Dec 23

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

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

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

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

Very Disturbing article

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

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

Toxic Cash

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh wait. It’s been locked.

Sad Day for Democracy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

November 18

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

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

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

November 7

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

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

Long Time no Blog

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

Thursday, Oct 9.

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

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

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

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

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

What's New.

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

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

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

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

Tuesday

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday Sept. 17

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

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

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

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

Busier than a One Armed Paper Hanger

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

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

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

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

Chicago

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

Three Little Fishes

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



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


Flikr site


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

Called back to call backs

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

Still so sick

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

Loooong Weekend!!

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

Thursday

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

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

Wednesday

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

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

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

Weekend

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

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

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

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