Hump Day

Monday we went over the dance for Willkommen again. A little bit of it was changed, but mostly we just reviewed all the steps. There was one set of steps I asked Jenn to break into an 8 count for me and it was a good thing we did, because everyone was counting it differently. Bah dah dah bump, bah da da dada dah dah is just not precise enough for me, I feel a lot more confident with 1 and 2 3 and 4 5 6 7 8. I have to work now at internalizing either the singing or the dancing so that I can do one without thinking about it. It's impossible to think about counting a dance if you're also thinking I have to get a big breath here for a "G" then snatch another quick one because there's an "A" coming up. So either the dance or the song has to come second nature and automatic, so I can concentrate on the other. That said I still feel a lot better about that number having gone over it again.

Heroes was awsome!!! I can't say it was well worth the wait... because the wait was excruiating.... but it was awsome!! Can't wait for next week.

Tuesday I got in my first run since I hurt my toe... it was brutal. A week and a half away from it and it's like starting over. Except it's not like starting over where you're trying to outdo yourself each time, like in the beginning so every step forward is exciting.... it's like starting over where you're trying to start off where you left off and can't get there, so it's frustrating.

I taught my class at 6 and the hour flew by. I had three boys in last nights class so I was able to give them all a lot of one on one, which helped us accomplish a lot more than expected. It also helps that I've finally finished creating a lesson plan, so I know exactly where we're headed. I know... it's taken two weeks, but I was kind of just thrown in the deep end after all.

We've had water cylcing in the aquarium since Sunday now. It was coudy at first but is starting to clear up. There's no salt in it yet, but there is the cycle compound which will start growing the good bacteria etc.

I got some wood to start building the canopy last night, and I have no rehearsals tonight so I may actually get a good start on that after work.

Long & Expensive weekend!!!

I got the stand all finished and the aquarium set upon it on Friday.
Saturday I had a musical rehearsal at 11 am so there was no sleeping in for me. I got there and sang two ladies four times, then had nearly four hours to kill before my 3 o'clock Dance rehearsal. It really kind of wasted my entire day. My choice... waste four hours uptown, or waste gas on a trip home and back. I ended up meeting Darrell out at the vortex to have a look around Village Pets in McAllister mall.... I should have gone to the gym instead (that's already paid for). We heard some awful stories about problems with the tanks that come from Walmart (where Darrell's Uncle got ours). It seems things at Walmart are cheap.... not just price wise. The glass in the Walmart tanks is half the thickness of the glass in main brand tanks like Hagen. As a result Walmart tanks can bow when they are filled with water (all tanks bow slightly once the water gets in but the quality of the corners and the thickness of the glass keeps them from falling apart). There are even stories of the front of the Walmart tanks just falling right out. The thought of 55 gallons of water on our new laminate floor wasn't very apealing... so we decided to go with a Hagen tank. Diane at Village Pets showed us the 55 gallon Hagen and the dimensions were identical to the tank we already had... so there was no worry about it fitting on the custom built stand. One thing I had taken into account was future expansion so I made the stand about 6 inches deeper than it had to be... as a result instead of buying the 55 gallon tank we upgraded for a few dollars more to an 80 gallon tank.... Like I said expensive weekend. I got the tank and the biofoam backer, and Darrell got the new filter and the gravel. We have decided that we are going to do a salt water reef tank which is more work, but there's so much more you can do, and so many more varieties of fish. Add in coral and all the other options you have with salt water over fresh plus the investment of time and money that's already gone into it and it only seems right to go with the reef tank. It will take about two months of set up to get all the levels etc right, before a fish ever enters into the water... but we're patient people.

The 80 gallon tank really fills up the space... the dog pictures are going to move to the wall above the bed.



It actually looks like the stand was specifically designed for this tank, even more so than the 55 gallon one (it kind of was because I was allowing for growth):



Good thing I hadn't started designing and building the topper.


After my expensive outing to the vortex, it was back in for dance rehearsal. We got Willkommen finished (at least from my perspective within the song) and also finished two ladies (which is a scream... it is so fun and, while it may not be the HIGHLIGHT of the show, it will certainly be one of the more memorable moments)

Sunday was another day taken up with rehearsals (as we get nearer and nearer to May everyday is going to be taken up with rehearsals). We ran the entire show... off book. Parts of it went extremely well, parts of it not so much. We are well ahead of where we would normally be with this much time before going to the theatre, but that can be a dangerous place to be, since there could be a tendancy to slack off a bit. I'm pretty confident that won't happen, since we have a fantastic cast.

After rehearsal I rushed home and got ready to go out. We went to Jake's & the Outback for Shawna's 19th birthday party. It was Karaoke at the outback and I got to sing quite a bit, which was fun. Darrell and I had a bite at Jakes before everyone else arrives... the food was really good. We haven't been there in a very long time, but we may go back in the near future.

I was supposed have tonight off from rehearsing, but after the full run yesterday Jenn wanted to have another look at Willkommen, so there will be dancing. I will have to time shift Heroes.

New episode of Heroes tonight... finally. I'm actually so excited it's a little sad. Although, I'm not the only one.

It's Finished!!!!!

TahDah:



All that remains is to the topper.... but that hasn't even been designed yet.




It's late, I'm sleepy and I have a rehearsal tomorrow at 11am.

3 More Sleeps!!!!

New episode of Heroes... just three more sleeps.

I am teaching my class tonight and am really looking forward to it.
I finally put the last coat of urithane on the cabinet and tonight we will fine tune the hardware so everything sits properly.... yes that's right folks... it's finally finished...YAY! Last night we bought our very first "set piece" for inside the aquarium... it looks like a ruins of an ancient civilization with columns and such.
The stand was hugely exspensive for the wood, but I have a feeling that the actual contents of the aquarium itself is going to be quite costly as well. Darrell is already looking for fresh water stingrays and eels...oy.

Shakespeare

I must've done something right at the call back today. Elizabeth cast me as Trinculo, and skimming through the script, I think it will be a very fun part to play.

Overdrive

Somehow life has switched into overdrive for me lately. After work on tuesday I taught my animation class for kids over twelve. I only had two boys in the class so we got a lot done. Afterwards I rushed over to the rehearsal space for the fruit shop rehearsal I was late for. Luckily they were just finishing their stretch and warm up so I didn't really miss anything.

There were some crossed communication wires along the way, because I got a call from Dre at 8 last night wondering where I was instead of being at rehearsal. I had absolutely no idea I was suposed to be at rehearsal though... in fact I thought I had nothing until Saturday. By the time I got the call it was too late to go back into town, so sorry to everyone who was counting on me to be there... I don't know why I flaked out, but I honestly don't remember being told we were doing that scene last night. However I'm not going to bare full responsibility, since our rehearsal schedule has been in a constant state of change from the very beginning and still contains more TBDs than actual committed dates.... it was bound to happen.... I'm just sorry it was me.

Today I am reading for Elizabeth at the Tempest call backs. This my first ever shakespeare.. in highschool I took the F for that section, did some extra credit creative writting and still managed a B as my final grade. I haven't had much time to look at the material even though I've had it over a week now. Time seems to be at a premium right now. Between trying to get off book, committing dance routines and songs to memory, coming up with some kind of lesson plan for the kids, work, and finishing my cabinet... there's nothing left over.

The cabinet is in it's final stages. The doors and drawers are completely finished. The top recieved it's third coat of polyurithane this morning before I left for work, and the actual cabinet itself got it's second coat laast night.... the end is in sight.

ABC's Taken From Chris

A is for age: 36 on May 19th.

B is for beer of choice: Generally drink MooseLight, but also like Stella.

C is for career right now: 3d animator/ graphic designer/ Video Editor at Innovative Video Solutions, and most recently animation for kids workshop instructor at the School of Rock & Film.

D is for your dog's name: Elton & Tiffy.

E is for essential item you use every day: Computer.

F is for favorite TV show at the moment: Heroes, How I met your Mother

G is for favorite game: Taboo.

H is for home town: Born and raised in Williams Lake, BC (which will always be home) currently reside in Saint John.

I is for instruments you play: Saxophone, and I strum chords on guitar...my strongest instrument is my voice.

J is for favorite juice: cranberry.

K is for whose butt you'd like to kick: Pick a politician.

L is for last place you ate: Churchills.

M is for marriage: Don't believe in it

N is for your full name: Daniel Blaine Le Roy

O is for overnight hospital stays: I couldn't even begin to count.

P is for people you were with today: Darrell & Mike so far.

Q is for quote: "The dictionary is the only place success comes before work.
Hard work is the price we must all pay for success." -Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi

R is for biggest regret: There are things I'm not overly proud of, but nothing I flat out regret

S is for status: Current status is typing this post.

T is for time you woke up today: 8am.

U is for underwear you have on now: Black boxer-briefs.

W is for worst habit: Chocolate

X is for x-rays you've had: Too many to count.

Y is for yummy food you ate today: Red Delicious apple & Triple Chocolate Donut

Z is for your zodiac sign: Taurus.

7 More sleeps

Heroes is back on Next Monday..... and I don't have a rehearsal....yipeeee!!!!

Whatta Weekend

I feel like I packed two weeks worth of stuff into one weekend.... so much happened.
Friday : I went to the School of Rock and Film early so I could play with the computers a little and snoop through the kid's project files to see what they've been learning. My first class was kids 12 and under, and they are regulars there, so they already have a good understanding about how animation works. They are still in the stick man draw every single frame stage, so there's a lot I can show them. That hour flew by. The second hour was a little longer. It was a birthday party, of 14 year old girls and one little brother... none of whom were particularly interested in learning computer animation. I got them to make birthday cards, and I helped them animate portions of the cards... it was chaos. But not in a bad way. I'm pretty sure if I can deal with a class of 14 year old girls on a birthday party, then classes of kids who are actually interested in learning animation is going to be a snap.

I was finished classes by 8 and went home, got cleaned up, and Darrell and I headed in for cast Karaoke at the Summerset. We both had a really good time, but called it an fairly early night because of the nasty snow falling. We were home by 12:30. ( I wish February would hurry up and end)

Saturday we ran the first half of the show at rehearsal. It was good to finally get a chance to see how everything fit together, and get a better feel about where we're already strong and where we need work. I got home around 4:30. I changed into my grubby work clothes and put another coat of polyurithane on the doors and drawers of my cabinet. I had to fine sand them all first. (They are now finished... they've had four coats and look beautiful) I then changed back into my nicer clothes and Darrell and I headed down to the Dolan Road Irving for 7:30 (we were late and got there closer to 8) to meet Brian & Helen, and Bertis & Colin for a bite. Then we all came back to our house for a couple drinks and some cherry pie. We were going to fire up the new karaoke machine, but ended up just talking and laughing and calling it a night around 11.

Sunday we ran the second half of the show at rehearsal. There is more work needed in that half because there are a few thing we just haven't covered yet. It was a very good rehearsal though and it's going to be a really strong show. It's already pretty strong and there's four and half weeks to go. After rehearsal I headed over to Churchills with Bertis, Kristi, & Lisa B for some food and a drink. I was starving! Then home to work on my cabinet. I got the top all fine sanded and the first coat of polyurithane applied. Tonight I will fine sand and add the second coat as well finish sanding the main cabinet and add the first coat of finish to it. It is slowly creeping closer and closer to being done.

Today I am playing with the new program and trying to make a lesson plan beyond what I am going to teach tomorrow.

Nerves nerves nerves

Singing, dancing, public speaking....doesn't bother me in the slightest. In the next couple hours I will be standing front of a room full of kids 12 and under, and trying to teach them animation....terrifying! Not so much the talking to kids aspect of it, but the coming in cold to a class that has already been doing stuff, and not knowing where they are in terms of skill. Also not being familiar with the programs or systems they are using is making me feel pretty unsteady. I wish I had a little time to teach myself more before jumping in, because by next week I'll be a pro at the programs...today, I'm not even a gifted amatuer. In fact I don't even know what all the programs available to me are yet. Needless to say my class is at 6 so I'll be there at 5.

Friday April 13, 2007

Appetizer
When you were a child, which crayon color was your favorite?
Sky Blue

Soup
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest), how likely would you be to change jobs if it required you to move?
5, it depends where I'd be going.

Salad
Take all the numbers in your birthday and your phone number and add them up, one by one. What’s the total?
54

Main Course
Have you ever “re-gifted” anything? If so, what was it and who did you pass it on to?
I don't think so.

Dessert
Name something you need from the store.
I don't need anything from the store right now. I want some new clothes. My closet is looking boring and old.

Funny Thing Happened....

Something very odd happened today. Lately I've been thinking I should get out my paint brushes and get some painting done so I'd have a dozen or so paintings I could sell when the cruise ships start coming in and make a little extra money. Unfortunately who has the time? So I put the extra money idea away until after Cabaret. Then this morning, Jim Kuehnel from the school of Rock and Film came in for a visit, and Mike asked me to show him the kind of animation I do. Next thing I know, I'm teaching a class twice a week for kids. Funny how the universe works sometimes.

There is a slight rub though. The school uses a program I'm not familiar with and the first class I'm doing is tomorrow night. So I'm cramming today.

A Very Long weekend, not Quite Long Enough

We took a four day weekend over the Easter Holidays. I'm not at all religious, so the significance of Easter is lost on me, but I can totally get behind a holiday that involves the giving and receiving of chocolate.

Friday afternoon there was a music rehearsal for Two Ladies and Money Makes the World go Around. Bertis couldn't make it so I subbed for him in Money to help the girls out. I don't know if it helped or not though, because he and I have very different styles of singing.... but all I was really for was so they could hear how their parts fit with the lead part anyway.

Darrell and I hit Shoppers Drug mart for some easter supplies and I made up a big basket with colourful plastic hollow eggs that we filled with goodies, and I brought them to the Saturday afternoon rehearsal... where the full cast reviewed all the songs in the show. It was another occassion for us all to sing for one another, so everyone could hear what everyone else was working on.

Sunday I had no rehearsals and spent the entire day working on the Aquarium stand. Here's a tip! Even if what you're working on is as mundane as just sanding one of the solid oak doors... never wear sandals. I believe I may have broken my toe. The door slipped out of my hands and landed corner first, square in the middle of my big toe on my right foot. It hurt like all get out, and I am definitely going to lose the nail... it was only holding on my a little skin. It's still quite tender to walk on in my shoes. This is the second time I've been involved in a show where I have to dance and dropped something on my foot. During Christmas Carol I dropped a bedside table and it landed on it's edge right across my left foot, now I've hurt my toe. I don't think it's broken, but it hurt like hell. Thankfully there are a few weeks for it to heal.

As far as the cabinet goes, for all intents and purposes it is basically finished. At least the building part is finished. Now all that remains is the fine sanding and actual finish work. So it still has at least a week of work left on it. Yesterday we made an upper molding that will hide the black plastic part of the fish tank frame, and attached it to the top. So the fish tank will sit inside it. I don't know if I explained it well enough, but you'll see when it's all done and I post pictures. In the mean time here's the results of this weeks labour.

This is before we took the top off and attached the molding that will hide the black plastic bottom of the Aquarium.




The hardware for the drawers need to be adjusted after the cabinet if completely finshed... right now they are touch uneven.



Glamour shot:


Frankstien and his Monster.


The original 3d rendering:



Is Pretty Close, Ja?

What the....?

It's not quite raining and it's not quite snowing... it's just slushing. It's cold, and messy, and slippery, and it's APRIL for Christ's sake. Global Warming my ass!

OOOOWWW my feet!!!!

I had my frist dance rehearsal in my costume footwear last night.....OW! If you saw them at the musical reahersal on Sunday you know why, if you didn't....you'll see.

I got bad news from home. Over the weekend, my cousin Laura and her families house, in Williams Lake, burned down. No one was in it, and there were no pets, but they lost everything. It burned to the ground in about 20 minutes. I'll be going through all my pictures today to see if I have stuff I can make copies of for them because those are the kinds of things you can't replace.

I got the rails that will hold the top in place, glued on my cabinet and Darrell put some screws into them while I was rehearsing. All that remains is to sand and cut the top, cut the moulding, attach the face of the last drawer, fine sand everything, then Polyurithane a couple hundred times... well no more than four. I think we will actually have this thing done to the point where we can start putting on the finish this week.

We voted unanimously to take Friday & Monday off this weekend....wheeeeeeeeeeee!

Great Weekend

Aside from the fact that our phone, internet, and alarm system didn't work all weekend it was still a really good one. Progress on the aquarium stand has slowed a bit. It's a matter of getting the pieces made that will be used to screw up into the top. The Front, Sides, Inside Walls, Back, and Base are all joined together now. Two of the drawers have their fronts glued on, and all the pieces of the top are glued together waiting to be sanded down and cut to size. It is very close to being finished, but there's some fussy stuff that needs to be done right now that is slowing up the process.

Saturday I had my first actual acting rehearsal for Cabaret. I started off the day with a vocal rehearsal of Tomorrow Belongs to Me. I am really starting to like the way it sounds... now if only I could consistently get my part right. The acting rehearsal was a lot of fun. It was nice to put some actual action into Bobby, he's a lot gayer on stage than on paper and I may have to dampen his flame a bit.

Sunday was dance rehearsal for Wilkommen, and it was soooo fun. The Dance is going to look awsome on stage. It's hard to picture what a routine looks like when you're immersed in it, but it was one of those routines that felt like it looked awsome. You can just tell sometimes. After dance rehearsal it was over to the other rehearsal space to review all the songs we've learned so far. Everyone was there and we got to hear the songs we weren't involved for the first time. It was kind of like we were all standing up and singing for each other, and it was really great. Kelly has two fantastic solos, one especially that will bring the audience to tears, and two duets with Irwin that none of us had heard yet. Not a lot of people on the cast had heard the waiter's quartet either, so that was a first time through for many... unfortunately Scott couldn't make the rehearsal so one of the parts was missing, but everyone still seemed to like it. I got to have a look at some of my costume pieces, and there are some very creative outfits for Bobby. I don't want to say too much because it would spoil the surprise for anyone reading this who isn't in the show. Brenda lend me a pair of my footwear so I can get used to walking and dancing in them.

This morning the Aliant guy came out and fixed the phone. He had nicked a wire when he was installing the highspeed internet and it came off... so we spent four days with no phone/internet/or alarm because he nicked a wire. I wonder if we get a credit for the service we weren't able to use but still pay for....that will be the day.

What Alcoholic Drink Are You

You Are Beer!

You don't need to get totally wasted when you hit the bars. More of a social drinker, you just like to have fun with your friends. And as long as the beer keeps flowing, you're a happy camper. But don't mix things up: "Beer Before Liquor, Never Been Sicker!"

What Alcoholic Drink Are You?

What does Your Birth Date Mean ?

Your Birthdate: May 19

You are resilient, and no doubt your resilience has already been tested. You've had some difficult experiences in your life, but you are wise from them. Having had to grow up quickly, you tend to discount the advice of others. You tend to be a loner, having learned that the only person you can depend on is yourself. Your strength: Well developed stability and confidence Your weakness: Suspicion of others Your power color: Eggplant Your power symbol: Spade Your power month: October

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

How dirty is Your Mind???

Your Mind is NC-17 Rated

You're mind is so filthy... you should should be washing every part of you out with soap. If your thoughts can go dirty, they do. Almost everything is NC-17 to you!

Do You Have a Dirty Mind?

Aliant.... argh

Everything seemed to be working tickety boo after the Aliant guy installed our highspeed internet. However, things are seldom as they seem, and yesterday we had no internet. In fact we had no internet, or phone, or alarm system. Today we still don't.

Last night I got the first of the inside walls for the cabinet glued and clamped, and then set up the karaoke machine. There was music in the air, and a little catterwalling as well. I went through one of my Four Seasons disks and found a new song (new for me to sing), Ragdoll. I can basically sing anything by the Four Seasons, but I've only actually done a few on karaoke. The rest I've been singing along with the cd. I'll need to work on a couple of them before I ever do them in front of people.... but Ragdoll was awsome first time through, and damn awsome the second time...hehehehe....owch arm cramp reaching around to pat my own back like that.

This morning I glued and clamped the second interior wall onthe cabinet, and today after work it will be set enough that I can go ahead and put the back on. Wooohooo!!

Tonight...Zhere vill be Singh- ingk

The karaoke machine has arrived and it works!!!!!!!!!!! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Highspeed

We finally have highsoeed internet at our place. They hooked it up yesterday...yipee.

I got the right side of the cabinet glued on last night and will be doing the inside walls when I get home today.

This weekend I actually have a lot of rehearsals so my time is going to be at a premium. I can't wait to do the waiter quartet again on Saturday, I think it sounded really good last week, and with a whole week to get comfy with our parts it should sound awsome now.

Wednesday

I didn't make it out to the auditions for Shakespeare last week, but Elisabeth was nice enough to set aside some time yesterday afternoon, for me to read. I' m not really a shakspeare buff so it was interesting trying to decode it and then speak the lines, but I thinkI did okay.

I got the left side panel glued onto the cabinet last night. I made an annoying mistake that is making the whole thing a little more difficult than it has be. I glued the corner posts right onto the front panel, instead of gluing the front and sides in place and then adding the corner posts to really cinch things up. Now the joints for the front and sides are really tight and require some whacking with the rubber mallet. This is my first real project that uses all our tools, and it's been a very long time since I've built a piece of furniture... in fact I'd have to say I haven't done it since Junior High, so I'm finding that as I go, I'm re-remembering things. Unfortunately some times the re-remembering comes after the screw up, but all in all it's been really good experience and I find myself wanting to just go out and buy more wood and build more things.

Weekend

Yet another weekend spent covered in sawdust.

Darrell and Mike got back Friday afternoon and we closed up early. Darrell and I went out to the Blue Olive Friday night to meet up with BErtis, Chad & Nancey, and Brian & Helen to cheer on Kizzy with OPA. It was lot of fun and I even witnessed a miracle.... Brian danced.

Saturday I had a Cabaret rehearsal in the morning. We went over all the songs we've learned to date. The waiters Quartett is starting to sound pretty good, it's got a fwe bugs to work out still but all in all it sounds alright. After rehearsal I went to Cora's with Kizzy. It was my first time there, and the food was really good, a bit on the pricey side, but really good. I didn't make it to the Dance collective thingy at the Imperial, because I had a bunch of other things that had to get done. We also didn't make it to the Home Show. I spent the rest of Saturday working onthe cabinet. I got all the cutting I couldn't do while Darrell was away done and spent a little while sanding.

Sunday I got up fairly early after being up quite late, so I was pretty tired. I threw on my work clothes and headed back to the basement where I started sanding, and sanding, and sanding... glued the boards for the top together, then did some sanding, and a little more sanding. We were going to go to the Home Show in the afternoon since we couldn't make it Saturday, but we were only luke warm about the idea to begin with, and since I was already really into what I was doing we didn't go. Darrell picked up a boring bit for the drill press at Canadian Tire and he installed the hinge hardware onthe cabinet doors. Then we attached them to the front panel. I also picked up the screws for the drawer runners and marked the drawers for where they will go, then I finished up with a little more...you guessed it... sanding. My hands feel really smooth and soft today because of it. That's right ladies... to hell with a manicure that abrasive sand paper is a great exfoliator.

The cabinet is at a really exciting place for me now, because I can actually put most of it together and see what it's going to look like finished. Tonight I'm attaching the front Pannel to the base. I would've done it last night, but gluing the top took all my clamps.

The house is just filthy.

Friday March 23, 2007

Appetizer
Who is your favorite news anchor/reporter? Why?
I don't really have one. I watch the news because Darrell is a news junky, but when I'm alone it's the last thing I'd put on.... I try not to bombard myself with negative messages and the news is one after the other. It's like a list of the daily disasters and examples of how shitty people can be. I'm synical and jaded enough without help from the news hour.

Soup
Name 3 foods that are currently in your freezer.
A box of Chicken Breasts. 1/4 Cow beef order. Half a dozen loaves of 12 grain bread.

Salad
If you were to have the opportunity to name a new town or city, what would you call it?
That's not something I've ever thought about, and in order to do something that important it would require a lot of thought.

Main Course
What will most likely be the next book you read?
Brian Lumley - Necroscope - The Touch, will definitely be the next book I read, because it is sitting on my kitchen table waiting for me to finish the last short story in Stephen King's collection of short stories.

Dessert
What's the first thing you notice about the opposite gender?
The first thing I notice about the opposite gender is their attitude. The way a woman carries herself and reacts to the people around her, says nearly everything about her.

Hours of Sanding Ahead

I got quite a bit of gluing done yesterday morning while waiting for the tax assessor to arrive. I don't know if calling them in was a good thing or a bad one. She made lots of notes about the work we've done around the house... most notably the new floors. She also made a note of all the services that aren't available at our end of the road, so hopefully that will be a mark in our favour. I doubt our tax assessment will go down though, and it's a given that next year it will go up again. Hopefully it won't be a big a jump. Last year our house was assessed at 118 thousand which is a small jump from what we paid for it. This year however they assessed it at 131 thousand... a 13 thousand dollar jump in one year... what the hell?

Darrell and Mike get back on Friday afternoon... yay. I think Darrell's computer knows it's me and not him trying to capture all the tapes from last weeks shoots, becuase it's making life hell for me. I'll get almost to the end of a batch capture list and then the bloody thing will crash.....argh.

After work yesterday I got back to work on my cabinet. All the pieces I glued were set up pretty good so I put all the exterior walls up in the base to see how everything fit together. Nothing is fastened yet....there's still about three days of sanding before that happens, and I have to make a couple dado cuts on the front panel for the interior walls.

Looks good so far, Ja?



The back panel & bottom piece are oak plywood and are alittle lighter in colour it seems. Hopefully the poly will bring out the grains and make them look like the solid wood.



It's so cool to finally start seeing the whole thing come together. It's going to be a beautiful piece of furniture when it's done. I won't be getting much done it tonight though... I actually have a rehearsal for Cabaret. My rehearsals so far have bee very few and far between, so I don't really feel like the show has actually started yet. There's still a whole bunch of people on the cast I don't even know yet. I haven't even met the person playing Sally.

Spring has Started.

According to the calendar it's spring. According to the snow this morning... not so much.

Last night I got the drawer rails for the front panel glued together as well as the back and sides of the base. That clean uncluttered little room with the freezer and the new shelves stayed clean and uncluttered for about ten seconds after I got home, and now the floor if full of glued pieces of wood all clamped tightly together.

We are challenging our property tax assessment this year, because it has gone up 12 percent two years in a row, and there are almost no services down our road to warrant such an increase. We have to cross the highway to get our mail from the little community box at the far end of the road, there is no cable, no highspeed internet, the garbage is only picked up once every two weeks, there's no community centers, I even had to sign a permission slip for the school bus to turn aorund in our driveway or they wouldn't pick up Marshall's (He's the first house on our road)kids for school. They're young kids and they would have had to cross the three lane anrterial highway to catch the bus. There's no way we're letting them raise our property tax by 12% without a fight.

The assessor is coming to the house tomorrow morning, so I will have to spent this evening cleaning up a bit. I been so busy building I haven't been keeping up with the cleaning so the kitchen looks like it hemoraged dishes and pots, the rest of the upstairs has little dog hair bunnies in the corners, and you don't want to know about the bathroom. That's just the main floor... the basement is a total write off at the moment, everything is covered in sawdust, wood shavings, and actual pieces of wood.

Another Busy Weekend

Got home Friday and set up the new Karaoke Machine, but the laser wasn't working and it wouldn't read the disks. I talked to the owner of the Karaoke Closet on Saturday morning and he said "no problem send it back and we'll send a new one". He was really good about it. It's disapointing, but nobody't fault, and it just adds to the list of things I have to look forward to.

We spent Saturday cutting and cutting and cutting. Darrell started building the shelves in the little freezer room. At first I thought this was going to be annoying and he would be getting in my way while I tried to work on the stand, but for the most part it was fine. Sometime around 4:30 or 5 the power went out, so we went to the Dolan Road Irving for a quick bite. Then at 7 the power came back on and we got cleaned up and headed over to Brian & Helen's, for a few drinks and round of Taboo with them, Bertis and his friend Colin. It was Bertis, Brian and I against Colin, Helen and Darrell.... we decimated them. A good startegy with games like Taboo is to split up the couples onto separate teams... there's less shared knowledge that way.

Sunday was back to work on the stand. We got all the plywood cut that needed to be, and then all the extra plywood to replace it, because I F&%^ked up a measurement. We also got a couple good reminders why we don't work with the big tools when we're alone in the house. I was using the mitre saw to put a 45 on one of bottom moldings and something must've wiggled or twisted or god knows what, but the wood smacked me a good one in the knuckle, and I now have a nasty little bruise on my left pinky finger. Then just to reinforce the point, Darrell was helping me take a half inch strip off a large piece of plywood and at the end of the cut, the scrap piece flew back out the saw like it had been shot from a cannon. It went right down the hallway and put a little chip in the drywall. (could've put an eye out.)

Darrell finished the shelves on Sunday and I have just about every cut that needs to be made made. There are a few more, but I have lots of stuff to do that can fill up the week while Darrell and Mike are in Portsmouth, and now that the shelves are finished and all that crap is up off the floor I have more room to do it.

Nice Shelves, Ja?



More pieces of the stand:


The base pieces. The molding on the far side is the one that twisted and wacked me in the knuckle, the end was also screwed because of it. Luckily I had long cut off ends for the long molding and was able to cut a new 45 piece to be glued onto the end of the screwed one. (that will be one of tonight's chores)




Door Drawers and more. Those are just the boxes for the drawers, the fronts are laying on the bed beside them, but you can't realy see them that well. If you look on the other side of the bed on the floor...that giant white box contains the aquarium that will be going on the stand when it's finally finished.



As you can see the entire basement is completely overrun with the project



And here is my dado setup.




More pics when there's more done.

I have a fairly easy schedule this week as far as Cabaret goes, in fact I have nothing until Thursday, so I should get a lot done on the stand.

The past two weeks it's been nearly impossible to get to the gym because Mike was away at the Winter Games and Darrell was constantly out shooting. Now that they are both out of town, I don't know if I'm going to be able to get in this week either. Hopefully I can find some time each day to lock the door and wander down the road... although, cutting and sawing, and sanding and gluing, and lifting all those boards over and over if quite a Workout in and of itself... So if I don't make it there, I probably won't suffer too badly because of it.

Package Arrived!!!

Yay! My shiny new karaoke machine just arrived a minute ago from Ontario.....sooo excited to try it out tonight!!! I guess I could always plug it into our system and serenade the dentist's office for a while, but they may not appreciate it.

I don't know where Lisa or anyone else get's their disks etc from, but I found a great place in Ontario called Karaoke Closet
http://karaokecloset.com/home.php
They have equipment and a huge selection of disks at good prices as well as free shipping.

Friday

Today is Friday, but I think I'll skip the feast this time.

Yesterday after work Mike was kind enough to take me over to Kent in his truck so I could get my oak plywood, for the bottom and back of the stand. Since I had him there I got a bunch of 2x4s as well. We want to build some shelves in the little room downstairs where the freezer is. ("in the little room downstairs" how Elton John is that???)

I got a fair chunk done on the stand last night. I dado'd out all the cuts for the bottom molding. It was a big job and took a awhile, since the plate on our table saw doesn't have a very large opening so I can only get 3 of the dado blades on for a 3/8 s cut. Now there are little ridges all over the face of the boards where multiple cuts were made to clear a large piece....lots of sanding. I also got the edges routered on the board before calling it a night.

This weekend we were thinking of going up to Moncton for the home show, but Darrell & Mike are going to be in Portsmouth all next week shooting so I have to try and get all my heavy cutting etc done on my stand... anything that will require one of the big tools needs to be done this weekend so I can spend the week gluing and sanding etc. We never use the big tools when we're alone at home, so short of calling someone up to come hang out while I work, the only solution is to get all the big stuff done this weekend and spend next week on little things. I want to get as much of this thing done this week as I can because so far my rehearsal shedule for Cabaret is very very very light... I only have 4 rehearsals for the rest of this month (so far.. that could change). Next month is another story all together, and time will quickly start becoming a rare comodity.

Moncton

Yesterday's journey to Moncton was good. The weather was nice for the drive there and back. My appointment was for 10:45 so I left around 8:45 to give me lots of time. The Hospital parking lot was full and there was a line of stupid people in their cars willing to wait instead of just taking a spot on the street (duh). I pulled around a block up and found 2 hour free residential parking. I didn't actually see my doctor, I saw a different transplant doctor who was filling in for him this time around. She lowered the dose on one of my meds, which is cool because it cuts the cost in half (pretty big deal simce I'm having to pay for the stuff myself now).

I got back to the office around 2 and started transcribing some interview footage. We were a little late getting home, and had whopper wednesday dinner. (argh fattening)

I threw on my grungy glue and paint encrusted clothing and headed downstairs for another edition of cabinetry 101. I got a lot done last night too which is good considering I just wasn't into it on Tuesday. Darrell came down to help me manage the long boards on the joiner and planer, and we got the boards for the base done as well as all theboards for the front panel. Then I started cutting everything to correct size and got some dadoing done, and basically packed it up by 10. I have some pieces to sand tonight before I start gluing them together. I find it easier (especially with intersecting grain patterns) to do most of the sanding first then just fine tune it after the piece is glued.

Here's a few pics from the project so far:

My little gluing station. These are goingto be the sides of the cabinet



The doors. Aside from polyurithane these babies are done... aren't they beautiful?



Last night: Planing the base boards. I had to glue a 1x4 to a 2x4 to get the thickness I needed.



Darrell takes exact measurements with a calipur:




I took a couple shots of the finished drawers, but they are out of focus. More photos to come when there's something new to photograph.

Tuesday

There's really not much to say today. We left work around 4 and made some spaghetti when we got home. I went downstairs and finished gluing the last joint on the second side panel, as well as routering the edge of the upper molding peice for the aquarium stand. I had another look at what I have so far for music from Cabaret, and then watched a little TV before heading off to bed. I didn't get much sleep on Sunday night and I didn't manage to catch up at all last night either, so I'm kind of tired today. I'll have to get to bed earlier tonight because I'm off to Moncton tomorrow morning for my Doctor's appointment.... Hope the weather stays nice.

Mike is finally back from Whitehorse (he was up shooting the winter games) so the office is starting to get back to normal. I might actually be able to take the time to get to the gym today...I've missed about a week and a half so it'll be a lot like starting over.

Oh yeah... there is a highlight to yesterday... I ordered a Karaoke machine and some disks for the house.....yooohooo. Can't wait until that gets here.

Sawdust everywhere

It seems every spare moment I have these days I am covered in sawdust and wood shavings. Things are really coming along with the aquarium stand... so far I've spent $700 on Oak boards, and still have two pieces of plywood to get at 75 bucks a sheet. I'm not too concerned about the cost because at the end of it we will have a one of a kind piece of solid oak furniture that will be beautiful.

Darrell had to work on Saturday so I could only do small things with the stand, we have a standing agreement around our place that no one uses the big power tools if we're the only person home. I use little power hand tools like the router etc when he's not around, but won't touch things like the table saw, planer, ot joiner if I'm alone... that would just be stupid. You can take every safety precaution going but even then there are factors that can't be anticipated. If you hit a knothole just the right way, any one of those tools can project it right back at you with enough force to dent concrete walls. We don't stand over one another and supervise what the other's doing, but we do pop down and check things out ever now and then to make sure everything is going okay in the shop. Out little woodshop is too small for both of us to work in so I've been doing most of the work on the stand and Darrell has come down to help me with joining, planing, & cutting the long boards as well as gluing and stuff... but I've been working on the final cuts and fussy details.

While Darrell was working Saturday I routered the edges of the Doors and Drawer fronts, then sanded them and the drawers. That took a few hours and my shoulders got a good workout. Once Darrell got home we biscuit jointed the boards for the side panels. I could have done that without him home, but we just bought the biscuit cutter and it hadn't been used yet, so I wanted to wait until he got home so we could try out our new toy together.

Sunday was our first musical rehearsal for Cabaret. We went over Wilkommen & Tomorrow Belongs to Me - Both versions. I have a great solo in the beginning of Tomorrow Belongs to Me (the waiters quartet version), it's a fairly high tenor part but the highest note is only a b-flat so I have no problems with it. With all the harmony it sounds really good, and that was just after our initial rehearsal of it.... can't wait to hear it after we've done it a gazillion times over the course of the rehearsal schedule.

After rehearsal it was back home, and you guessed it, back to the basement woodshop. I got the last of the joins for the side panel glued and clamped, and also glued up the second side panel. I joined the edges of the pieces for the top so they can be biscuited and glued today after work, and Darrell helped me join, plane, & cut the pine 2x4's that will be supports for the inside of the base (they are completely hidden so buying oak for that part of it made so sense at all.). I did the final cuts and assembled them before calling it a night and retiring to the couch for Must see Sunday night TV. Turned out most of my shows were repeats with the exception of the Amazing Race.. My distaste for Rob & Amber is no longer a problem because last night they got the boot.....yay.

So Fun Last Night!

Last night's first read through for Cabaret was hilarious. A lot of it was from speaking the songs instead of singing them, but there were also some very funny moments in the dialog. It's a cast and crew of really fun people so I can't wait to roll up my sleeves and get to it. I am playing waiter/Cabaret boy Bobby, and he's going to be a scream to play. He even has lines... who would've thought? Darrell said he was glad I didn't get the part of Emcee because the part was to "GAY", wait until he gets a load of Bobby.

I got a call last night that I have an appointment with my Doctor at his Moncton Clinic next week, I'm not going to Halifax anymore because the pharmacy there cut me off, so I had to go in and get blood work done this morning. I hate going for blood work, not that I'm afraid of needles or anything like that, I basically got over all that by the time I was ten. I just hate going in because it's such a long process. You have to stand in line and register at the front desk now, then stand in line and register at the blood lab and get your number, then sit in a waiting room full of people for an hour, then when your number is finally called you get moved to another waiting area where you sit waiting for the next available chair before finally getting your blood taken. They're generally pretty good at St. Joe's, but the one I had taking my blood this morning must've been having an off day because she wasn't holding the thing steady so everytime she changed viles I got an extra jab when she took it off and then again when she put the new one on... it was unpleasant. For me the worst part is the waiting room... I hate sitting there waiting for them to call my number, it's almost like winning the lottery when they finally do... some prize! But there's inevitably always that person who chooses to sit directly across from me and start telling me everything that's wrong with them. I must have one of those faces or something, because they zero in on me like seagulls to a piece of bread. I mean come on... when I ask an aquaintence how they're doing it's just to be polite... I don't actually want them to start telling me... so imagine how I must feel when a complete stranger perches across from me and launches into their medical history. There's always that one woman who goes on and on about all the tests she's had because the doctors just don't know what's wrong with her, and she wears it like a badge, which indicates to me that the doctors can't find anything wrong with her becuase there isn't anything wrong with her aside from a chronic case of hypochondria. Of course you have to just be polite and knod and smile and give that empathetic look and a reassuring word or two that they'll figure it out...OMG!!! I so hate going to the blood lab!!!!

Sadly I've had to go once a month for the past 9 years and that won't be changing in the near future.

First Read Tonight

Tonight is the first read through for Cabaret, it should be fun. I doubt I actually have anything at all to do, since I'm pretty sure the chorus boys/waiters probably don't have anything to say, but it's still exciting to get going and see what's in store.

Another trip to Home Depot after work yesterday, this time with my materials lists. I bit the bullet and got all the wood I need with the exception of one oak 2x4 which I will have to get at Kent, and two sheets of oak plywood (For the back and bottom)which we can't get until we find someone with a truck to pick it up. It was a very expensive trip to Home Depot, but we now have nearly all the materials we need.

All the 1x4x8s we looked at were bowed or warped, but they had some really nice 1x8x8s so we got those and ripped them on the table saw when we got home. It sounds kind of stupid to rip a board in half only to have to glue it together again when you laminate the panels, but it has to be under 6 inches to go through the joiner, and it has to go through the joiner so you know you're staring with a flat side... you absolutely can't trust the lumber you buy to be square or level even if you spend through the ass to buy dressed lumber. We got the boards for the top, sides, and door panels joined & planed last night, then I glued the door panels together and called it a night. Since the reading is tonight there will be no more wood working until Thursday.

Chipping away.

I stopped off at Home Depot to pick up a 1x6 to make new panels for the doors, but I didn't bring my materials list (Always bring your materials list) so the piece I got was too short, and I already put it through the joiner and planer, so I had to go to Kent to get another piece to make up for the shortage (no big deal, just time consuming and a stupid, frustrating mistake.)
By the time I got back home and unloaded my wood etc, it was five minute to Heroes so I got nothing else done on the stand.
Heroes was so good last night I almost couldn't contain myself. The story lines are finally starting to converge and surprises are popping up all over. Loving It!!!
How I Met Your Mother was a repeat.

Expensive Weekend

We had a very busy and expensive weekend. I finally got the aquarium stand designed and plans layed out to build it, so we started this weekend. We're doing it out of solid oak so it is quite expensive. So far I've done the rails and styles for the doors, the drawers and am doing the drawer fronts tonight. I have the boards to laminate together for the top and have to pick up a 1x6x4 to do the door panels. I did them this weekend but F&^%ked them up (Expensive mistake). I glued them togther and then tried to plane them down to thickness, which is the wrong order.... sadly I knew this, it's just been so long since I did an actual woodworking project I forgot... won't happen again. I build a model of the stand in 3d studio so I could get all the joints and measures all worked out before ever buying a piece of wood. Then I broke the model apart and rendered out each area, put my measurement on the images in Photoshop and printed off perfect diagrams of exactly what needs to be done. Sure beats the hell out of sitting at a drafting table. It's quite possibly a little more complicated, but in 3d studio I can work at exact scale and not do any conversion math, and since I use it everyday it's kind of like writting to me.

Here's a render of what the finshed project will look like:



I'll post a photo of the finished product in however long it takes to actually build it.... so now the pressures on to make sure I do it right, because I've shown you what it will look like, so it better turn out that way...hahahaha.

The funny part is the stand is going to cost about 3 times what Darrell's uncle paid for the actual aquarium... but what the hell it will be a custom made solid oak piece of furniture, so it won't cost anything near what it would cost to buy it already finished.

Friday March 02. 2007

Appetizer
What does the color pink make you think of?
Breast Cancer... because of the pink ribbon canpaign and the constant advertising when I see pink that's the first thing I think of.

Soup
Name something you thought you had lost, but later found.
I had a floppy disk with a journal I kept in the Hospital during my Bone Marrow transplant, and thought it had been lost or accidentally thrown out but I came across it in a box a month or two after we moved.

Salad
In 3 words, describe this past week.
Typical, Kinda Boring.

Main Course
What are you obsessed with?
At the moment I'm obsessed with a few things.
1) My daily workout.
2) Trying to alter my diet
3) Melissa Ethridge Music - Lately she's just been rubbing me the right way, so I need my daily fix of "Come to My Window", "Angels Will Fall", "Bring Me Some Water", "Like the Way I do", "I Wanna Come Over", & "Inconvenient Truth" (Not all at once but spaced out with other music filling in the gap throughout the day)

Sidebar: Darrell's new musical obsession is: Dixie Chick - "Not ready to Make Nice" & "Goodbye Earl", Melissa Ethridge - "Inconvenient Truth", & Andrea Bocelli - "Because we Believe"... He has these on the same CD along with a few Blue grass tunes from Shanklin Road, some Train, and a couple other songs... an odder mix of musical genres you have never heard before. But hey I must be having an effect on him... Andrea Bocelli is on the list

Dessert
What kind of perfume or cologne do you like to wear?
I don't normally wear cologne or perfume. Most places now are scent free because it makes other people (myself occassionally) sneeze. I do have a bottle of Drakkar Noir in the medicine Cabinet that I put on every now and then.

Finally Over!!!

Why is the shortest month of the year sooooo bloody long? It felt like an eternity but February is finally over!!! Of course winter tends to try and stick around until April, so the only thing over is February, but hey it's a start.

Today is our dog Tiffy's 9th Birthday. She's getting to be a middle aged girl who can't wait until spring, because she's become pretty fat and lazy over the winter. Well fat and lazy are the corner stones of her personality to begin with, it just becomes more accentuated in the winter. I weighed her last week and she was close to 90 pounds which is too fat for a dog her size, so she will be getting many regular trips to the lake this spring and summer and less people food. I may even start running in the real world so she and Elton will get to go with me. Technically Tiffy is Darrell's dog and Elton is mine, but they don't know the difference. He got her a couple weeks before we met and started our relationship, so May will mark 9 years since we first got together and August will mark 9 years since we moved to New Brunswick together. Where did all the the go?

Happy Birthday Tiffy.

Good weekend.

The week ended really badly for me, but I was over it by Saturday evening. Darrell was thrilled I didn't get the part, and had been secretly hoping I wouldn't the entire time I prepared for it.. something about it being too gay (whatever that means) or something equally stupid and insecure. I'll file it away for now and throw it in his face when we're arguing about something else in the future.

It was a pretty quiet and uneventful weekend full of home improvement and property flipping shows on TLC and HGTV. Darrell built a platform on the stairs so he could get up and have alook at the motor for our Heat Recovery Unit. When we bought the place we were told it was dying and would need to be replaced, but it looks more like the unit only needs a good cleaning, so that will be next weekends project. We also put down a tarp and repotted some plants (Anyone whose been over knows that isn't a small job).

I talked to Nan (that's what I call my grandmother) and she's doing really well. They removed her staples and she is walking a lot more now... still taking it easy though. Aparently half the family in Williams Lake is stapled up for one reason or another. My aunt had a hystorectomy and my cousin had to have some scar tissue or growths removed from a previous surgery. My cousin has a weird skin skin that makes her break out in a rash and infection if she wears metal other than gold so a few days after her operation she had to go back in and have the staples taken out and stiches put in because they started festering up and getting infected.

Sunday night we were one of the ten houses in North America that wasn't watching the Oscars, we could both care less about awards shows. You didn't have to watch to know that Jennifer Hudson won best supporting actress for her role in Dream Girls... not bad for an American Idol reject. Especially considering the best Kelly Clarkson can seem to do is a guest appearance on Reba. Whose out of their depth now Simon?

There was a new episode of Heroes on, which is odd since it's usually on on Mondays. I hope they aren't going to start changing the day like they have a tendency to do with new shows. That drives me right around the bend... you just get used to a viewing schedule and then for no apparent reason what so ever they take your favroite Monday night show and put on against your favourite Sunday night show. Thank god for satellite Tv and time shifting. Last night's episode was really good but dealt with only one storyline... I won't say more than that because I don't want to spoil it for Mare & Lisa.

For some reason my brain wouldn't quiet down and let me sleep last night so I ended up on the couch with a Stephen King novel until about 4am, I'm super tired today and bound to be bitchy as hell by the end of the day.

Anna Nicole

Am I the only person who thinks that no matter how tragic it may seem, the death of Anna Nicole Smith is not news? It may be celebrity gossip, but I swear seeing the crying judge on the news over and over is driving me insane. There are real stories out there that deserve the time this rediculous circus is getting. There are actual people doing important things that we aren't hearing about because this is getting the airtime.

I mean come on... she's a playboy model who married a guy 63 years older than her, took all his money when he died, screwed half the guys in hollywood, and died addicted to drugs in a pool of her own vomit.... she's one step up from a street walking whore! There's half a dozen guys claiming to be the father of her kid...if that doesn't scream whore to you what does??????? And for the love of god stop comparing her to Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn was a glamorous movie star with talent who earned her money on the screen not on her back. The only similarity is that drugs took their lives. By that standard to you could compare Marilyn to every gutter trash whore who OD'd on the street... so let's not go there!

Anna Nicole's only real ass-et was about an inch and a half in front of her ass-whole. So please get her off the fucking news and report on something worthy.

Friday February 23, 2007

Appetizer
Where on your body do you have a scar, and what caused it?

I have several. I have a scar under my left arm from where my gland was removed when I was six because it had a cancerous tumour on it. I received radiation on it and the entire should has never developed so I am lopsided and my left arm is about 2 inches shorter than my right. I have a scar behind my left ear, where another cancerous gland was removed whan I was 8 years old. I have two scars across my pubic area from an operation for undescended testicles caused by cancer treatment. I have a scar on my chest from the hickman cathetor that was inserted when I was 27 and about to have a bone marrow transplant to cure the leukemia I developed in adulthood (probably as a result of my cancer treatment as a child). I have a scar somewhere between my ass and balls for a reconstructive urinary track operation to correct a stricture that closed off the entire channel. And I have a scar or two on my soul from the general nastiness of the world today.

Soup
What is something that has happened to you that you would consider a miracle?

Read the appetizer again.... I'm alive today. Believe me it's against all odds.

Salad
Name a television personality who really gets on your nerves.

Donald Trump. With so many talented, artistic, and creative people in the world, why does this self absorbed, concieted, pompos, arrogant, jackass get to be on TV?

Addendum: Have to ad Martha Stewart and Debbie Travis... both arrogant, condescending Bitches!

oh yeah... and George W Bush! Everytime that idiot opens his mouth I can hear the entire collective IQ of North America Drop a little more.

Main Course
What was a funny word you said as a child (such as "pasketti" for "spaghetti")?

I don't think I said any funny words... when I was six I could say Malignant Histiocytosis... so there wasn't a lot of cutesy talk in my world.

Dessert
Fill in the blank: I have always thought ______ was ______.

I have always thought I was meant to do something important. (I just wish I knew what it was so I could start doing it.)

Today Sucked!!

I spent most of the day reinstalling programs and program updates, which is a huge pain in the ass. Everytime you do something you have to restart the damn computer so it takes forever!

I've finally been able to get back to the gym this week after being sick for so long so it feels like starting over, but it was certainly the highlight of my day.

Then Stephen called about Cabaret and wrecked the rest of my week. Oh well, what can you do?

Would it be unmanly to curl up into a little ball and cry for an hour or two?

On the bright side, once I get over my disapointment about not getting the part I want I will be able to get excited about the part I got. I just really wanted this one and put a lot of work into preparing for it, only to have to go through the entire audition process with the flu... and I'm really fucking disapointed right now.


It won't last long, but I'm gonna wallow in it for a day or two.

Wednesday

Not lot going on. We've been busy redoing our editing computers. Now we're at the point of reinstalling everything, it's a pain in the ass really, all the restarting after every install really slows things down.

Heroes was really good on Monday, of course just when it got really exciting it was over and we're in limbo for another week. There were storylines introduced last week that weren't touched this week, so we may not have resolutions to all the excitement next week. Way too many characters whose storylines haven't converged still. Stan Lee's cameo as the bus driver...tacky!

We were watching the Rick Mercer Report last night and once again they used my latest photochallenge entry. It was a really nice surprise... usually they send a release form so you know they're going to use it, but this time they didn't so I had no idea until I actually saw it on the screen.
Before:

After

I slapped that one together without much thought.

Snow Day

Another Snow day in New Brunswick. It figures that since we're nearing the end of February winter has decided to really get a foot hold. Of course unlike, the West Coast, Spring doesn't actually happen here until April anyway, so we might as well settle in and get used to the snow.

It was insane driving in this morning, it's like all the stupid people decide they abolutely have to drive when it's snowing... I swear we could clear up the national deficit with a stupid people tax. People crawling along the highway and starting and stopping and being overly cautious to the point of being a bigger road hazzard than the actual snow should get a ticket, because there's lots of em.

Anyway.... The weekend was really good. I finally hit the point of feeling like myself again and the cold is now an occasional little cough...yay.

Saturday's desert party was a small intimate affair, but very very fun. Scott and Alison brought some delicious melt in your mouth chocolate brownies, & Suzy and Chris brought a fabulous Tiramisu. I was a Tiramisu virgin up until Saturday so Suzy's creation will now be the bar by which I measure all other Tiramisu, and it's a pretty high bar! Knowing of Darrel's new love for the Stirling Cherry Pie, Brian and Helen brought not only the Cherry but the Apple as well... both very tasty. I made a Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake, some Chocolate Cip cookies, and I tried out my healthy alternative Banana Bread recipe (That I created myself...well I took an existing recipe and substituted all the ingredients to create a new recipe but that's kind of the same thing right?). The eight of us had a fantastic little sugar fest and some nice drinks, and it was a really good time. Darrell drank nearly two and half bottles of wine so he was pretty smashed by the end of the night, but I think he was the only casualty.

Sunday there was suprisingly little clean up to be done, since we used paper plates, so we had a fairly lazy day. I did some laundry, and we had some food that didn't contain huge amounts of sugar and fat, then we settled in for Brothers & Sisters, the series finally of Reba, The Amazing Race All Stars (They have Rob & Amber on it so we were not going to watch at all, but it was the only thing on in that time slot besides repeats of Raymond that we've seen a thousand times so we endured Rob & Amber... it is kind of nice to start off with a team you're hoping will lose), and of course Desperate Housewives (very exciting show last night).

Either a nasty bug has infiltrated our editing computers or windows has hit it's best buy date again and needs to be redone, either way we have to reformatt our editors. Darrell did his over the weekend and I am in the process of backing mine up now so it can be done today. It really sucks to have to wipe everything out and reinstall, but the system runs a lot better for about 4 months and then start to screw up again for the next 2 before it needs to be done again. I think that's as long as windows can go before it starts to completely degrade and fall apart. So today will be a very unproductive day as far as production in my room goes, but ultimately it will make everything run smotther and more reliably for the next several months.. so productivity is relative.

Tonight Heroes is on!!!!!!!! That show makes me so happy, it's like the highlight of my week (How sad is that?)

Sore Throat Medication

If you are singer or use your voice in any professional capacity and have a sore throat avoid sore throat meds and lozenges like the plague.

If your sore throat is caused by vocal strain, stop using your voice and rest... it's that simple. If it's caused by a cold or flu get plenty of rest and drink room temerature water. If resting your voice isn't an option and you absolutey have to perform, then perform with your sore throat within your limits. Do not ever by any means for any reason use things like Chloraseptic or Cepacal sprays or lozenges... you could do irrepairable damage to your vocal chords. These kinds of products should contain very large warning on them but they don't. They contain Anesthetics that make you feel better and give you a false sense that you can perform at 100%. You can't, and if you try you will create little tears in your vocal chords and they will bleed, leading to nodes that can only be removed surgically and your voice never fully recovers.(listen to old Elton John and New Elton John songs if you want to see a really good example of how node removal affects your voice)

I had many times singing with my band where I started to lose my voice over the course of a week long gig. The only option that works is to perform within the limitations of your sore throat. Don't go for the notes you can't hit, bring them down an octave, avoid the gaint songs and keep the audience dancing with easier songs to sing. Drink room temperature water and lots of it. Avoid alcohol, and during breaks don't visit with the bar guests... talking over the bar noise is the fastest way to wear out your voice. Water with honey, lemon, and cinnamon can sometimes help too.

Just remember to never ever under any circumstances use a product that masks the soreness in your throat. Your first and best choice is to rest your voice, but if you're in the middle of a run for a show or a gig then that soreness lets you know what your boudaries are... don't push past them. Anesthitizing your throat masks the pain and allows you to push way past where you should be and start damaging your voice permanantly... you only get one voice take care of it. Keep it well lubricated with lots of water, do a good vocal warm up, and get plenty of rest between shows.

Friday February 16, 2007

Appetizer
What sound, other than the normal ringing, would you like your telephone to make?
I'm fine with normal ringing. I can't stand all those cell phone ringtones. What's worse is when someone has a song as their ringtone and then won't answer the phone until the song is over...I hate that.

Soup
Describe your usual disposition in meteorological terms (partly cloudy, sunny, stormy, etc.).
Mostly sunny with occasional cloudy periods

Salad
What specific subject do you feel you know better than any other subjects?
Music & Art.

Main Course
Imagine you were given the ability to remember everything you read for one entire day. Which books/magazines/newspapers would you choose to read?
I'd start with some guitar lesson books, move on to some science journals, and finish up with some history texts.

Dessert
If a popular candy maker contacted you to create their next confection, what would it be like and what would you name it?
I don't know. I think I'd try to make something with no sugar or chemical sugar, sweetened naturally with honey or maple, and try to keep the rest of the ingredients as natural and healthy as possible... just cause it's an indulgence doesn't mean it has to be awful for you. I'd name it Mother Natures Kiss.
Tomorrow night is our second annual dessert party where people bring their favorite deserts. I'll be making a very fattening and indulgent chocolate cherry cheesecake, but I will also be trying a recipe I created for Banana bread that has whole wheat flower, olive oil, honey & Maple sweeteners, and no heavy cream, yet somehow still tastes like Banana bread without the gluton, sugar, or lactose.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day all! Is it just a coincidence that the initials for this day are VD? So happy VD to all.

Call Backs

I think all in all my call back went okay. Okay but not spectacular. I think I sang well even though my voice wasn't all there. I was physically off during the ballad, because I was consentrating too hard on my pitch and power to put much of my body into the mix. I did Two Ladies with Kizzy and Kristi and we had lots of fun being naughty. Bertis was a powerhouse vocally. I don't know what he did physically because everyone waited in the hallway while people did their auditions, but I know he's really good with the physicallity so I'm guessing he was on his game. All it really comes down to, I think is going to be the size of the of the other cast members. If Sally is and the girls are amazons then a pipsqueak like me isn't going to cut it, on the other hand if everyone is tiny then Bertis may be too much of a giant. Either way it really hasn't got much to do with either of us anymore, and the show is going to be good no matter who gets what part, because we all have so much fun together that it will come through on stage no matter whose standing where.

Tuesday

Throat still sore.... call back tonight at 7!!! Oh well whatever happens happens.

Watched Heroes last night and it left me longing for a little conflict resolution. There are so many characters and so many stories within the story that it is taking a long time to tell it all and starting to feel a little draggy. How I met Your Mother, the Class, and Two and Half Men were all very funny. The New Adventures of old Christine isn't back on until March and in it's place was a new sitcom called Rules of Engagment, with David Spade among others, and it was pretty good.

My speaking voice is still raspy and thin, but I don't think we're doing any scene work tonight, and I always lose my speaking voice long before my singing voice so hopefully I've got enough there to show Stpehen what he wants to see and get this part.

Cold is still hanging in there

I got lots of rest this weekend and still the cold is insisting on sticking around. It has become an occasional annoying cough and rhaspy throat. I lost my voice by the end of the day Friday and am still very scratchy today. I have my call back for the Emcee tomorrow night and Stephen wants to hear two songs... luckily even though my speaking voice is thin and rhaspy I still have about 70 percent power on my singing voice and should be able to sing well enough tomorrow. (Keeping fingers crossed) Gotta put in my best foot forward tomorrow because as far as I know Bertis is also being considered for the part so I gotta bring everything I got.

I didn't get a chance to call my grandmother on Friday because I couldn't talk to her even if I did, but I did manage to talk to her on Saturday. She's doing well and has almost no pain. She's having to keep off her feet and limit her movement for about six weeks until she's healed up. She had a total hip replacement so that's a pretty big deal, and she doesn't want to go putting it out or anything like that because that would be a disaster. It'll probably drive her a little nuts to not be able to get up and do the stuff she normally does for the next six weeks but it's a small price to pay, and eventually you get used to it.

Saturday evening we met up with Brian and Helen at the Dolan Rd Irving for a bite. Brian was headed off to play hockey so Helen came back to our place and hung out with us until he was done. We watched some Absolutely Fabulous from the specials DVD. We watched two episodes that none of us had ever seen before so that was cool.

Sunday I did laundry. I do laundry every Sunday. I did not watch the Grammys...never do, don't care for awards shows at all. We did watch the new episodes of Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters... the Housewives are really heating up and someone if going to die very soon possibly even next week. I got to talk to my Dad for awhile on Sunday, he called to let me know my grandmother was home but I already knew, but we got to talk about other things too. He's working out of town right now so I don't get to hear from him often because he doesn't come home every weekend.

Darrell and I also started taking an Iodine suppliment this weekend, so we'll see what effect that has. I am now making plans for the upcoming desert party on Saturday... I'm thinking I'll do the chocolate cherry cheesecake this time, and I've been experimenting with some ideas for a sugar/white flour/ margarine/lactose free banana bread recipe... I think I'll give it a try. Save up your points and cheat days only five more sleeps!!!

How I met your Mother & Heroes is on Tonight....YAY!!!

End of a Very long week

This week has dragged on and on it seems. I am now headed home to curl up on the couch and pray to whatever powers that be for some relief from this awful cold. I want it gone, preferably at least two days before I have to go to the call back so I have some time to rest and build myself back up. At the moment my throat is all scratchy and I can barely talk, so I'm glad no one's expecting me to sing today.

On a happy note my grandmother returned home yesterday with her new hip. My aunt says everything is going well and she is doing fine. I will be calling her tonight to see how she's feeling.

Friday February 09, 2007

Appetizer
Have you been sick yet this winter? If so, what did you come down with?
I'm sick right now! I don't know if it's a flu or cold, but I had a week of fever, followed by hacking and coughing and losing my voice. Still coughing, Still losing my voice from time to time

Soup
What colors dominate your closet?
Red, Blue, Green

Salad
How would you describe your personal "comfort zone"?
I have a pretty big personal comfort zone. I'm fairly secure individual so I'm pretty comfy in most situations.

Main Course
On which reality show would you really like to be a contestant?
The only one worth watching... the Amazing Race! You get to fly all over the world and see and do things you wouldn't even if you were a tourist going to that destination

Dessert
Which holiday would you consider to be your favorite?
I really don't get all jazzed up about any holiday, most of them are so commercialized now that they all become more annoying than anything else.
My favorite "Holiday" is when we just take a couple unplanned days off work and go somewhere new without any plan or schedule... just explore and have fun with no preasure to buy stuff or any of that other bullshit.

I gotta Dance!

Last night's dance auditions went fairly well, I thought, in spite of breaking into a coughing and choking fit after each go around. I thought I was going to bring up a lung at times. It's not easy to get in touch with your inner whore when he's haking like he has TB. But all that aside I think I did alright, it wasn't a supereasy dance by any means but it also wasn't superhard. I had difficulty with the spins at the end because I'm congested making my equilibrium a little whonky, and when Jenn said to freestyle for ten beats at the end of the last go around I was like yeah...no.. I'm having a hard enough time remembering the steps and not falling down hacking to start improving tonight.

Brian and Helen gave me a lift home, and I read some more of my book to distract my mind before turning in so I didn't replay the choreography over and over in my head all night long. Today I'm still hacking but not as bad, and hopefully by the time call backs come around I'll be recovered.


PS. I did get a call back, the date just hasn't been set yet.

Thursday

This has been the longest week ever, or at least it sure feels that way. MY flu or cold, whatever it is, has now moved into the hack up alung but nothing comes out phase which is ohh sooo pleasant! I got a chest cough & Cold syrup that basically hasn't done anything but taste bad, so I'm down to halls.

Dance auditions are going to be interesting because everytime I exert myself I launch into a fit of coughing. Here's hoping that phase of the virus is the last phase and that by the end of the day it will be mostly passed.

Auditions

I went to auditions for Cabaret last night and there was a pretty good turn out. I saw Kizzy, Kristi, Lisa (used to be Anthony), June Garnett, Harry Cross, Scott Green, Adam Masson, and whole bunch of others I haven't seen in a while and some new faces as well.

I walked over from the office in the extreme cold, so when I got there I had spent about ten minutes hacking up a lung before I felt better again. The singing portion of the evening went okay. I wasn't 100%, but I think I put out some power even though I felt scratchy. All in all I think it was alright... it is, after all just the first round of auditions, and Stephen has heard me sing a time or two before when I have been 100% so hopefully he will fill in the any blanks that may have been there thanks to the scratchy throat. I did my scene with Scott Green and it also went well, so all in all I'd have to say I feel pretty good about it... well as good as I ever feel about auditioning for things.

When I got home I couldn't sleep because I had the entire score from the show rattling around and around in my brain so I went out into the living room and started reading the Da Vince Code. I got the movie for Christmas and wasn't sure whether to read the book first or watch the movie first. I opted for the Movie first because generally if the book is really great you are always disapointed with the movie because they can't cover everything a book can. After a few chapters I found myself wanting to drift off so I closed the cover and went to bed. I wasn't drifting because I wasn't interested in the book, on the contrary it is really good from the get go so far, I was just really tired and once I finally switched my brain out of excited Cabaret mode my eyes wanted to close.

That's always the risk I take when I opt to calm my mind with a book, because if it's really good I can actually start forcing myself awake to read just one more chapter... well one more chapter.. and then before you know it it's four in the morning and your halfway through a novel you just cracked the spine on earlier.

Right Plan

Going home last night instead of to the auditions was definitly the right plan. I feel quite a bit better today... not 100%, but a much higher one. It sucks I have this flu right now and as a result I am guaranteed to not be able to turn out a 100% performance quality audition, but I'm going to pull out all the stops and hope for the best. I just hope I don't start hacking and coughing through the songs.

I went to the gym yesterday and managed a pretty brisk 20 minutes on the treadmill, even ran a couple laps... much more would have been completely counterproductive. I then spent a few minutes in the suana stretching. The heat felt really good, but I can't take it for long.

If you're auditioning tonight I'll see you there; if you auditioned yesterday I hope things went well for you; if you're doing it tomorrow break a leg; and I'm sure I'll see everyone on Thursday for the dance auditions.

Fever Finally Broke

We went home after work friday and I immediately hit the couch. Brian and Helen came over and hung out for awhile. We talked about upcoming auditions and watched a bit of the movie so Helen could hear the Cabaret song. I made her a copy of the Original cast cd since that is by far the best version of that song going. The Revival CD has lots of great songs on it and some of them are done really well, but Natasha Richardson is no Jill Haworth, in fact she even gets some of the words to Cabaret wrong which completely blows the meaning and emotion of an entire phrase. I had actually put all things Cabaret away in September so everything could just sit up in my little brain and ferment there. I don't want to go into the auditions and do an Alan Cummings or Joel Grey impersonation... I want to pull the things that stand out most about the two and see what sticks to the wall. It's never a good idea to watch a movie or listen to a soung track so close to an audition or performance because it taints your ideas about what the character should be. That's why I got the movie and every version of the cast recordings I could find last spring and listened to them to death over the summer, then put them away. So all the big stuff that stuck out would pop out at me and I could work on filling in the blanks with my own stuff.

Brian and Helen left around ten, Darrell and I watched Men in Trees then Godivas and went to bed. I still had the fever Friday.

Woke up Saturday and still had the fever. It even grew a little over the course of the day. I spent the entire day on the couch with home improvement, design, and decorating shows. Darrell went out and got me some tylenol rapid relief and some expectorant cough syrup which helped a bit. My Dad called to let me know my Grandmother had her hip replacement surgery finally and that everything went really well. They still have her pretty much imobilized but so far so good. Maybe she'll finally be able to get around without all the pain. Honestly when I think of how long she waited just to see the specialist and how uncomfortable she was for that entire time it makes me want to go on a rampage in some Legaslative and Parliament buildings. *begin rant*
It's about time we stopped allowing politicians private or special access to health care and make them use the system the rest of us do... then we'd see some action. I remember one night up at the emergency at the regional, I had a stricture in my urinary tract and it closed completely.... I was in extreme pain... in fact it required surgery to open... yet I still had to wait over a half and hour in the waiting room just to see the nurse. During that time a call came in that one of the MPs or MLAs or something was on the way in and everyone scurried about to get ready. We pee ons of the public never even saw them arrive, they were shown in through private ways and didn't have to wait. So what was the big emergency that took precedence over my immensely painful condition... the MP or MLA's (Can't remember which)kid had an ear ache. Let's start sticking these assholes in the waiting room with everyone else and see how much action we get on health care reform then.
*end rant*
My Dad said my Grandmother is doing well, and my stepmother is staying down there with her to help look after her, so I'm very happy that everything is going to be better for her from here on in, because she's had it pretty shitty health wise the past couple years.
We turned in fairly early Saturday night and overnight I woke up with my pillow completely soaked with sweat and the fever gone.

I had a completely feveless day on Sunday, but didn't want to take any chances so I still spent the majority of it on the couch.

I am playing it by ear today as to whether or not to go to the gym, and what to do if I do go. It certainly won't be a full workout or a run because I haven't been in well over a week, the majority of which I had a recurring fever. I do feel like I might benefit from a long walk on the treadmill and a stretch in the dry heat sauna though. I'll probably give my throat a little longer to recover and go to auditions tomorrow night instead of tonight.

Friday Feb. 02, 2007

Appetizer
What was one of the fashion fads when you were a teenager?
I was a teenager in the 80's so we had big hair, blazers with shoulder pads, skinny leather ties, rugby pants, colourful bill cosby sweaters, if it was fugly we were probably wearing it in the 80's.

Soup
Name one thing you think people assume about you when they first meet you.
I think they probably assume I'm older than I am for many reasons I won't bother getting into

Salad
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how hard do you work?
How can rate that? There are times when you don't feel good or you just need a coast day so you slack off to a 5, and then there are times when you're firing on all cylinders and you're up at 11... I think generally I work very hard so I'll give myself an 8

Main Course
If you were given a free 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl to sell anything you currently own, what would you advertise?
I have lots of projects I'd sell... Baby Annoucement paintings, Grandma's Brag book DVDs (you can actually check out the one I did for my Mom on my Animation Samples page), A novel I wrote that I haven't tried to get published yet... the list is long.

Dessert
Fill in the blank: I love to ________ when it is _________.
I love to walk outside when it is warm and raining.

ARGH!

I ended up taking Tuesday and Wednesday off. This flu has been very nasty so far, the fever associated with it keeps recurring. I'll feeel great for most of the day then end up with the chills later on.

I haven't been to the gym since last Friday as a result, and have opted to take a pass today as well, since I'm not 100% or even 80 for that matter.

The two days I took off I followed the diet plan laid out in the Burn Fat Feed muscle book and holy crap I've never eaten that much food in a day in my entire life. I could only manage to do five meals each day because there aren't really enough hours in my day to fit in the sixth unless I start getting up super super early ... and that ain't happening. I figured out my maintenance calorie level to be 2466 per day and my fat burn level to be 1900. So I will need to do three days of 1900 and one at 2466, then continue cycling them. Then I had to divide all that by the number of meals per day to get portion size, and then I had to factor in the macronutrient ratios ie: 50% Complex Carbs (Starchy carbs like rice or Potatoes combined with fibrous carbs... vegetables), 30% lean protien (chicken, trimmed pork, fish (not an option since Darrell's alergic)), 20% Fat (Ideally essential fats containing omega 3 and six like Olive Oil, Hemp Oil, Flax oil, nuts, or oily fish (Again not an option)).

Once you figure all that out and come up with four meals at 400 calories and one at 300 you are talking about a lot of food. It's actaully amazing how much you have to eat when you're eating the proper things, but you don't end up feeling bloated, you have awsome energy all day long, and you don't get cravings at night in front of the TV because you're bored.

I'm not quite ready to throw myself completely onto this plan yet, because it is going to take some serious planning and frequent trips to the grocery store to pull it off, so I have to sit down and make a menu, buy some essentials, and really figure out exactly how to aproach it the most effeicient way possible... because you can't just wing it... that would be impossible.