Friday Fun Day

Finally got off my duff and started working on some of the home projects around here.

Got the office door hung, reworked the downstairs lighting to add the third bank of lights, moved the mechanical room light switch from the stairs to the mechanical room itself, and started the framing for the mechanical room door.

Watched "Apollo 13" with the family (well, most of the family) in the evening after I was too tired to work anymore.

Had a wonderful time playing in my little garage/shop. That place is addictive!

Now if I can only keep up the pace tomorrow...

Thursday and Counting...

Hmmm. Almost out of holidays, and there's still too much to do around here.

Oh, well.

Adam's friends came over today and watched "The Empire Strikes Back", which was hilarious because one of the girls had never seen it, and the rest of them wouldn't shut up with the comments throughout the entire movie, and she was getting very annoyed (although she was gracious about it and didn't pull out an Uzi).

How is it possible for someone on planet Earth not to have seen the entire Star Wars trilogy yet? (I don't count the prequel movies, because those were just bad dreams, the output of a fevered mind, and should be completely removed from the canon.) This is something beyond my comprehension. And it makes it very difficult for the other members of the audience because they're all aching to spill all their trivia knowledge, but in order for the poor soul to get the complete experience, they really need to keep their mouths shut.

Well, they tried. And we got through the movie and no one was killed. Except, of course, in the movie.

Now we have to wait for another day to watch the "Return of the Care Bears" -- I mean, "Return of the Jedi" so she can finish up the rest of the trilogy. I don't remember if she's seen the prequels yet. I hope not. We're going to try and convince her not to see any of them, because it is a known fact that they cause brain implosions.

May the Force be with you.

Weary Wednesday

It's so hard to get anything done when there are so many interruptions. Today was supposed to be a day of working on the basement plans, but there were many, many interruptions.

Adam had his senior year pictures done today, which required a trip down to the photo studio.

Deb and James were gone on overnights.

Mary and I were taking care of a neighbor's cat, and then doing some shopping, which didn't get finished up til afternoon.

Then there was a surprise birthday party in the evening, which meant more shopping, prep time, actual event time, post-event travel time, picking up Deb at her friend's house, and then getting home late in the evening.

Another vacation day gone, not much (in the project sense) done.

Maybe tomorrow.

Snow!

Birthday for A Lovely Lady

We weren't quite sure what we were going to do for Cheryl's birthday this year, but we had a few ideas we were tossing around. One of them - going to Greenfield Village over near Detroit - didn't pan out because the place is only open in the evenings at this time of year, and while they do have this quaint little dinner event with historically accurate foods from various eras, the price for a family of six was prohibitively expensive (i.e. $60/person).

So we opted to first spend some serious time puzzling over some puzzles we received from some dear friends. Ten puzzles of varying sizes packed into a huge box.

So far, we've solved four of them! Go team!

Cheryl has always enjoyed venturing up to Meijer Garden to see the artwork, and at this time of year, they have an exhibit of "Christmas Trees from Around the World", so we went up to see that in the afternoon. It was a wonderfully warm (45°) day, so we were able to walk around the gardens outside and enjoy the fresh air. Then we wandered around the building and saw all the Christmas trees, which were amazing. And we also saw the train set that they put out every year to honor the "Polar Express" book / movie / whatever.

Since we'd spent the past two days cooking up all kinds of delicious food, we had a wonderful "leftover" dinner, and then watched "The Bishop's Wife" with Cary Grant and Loretta Young.

Christmas Day 2011

On Christmas Day, before we went to the Christmas service at church, we had a marvelous breakfast!

Afterward, when we had returned and eaten lunch, we sat around and worked on puzzles from a huge puzzle gift set we'd received from a dear family.

Ah, what a relaxing day!

Christmas Eve is Here, and We're Still Cooking!

And I'm still working on my Christmas cards.

Can you tell I'm not a card-writer? Nor a letter-writer? Well, at least not by hand. I've done most of my writing on the keyboard since about 1981, when I got my first typewriter (for graduation), and never turned back. Even now, if I try to write a letter, a simple one-page missive, my hand cramps up something awful and my fingers go on strike.

We have quite a long list of goodies to bake today. Pies, cakes, cookies, etc. I don't have any idea who is going to eat it all. Certainly not us! We're going to give it away, mostly, to anyone we find wandering around the streets looking hungry. Or hesitant. Or bored. We consider it our duty to stuff the gills of anyone we find, simply for the joy of seeing their insulin spike off the charts. What fun!

Naturally, we'll ask to make sure they're not diabetic first.

Meanwhile, there is a Christmas Eve service tonight, and then a Christmas Day service tomorrow, and I haven't gotten a single thing accomplished on my housework list. (This is the list that encompasses the numerous activities involved with finishing the basement.) Just been sitting around doing stuff with the family. And watching movies. And eating chocolate-covered peanut butter balls. Which are very yummy. But highly fattening.

Oh, there was also the struggle to help a Boy Scout get through his merit badges before he ages out on Christmas Day. He's trying to get to Eagle beforehand, and just needed 3 more badges to complete. So the past week has been interspersed with various Eagle-related activities. Building shelves in the church. Finishing Personal Management, Physical Fitness, and Family Life badges. Which all have 90-day requirements (i.e. the Scout has to log 90 days of specific activities). These are not good requirements to leave to the last minute! Ask Brason or Mahlon; they know!

Well, back to my card-writing.

Anyone got a spare hand I can borrow?

Ready or Not, Here it Comes

Christmas, I mean.

It's almost Christmas. Or Christmas Eve, whichever comes first.

The pies are baking in the oven, the cookies are resting quietly in the tupperware, the eggnog supply is rapidly being depleted by James, and we're going to watch part 1 of "Return of the King" tonight. (We've been watching Lord of the Rings all week long, 2 hours per night.)

Tomorrow night, we'll go to the Christmas Eve service; then, Sunday morning, we'll have a big Christmas brunch and go to the Christmas Day service. Then we'll hang out all afternoon trying to finish off all the food we've cooked up.

We're sure to gain at least ten pounds by Monday!

Well

It's been nearly a week since I've been able to think straight. Some kind of stupid virus or something had me unable to breathe through my nose, unable to think through the pain. Naturally, it wiped me out the first few days of my vacation. Hard to catch up on things when my mind and body have been out of commission for so long.

A few things got done around here, but I'll get to that in a while. For now, I'm going to stop and think about putting together some kind of annual letter which will be sent out to the people who haven't dropped off the radar completely. Most seem to have abandoned letter-writing altogether, relying on Facebook to maintain their contacts. Not that I can complain about that; I'm the worst letter-writer in the Universe. Will there suddenly be more time for such things once the kids have grown up and left home? No, there'll just be more people to write to.

Music & Cookies

Adam read "Heart of Darkness" in his English class, and was assigned to do a project based on the book, some kind of artistic venture; or, as his teacher entitled it, "Art of Darkness". Ha ha. Francis Ford Coppola did his project based on the book and called it, "Apocalypse Now". Adam called his "The Ambush".

It's actually a musical score written as a theme for a particular scene. For those of you who remember the book, or have a copy handy, turn to the part where Marlow and his crew are going upstream after encountering the dense fog and are suddenly attacked by natives. Adam's theme follows the steamboat as the attack begins, the helmsman is killed, and then the natives withdraw.

He wrote an explanation of the theme to go along with the musical score, and made a CD for his teacher (with some help from his mother).

After all that work, he and Cheryl made a huge pile of cookies for him to take to school tomorrow.

Don't you love the last few days before Christmas break? All the projects due, all the snacks showing up. Extra stress and extra sugar, all rolled into one.

Christmas Madrigal

We've been looking forward to this event for a very long time. As the description says,

"Imagine for one evening that you could be transported back to a 16th-century English castle, where you could hear a cappella Christmas carols sung by lords and ladies, and you could get caught up in the mischief-making of the court jester, all while enjoying a 3-course meal served by friendly peasants.

"Every year, Great Lakes Christian College hosts a Madrigal Dinner and Concert series at Central United Methodist Church, in downtown Lansing.

"We anticipate that the atmosphere, great food, lively drama, and concert will be a fun, unforgettable evening, both time and money well-spent!

"This year, begin the Christmas season in a unique, unforgettable way!"

We went last year and it was simply wonderful. Good food, good entertainment, a magical evening of drama and music and celebration. This year, we decided to bring the kids along so they could enjoy it as well.

And they did. Mostly.

But it took them awhile to get into the mood.

They weren't very excited when we were taking pictures prior to leaving the house.


But once we got there, they seemed to get into the spirit of things. I'm not sure if stealing my hat helped.


Or maybe it was wearing cool shades.


Either way, by the time the event was over, we were all in a good mood. Mostly.

Second Snow of Winter

I don't even remember when the first one was, but it was a long time ago. Now we finally got a little more snow - and I do mean a little! In Western Michigan, we usually start getting heavy snows by now, four to six inches or so, depending on how the winds are blowing. A week or so ago, there was a really weird wind which dumped snow right down through the middle of the state (near Lansing) and completely avoided Grand Rapids and Detroit.

It's not that I'm looking forward to shoveling it, but like Charlie Brown's little sister, I just want my fair share!

So we got a little bit last night, just a reminder that winter is upon us. Looks pretty when it first comes down, all white and clean. Then the cars start driving around in it, and things get yucky.

Maybe next time, we'll get more.

Sleeping In

Everyone has a different way of looking at their calendar. I'm generally looking to see if there is anything on the calendar that will take me away from my home, something that interferes with my very strong desire to just stay home and do things around the house. Which is why we have our Family Meeting every Sunday night, to plan out our week so that I will know exactly how many nights I'll get to stay home.

What? You thought the point was to let everyone in the family know what is on the schedule for the week? Ha! Everyone else in the house has an infallible memory (although most of the teen hormones are also an effective memory-wiping chemical which causes them to forget little things like "chores" and "homework" and "we already had family plans for that night" when it occurs to them to do something spontaneous like go out to see a movie with money they don't have, in a car they don't own, with fuel they haven't paid for). I'm the one who can't remember for five minutes that I have an appointment with ... with ... um, which doctor am I supposed to see this week?

Calendars are merely tools, tools which are intended to drive me insane with anxiety over the ridiculous number of things that are scheduled to occur during the week. Every night with something scheduled on it, is a night I can't go out to my garage and play with my power tools. Or down in the basement to work on programming. Or in the living room to work on a short story. Or in the music room to play my guitar.

Tonight was Scouts. I'm the Family Life merit badge counselor. There were only two guys who were supposed to be getting the training tonight, but it ended up that the entire troop came into the library to listen to my "guidance". I'm not sure whether that was due to the fact that my spiel was that interesting, or they just didn't want to hang out with the other adults and listen to deer-hunting stories. But we had a grand time, talking about what families are, and how we support and love one another, how we learn so much from one another, how we learn to work together in order to transfer knowledge and wisdom from one generation to another so that society will benefit and civilization will survive and prosper. We talked about personal projects and family projects and weekly chores and things that could be done during the winter versus things that could be done over the summer.

Afterward, I talked to my Eagle Scout candidate about the things he has left to do - time is rapidly flying, and he has only three weeks to get it all done! - and then it was time to head home and see how the family was doing.

We're starting some new routines this week, owing to some decisions we made over the weekend. Telephone service and internet for sub-adults is going to cease after 10 o'clock at night; hopefully, that will prevent anyone from having difficulty getting to sleep owing to the huge distractions of remote communications. We adults are still struggling with that concept, but it's going to have to be for us as well, since we've noticed that the internet is a huge time drain late at night, and we really need to be getting to bed on time. I'm hoping it means that we can start getting up on time, too, because I experienced a rather slow start this morning.

It was terribly difficult to get out of bed, and it wasn't because the bed was nice and warm and the room air was cold, or because there was nothing to look forward to at work. No, the problem was that I was exhausted, and just couldn't get moving.

This sleeping in has to stop.

Closing Matinee

It seems rather odd to have a Saturday matinee as the final performance of a play, but perhaps that's the way it is for Middle School musicals. Certainly, none of the Middle School / Junior High musicals I'd ever seen were quite as sophisticated as this one, so it is probably to be expected that the schedule of performances would be non-standard as well.

The only real complaint about the scheduling of this performance is the same complaint I'd have for any middle-of-the-day event for a Saturday: it kills off the whole day. I can't really accomplish anything else, because during the morning, I'm preparing for the event, and afterward, I'm recovering from the event. So, there goes another Saturday!

Having a few hours beforehand did provide me the opportunity to clean up the shop area. I'd left it in a huge mess Friday afternoon as we were in a rush to get to the performance, so there was sawdust and board scraps and tools scattered thither and yon all over the place. Took me quite a while to put everything back in its place. Then there was just enough time to grab a quick lunch before heading off to the school.

As a villager, a non-principal part, Mary didn't have to do microphone checks or extensive makeup or complex costuming, so we didn't have to be there extremely early. As you can see from the picture below, she had a simple costume. The kerchief gave me the impression that she was a Russian peasant, probably because I've seen far more photographs of Russian women wearing them than French, but it's still valid for the period. And she looked great onstage.
Here she is standing in front of the cart.

The afternoon performance didn't start off well. The principal actress, playing Belle, had been struggling with a sore throat all week, so it really wasn't a surprise when, after only a few notes into the first song, her voice cracked and she had to switch it down an octave. Caught me by surprise, though, because she'd been doing so well all week long. From backstage, it sounded as though she'd suddenly switched to an alto harmony part instead of the melody, but people who were out in the audience assured me that it was simply an octave switch.

Then there were some unexpected hitches with some set pieces catching on curtains and floors and things. A few rushed lines, a few missed blockings, one or two places where a singer couldn't find the pitch or the beat, or rushed ahead of the music a bar or two. The wood-chopping "invention" worked great. The fog machine (for the Beast-to-Human transformation) still didn't work right: the fog missed its cue, so there was a huge cloud of fog swirling around the floor after the Beast had turned human. I don't think that trick ever worked right except once during rehearsal.

The cart looked great.

It was a bit of a relief and a downer when the curtain finally went down and we were all done. Putting on musicals can be such a stressful time, but when it's all over, you just can't wait til the next one starts up. Unfortunately, there isn't another Middle School play for a year or so.

Meanwhile, there was a set to strike, and the kids got to work with a vengeance, tearing the flats apart with hammers and screwdrivers, pulling the styrofoam arches apart, sweeping up the mess of debris that was scattered all over the stage. It took us the better part of an hour and a half to get it all done, then it was time for the cast party.

The parents in charge of the food had done a marvelous job preparing the cast party. There was pizza and vegetable trays and fruit trays and chili cheese dip and crackers and chips and crab puffs and stuffed mushrooms and cupcakes and fudge marshmallows and cookies and -- did I mention pizza? There was far more food than could possibly be eaten by the cast and crew, but they gave it their best. Mary and I didn't stay til the end because she was tired and I was tired and we wanted to get home and relax for awhile, so we did.

Now only two more weeks of school & work, and then we're off for a while!

Opening Night

It was a scramble, mad-dash, race for the moon kind of day.

The first performance was at nine o'clock in the morning. An auditorium full of elementary school kids, all with ADHD, were the first recipients of the talents of the middle school dramatic personae. And they loved it! But what's not to love? One of their favorite stories from childhood come to life, onstage, with music and lights and special effects and "Big Kids" playing the roles they've only seen on the television.

The Company did very well. Most of the lines were remembered, most of the songs went off well, most of the stage survived. I was mortified that the cart wasn't completed yet: some of the side panels weren't painted yet; there was duct tape covering some gaps; the wheels weren't painted yet. But "Chip" didn't complain, and the show went on.

Mary was obviously having a great time. I'm not sure yet if a serious drama bug has bitten her yet, but she seemed to relish the life backstage. (Those of you who have been behind the stage know what I'm talking about.) The tension, the chatter, the gossip, the whispers from the crew to "Hush!" She looked so cute in her villager outfit, makeup done just right, standing at the edge of the stage and waiting for her cue.

As soon as the presentation was done, I grabbed the cart and took it outside to where Cheryl was waiting with the van. We loaded it up and she drove it home while I went back to work. After lunch, I went home and together, we worked on completing it. She did the (marvelous) painting job, and I finished the wheels and filled in the gaps and tweaked a few things here and there.

We took it back to the school after dinner, around five-thirty, where I had to finish one final task - painting the wheels gold - and then it was finally ready to go.

The show started promptly at sometime after seven o'clock. The auditorium had a few people in it - probably around a hundred, mostly parents - but they were ready for it. (Thursday nights are traditionally a Dress Rehearsal night because no one in their right minds goes "out" to a show on a Thursday night, but apparently things have changed over the years, and this was actually considered a regular show.)

It didn't go as well as before, and mostly that was due to the fact that the kids had already done it earlier in the day, and their voices were tired. And they'd been in school in the meantime, so there was some regular tiredness as well. And there were several tech things that didn't work: the fog machine, the microphones, the automatic wood chopper thingie.

The biggest thing that went wrong was the scene where Gaston and Lefou and one other henchman stroll across the stage on their way to the castle. Gaston and the henchman didn't show up. It seems they were playing around back in the dressing room (or locker room) and weren't paying attention, and they were supposed to be out on stage, and they totally missed their cue. A third actor, who was really the main instigator, was there as well. So Lefou walked across the stage by himself, got to the end without saying a word, shrugged his shoulders, and exited.

I'm sure the audience was confused.

After the show, after final bows and curtain calls and all that had been done, the director took the three boys aside and told two of them that they were in "major trouble", and told the third that he was out of the show, not to return ever again. (He had been messing around quite a bit throughout the whole production.)

First time I've ever seen an actor removed on Opening Night.

[Some of the aficionados of the show might've noticed as well that the Wardrobe lady was missing. She apparently stopped showing up for rehearsals a few days ago and so was dropped as well. Must be a Middle School thing. Mrs. Potts has had to improvise some cover lines for that situation, but she's done well.]

After that unpleasantness, the kids all went down front of the auditorium and were congratulated by their parents and other well-wishers. Then the kids went back and changed into normal clothes and we all departed for home.

Well, almost. Actually, Mary and I departed for Wendy's, where we got Frosty shakes to celebrate, and then we went home. After all, an actor deserves her due!

Tomorrow night's production should be very interesting.