - I gotta say.. probably not gonna last.

Of course the biggest most anticipated premier of them all, and the reason I'm so tired, "Heroes". I love Heroes. It is so good, and the two hour season premier did not disappoint. Now I just need them to switch it to a night when sucky shows are on, so I don't have to start watching it at 11 on an Alberta station.

The weekend was good. I didn't get as many things upstairs done as I had wanted to, but there are two coat of drywall mud onthe windows and I should be down to just fine sanding and touch up mud now. I'm excited to see how this little experiment turns out. I already like the look of them much better, even without the sills yet.

Sunday was the first reading of Chicago, and the first time the cast and crew got to sit down and see who else is in the show. It's a really strong cast and lots of really fun people. There's a few brand new people who i've never met before which is great, some who I haven't done anything with since Guys & Dolls, some of the Cabaret cast has returned, and there's some people who have done a lot of other stuff but this is their first musical..... I'm really excited for them. This will be the show they measure all other musical shows by. Guys & Dolls was my first and I still compare nearly every other experience to that one.

Ticket sales for the show are already going very fast. There is someone booked for the theatre for the Sunday after the show so unless they cancell there won't be a chance for an additional matinee like Cabaret, so the theatre company is going to open up the Student Dress rehearsal to the public as well. Students will still get their special price and get first priority, but the general audience will also be able to come and see the show on Wednesday.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Wednesday Sept. 17

Okay my bad, the read through is Sunday not Saturday. Good thing I ran into Anthony on the street, or I would've shown up and been the only one there...hehe. It Says Sunday in my e-mail and everything, but have my moments.

Life is about to get busy. I started back into my classes last night. I had 5 kids and 1 adult in my animation class, and 4 kids and 1 adult in my beginner painting class. Those are nice sized classes, which give me the opportunity to spend a lot of time with each student to help them get the most out the class. My Thursday night painting class is also a go. It's intermediate painting for adult, and I've been told there is one beginner in it as well. I'll be able to catch her up easily enough.

I still have a huge disaster on the main floor of the house. I haven't had a chance to touch anything since the weekend, but plan to get quite a bit done today when I get home. I have molding to rip away from two more windows and corners and mud to put up on them, then I need to sand and finish mudding the kitchen window. Once all that is done and dry and sanded and perfect I can paint. I also have a pile of boards to plane down to thickness for a cabinet I'm building for Mike, so I have to sit down and figure out a time management strategy. I have to extra careful as well, because I tend to drop things on my foot, when I start into a play and injure myself. (my toenail has finally completely grown back since Cabaret a year and half ago....dropped a cabinet door I was building on it first week of rehearsals. Brenda still has the bloody sock pics from the costume fittings I'm sure. I also dropped an end table on my foot during Christmas carol, and had to limp around for part of that...so I'll be extra careful of my feet for the next two months. When everyone else is breaking a leg, I'll be watching to not break a foot.)

I am in the process of installing programs and goodies to my brand shiny new animation computer. It is sah-weet. It had a dual quadcore board, and the potential for 32 gigs of ram..... that's not a typo. I only have the one processor in it at the moment and the ram is no where near maxed out, but it still sings like no ones business, and is more than thrice as fast as our other computers.....it is a little on the loud side as there are a tonne of fans in it, but I'm learning to tune it out.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Busier than a One Armed Paper Hanger

School starts this week. I still don't have a nailed down schedule, because I still don't know which classes are full enough to go and which ones aren't. I know for a fact my animation classes are booked up, thanks to some great press last week.

There was a press conference for the school's announcement of the 3d animation course's launch. It will be a postsecondary, full time schooling course. I will not be the instructor, but I may teach a portion of it, that remains to be worked out. I was asked to be part of the press conference because I am a 3d animator working full time in Saint John, so I have a little insight into the market for people with skills in 3d animation....who'd've thunk it...me...an expert witness.

I am gearing up for our first read through of Chicago, this Saturday. I'm very excited to see who else is going to be in the cast and hear the script for the first time.

Just in time for all this schooling and rehearsal to start I went ahead and gave myself a big project to do at home. I've spent the past couple weekends painting the main living area. Since it's open concept that means, kitchen, dining room, livingroom, hallway. I've finished the hallway, the accent wall, and the ceiling. Then I got the bright idea that I hated the molding around the windows. It wasn't a new idea...I've always hated the molding around the windows...it looks cheap and unfinished. It reminds me of a trailer, and makes me feel like the contractor, just slapped it up, and said "There, that looks finished, and once you buy the place you can do it properly." It's not poorly done by any means, that's just how I've always felt about windows framed by molding. I ripped down the molding on the kitchen window and got some drywall corner strips. Then I put them along the top and sides of the window and mudded them yesterday. I have to finish that today. When I'm finished the window will have no molding at all, it will just be nice sharp corners along the sides and top, and I am going to install an oak ledge/sash. Even unfinished the window looks larger and the wall area looks sharper. It just means my simple painting job will be more complicated and take more time, but in the long run it will look so much nicer. I'm also considering opening up the wall above the fron window and running some wires off the light switch to install some pot lights up over the plants and take down the hideous fixture we have there now. When you're getting ready to paint is the perfect time to do these things, so you can rip open your walls and fix them back up again before the paint goes up.

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Chicago

I heard from Stephen last night aboout his choices for the cast. It was nice to finally get all the waiting over with. I don't want to say too much about who is or isn't inthe show, because I don'tknow who has or hasn't been contacted yet, but I can say that I got a part in the show. Okay...I won't try to be coy and draw out the suspence....I got Billy Flynn!!!!!!! I am so excited! My first Lead!!! I'm also a little terrified, but just a little. This is a big part and I have a lot of work to do. Guys like Bertis, Bob, Jeff, and Stephen have set the bar pretty high so it will be a real challenge. I'm excited to accept the challenge and give it all I got. Congratulations to everyone who got the parts they were after in the show...you know who you are, can't wait to see everyone at rehearsals.

Friday, September 05, 2008

Three Little Fishes

I a now 15 days into my clownfish raising experiment. I started with about a hundred or more freshly hatched little clown fish larva, and over the past two weeks have watched them grow, and watched several of them die, and watched three of them morph into actual little fishes. I am left now with three very little baby clarks clownfish, which is actually a 3x as many as I had originally thought I might have at this point. Keeping mind that this is the very first time I have attempted to grow them out once they hatch, I think I've done surprisingly well. I 've made some mistakes that cost some lives, but at the same tim, none of them would've survived the first night had they been left in the tank and I hadn't tried this to begin with. Plus my success rate is a hell of lot higher than the success rate in the wild. That said, I now have three very tiny (just over a cm or 2 long) little baby clarks clownfish, and hardest part is over. Now I juast have to keep their water clean and their bellys full, and they should grow into healthy happy adult clownfish.

Day 014 003

It's hard to get a good picture of these little guys.
I have been keeping a photo diary of the process on my flikr site in a set call trying to raising baby clowns


Flikr site


The parent fish already have another batch of eggs set to hatch on wednesday and I might try again.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Called back to call backs

Last night was my second callback for Chicago, although for some of the ladies it was their. The boys (Bertis and I) did a little soft shoe number, which was fun because I've never done that before. Luck for me Stephen had an apartment emergency that made him late and I was able to use the extra time to get the routine down, but wouldn't you know it, I danced it flawlessly when we practice it, and the only time I screwed it up was when he was watching. Murphey's law. We both sang a portion of All I Care About is Love, and then we read some scenes with the various girls present. I did the best I could and felt fairly good about it, now it's just about the look of the show I guess. Should hear something soon.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Still so sick

I still feel gross. Achey and snuffy, and my guts ar churning. I threw up a couple times duing the new 90210 last night, I don't know if it was the cold/flu or the show... wasn't the most exciting television experience of my life. It's like degrassi next generation or whatever it's called....they should've called it 9021 - oh no whatever possessed them to do this show show again?
I have my second call back tonight....just once I would like to audition for a show without being ill. Seems to be my luck, I get my seasonal 'whatever' just in time to go sing and dance for a part. Should be a hell of a night.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Loooong Weekend!!

True to form, we took Friday off as well, and stretched the long weekend into four days. My sore sore throat from earlier in the week, worked it's way into a full fledged cold with coughing, sneezing, and nose running a marathon. Still have it, still feel awful, and have have a second call back tomorrow. This time I get the honour of going up against Bertis, so I won't be holding my breath for this part, since leads tend to go to 6 foot tall men and I am never gonna be 6 feet tall.

Friday we spent putzing about the house, Darrell also has the cold, so we are quite a pair at the moment. Brian and Helen came by to visit. We had all planned to go camping on Deer Island, but just couldn't get it together to get there, and the way I was feeling I was relieved it didn't happen. Plus I have my little clown fish fry to fuss about as the larva make the transition into actual fish.

Saturday we got up with the birds and took a road trip to Maine. We hit all the Aquarium stores and had a very enjoyable day. We went to Bangor, Fairfield, Bucksport, Ellsworth, back to Bangor, then headed for home. We got two gorgeous fish, an Orange Shoulder Tang, and the fish Darrell has wanted since the very start, a juvenile Queen Angel Fish.

Tang and Angel Together

Both these fish will look a lot different when they are adults. We also got a few supplies and accessories. It wouldn't be a road trip to Maine for us, unless we were traveling home in torrential precipitation, last time it was the worst snow storm of the year, this time the sky waited until we were about half way to Calais and then it dumped rain on us so hard you could barely see out the window. The rain made the journey to Calais very slow, but it finally let up once we were nearly there and then all we had to contend with was the NB fog and poorly marked, wet roads.

We got home around 11:30pm and spent a great deal of time acclimating the fish and just chilling out. It was 2am before we hit the hay.

Sunday was a wasted day, since we were up so late the day before. We were supposed to head down to Deer Island and meet the Bonds for cake, since they had actually gotten brave and camped there on Saturday. After the rain we drove in I'm glad it was them and not us. A friend from Sussex paid us a visit, so by the time he was gone, it was just too late to head down to the Island.

Monday was another lazy day. Just kicking back and dealing with the colds. I did a little (very little) cleaning and generally spent the day fussing over little things and watching the fish swim. The little clownfish fry numbers dropped significantly from day to day as the morphing phase hit. As of this morning there are two that actually survived the change and two others that have yet to go through it, quite a drop from the hundred or so we put in there to begin with. I'm quite happy with the result so far though, as I never expected any to really make it this far since it was my first attempt and I knew I would make some mistakes. The bright side; none of them would've made it through the night after hatching if I hadn't tried this, so to have two (potentially four, but not counting them til they change and survive) make it this far is pretty impressive and encouraging.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Thursday

Some time around about 4:30 yesterday I hacked up something disgusting, and afterward had about 60% of my voice back, so I went to the 7pm call back after all. I was pretty scratchy and rough sounding, but as the evening wore on my throat loosened up some. Luckily the songs are fairly simple and there's nothing to terribly high or hard to hit in any of them. There is an F# at the end of Mr. Cellophane that appears out of nowhere and needs to be held for a while, but it's only and F# which, for me, is not a high note. If there were high As or Bs in the song I would've been in some trouble with my throat the way it was feeling, but the F# wasn't too much of a hassle. Funny how quickly singing a few songs and reading a few lines can change how you feel about a show. I'm actually feeling pretty excited about it now, and looking foward to it.

Aside from going out for call backs, I spent most of the rest of yesterday in bed with my laptop and a book. I did my daily maintenance on my clownfish fry as well. They are now at day 7 and there are still a lot of them in the tank feeding and swimming about. To be perfectly honest I am surprised. After reading the books I felt like this was going to be a challenge that would take a few trys to get right and there would be many fatalities along the way before I got the hang of it, but so far so good. That said, it has only been 7 days and the critical day is tomorrow when they should morph from their larval phase into actual fish. It's quite a process really...I'm feeling a little like a marine biologist...hehehe. I'm still always surpised each morning when I go down and turn the light on and take the cover off the tank to see them still swimming in there. I keep expecting a big mass die off, because I did something wrong or whatever. Fingers crossed all continues along well.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Wednesday

I'm home sick today. I have very sore and gravely throat. So much for my call back tonight, probably the universe punishing me for going into it with the worng attitude. But you can't help feeling how you feel right?

Last night we had Bob and Deb over for dinner and it was a great night. I made some little double baked potato appys, then cheese and brocolli soup, followed by fetucinni carbonara, and desert was blueberry cheesecake while we watched Steel Magnolias downstairs from the projector....just like being at the movies. I am so glad we got that projector, don't regret that little expense even slightly. It was really nice to just hang out with Bob and Deb and we had a great time, hopefully we can do it again soon.

I am still trying to figure out a way to make my fetucinni without cows milk products so I can have a dinner party in the future that includes Dre, one of these days I'm gonna get it.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Weekend

I took Friday off and spent the day cleaning and tidying up, because Darrell and Mike were having a business meet with Greg at the house. Darrell had to take the dogs to the vet in the morning because Tiff was acting very sick and they were also overdue for their shots. Tiff was very lethargic and drooling a lot, and we couldn't get her to eat. The vet examined her and said she thought she had swallowed a bee and been stung on the way down (it's not uncommon this time of year and Tiff does snap at bees). She told Darrell to give her some benedril, so we were doing that. I would mix up some sugar and milk and then soak it up with a piece of bread with the pill hidden in it to get her to take it. The Bonds came over later in the evening and we watched Firewall with Harrison Ford. It was one of those movies I picked up at a sell off or something that was sitting in the collection and no one had seen. It was actually quite good. There were a few rushed and wasted scenes that could've been done better but all in all it was a really good movie.

Saturday morning Tiff was still not doing any better and we weren't even able to get her to take bread. The main problem, the vet told us, is that when they swell up from this kind of thing it blocks their sense of smell and dogs just won't eat or drink anything they can't smell. Darrell went back to the vet's and got some anti inflammitories and antibiotics. This time we had to dissolve them in water, take a syringe, hold Tiff's mouth open, and squirt it down her throat. The anti inflammitories did the trick though, as soon as she could smell again she started eating.

Around four thirty we went to Bob and Deb's for dinner. Deb is a super cook and everything was terrific. Kristy and Anthony were there, and Sandra dropped in for awhile. There was also a brief visit from Jeff Smith. So it was a very good time. Kristy tried to show me some of the dance audition for Chicago, but I wasn't planning on auditioning and had already had 6 beers, so that really didn't work out. It was funny, plus Elton kept thinking I wanted to play with him, there's no getting down on the floor with my dogs around. It was so nice of Bob and Deb to let us bring them, since Darrell and I were still worried about Tiff. Later Bob put on a video from Bravo of the final performance of Smokey Joe's Cafe. What a great show. The singing was so incredible, and everything else about it was so simple. We didn't get finished the whole show, since we started it pretty late and everyone was starting to fade near the end, but what we saw of it was really fantastic.

Sunday I went ahead and did what I said I wasn't going to do and auditioned for Chicago. It wasn't a great audition though, since I went in completely cold, without even knowing the song or anything. I remembered a couple of the steps Kristy had tried to show me the night before, and arrived late, so they were done learning the dance when I got there. After the first round of dancers did their things for Jen, Kizzy and Lisa taught me the dance in the back room, and I went on with the last group to dance it. I think I did okay, but really...the idea of a dance audition is to show the choreographer that you have the ability to learn choreography and can move your body, and since Jen choreographed Cabaret I'm pretty sure she already knows my dancing abilities whatever they may be. Richard taught us the song and we went through it a couple times, then we went off to wait our turns. Luckily I was one of the last so I had time to memorize the lyrics and work on the notes. It gave me a chance to try and put a little something into it, but like I said I didn't know the song, so I did what I could. I got a callback for Wednesday so hopefully that goes well.
To be perfectly honest this is the first time I've auditioned for a show with the attitude that the part will determine whether I participate or not, because I wasn't going to audition at all. Frankly it's a good show, but it's not in my top ten of shows I just love...having said that, actually doing it would probably change that fairly quickly. The thing is, this fall is going to be busy. We have a lot of stuff going on at work, and I also have a few evenings at the school, so I don't have a lot of free time. Therefore It's basically going to have to be "The" part to make me give up what little free time I do have to do a show. It's a very heavy decision to weigh out, IF I get offered a part.....just have to play it by ear I guess.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Fry Friday

We now have four different pairs of clownfish in four different tanks. We have a pair of ocellaris clown (Like Nemo) in our fifty gallon, a pair of Maroon Clowns in our 77 gallon, a pair of tomato clowns in our 135 gallon, and a pair of clarkii clowns in our 65 tall. The female clarkii is the first salt water fish we bought. We got her and her mate at the Pets Unlimited in Moncton, not so long ago the male passed away and I got a new captive bred juvenile from Nobles in Moncton. The neat thing about clown fish is they all start out as sexually undeveloped males, then eventually a dominant clown will emerge from the group or pair, it will grown quite a bit larger than the rest and then change it's sex and become a female. If there's a group, the second most dominant will becoe a sexually developed male and they will be the only mated pair out of the entire group, the rest will remain juveniles for the rest of their lives or until something happens to one or both of the mated pair. That's why, when you're buying clown fish it's best to pick out two small ones (preferably captive bred so you know how old they are) and let them figure it out for themselves.

At any rate, our 50 gallon is still cycling so the conditions aren't stable enough for the Ocellaris to breed yet, the anemone in the 135 keeps moving around so the tomatoes won't breed either, and the rockscaping isn't done in the 77 so the maroons don't feel secure enough with the eel around to lay any eggs, but our Clarkiis had been laying eggs to beat the band until the male died. Now there is a new male in the tank and the egg laying has begun again.

Raising clownfish fry is not exactly an easy thing to do, and you can't just leave them in the tank and expect them to grow into little fish. They either end up as lunch, mangled by power heads, or starve to death. They need to be fed a tiny little organism called rotifers, and to culture rotifers you need to feed them phytoplankon.
We've been culturing phyto plankton for a few months now, because it's also good to feed your filter feeders in the tank and growing your own is a lot cheaper than buying it. I also got a rotifer culture started last month and they are growing and doing very well as well. I was on the verge of screwing up my confidence and trying to raise a batch of fry when our male clarkii died, so I had to wait for the new guy to start mating with the female. It happened surprisingly fast, so the first time around I wasn't prepared. Then the second time I actually got to witness them laying the eggs so I was able to count it out. Eggs hatch between 7 and 8 days after being laid, but I ended up buying the rearing tank and supplies the morning after they hatched so I missed out. This was a week ago Tuesday, so I figured I'd have to wait another week at least until tey laid more eggs, then another 8 days until they hatched, but the little horn dogs had a new batch by the next evening (wednesday night).

It's neat to watch the eggs mature, they start out little red glods, and by the time they are reay to breakfree they are like silver slivers and you can see the eyes glowing inside. We figured they would hatch wednesday night, so we turned off all the pumps and powerheads, then turned the lights off so there would be complete darkness....the Fry wait for dark to hatch. We waited quit a while, but nothing happened, so we gave up and turned the pumps back on. Thursday morning the eggs were still there, so we decided to try again that night. We once again turned all the pumps etc off, and left the tank and room in complete darkness. About fifteen minutes later we checked with a flashlight and the tank as full of little fry swimming about. Darrell took the flashlight and held it up by the water's surface and they all started being drawn to the light. (In nature they follow the moon light up to the surface and spend the first 8 days of their lives up in the plankton rich surface water). As they congregated at the light, Darrell scooped them out with a bowl into a jug and I put them in our little five gallon rearing tank. I then loaded up the tank with lots and lots of rotifers and left the light on for a little while so they could start learning to hunt. Yesterday was day one of them in their new homes and I think there were a few losses, but I managed to clean the debris from the bottom of the tank and did a water change to keep the ammonia and nitrate levels down. I'm keeping a heavy stock of rotifers in the tank so they don't have to look too far for food.
Today is day two and it has started out well. They are swimming and hunting and scooting about all over the tank, so fingers crossed I can do all the right things to bring them around to the day 8 metamorphosis. This is the day they all change from fry to actual fish, they drop down to the bottom and begin their change. According to my book this will be the day of the most losses, but if they're in good shape leading upto it, it shouldn't be all that bad.

To be quite honest, this being the first attempt and all, I'll be surpised if any of them manage to make it into actual little clownfish, but none of them would if I left them in the parent tank to hatch, so fingers crossed.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Bad Blogger, Bad Blogger

I have been neglecting my poor little blog. Mostly because there isn't much to tell.
I finished the last of my three summer camps last week, and it was a lot of fun. I only a three kids in my last camp so we got a lot done. I was really impressed with the progress and I think they all had a good time which is kind of the whole point. I get them doing a project, but I don't worry about whether they finish it or not as long as they are having fun.

Aftr our visit to Fredericton a couple weekends ago, seeing Laura and Ray going to town ripping down wallpaper, I must've gotten inspired because I popped out to Home depot and got some paint for the masterbathroom. I spent last week fixing the walls and painting the room. I have been hesitant to touch that room, since we have plans to competely ovehaul it including ripping out a wall and breaking into the closet in the spare room, putting in a stand up shower and separate tub, etc etc. Alas those renos are not in the forseeable future, so a nice little makeover what all that was needed now to tide us over until the grand facelift. As always, I went completely overboard and couldn't stop at just patching holes and throwing a new colour on the walls. I used three separate colours, a very light light blue onthe cieling, and very dark rich blue onthe walls, and a shade in btween the two in the skylight. Then since everything was taken apart I figured I might as well change the cheap (came with house contractor grade) $8 light fixture and put up something better, and of course with new color in the rooms comes new towels, bath mat, shower curtain.......

It looks great now, so I'm happy.

Now I'm itching to get started on the rest of the upstairs.

Friday, August 08, 2008

Friday

I haven't been very good at keeping this blog up to date lately. Could be because I've fallen into the "Same Old, Same Old" rut and don't really feel like there's much to blog about. My summer camps have been going well. I've done two so far and have one more scheduled to start next week. Would be nice to see some summer start as well. What a shitty season it's been so far weatherwise. There's been so much rainy and gray cloudy days I feel like I'm on the Queen Charlotte Islands. I spent a few summers in my childhood there, and it can get pretty gray and wet. When the sun does come out it's amazing though. A little more sun out here would be nice!!

I posted an ad on Giraffecycle.com to see if I could find a band and start singing again. I'm not looking to make a career out of it or anything but it would be fun to hang with a group of guys (or gals)and get back onstage on a fairly regular basis again. So far I've heard from a few different people who are interested in trying something out, but nothing definite has been nailed down yet. I has been a few weeks now, which seems kind of long to me cause if I was on Vancouver Island, I could put a band together in about five minutes...haha. Well maybe ten. I've had a couple very promising meetings though, so I think it will happen shortly. I'm wanting to stray from country music this time around and do more Adult contemporary and classic rock. Elton John/ Billy Joel kind of stuff. Throw in some oldies too like the Four Seasons. I think that would be all kinds of fun.

Aquarium obsession is getting completely out of hand. I think we're due for an intervention. Make that overdue. It is a little frustrating right now because we are still battling Algae problems from that stupid foam background the Woman at Village(Idiot) Pets convived us we needed. We didn't know any better, and th bloody thing soaked up andexpelled nitrates into the tank causing a forest of hair alae growth that killed some of our corals, and now six months later we are still trying to get rid of. A warning to anyone looking to get into the salt water hobby, or looking for a pet period, avoid that store liek the plague. They're overpriced and their livestock is not good qaulity. In fact their salt water fish tanks were in such a disasterous state the last time we were in I was almost tempted to call the SPCA.

Aside from constantly battling algae the tank is quite enjoyable. All the fishes are healthy and happy and beautifully coloured. We are setting up yet another tank at the moment (which is crazy I know) for a little pair of ocellaris clown fish (Nemo) we got. We have for pair sof clown fish now, all different types and all in different tanks, cause you can'e keep them together. Our Clarkii pair is still breeding to beat the band and laid another clutch of eggs on Monday. I have a pretty good phytopankton culture going as well as a good batch of rotifers, so I may even consider trying to raise the next batch of eggs they lay once they hatch. We'll see what happens.

The dogs are doing great. We changed their food a few months back to this organic stuff that is made in Quebec. There are no foreign ingredients in it...ie wheat from China etc etc. It is 100% Canadain sourced and contains no filler, which means the dogs don't eat a much of it because they stay full when they're done eating. It cost $50 for the big bag and the woman delivers it right to our door. On average we're going through about a bag every three weeks, which is really good compared to IAMS at a bag every two weeks. The dogs love it and they are doing really well on it. The biggest difference is Tiff. She has lost a lot of weight and had a lot more energy than she used to. She's no spring chicken anymore, she turned 10 in March. Elton's nineth birthday is quickly approaching in October, and our tenth aniversary is next week. Hard to believe we've been in New Brunswick for a full decade.

On the weekend we took a quick trip up to Fredericton to see Laura and Ray and check out their new house. They just took possession of it and were in the process of ripping down the hideous wallpaper when we were there. Someone informed Ray that spraying fabric softener on the wallpaper would loosen it right up and it works like a charm. You;d think with all the "wallpaper remedies" out there people would get the message and stop putting the damn shit up to begin with....I mean really people... Prints belong in Frames!!!! A bucket of paint is cheaper, easier to clean, looks nicer, and simple to change when it gets old, you get sick of it, or get new furniture. At any rate they found a great house at a great price and have great plans for it.

We have been overdosing on movies lately. Darrell ordered a projector from dell and we have it set up in the basement projecting movies on the end wall of the recroom. It's like being at the theatre. We have an 8 foot screen and the DVD player plugged into the stereo....good times. We've been watching stuff with sweeping scenery and big effects like Narnia, Batman Begins, Prisilla Queen of the Desert, and Finding Nemo. It's been a lot of fun. The Bonds have been over a few times for movie nights and we've done the entire Omen series as well.

I've also been addicted to "So You Think You Can Dance." I don't watch Idol Shows (everyone gasps and thinks to themselves..but you're a singer how could you not be totally addicted to Idol) but "So You Think You Can Dance" really surprised me. What I disliked most about the show were the auditions and the amount of time they wasted on the freaks. The judges complained about all the freaks coming out to the auditions yet they cut the footage in such a waythat the freaks were the ones that got the most airtime, so the show is just inviting them to come out for their 15 minutes of freaky fame. That aside the rest fo the show was amazing. The talent featured was top notch, and the judges critiques were always very very good (I could do without that Mary Murphy screaming all the damn time though). I liked that they didn't sit there and blow sunshine up everone's ass, and called them on their screw ups. Yet at the same time they also pointed out the good things. It was proper critique not critisism...there's a difference. I also likes that in the finally show the judges put their money where their mouths were and danced. So often in talent shows you wonder what qualifies the judges to sit there in judgement... mean really David Hasselhoff give me a break... but on this one they stepped up and showed everyone what qualified them to sit there. Mary Murphy was an amazing dancer, and the best part of it was that while she's dancing she can't talk...lol. It was good final show, and I wasn't surprised by the result, but I was in agreement with it. Oh and the reason I don't watch idol shows is because I can't handle bad singing. The auditions are paiful to listen to, and the finalists (mostly in Canadian Idol) aren't all that great either. There's usually two or three that are good and the rest are mediocre at best, so for me, listening to it is torture.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

New Post

I guess it's about time I updated this blog. Last week I had the first of three week long summer camps at the school. This one was part of a YMCA day camp, and had 12 kids, not all of whom were interested in animation, so it was a little more challenging than normal. All in all it worked out well, and I think they all managed to take something away with them that they were happy with.

We've been overhauling my office and making more room to work, so at the moment it's not quite all the way put back together. I took my peronal animation computer home and have been bringing my new laptop in to use in it's place, and I spent last week building a shelving unit that sits on the desk and goes over the computer moniters so that the video moniters can sit above them. There's a lot more space on the desk these days, so in a few weeks I shoul dhav that all cluttered up with crap I'm sure.

The house is still a huge disaster, but there is a very faint light at the end of the tunnel. Darrell got the second set of shelves built in the freezer room, and moved his RO unit into the electrical/water heater room. Now we just have to reorganize and clean the rest of the downstairs. I also have to finish building the trim for the rec room and install it. I want to get that all finished before I start thinking about painting the upstairs, or it will just not get done.

Saturday we spent the morning online at the Harbour Station Box office trying to get tickets to Elton John. Darrell and I were on both our laptops, Brina and Helen were on their computer, and our bookkeeper (and friend) Trish was on her computer. I signed into the site, and at the stroke of ten put four tickets in my basket in section A. I was all the way through the process of checking out, and pressed submitt only to get the site unavailable screen. I was cussing and swearing like a trucker working on his truck who just smacked his hand with a wrench and dropped it on his toe. I kept trying to refresh, then made the mistake of moving back a screen. I got back into the site and the tickets were still in my basket, but when I tried to check out again I got booted back out of the site, so I just kept trying. About an hour into it, Helen called to annouce that she and Brian got four tickets, so at that point Darrell gave up trying and just paid them for our two. I was still trying however, because we were trying to get tickets for Mike & Kathy and Trish & Mike. I had the business visa and Darrell's visa and was resfreshing like mad, and cussing and swearing a blue streak, it really was quite a sight. Mike called a little later onto see if we had been sucessful, and Darrell told him the story of what happened to me, and I told Darrell tell Mike I wasn't giving up, so keep hoping. Darrelll hung up the phone and headed downstairs to start working on the shelves, and by the time he got to the bottom of the stairs I got back into the site. I signed back in, but my cart was empty, so I added four tickets in E section to my basket and proceeded through the checkout sucessfully this time...yay! I yelled down the stairs to tell Darrell to call Mike back and let him know that I got four tickets. We just picked them up at Harbour Station today, so alls well that ends well..... but man was I pissed off about losing those first four, until I finally got the others. Still a little pissy about it to tell the truth cause they were awsome seats, but there's nothing to be done about it...and besides I'm going to see Elton John!!!

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Another Weekend

Yet another weekend come and gone. Morrie was once again a great success. The audiences really responded well to the show and a lot of people stuck around for the Q&A sessions afterward. There was lots of great discussion. After the final performance, on Friday, Jeff Smith hosted a very nice cast party at his house. It was a really nice evening...thanks Jeff!

Saturday we were going to take a trip up to Moncton, but it was such a nice day out we opted to just stay home and enjoy the deck and the sunshine. We are outside of the fog belt so the weather is always pretty nice at our house....keep that in mind all you uptownies... if you're looking to get out of the fog and enjoy the summer pop over anytime. We were scheduled to head to the Bond's at 6 inthe evening for Bertis' Birthday celebration but ended up being about an hour late. We had a nice BBQ and then a rousing round of Cranium. Brian, Bertis, and I were leading the entire way, but somehow Colin, Helen, and Darrell managed to squeak out a win in the final round.

Sunday we spent the day at home again. It was a fairly productive day I guess, though I can't recall what exactly we got accomplished. Darrell got his little trailor for the lawn tractor all put together and hooked up, and we managed to coax the dogs into it, and hauled them around the yard for a little while. That was kind of funny to watch, because they wouldn't stay in, but didn't want to be left out either.

Monday Darrell had a doctors appointment in Sussex, so I stayed home and waited for him to get back. His appointment ran quite late, and by the time he called to tell me he was on his way back to town, it was pointless to go to work, so I stayed home and had an extra day off, during which I did absolutely nothing. I sat on the downstairs couch watching the fishtank, a few movies, and playing on my laptop.

Today is business as usual. I have the last of my classes tonight and then break for the summer. I am playing make up right now for the classes I had to cancell to go to Calgary. Next week I have the first of three week long summer camps. Thye are spaced out over the summer, so it's not a constant thing, which is kind of nice.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Canada Day Weekend

I took Monday off and made it a four day weekend , so today my internal clock is way off. Darrell got home at 1am on Sunday from a very good visit with his family. He had a really good time and came back very tan.

Every day of the weekend there was a rehearsal for Morrie, but thankfully it is a short show, so it didn't completely suck the life out of the time I had off. KV High has a fairly nice theatre, I've only been in it once before, and their tech kids are fantastic. What a great group of young men and women. I was extremely impressed with their professionalism and skill level. There was one guy on the tech crew who seemed to be everywhere at once, and I thought holy crap that guy is busy. Then one of the days I noticed him and he was wearing a white shirt, he disapeared back stage and came out wearing a yellow, then a little while later he was wearing the white one again... of course that's when I put it together that he was actually twins... which explained why he seemed to be everywhere all at once. Of course that doesn't discount the fact that they are very efficient and skilled group of Techy's and the Theatre Company would be extremely lucky to have any of them decide to come participate in our projects.

Tuesdays with Morrie Opens tonight at KV, so if you missed it last time around, now's your chance to see it again.

Four days off waas exactly what the doctor ordered and I thinkI've finally put that nasty bug or whatever it was that I picked up in Calgary on the run. I even managed to get to a point where I felt rested enough to tackle some of the finishing touches onthe basement. I got the doorway under the stairs completely trimmed out, and am now at a point where I can sand and urithane the wood.

We are still trying to win out over the algea problem in the aquariums, so we took a day to scrub some rocks and got a good leg up on the problem. Now if I can put aside a half hour a day to take the brush to the rocks and keep the algea at bay, eventually we will win and it will die for good. Good water quality combined with less of a lighting period, and a couple weeks of constant brushing should put us where we need to be. I could strangle that woman at Village Pets for tellin gus to get that stupid sponge background for the 70 gallon tank when we got into this hobby. Tha is what trapped all the nitrates that caused the problem in the first place. If you are into fish or aquariums at all, stay away from that place. She doesn't have the first clue what she's talking about and the stuff is so overpriced it blows my mind that they stay in business, because I have no idea who would be stupid enough to shop there. Unless she's just making her money off of people like us, who were just startig out in the hobby and didn't know all the various places to buy equipment or even what to buy.

Today I am trying to get back into the swing of work. Thankfully things have settled down on my end, and I have got most of my projects to a point where it is now back in the client's lap. I have two make up classes to do at the school to cover the ones that were missed for my Calgary trip. The first is on Friday and I've had to change the times on account of Morrie, and the last is Tuesday. I have three summer camps booked, so it will be a busy summer. Then It's back to the fall program. I am hoping to change things up a bit. I'm getting rid of classes on Fridays and changing them to Thursdays,and am trying to get kids divided up into beginners and non beginners. It makes it too hard to have a mixed class, because the kids who have been through before get shortchanged on account of me having to teach the beginners.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Weekend

I had a really nice weekend. Darrell is still in Ontario visiting the folk so I am still batchin. I got some cleaning done, not much but some. It was a beautiful day on Friday and I was at work alone most of the day, so I considered closing up shop around noon and taking off to Fredericton to visit my cousin, but couldn't because I had my animation class to teach at 6:30 that evening. I am definitely going to have that changed in the fall.....NO MORE FRIDAY CLASSES! Or Mondays for that matter... fucks up too many weekend things. If we have along weekend and take Friday off...it sucks to have to come into town just to teach a class for an hour, only to get there and have two kids show up. Tuesday - Thursdays from now on I think. In fact I think I will pause and send Jim and e-mail about that right now, before the day gets away from me.

Okay back.

Saturday night I was just hanging out watchign the fish and some tv and the neighbours called to see if I wanted to come help them christen their new screened in porch so I headed over there for a couple hours and had a couple beer.

Sunday I worked at getting the dishes and the laundry done. I had plans with Brian and Helen to go into the vortex for dinner and a movie, and when they showed up to pick me up the clothes weren't completely dry yet, so I left them. We went to Montanas for dinner. I had a really great burger, and to make it even better, the Bonds treated....thanks guys!! We were quite full and a little rushed for time so we passed on dessert and headed over for the 6:35 showing of Sex and the City. I was pleasantly surprised by it. I was expecting it to be a fashion show with some gratutious nudity, but it was actually quite good. The plot was a bit contrived, but it wrapped up some things from the series nicely and had some laugh out loud moments. If you liked the series you will like the movie. It runs almost two and half hours, and by the time it was over our dinners had settled, so we headed back to Montanas for dessert. Helen had their Brownie Mountain, which was brownies with fudge and caramel sauce, topped with ice cream, and served in a four cup measuring cup. Brian had the Apple Cobbler, also served in the measuring cup, and I had the mile high mud pie. They were all really good, and we didn't finish them all.

By the time they dropped me off at home it was quite foggy so I left the laundry on the laundry on the line, then I chatted with Darrell on MSN for while. He's having a nice trip so far. Then I headed off for bed and forgot to bring the laundry in. This morning I awoke to the sounds of a tourential downpour, and realized that the laundry may have to stay on the line a while longer to dry. Had I known...I could've saved the electricity of running the washer as well....hehehe.

Darrell was supposed to be coming home on Tuesday, but that has changed thanks to Tuesdays with Morrie. For the Canada Day Long weekend we had planned on taking the Friday and the Monday as well as Canada Day, and Making a little holiday of it, which I could really use right now. Even though I took a week and went to Calgary, that wasn't a vacation it was a visit, and as fun as it was, it really wore me out. So we were planning to have a nice relaxing five day weekend where we could do anything we wanted or nothing at all, and then I got the rehearsal schedule for the restaging of Tuesdays with Morrie out in KV. Turns out there is something planned for every single day of the weekend as well as the holiday Tuesday, so our little plans are completely fucked. Had I known that was going to happen I wouldn't have agreed to participate in the show no matter how much I love it. But now that I've committed I certainly wouldn't dream of backing out and letting everybody down. I thought I had leanred my lesson with Guys and Dolls.... NO SHOWS IN THE SUMMER. The summer here is too damn short to start with, and we work too damn hard all year round to have one of the only long weekends of the summer taken up with rehearsals.... Yes I'm kind of pissed about it. At any rate, since I'm going to be busy all weekend, Darrell decided there was no reason to come home in the middle of the week, and pushed his flight back to Saturday instead. So he'll get to spend a few extra days with his family in Ontario and I will get to spend a few extra days alone at home with the dogs and the fish.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Moncton

Had to head up to Moncton this morning for my quarterly visit with the transplant specialist. It's been nearly 4 months since I went off the drugs and everything is as it should be, so she decided I didn't need to see her again for another year. I can now also drop my monthly blood work to every three months (which is about what I usually get around to anyway). So all in all a very good visit to the doctor. I also stopped in to Noble Aquariums and picked upa juvenile clarkii clown fish to replace our male who recently died. I was sad when he died because the clarkii pair were the first salt water fish we got when we set up the tank, so we are more attached to them. The female doesn't seem to like him all that much yet, but luckily he's small enough to fit into a bunch of places she can't fit.
Darrell is in Ontario for the next week, and I left the dogs home, so I didn't want to waste a lot of time hanging about in Moncton. I headed right home after picking up the fish. As I always do on my way home, I gave a mental Shout out to the reigning Miss Norton, as I passed the sign on the highway.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Impulsive

Last night I finally got the bug and went out and treated myself to a new laptop. Total impulse buy, but am very happy with it. I will now be able to retire my giant PC at work and bring it home, clearing up some realestate on the desk.
The laptop is an HP, I was looking for a toshiba, but they didn;t have the one I wanted, so I settled onthis one, which is actually a little better specwise. It has 17 inch monitor, built in cam, and lots of little extras that make it worthwile. It will be so nice to work without so much clutter in on the desk.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Long Time no blog

I've been neglecting my blog, mostly because I haven't had anything new to talk about.
Mostly life has been same old same old. I'm still trying to get over the cold I picked up in Calgary. Just when I think it's over it comes back, so it's starting to really get on my nerves.
Last week I did a little volunteering for the Animal Rescue League. I spend a couple hour Thursday standing outside the liquor store at Prince Edward's Square collecting donations. Of all the liquor stores in Saint John to stand outside of....that one is... well...that one is kind of heartbreaking. There are some very damaged people in the world, and it's quite sad, and if you want to see them, just stand outside the Prince Edwards Square Liquor store for two hours in the middle of the afternoon. What is very surprising is who actually puts their change in the bucket and who doesn't. It seems the people youwould least expect to be generous ar the one who are the most, and the people who would expect to have the change to spare are the ones who pretend you aren't there. There was one guy, who quite leterally begged for money in the street to get enough to buy a bottle, then came out the door and put the rest of his change in the bucket (that was Saturday). But, buddy in a brand new mustang wouldn't even look me in the eye.
On to other things. My cousin Laura recently moved to Fredericton and I finally got a chance to see her for the first time since she's been here on Saturday Afternoon, after my shift at Prince Edward's Square. She and her significant other, Ray, came down to do a little exploring and we me tup at the office around 3. I haven't seen her in well over a decade since she was just a chubby little girl, but she has grown into an extremely beautiful, intelligent, and wonderful young woman. I had a really great time getting reaquainted. Laura was bornt he same year my sister was, so she's ten eyars younger than me, and she lived up in the Queen Charrolotte Islands until she graduated highschool so I didn't get to see her that often growing up. Her boyfriend (for lack of a better more appropriate title), Ray, is a very nice guy. He's a chef and took an amazing job at a restaurant in Fredericton, which is what brought them out here from Vancouver. I think they're both still a little culture shocked, but are finding that there are a lot of oportunities that the maritimes offer that Vancouver just can't. I was already in town when they arrived, so Darrell drove in and met us all and then we headed out to the house to drop off some vehicles and tooka trip to Saint Martin's to have a late lunch at the restaurant by the caves. It wasn't haute cuisine by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn't terrible either. It's just so nice to have a little family close by. I can't wait to spend more time together and show them around the maritimes, and now that Laur's here, it's pretty much a given my aunt Kelly will come out for a visit and probably my cousin Robert as well (who I haven't seen since he was alittle boy so I could probably trip over him and not recognise him). Who knows... with two grandkids out here, and all the golf courses we may even see my Grandma put in an appearance.
Sunday we spent the day cleaning the disaster that is our house. It has been so neglected and fallen into a state of total chaos. I was mortified to bring Ray and Laura over to see the filth. We got a good chunk of it taken care of, but there's still quite a bit to do. I finally got up the nerve to tackle the downstairs bathroom, which was the absolute worst offender, and it is now spotless. When you tackle the biggest job first and get it out of the way, the rest seem less oppressive.
As usual we are hard at it at work...nose to the grindstone pluggin away which I should get back to.

Long Time no blog

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Calgary

I got home from Calgary on Thursday around dinner time. The flight was uneventful, but I ran myself down from too much going on in Cowtown and developed a head cold, so my ears wouldn't pop. Hurt like hell it did. My left ear took a full two days to finally pop. aside from that, the trip was awsome.

I arrived on Wednesday the 14 at aroun 11pm Calgary time and my Mom met me at the airport. By the time we got back to her apartment and got everythign settled it was about midnight, so there wasn't much visiting, since 12 Calgary time is 3am Saint John time. Thursday we were up and about pretty early and headed down to Black Diamond to see my sister and finally meet my nephews. Cole is 4 and 1/2 and Seth is 2 and 1/2 so suffice to say my visit was long overdue. We made a quick stop at Walmart (only becuase we forgot to stop at toyrus) and picked up some stuff for the boys. Always good to bring presies...it helps smooth out that initial shy period. The boys and I got along immediately though, and began playing. That's basically how I spent the majority of my time in Calgary, playing with my nephews... they are very very busy guys.

Friday Mom and I spent the day putzing about 9th ave, stopping from shop to shop and seeing all the overpriced and unique things to be seen. Then later that evening we went out with her Friend Suzy. Mom took Suzy and me out for dinner at Earles to celebrate our birthdays. Suzy is the day after mine.

Saturday and Sunday I spent at Amanda's house in Black Diamond, playing with Cole and Seth. Monday was my birthday (thanks for all the facebook messages) and we spent the day asa a family. We all went to the show. MomMom, James, Cole, & I saw Iron Man, and Amanda took Seth to see Horton Hears a Who. Then we all wandered down to sears and had a family portrait done.

Calgary is very very dry and within a couple days my skin was like sand paper, so when I woke up Tuesday morning with a sore throat I didn't think much of it. Mom and I headed out and did some stuff around town, then went for pasta, and then around 4:30 I met up with my Friend Colleen. I have a lot of friends from my past life as a musician in Nanaimo who now live in Calgary, and most of them are still working musicians. Our mutal friend Lena was visiting Colleen and so Collie dedided to have a huge dinner party. (lena is an amazing chef) What started out as 19 people snowballed into 24 and then slipped back to 22. At colleens I started feeling a fever coming on and was really trying to hold it together, because I was looking forward to hanging out with everyone. I saw Bruce and his new girlfriend (they're having a baby... or could've already had it), Bob & Dawn, a bunch of people I don't know, and of course my favorite jet screamin hooty babe... Alida Schedel. Alida and I played in the same band together for it's entire run so she's like a sister to me. I got some visiting, but near 8 O'clock I finally had to admitt to myself that I wasn't going to make it, plus I didn't want to be passing a cold or something on to a lady who was about to have a baby any minute, so Alida and Jimmy(he rocks her world) ran me back over to my Mom's. They came up for a drink and, of course that's when my advil kicked in, and I felt better.
Wednesday we headed back down to Amanda's place for one last day with my boys, and then Thursday I was onthe plane back home.
Cole and Seth are both awsome little boys and had such a blast getting to spend time with them. Cole is very imaginative and we were able to play all kinds of game without the aide of a lot otoys and stuff to bog us down. It was a really great time.
I really needed a good dose of family, I've been missing it.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Anniversaries

Today is a big day of anniversaries for me. Ten years ago today, Darrell and I got together for the first time. Three months later we were on the road to New Brunswick.
Quite fittingly one year later a complete stranger donated a gift that saved my life. Nine years ago today I recieved my donor bone marrow in room 143 on the 8th floor of the QE2 in Halifax. That was the day I was no longer allowed to leave the room for a few weeks, so I also quit smoking, and have never had the desire to start back up again. So May 14 has been quite the life altering day for me in the past, but since I'm flying across the country tonight, I'm hoping for nothing in the life altering category today. Unless of course my numbers come up in tonight's 649 draw.

Home today packing and getting ready to fly out this evening.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Tomorrow I am off to visit Cagary, and see my Mom, Sister, and friends for a week. I'm getting quite excited about it too. There is a lot to do before I go and the time is ticking down. I would like to have the house cleaned up so I don't have to return to a disaster, but I'm not sure when I'm going to get the oportunity to accomplish that. I teach tonight until 8 which means today is shot, so hopefully I get some time before I leave tomorrow to get some stuff accomplished.

We had a super busy weekend. Friday night we had to make another midnight run to Moncton for fish. There was another group order happening and we decided to participate to get some more stuff we wanted. I talked to Janet at Ocean aquatics in Vancouver (Where the order was from)about eels, since we wanted to get another snowflake eel, and she told me about zebra morays. They had some nice ones there she said, so I also ordered one of those as well as the snowflake. We also ordered some more Chromis, a juvenile maroon clown, a neon goby, a clown goby, and three corals. The flight came into Moncton at 11pm so everyone met at the Tim Hortons by the airport and we divvied up the loot. Sadly the snowflake we ordered perished during transport, as did one of the 8 chromis, but we were extremely surprised when Derek pulled the zebra moray bag out of the box. Janet had said 18 inches, but that really didn't sink in. We had something much smaller in our minds... this guy was a monster compared to my imagination. An additional surprise was the maroon clown because he wasn't a regular maroon, he was a gold bar maroon which typically sell for $70, apparently I lucked into a sale and got $45 off. It makes for a nice contrast between him and the female he was bought to keep company.

We spent the majority of the weekend setting up our 70 gallon tank once again, to house our new eel and the maroon clowns. We moved it into the room we're using as our office so we can still paint the rest of the upstairs this summer. Once we're done painting etc we'll be able to move the tank and stand back out in the living area. Turns out the Zerba Moray was actually closer to two feet long and about 6inches around, so he's a big boy. He seems very healthy and is eating off the feeding stick with gusto. According to Janet and the rest of the literature I've been able to find on him, he is no threat to our small clown fish or any other small fish for that matter... crustations on the other hand.

Here he is:

Zebra Moray

Here's the new maroon clown

Maroon Clown

Neon Goby
Neon Goby in quarantine

Chromis' in quarantine

Green Chromis' in Quarantine

Open Brain Coral

Open Brain coral & lawnmower Blennie

Hammer Coral

Branching Hammer Coral

Chalice Coral

Chalise cup Coral Frag

Thursday, May 08, 2008

What's the Deal with Lunch Hour?

My Mind is getting foggier and foggier as I get older, but I distinctly recall only getting ahour for lunch when I was in school. In fact not even an hour, because there was inevitably some teacher who decided his lesson plan, was infimitely more important than your nutritional requirements and kept you five mintues past the bell, then you had to drop off your crap at your locker, and by the time you actually reached the caf it was 20 after, giving you just enough time to wolf down some gross fries and gravy and meet up with friends in the hall to hang around until it was time to rush back to your locker and get your crap for your next class.

Of course that was junior high, in senior high we had a double block, so the class before lunch was the same class after lunch which meant you could just leave your crap there and race to whoever's car you happened to be leaving for lunch in. If you had a spare period and it fell on a double block that day it was awsome, and almost not worth going to school at all that day... but what the hell is happening at the highschools now? 10 to 11 there's a group of kids already lined up at McDonalds in Brunswick square waiting for them to start serving lunch, and the mass of kids stays in the mall and uptown until 2 pm. How long is the bloody lunch hour today? and when are these kids ever in school anymore?

I know all about spare periods..I majored in them, with a minor in skipping out, but the groups uptown are way way way too large to be explained away that way.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

What's Going On

In a word not much, and that was two words so there you go. Work is insanely busy these days. We have several clients all doing ongoing things at the same time, so there are a million things to do and everything needs to be done yesterday. My vacation to Calgary will be a very nice break. The countdown is on, just 8 more sleeps. I'm very excited to see my Mom and Sister, finally meet my nephews, and get a chance to visit with some friends while I'm there. It won't be a restful week by any means, but should be fun.

The weekend was spent trying to catch up to our life. With so much going on at work, and the ever ongoing renovation in the basement, the rest of our life has seemed to get away from us. So we did a lot of cleaning this weekend and I managed to finally finish and install the last two doors on the cabinet. I still need to put some glass panes in them, but for all intents and purposes it is finished. I will be spending time this week trying to finish trimming out the room. I would like very much to be completely finished this phase of the reno before I leave next week, so that when I return it is to projects that are awaiting their beginning as compaired to projects in progress. I think we're finally gaining on the mess, so it doesn't feel as opressive as it did.

Friday night we went to an AA meeting, which was an interesting experience. We were there to celebrate with a friend who was getting their three month chip. We are very proud of our Annonomous friend and their accomplishment, and we will continue to be there in any way possible to offer support and encouragment in their journey.