One down

With Crucible now finished and the party over, I am left with only two huge projects to take up the majority of my time. The show had a really good run and received very good reviews. I can honestly say I never missed a cue and actually had a flawless run for the first time ever. The cast party afterwards saw most of us make it through to breakfast the next day at Reggies (not somewhere I'd have breakfast again unless it was after partying all night long).

Monday was back to the grind, two huge animation projects one due beginning of June the other at the end of June and niether of them is remotely similar. I have a feeling I may be putting in some over time to get through them, but now that I don't have a show to worry about on top of all that I think I'll manage fine. We got fairly productive at home after work yesterday. Darrell managed to get all the 4x4s cut for our new flower boxes and I got most of them stained. Kent was having a clearance on all thier summer bulbs so I stocked up, but it's getting pretty late in the season for planting them hence the rush to get the boxes built and filled.

I met with Dr. Keeling, the dermatologist, to talk about light therapy and think I will go ahead and do it, but I want to hold off until the fall. Once I start I'll have to take pills that make me photosensitive an hour before recieving the light and wear glasses that block uva/uvb rays from sun up til down. I will also have to stay fairly covered up all the time and reduce exposure to the sun... meaning stay indoor as much as possible. I just can't see myself doing those things during the summer, it would be too uncomfortable, as well, the extra photosensitivity increases your risk of skin cancer... therefore I think doing it in late fall/winter would be better as I am already covered and indoors most of the time anyway and the UV index is lower. I've beat cancer twice in my short lifetime... I have no desire to go for a third round, so whatever I can do to minimize risk I will happily do.

Friday May 26, 2006

Appetizer
How old were you when you got your first credit card?
21

Soup
When was the last time you felt out of place?
Pretty much throughout the entire process of Crucible. I stepped in late because someone pulled out, and doing sound is a very isolated job so I have no realy connection with any of the cast etc.

Salad
Did you have a curfew when you were a teenager? If so, what time did you have to be home?
11:30 on school nights

Main Course
Name a person from history with whom you feel you have something in common.
I can't really think of one, a person from recent history would be Terry Fox or Rick Hansen... I was treated at the same hospital as Terry Fox and Rick Hansen is from my home town

Dessert
When you read a newspaper, which section do you go for first?
That all depends... I usually only read the paper if I'm looking for a specific article and then I go to whatever section that is in.

May 24

I've posted a bunch of Pictures from our long weekend to my flikr photo pages, the link is on the side in the links section.

Last's nights rehearsal of Crucible was pretty good. I think most ot the sound is now worked out. There is only one spot at the end that Kristy and I have to go over tonight before rehearsals get underway, but aside from that everything is where it should be. I am really looking forward to next season already. Cabaret is on the slate as the last show of next season and I will be going after a very specific role in it.

Work is still getting busier by the moment and I am going to enter crunch time very soon with a couple things. I've been trying to nibble away at them a little at a time, but have had so much going on that I'm afraid I haven't got as much done as I could have.

Next week we will be working on our flower boxes and finally finishing the moulding for the bedroom.

Tomorrow I have a meeting with a dermatology specialist to see if I would benefit from Light therapy to treat the Graft Vs Host induced Scleroderma I been suffering from for so long. Dr. Couban hadn't really considerred it before because we have the Graft vs Host under control with the drugs and the scleroderma is slowly getting better, but Last year I noticed that in the sun my skin seemed to soften and I saw some of the hair on my legs start to return... so Light therapy may speed the process along. It would be nice to start looking like myself again and regain both my body hair and the hair on my head (although there is a slight chance that some of the thinning up there isn't completely Scleroderma related). No sense getting ahead of myself just yet until I hear what the Dr. Keeling has to say tomorrow.

Oceanstone

We had an awsome May long weekend. We got together with Bertis and the Bonds and planned a trip out to Peggy's Cove for the weekend. Helen researched a few places and found a place called Oceanstone Inns & Cottages in Indian Harbour, and Bertis booked the treehouse cabin for the five of us. The long weekend is the off season so the rate for the cabins is very good. Ours was $135 a night (split five ways that's pretty great).

Bertis and the Bonds headed out together Friday afterwork in the pouring rain, missed a turn off (that wasn't actually on the directions) and ended up taking the long way around. Darrell and I had a lot of stuff to do Friday so we went out Saturday Morning. It was a beautiful drive out, the sun was shining, and I knew the highway better, since I did a little looking around on my way to Halifax the week before. We dropped Elton and Tiff off with Connell and Lynn around 9:30 that morning to be puppysat while we were gone, and then headed out, arriving in Indian harbour around 2. The area was absolutley beautiful, and the cottage was really neat, a little small, but good none the less. It had a little kitchen with everything you could possibley need, complimentary coffee, TV, two bedrooms (one with a queen sized bed and the other with a double and single bed), a pullout couch (you could technically have seven people stay there), a nice bathroom, there was nice little side deck, and we had access to all the amenities of the place. There was a nice area down by the water with anarondac chairs and fire pits, and kyaks and canoes were available although we didn't take advantage of that as there were so many other things to do and the water looked a little rough when we arrived. At 3 o'clock, Brian and Helen headed up to the main building for their Massages, and Bertis and Darrell had theirs at 4, then we all headed out to Peggy's Cove which was about five minutes away. We could have walked it had we known how close it was.

Peggy's Cove is just a cute little settlement around the lighthouse on the rocks. Population 60 according to the sign. There are signs everywhere about how trecherous and dangerous the rocks can be. There were a couple plaques, one on the rocks and another on the lighthouse that said "WARNING INJURY AND DEATH HAVE REWARDED CARELESS SIGHT-SEERS HERE. THE OCEAN AND ROCKS ARE TREACHEROUS SAVOUR THE SEA FROM A DISTANCE." It's not just a cautionary sign... more than a few people have been swept into the water and the currents and undertow are such that the majority did not survive. A lot of other signs were posted as well warning people away from wet rocks etc. We wandered around the lighthouse for a while and popped into the gift shop to find fun stuff. Darrell and I both got nice rain coats with Peggy's Cove embroidered on them, as well as a few small gifts. Our next stop was the Swiss air flight 111 memorial. Then we all headed off to the Skinny Rooster in Indian Harbour for dinner. Back at base we settled in with some martinis, Jello shots and a few episodes of Absolutely Fabulous on DVD. One of the coolest things about the day was that none of us had been to Peggy's Cove before so we all got to eperience it for the first time together.

Sunday we got up fairly early and once everyone was ready we headed off to Lunenburg. We stopped first in Mahone Bay and wandered around the town for a while. There was a huge flea market set up and we checked out the various tables. One table imparticular will stand out in mind for quite some time I'm sure. The guy there had a whole bunch of nazi memorabilia. There was an actual nazi arm band worn by a soldier in WW2 and it was preserved and framed, as well as two records of the stormtrooper choir and another nazi chorus. There were also stamps and coins with Hitler's face on them. I had mixed feelings of being terribly appalled by the items and a morbid sense of wanting to buy them. None of us actually bought any of the stuff, which upon reflection may of been a missed apportunity since it may actually be worth something some day or even today.

Lunenburg was only a few minutes down the road from Malone Bay and we parked on the main street headed in and started wandering around. It was a really interesting town as well, with all the old buildings nicely maintained and painted in bright colours. Not very far into our walk there was an incident. I was distracted by a horse and wagon and was asking Darrell to get some video of it so I could use the sound for Crucible, so I missed the incident, but Bertis and the Bonds filled me in as soon as I caught up with them. There was a group across the street from them at the corner by a large church, about to go up the street to the entrance and apparently one of the older gentlemen there passed some wind so loudly that our party could hear it all the way across the street. It was a source of hilarity for about two blocks, and had some recurrences throughout the day....let's face it Fart humour still makes most people giggle. We got up to the highest point in Lunenburg where the Lunenburg academy building stands. It a huge place est in 1895 in the same style as the Algonquin hotel. I took a bunch of pictures and will post them to my flikr page. In fact there are pictures from the whole weekend going up there when I get the chance. After the academy we wandered down to the water front and saw the Bluenose 2 and a few other sailing ships at the docks then checked out the fisherman's Memorial "DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE WHO HAVE GONE DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS AND WHO HAVE NEVER RETURNED.... AND... AS A TRIBUTE TO THOSE WHO CONTINUE TO OCCUPY THEIR BUSINESS IN GREAT WATERS". It is an excellent monument of polished black granite pillars arranged as the points of a compass, with the names off those lost through the years dating to before 1925, as well a list of ships lost and ships lost with all hands. You could spend an entire day just at the monument reading all the names. One bright point about the entire thing is, as the dates get closer to the present time the lists get a lot smaller. There was still alot of Lunenburg left to explore when we left, but that just means we'll have to return to see more.

We got back to Oceanstone and decided to make burgers for dinner. Darrell and I quickly popped back out to Peggy's Cove so he could get a some video footage and I could take a few more pictures of things I may want to paint. Then we headed back to the cabin for dinner. I had made a great big batch of potatoe salad Friday night and brought it along, and there were the burgers, and the left over brithday cake Bertis and the Bonds brought with them for my birthday. (My birthday was actually friday but we had cake and stuff Saturday) Bertis cooked the first batch of burgers on the stove, then Darrell lit a fire in the woodstove and Brian cooked the second batch on top of it. (in a frying pan obviously). We had several drinks and some champaign, watched the season finale of Desperate Housewives, then threw in the DVD's for Little Britain Season 01.

Monday's checkout time was 11 am. Darrell and I were packed and on the road by 10:30. We made one more stop in Peggy's Cove before leaving to get a gift for Connell and Lynn to say thank you for puppysitting, and to get a couple more pictures of the warf (the light was wrong the day before). Then we were off and running... destination Connell and Lynn's house in Quispamsis to collect the kids. Elton and Tiff were very well behaved all weekend and happy to see us return. We got home and the car unloaded at 5:15 and I was back in it and on my way to the Imperial immediately for the Cue to Cue rehearsal for Crucible. I feel alot better about the sound for Crucible now, I was feeling very out of it and detached before last night. I have a few sound edits to make today and then should be ready for the run.... it is going to be a very hectic week with a lot for me to do at work, and my evening taken up with the theatre... I may need another trip somewhere sooner than expected.

Friday Feast May 19, 2006

Appetizer
What is the last thing you had to have repaired?
My Car.

Soup
If someone gave you $2,000 with the stipulation that you had to spend half of it on yourself and give the rest to charity, where would you spend the $1,000 and which charity would receive your remaining $1,000?
At this point I would Spend the $1000 on our house, more specifically on the yard.
I would give the other Thousand to the Bone Marrow Transplant Patient Support Fund at teh QE2 in Halifax. The fund was set up by former Bone Marrow transplant patients and it is to help Families of patients recieving transplant cover the cost of things like accomodation, food, & travel, so that no one has to go through transplant without someone there with them if cost is the only factor. Both Darrell, my Mom ,& my sister Amanda benefitted from the fund while I was in Hospital recieving my transplant and they were staying with me. The fund provided vouchers for the Hospital cafeteria for meals etc.

Salad
What is one of your favorite songs from the 1980s?
How can you pick just one? I went to Highschool in the 80's it's all "My Music"
since I can only pick one......The Bangles - Eternal Flame (I know it's s chick song, but I still like it)

Main Course
You enter a pet store. Which section do you go to first?
Obviously the dog toy section, aside from the fact it is usually the first section you encounter in most dog stores, I have two Labrador Retreivers... The dog toy section first followed very closely by the dog treat section, where else?

Dessert
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how athletic are you?
I like to think 7.5-8, but the reality is probably closer to 5-6 although as I get older and stay active that number goes up compared with others my age.

Car Trouble?

After the car was towed out to the mechanics, he got in and tried to start it. It turned over but wouldn't start and the same warning lights came. He wasn't able to get to it until Monday morning, but when he hopped in Monday morning, it fired right up nothing was wrong. Apparently it was just fatigued and needed a time out. He drove it around a bit, started and restarted it a fwe times. Looked it over and couldn't find anything wrong. An indication that the fuel pump may possibley be starting to go, but that's something you don't replace unless you know for absolute sure it's going because it's damn expensive and a lot of work. So Basically it cost me forty dollars to have the mechanic start my car a few times and drive it around for me.... go figure. I'm still just glad it didn't decide to act up while I was in Halifax... that would have been very inconvenient.

The wood was delivered last night, so the planning now begins for the planter boxes. I will be spending a lot of time outside with a big can of stain for the next little while.

Shoveling & Hauling & Raking... Oh My

That about sums up the weekend. We got a tandem load of top soil delivered and spent Saturday Shoveling it into wheelbarrows and hauling it over to its' new home in the yard. It was very very hard work, especially for Darrell who did about 2/3 of it. I don't know where he gets the stamina... I was having a hard time. We got the majority of the pile done before quitting for the day.

We were planning to go out to Brian & Helen's with Bertis for drinks, so I headed off to the liquor store in Rothesay and on my way back decided to see if Superstore Garden center had anything worth stopping for yet. Somehow my car must've got word that I got my Tax refund on Friday because after I had wandered around the garden center for minute, it decided it didn't want to start anymore. I called home for Darrell to come out and see if he could figure it out, but we ended up having to call CAA and have it towed out to Darrell's mechanic in Black River. (CAA is worth every penny that tow would've been about $150) I still haven't heard what's wrong with it, but the engine light comes on and the Security light flashes, so I'm hoping it's a switch or something easy like that. We did manage to get out to Brian & Helen's place and the five of us sat around and had a couple drinks and planned the long weekend a bit. We rented a cabin out in Peggy's Cove for the 20 & 21... it's going to be very fun, I can't wait. I've got so many things on the go right now it will be nice to just be somewhere else with nothing to worry about for a couple days.

Sunday was "Move the rest of the pile, rake it all out and seed it day". Another long day with lots of hard work. We got from the back corner of the house all the way across to the corner of the deck layered with top soil, raked, light layer of Peat moss, and grass seed... done with one dumptruck load of top soil, not bad. We are going to need two more loads to finish the rest of the back yard. I came into town for 12 thinking there was a production meeting and then realizing that the e-mail had said Saturday....for some reason I only looked at the time not the date, I must be getting old. I called my Mom, Stepmom, and Grandma and wished them all Happy Mother's day. I didn't do much in the way of treating myself on Sunday, although I did go out on Saturday and pick up a nice pair of steel toe landscaping boots from Work Wear World. They got a lot of use this weekend and will come in handy when I have to go to the refinery to take pictures and what not.

I hauled most of the rocks we dumped over the bank back up and used them to ring the garden area we created up by the well, when we took the front garden under the living room window out. Then I put some nice red colored cedar mulch in it and around the bushes planted there... it looks a lot nicer.

We have a load of wood being delivered today to build the new garden boxes for the front and side, as well as the wood to finish the moulding in the bedroom. So we have a very busy week ahead both at and away from work.

Halifax

My trip to Halifax yesterday, was pretty much the same as any other. Dr Cuban says he sees an improvement in my skin, I don't, but he does. He only sees me once every three months and I see me everyday, so he would be the one to notice not me. He Lowered my dose on one of my meds, which is awsome and sent me off with several hundreds of dollars in drugs from the Hospital pharmacy, a poke in the arm to take blood, and a return appointment for 3 months from now. Same old same old.

This time the drive back was lot better since it stays light until much later in the night, and wasn't even really getting "dark" until I got home around 9:15. There is one part of the drive I really love though, and that is just being alone on the road for four hours each way with the stereo blasting my favorite music. Darrell doesn't like a lot of my music so I try to listen to things we both like most of the time, unless it's a really long trip then all bets are off. Besides when we travel together we usually talk most of the way there. When I am by meyself however, it's stereo turned up and singing at the top of my voice for four hours straight each way.

I got few steps closer to being in a comfy place with Crucible sound today. We'll be taking the camera home this weekend so I can create the sounds I'm missing.

We have nothing planned for the weekend, probably just hang out and work on the yard, but I did realize during my appointment that Sunday is the 14th which is significant.

Aside from being Mothers Day, the actual day May 14 is significant to me for many many reason, not the least of which being that Darrell and I first got together on May 14, 1998 so Sunday will be the 8th anniversary of that. But it's also the anniversary of the day I received my Donor Bone Marrow. The people at the hospital says it's kind of like a second birthday, and it is in a way. So Sunday will mark 7 years since I got my transpant and became Leukemia Free. It left me with a bunch of other fun little side effects from Graft vs Host disease that I still deal with seven years later, but all in all a pretty small price to pay. The day I recieved the Donor marrow came after three days of high dose chemo therapy and three days of full body radiation, then on May 14, 1999 I was confined to my room on the transplant ward and received the bone marrow of an anonamous person somewhere in the world. Strange to owe something so big to someone I've never met and may never ever get the chance to say thank you to. Just some good hearted person who was on the internation bone marrow registry and got a call one day that said you match someone who needs a transplant would you be willing to donate, and said yes. Since I may never meet this person and be able to say thank you face to face I guess the best thing I can do is look after myself and make their gift worthwhile.

Oh hey, PS, May 14, 1999... the day they confined me to the isolation room in the Bone marrow transplant ward was also the day I quit smoking. I started smoking when I was 14 and gave it up just five days before my 28th birthday (oh yeah forgot to mention my birthday is May 19 so it's only fitting that my "Second Birthday" should be around the same time)... so When I gave it up I had quite literally been smoking for half my life at that point, and really how much does the first 14 years of your life really factor into that equation... so I could almost say I had smoked for the majority of my life at that point.

So Sunday I may have to go out and treat myself to something... I don't know what, but something.... after I call my Mom of course.

Friday May 12, 2006

Appetizer
What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Chocolate (it's my favorite flavor of anything really)

Soup
What are 3 things you would like to put in a time capsule?
I can't think of three things to go in a time capsule... I'm not sentimentally attached to "Things". There is very little that is unique or original about today it's all just remakes of past decades. We could put Stephen Harper and a few of his cronies in a time capsule, then we wouldn't have to deal with them, and future generations could say "What were they thinking?"

Salad
Name something you are 100% sure of.
Everything happens for a reason.

Main Course
What is something you do to calm yourself when you're stressed or upset?
Soak in the Bathtub or read

Dessert
If you could receive an invitation to any important event, what would you like it to be?
The dinner where the announcement is made that scientists have discovered cures for Cancer, Aids, and all debillitating diseases.

Wednesday May 10

I Didn't win the Super 7 Jackpot on Friday, so I am still working. There's lot on my plate at the moment, and I hope I can get it all done.

The weekend was a lot of fun. We went out for dinner at the Ale House with bertis, Brian & Helen, and Chad & Nancy on Saturday, then up to the Imperial for the Montreal Guitar trio (which was awsome). They were such amazing guitar players I may never touch my guitar again ha ha. Even though I'll probably never be that good, I'll keep doing my lesson books. I haven't practices in a few weeks though, there just never seems to be enough time to find that 20 minutes a day.

Sunday was a nice day and we spent it doing yard work. We still haven't finished all the raking of Buldozer tracks, and may not, since we will be putting top soil over most of it eventually anyway. We checked out Celeste Evergreen Nursery just off Churchland Road and found a nice big Weeping Willow tree.

I have barely begun my latest Animation project and it needs to be done for mid June. There's alot of work to it, so I will be putting in some long hours.

Crucible sound is no where near where I would like to be to feel comfortable. I have a a few sounds that need to be made from scratch and am hoping I can do them this week. Doesn't really help that the week is almost over, and I'm in Halifax tomorrow for my every three month check up.

Hopefully I can turn most of this around today and be closer to being back on track. Too much to do... too little time.

Friday May 5, 2006

Appetizer
From which country(s) are some (or all) of your ancestors?
Elgland, Ireland, Scottland, Switzerland, & France

Soup
How would you describe your sneeze?
a relief

Salad
What is the last thing you cleaned?
The bedroom floor

Main Course
Who made the strongest first impression on you?
Jan Stephens


Dessert
Name one thing you want to accomplish in your lifetime.
Travel the World.

Monday Again.

Back to the grind. It was a such a beautiful weekend. We did a lot of yard work. In total we ended up getting 14 loads of fill and have two more on the way today to fill in one more big hole by teh cedar trees and smooth everything out. I did some raking in the back to event hings out, but then we decided to get a couple more loads, and I abandoned the task. No sense raking out the dozer tracks only to have him drive over it again.

I got a copy of Cabaret on Dvd from Future shop and watched it Friday night. It's a great old movie... nothing at all like the play, but still very entertaining. Once upon a time time Liza really did have a spectacular voice. Today... not so much.

Saturday we got a pickup load of garden soil from Brunswick Nuseries and finished the front flower box under the bedroom window. I got a nice big Juniper for at Kent to plant at the end, and it looks awsome there. We dug up all the plants from the flower bed below the living room window and moved most of them to the new flower box. We took the leftover gardne soil and piled it up in the rocky area by the well pipe and I moved the big bushes from the front flower bed there. The dogs got to go to the lake for swim. Berits and the Bonds came over that evening and we BBQ'd hamburgers and had a few drinks.

I also did laundry saturday and for the first time this year, was actually able to dry it all on the clothes line.

Sunday was another day for yard work and playing in the sun. I came into town for a production meeting fro Crucible at 12, and left at 12:15 when noone showed up. I discovered today when I read my e-mail that the meeting was at 1. I forgot to tell tammy that we cancelled our home internet bacause there doesn't seem to be any rush to get highspeed in our area, and we just can't justify paying as much as we do for dial up. High speed is all around us, but hasn't arrived and everyone we talk to at aliant and rogers seems to indicate that it isn't going to in the near future either. Their loss... whoever get's it out to us first is going to get all our business.... TV, telephone, Cellular... you name it.

We drove up to Sussex to Sun Nurseries to have a look around. There was lots of really nice trees and shrubs. It's still to early for most places to have a lot of annual and perennials yet. Now that the sun is out, I feel like shirking all my responsibilities and just goofing off. I won't but I feel like it.

Fill fill Fill

We had a great evening out on Wednesday. Brian called around 5:30 and asked if we wanted to meet at Romanos for dinner. Darrell and I met up with Brian & Helen, and Chad & Nancy and had a lot of laughs and some really good food. Then we decided to go for a drink, Darrell didn't feel like drinking and took the pooches home and I went with Brian. We all hit Happinez and raninto Lisa& Anthony, and Chris & Suzy. It was a really good time.

Thursday was a pretty good day at work. Lots and lots to do. I'm hoping to get a little time to look over the Crucible stuff today. I've had it since Sunday and haven't had a chance to do anythig with it yet. Early last week Darrell found a guy who would deliver some fill and spread it around with the dozer for us for $75 a load, and he brought 6 loads thursday and is bringing five more today. We are trying to even out and extand our back yard into some of the wilder areas of our property. So far it looks great... we'll have a lot of raking to do this weekend to take out the dozer treads and even out the yard, but it's really nice dark earth with very few large rocks in it, so I think we may even be able to just throw some lawn seed on it and not bother with a load of top soil. We still need aload of top soil, but that's for gardening containers not the yard.

Friday Feast April 28,2006

Appetizer
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how polite are you?
Way up the scale... close to ten. I try very hard not to be rude... crude on the other hand... well, that wasn't the question.

Soup
What was the last thing that made you laugh out loud?
Wednesday evening when we went out to dinner with Chad & Nancy, and Brian & Helen... Helen was talking about the people in the pubs in England having different silly competitions, like how long you can keep a ferret in your pants and who can grow the largest Leek. She was saying that the leek thing is so serious that people even sleep outside to watch over their crops. I of course said the obvious.... So no one can take a leek... and the hilarity ensued. We went to Happinez after that for a drink and ran into Lisa & Anthony, and Chris & Suzy... so needless to say the entire night was filled with laughter.

Salad
Who is your favorite cartoon character?
I'm not sure I have a favourite... I love all the old Bugs Bunny Characters... Elmer Fudd, Pepe la Pew, Road Runner... and lots of the old Hanna Barbera characters... Yogi Bear, Snagglepuss, The Flintstones... and of course theres all those classic Mickey Mouse Characters. Way too many great cartoon characters to pick a favourite.

Main Course
Tell about the funniest teacher you ever had.
Funny Ha Ha, or funny weird? My highschool band teacher Geoff Dolman, wasn't overly funny as in sense of humour, but he was funny to watch. When he conducted he bounced around and did a sort of little dance.... we called him Jumpin Geoff behind his back. Don't get me wrong... he was an awsome music teacher and probably my favourite teacher of all time, but he was funny to watch

Dessert
Complete this sentence: I strongly believe that ______________________.
I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason and there is nothing "unnatural" in the universe.

Busy Busy Busy

We are back to full steam ahead. February is usually a really slow time and it takes a little while before everything fires back up and we are going on full throttle again, but we are just about rightback up there. I have one very big animation project to take me through May as well as one smaller one that is due very soon. Add to that several new Rogers Tv Listings ads, and I'm back to being busier than a one armed paper hanger.

The weekend was beautiful.. finally. It was nice and sunny and we were able to wander around without coats on. On Saturday we popped into the grand opening of Brunswick Nurseries.... for a grand opening there weren't a lot of deals to be had. We went with the intention of getting a truck load of topsoil for the front flower bed Darrell built last year, but even though we called ahead, they didn't have any when we arrived. So that really spoiled the mood of the grand opening for us and we wandered around a little then left. I descided to go Garden center cruising so I headed into the McCallister area and started off at Kent. Unfortunately I was silly and brought my car instead of the truck.... and wouldn't you know it... there were things I wanted. So I headed back out to the house, where Darrell was busy working in the back yard clearing out all the old dead rotting trees that had been cut and left laying around. I got the truck and headed back to Kent and bought three new fruit trees (like we needed more fruit trees... we already had 7). I got a Nectarine (which was already in bloom), and apricott, and a peach tree that has to be at least 10 feet tall... all for $30 each. When I got home Darrell was getting ready to cut down a couple dead birch trees in the back.. so while he was cutting trees down in the back I was planting new ones in the front. I'm sure that every bee from Rothesay to Baxters Corner will be zeroing in on that Nectarine tree since it's about the only thing in bloom for miles.

Sunday I went to the production meeting for Crucible... somehow I ended up being the sound guy for this show as well. Someone else was lined up to do it, so I thought I was off the hook, but it turns out she couldn't do it, and there was no one else available. I was really hoping to have the spring and summer off so we could do yard work and maybe even just take off if the mood struck for the May long weekend, but between theatre and work that doesn't look it will be in the cards. I just hope I have enough time outside of work to be able to do a good enough job on Crucible, I would hate like hell to let the cast and crew down.
* Sidebar.... I hope people don't start seeing me as the "Sound guy" because it's very close to what I do for a living, and I don't want to start potentially not be considered for Parts because the director already has me cast as "Sound Guy".

Monday the weather sucked, so did Tuesday. Nothing really exciting happened Monday, it was back to work as usual. We are still doing the smoothie breakfasts and it has been going great. They really do give you a nice big boost in the morning. We've been experimenting with all kinds of different recipes. A really good one, was half a mini Watermelon, half a pint of Frozen Strawberries, 1 banana and a handful of green grapes....If you use frozen strawberries you don't have to use ice. As always we also add a tablespoon of flax seeds to all the recipes. Flax seeds are high in Omega 3 fatty acids as well having lots of antioxidents. They help lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and lots of other super good for you stuff. It does mean you have to use a big straw and occasionally get little seed to chew on, but worth it in the end. We figuredou tthe cost of doing fruit smoothies for breakfast everyday and it works out to about $2.50.... that's a pretty cheap breakfast.

Tuesday night Darrell had to go to the movie theatre with the camera for Film Pix, so we stayed and watched the movie. It was a documentary called "Why do we fight", about America's culture of war. I found it really interesting, but didn't learn many things I didn't already know from other similar documentaries... the new information I got from the show only served to make me feel frustrated and angry (which is the whole idea). The really frustrating part is to watch something like that and then turn on the news and see that our current government is desperately trying to go in many of the same directions. here's hoping the other parties get it together and kick that gonad Harper out of the governing seat before he does too much damage. Personal note to mister Harper: Lower the damn flag and show some bloody respect you bastard! When someone dies in service of this country it is the very least you can do and it doesn't cost anybody anything to do it.

That said, today is a gorgeous day, and hopefully we will get away from work early enough to enjoy some of it.

Friday Feast April 21, 2006

Appetizer
List 3 things you keep putting off.
The Dishes, Sending my manuscript out to publishers, Writing the sequel to my novel

Soup
What do you feel is your greatest responsibility?
I don't have alot of "Great" responsibilities in my present life. My biggest one is to take care of my health and help speed my recovery

Salad
If you could have starred in any movie, which one would you have wanted to be in and why?
Star Wars... any one of the first trilogy. They were ground breaking movies that changed the way people go to the movies, and the people in them are filthy rich.

Main Course
What is an expectation you had as a child about being an adult and, now that you are grown up, you realize you were wrong?
I thought I would be able to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.

Dessert
When was the last time you had your car serviced?
Last Month

Smoothies

I don't think I'll be adopting the entire "You are what you eat" Menu and plan now that I've had a chance to look at more of it. There are lots of things in it we will use though. We've been doing the fruit smoothies for breakfast for three days now and they seem to working out really well. Yesterday we dumped the mango as it added a strange taste to the mix and we added crushed ice, and today we added Cantalope instead of the Mango. The winning recipe is now half a pineapple, half a cantalope, two bananas, and some crushed ice. We bought some sports cups that allow for large straws so we could take them to go. It was hard to stand at the kitchen counter and try to down them before we left. This morning we had a relaxing drive in and our breakfast to go... it was pretty sweet.

Congratulations to Chris and Suzy on their engagement. I'm so excited for you. To think a year ago we were having a party at Brian and Helen's place and you had your linked pinkies hiding behind the chip bowl... and now your engaged.....woooohoooo.

Long Weekend

I haven't posted in a little while. We've been busy busy busy. Work is starting to look very hectic again, which is mostly how I like it - Makes the day go faster.

Aside from the awful weather, the long weekend was actually pretty fun. We took Friday and Monday so it really would have been nice if the sun had peeked out a few times. Unfortunately no such luck. Friday night we went to Bertis' for a late dinner of Beef stroganoff... Bertis has a really good recipe. Brian and Helen were there also and we watched Fatal Attraction. I haven't seen it in a really long time but it was just as good as I remember it to be. The weird thing about watching the movie now is to think about how many times it has been ripped off. You watch it thinking "well that happens in all the movies", then you have to remind yourself that it only happens in all the movies because of the movie you are watching, since it was pretty unique in it's time... and spawned a tonne of rip offs. We also watched the "original ending" that is included on in the extras section on the DVD... it was creepy and all, but I'm glad they changed it.

Saturday was a pretty quiet day at home. Slept in, cleaned a little... tried a new chicken rice caserole recipe from my recipe club.

Sunday we had dinner at the Bond's house. We had samosa's and Chicken and veggie wrapps ... it was a really good. Bertis was there also (you probably guessed that right?)Helen lent us here "You are What you eat" book, by Dr Jillian Makieth. We've been watching the show on the W network and really learning a lot of things about food and what it can do to you or for you. I am going to go through the books and the recipes and then work out a plan and see if we can stick to it for 8 weeks.

We started off our morning with one of the smoothy recipes in the book. It was pretty simple.... half a pineapple, a mango, and two Bananas.... blend together and drink. (serves two) We added Flax seed to the drink as it is one of her recommended super foods. Next time I might put some crushed ice in it just to make it cold, but all in all it was pretty good. It felt like a large portion, especially since we aren't really used to eating much first thing in the morning, but I'm definitely noticing a boost of energy this morning compared to usual. In her book she recomend that fruit be taken by itself at least 30 minutes before eating anything else... and says that fruit is best first thing in the morning when your body has been fasting all night. It'll take me a few days to work out a good meal plan and then it'll be interesting to try to get Darrell to actually eat it, (He's fussy as hell about food), but when you watch her show, the people she puts on her plans are dropping huge amounts of weight and looking and feeling alot better. They usually lose about 2 stone in eight weeks... that'a about 28 pounds. I figure with all the toxins I put in my body every day from my medications a good detox diet would be a really good idea, so we'll see how it goes.

Friday Feast April 7, 2006

Appetizer
Name a trait you share with your parents or your children.
I'm always up for an adventure. I get that from my Mom.
I love to work with my hands. I get that from my Dad.

Soup
List 3 qualities of a good leader, in your opinion.
Confidence, Empathy, good listener

Salad
Who is your favorite television chef?
Don't have one. I do my cooking in the kitchen not vicariously through the TV

Main Course
Share a story about a gift you received from someone you love.
When I lived in Nanaimo and was singing with my Band, my Uncle got the family together and bought me a Guitar for my birthday, then they surprised me with it at a Block Party my band was playing at in Victoria.

Dessert
How do you react under pressure?
I am pretty cool under pressure, and thrive in stressfull conditions

New Recipes

This was very quiet weekend at home. We didn't do much of anything and it was quite nice. I signed up for a recipe club that sends out bundles of recipe cards every three weeks or so. I fell for the hook when the samples came in the mail and I tried one of the recipes, then thought 'What the hell, it comes with a free set of knives and doesn't cost that much money.'
I tried a few more of the recipes this weekend and have been pretty impressed so far. On Saturday I made Chicken Stroganof and some Banana Bread, and tomorrow I'm going to try a Chicken and Biscuits recipe. I try to follow the recipe to the letter the first time through so I can see what exactly is involved and how it comes out. Once we've had it "the way it is supposed to be" then all bets are off and I start experiementing with it until it's the way we think it should be. This usually takes two or three times through. The Stroganof recipe really surprised me though and will require very little in the way of modification. If anything I'd use less Chicken broth and Add the noodles right to the sauce a little before they are done cooking to thicken the sauce a little more, but that's just a minor change. The banana bread recipe was pretty good as well and next time through I'll probably substitute the White sugar for honey and add more Walnuts. If you want to try the recipes out let me know and I'll either put them on here or e-mail them to you.
It looks like I have a hectic work schedule luming on the horizon. There is a very large animation project coming my way and I will have to through myself into it 100% once I get all the materials I need. I will be animating the actual Oil Refining process from Crude in the ship, to Canaport, to and through the refinery, to trucks trains and ships filled with the finished product. I see some late nights on the horizon.