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.