Wee tree dings

Of orient are...

Anyway, I started to watch The West Wing on Netflix last night and I couldn't stop. I watched three episodes and could have watched three more without a hesitation. A glance at the time stopped me, though, since I had to be at the Smith at 9 in the morning to check in with the workers. What a fun show - good writing, good stories. I had forgotten most of what I had seen - if I had ever seen it before. I know I saw the pilot. And some of the rest of the next four seasons (I stopped watching after Aaron Sorkin left) So, if I don't post a blog, I am going to blame it on The West Wing!

For dinner, I got Arby's food last night. I was, yet again, aghast at how much a fast food dinner for two adults of decent appetite costs! Glarg, even! And it was ok. We had two sandwiches, onion rings, curly fries, a soda and two chocolate lave cakes. Honestly, my primary reason for choosing Arby's this time was because of the cakes. Sadly, they were not totally awesomely delicious. They were good, just not great. Curly fries with Horsey Sauce, well, those are another magnitude of yum. Not worth going there all the time for, though.

Sometimes I leap to the most negative conclusion I can imagine. Case in point. Last night, I went to fill a Brita pitcher. The sink was, sadly, a tad full, so I tried to cram the inflexible pitcher under the spigot  in several different ways to no avail. Finally, I removed some of the dishes in the sink and put the pitcher in - only to find that no water came out of the tap! Eeek! The water in the house is broken! Maybe a water main is being repaired. Maybe a pipe in the house is broken and water is gushing into the basement! How much will that cost to fix? Who is going to come fix it at 1 in the morning? Where is the water turn off? Where would I look for a leak? What will mom do for water for washing up and flushing and things? Listen for sounds of running water, nothing...Upstairs, the water worked fine. Hmm. Back downstairs, kitchen sink faucet still not producing water. Now wait a sec, there is a filter thingamabob on the faucet - that hasn't been used as an active filter since 1984 and there is a little slidy switch thing that just might...yup, that did it. Flowing water. I hope no one was looking or listening to my thoughts. Phew, even.

4 showings in three days

Wow, it seems like I have been living at The Smith. Four showings of Blue Jasmine in three days. Joy and rapture. It has gone pretty smoothly and we have had a decent turnout. Not a great turnout, but decent. There was a sound issue, which I think I have managed to make enough better for the time being that we won't have anyone else walking out. That would be good. And maybe we can get more people in. That would be even gooder. Mom hated the movie. I am not surprised. It flips back and forth in time and that can't be easy to understand for someone whose time sense is already not so hot. I liked it, but find that most Woody Allen movies lately are not all that great.

I am having fun playing with the slide show that we have instituted at The Smith. Garrett, our current ITish sort of guy, started it and I have been tweaking it. It will be a good tool to let people know what is coming up at the Smith. Played before movies, and perhaps other events, we might even be able to charge for advertising space. That would be nifty. And I am learning more about Powerpoint. That is just the most exciting bit.

I hope to get to a place where I only have to be at the Smith 10-20 hours or so a week most weeks. That would be nifty. We shall see. I feel like I am neglecting mom. Boo.

Ok, time to shut off the projector and head home! Happy Sunday!

Finished TOS

Recently, I watched the last episode of Star Trek (The Original Series). I am glad I sat through them all. Good stuff, and so ahead of its time. I still love Spock best. Watching them all again, uncut and cleaned up, was good fun! And it certainly was revealing. Now, though, I don't know what to do. Start Next Generation? Or should I watch something else for a while. West Wing sort of appeals. Any advice or suggestions will be entertained. I am watching on Netflix, so please suggest things from there.

Still puttering at the Smith.  Mostly I spent an hour setting the space up for a film - rolling out speakers, bringing in the screen, making sure the borders and the legs masked the screen well. I also did some neatening of the area in front of the stage. And worked on the slide show. Sadly, the slide show was not the right shape. I tried to adjust the size using the proprietary software that we use - to no avail. The tech support people suggested I resize the document in Powerpoint instead of using their scaling tool. Which I have done. Yay!

Yesterday we also had a great Smith Buildings and Grounds meeting. I am very excited about the work that is being done there. Yay! I also got to show Blue Jasmine for the first time. One down, three to go. I didn't watch the whole thing - I got too antsy. I will probably watch the whole thing on Sunday at 2 when mom is in the audience.

Michael J. Fox is my age

Just sayin'! Anyway, I watched his new sitcom on TV last night and it made me sad for some reason. He was fine, the characters and set-up are fine. It just made me sad. And I don't think I will watch it again. Partly because it made me sad. Largely because it is on network tv and I can't stand sitting through the commercials. I mean they really make my skin crawl. I must admit, having an iPad handy does make them a bit more palatable. But still, I would rather not be inundated with them if I don''t have to be.

I went to the Farmer's market yesterday. The pickings were kinda slim. It looked like a third of the vendors weren't there. I think next week is the last week for this particular market. Eeek! Anyway, I looked at several booths and then decided to spend all of my hard earned, hmm, not so hard earned coupon dollars at one. I bought: small seedless grapes - yum city!! - leeks - haven't figured out what to do with them - a cool sweet red/orange banana pepper - some beets - for dinner on Saturday night - some kale - out of which I made baked kale chips that were ok - I need to make them into smaller pieces for mom next time - and five ears of corn which I steamed last night - mom ate two of them! Go her! I am glad, in some ways, that she still has her appetite. And sometimes a sense of humor. Yippee!

We also watched a collection of short Pixar films. I thought they were enjoyable overall - even though I had seen most of them before. I am not sure whether or not mom liked them. I think she did. Mom used to own Pixar stock which became Disney stock which she sold. She used to be a big fan of Pixar but has forgotten all of that. Sigh. 

I didn't spend much time at the Smith yesterday. Yippee! And the fire curtain installation is proceeding on the schedule that was last presented to us. Two crews helps a lot! Speaking of the Smith - I get to show Blue Jasmine a few times this weekend. Huzzuh!

I looked into getting tickets to Matilda. There were $50+ of service charges for buying two tickets! Oh my god, no! I have to figure out some other way to get tickets. Maybe Erich would buy them for us and then we could pay him back. Or something. $50 is parking in NY or a lot of other things. Service charges my butt! $2 a ticket - maybe. Even that is stupid. Why are there service charges? What services are they providing? Glarg!

There are good things about being up early

Aren't there? I am sure there are. Hmm, more hours in the day? No, not really. I mean if I am awake for 17 hours, does it matter which seventeen? I think not. Well, I will keep pondering And since I am up early, I will ponder now! I will ponder ponderously!

Ok, pondering done. Well, napping at least. Anyway, I went in to the Smith this morning and had a brief meeting with a member of the Buildings and Grounds committee. It was very informative for me. I hope it was for him. Week Two of the Fire Curtain - or is it three now - is winding to a close. I am looking forward to seeing what progress they made today. They seemed a bit surprised that I needed to have the theatre ready for a film on Friday, though I had mentioned to it several times.

This morning was recycling day! I haven't done much sorting lately, and the big pile in the dining room is gone - mom hasn't noticed that I can tell. So I wasn't sure what to put in there. I do have a cache of boxes behind the yellow sofa in the living room. I grabbed one, opened it and sorted it really quickly - the boxes there are mostly sorted already. I was saving stuff in case mom wanted it. Mom won't want it. So I recycled almost the whole thing. Yay!

Zoom, zip, pow!

I did in fact get the papers on my desklet sorted and the major bills paid. Yay! I count yesterday as a success. Well, most days I count as successes as I have survived them. That is a good thing, right? Other than that, not a lot of note occurred.

Dinner was totally left overs. And a salad. Does salad count as a leftover? Or does only leftover salad count as a salad? I mean the lettuce and the ingredients have all been in the fridge for a while. The carrots and celery last a long time bathing in water as they do. The mushrooms last longer in the fridge in a bag than they were lasting out of the fridge. Anyway, mom had left over taco stuff, I had left over fajita stuff. Everyone seemed happy.

Since it is so late in the day, I am going to touch on what is happening. I am at the Smith and work is progressing on many fronts. I am getting thing accomplished. Our volunteer is nearing completion of his first major project - getting some lighting storage built. The riggers are doing their fire curtain thing. All is swell with the Smith world. Yay!

Sorry for the thin and boring post. Maybe life will become more exciting later in the week. Here's hoping!

Sunday Post

I think I have arthritis. Eeeek! I am only 52! And a bit of a hypochondriac. Though despite my constantly thinking I have some sort of disease, I rarely go to the doctor. Maybe if the Affordable Care Act actually starts up, I might afford to have health insurance and might actually be able to go to a doctor. Anything is possible. I still think that the rich people ought to pay for health care for all of us not so rich people. We are, after all, just here to serve them, like servants or slaves even. And if they want a continuation of that then they need us to be healthy. Just sayin'! Anyway, my right toes seem to be sending pain signals when I am walking. It might be my shoes, but they are wide toed Birkenstocks so I think that is doubtful.

Tracking the audio books with my perpetual calendar continues to challenge my creativity. The current book has about 11 sections per cd. I often stop part way through a section. So I use the month as the minute marker and forget about the seconds. A running start is often good in any case to get me back in sync with the story. This particular book is about the 60s and corruption. Not my typical sort of book, but it has been enjoyable so far.

I did head into the Smith yesterday to give someone a refresher on using the digital projector and sound system. He only needed a quick lesson. We then had a good chat and wander through the space talking about what there was, what could be better and what will never improve. Good stuff.

Guess who neatened his room!?!

That's right, this guy. Phase one is complete. I got my room back to a semblance of neatness. Most of the mess was clothing. So it wasn't that hard to clean up. We did laundry yesterday - mom read a book, had a snickers bar and a bottle of water out of the vending machines and watched me put clothes in machines and take them out again. She is, as I type, working away at folding some of the clothes. Go mom!

Sorry for the digression - where was I when I so rudely interrupted myself - oh, right, a neatened room. I wouldn't say clean because, well, it could do with a bit of vacuuming. That isn't going to happen anytime soon. Later today or tomorrow, though, the plan is to clean up my desk like thing - tomorrow - bill paying. Baby steps.

We also went to the library. Mom didn't really know why she wanted to go. Then she decided it was for Gideon books - they were all out of the library. And a book that she saw on the back of the New Yorker - which has four people requesting it before us. Yippee. I am thinking a few months before she will get to have it in her hands. We took out two Rumpole of the Bailey books but she found the one she tried to read not to her liking. Back they will go! I got out two audio books that I picked randomly from the shelves. I hope they are ok. 

Oh, huge-ish news! The pile of newspapers and other things in the corner of the dining room is completely gone. All that remains are some National Geographics which I have a hard time getting rid of for some reason. But they will be moving soon. I think the last time that corner was empty was 2009. Yay!

I did spend some time at the Smith yesterday, despite wanting to have a full week day away from the place. I did neaten a little there as well. And decided I would like some cross bracing on the light storage unit that Bruce built. It wobbles side to side a little too much for my comfort. I don't think that will present a problem. Not looking forward to working on that project on Monday. Poo even.

I ordered a set of Marx Brothers movies for mom. We shall see if she likes them as much as the Fred Astaire movies. I doubt she will. But at least we will have them for a rainy day. Speaking of which, I think a lot of the Northeast is getting rain today. Yay! And the trees are starting to tunr colors and shed leaves. Before we know it, snow! Erich, one of my nephews, loves winter. Me, I can take it or leave it. I have read somewhere that it is supposed to be a very cold winter. Brrr.

Blogger McBloggerson

That name just kept running through my mind, for some reason...

Watched Despicable Me last night. I had gotten it from Netflix in the hopes that mom would enjoy it. She didn't. Well, poo. So much for being able to figure out what mom likes. I decided to watch it myself. I know that we saw it in the movie theatre. Or that I saw it in the movie theatre. (Having to keep memories for two people in my head isn't always easy...) I know I enjoyed it when I saw it. But I remembered almost none of the movie when I watched it last night. A few things here and there, but mostly it was new again. And not as good as I had believed. Enjoyable and fun, but not great.

Yesterday was kinda tough at the Smith. Kate and I cleaned out all the areas I wanted to clean. I don't think we let go of much, but we did neaten at least four areas. Yay us. We lugged a lot! I think there is only one more area that is high on my list for going through. Next up - actually working on the light plot. I would like to free up some circuits and hopefully will get that settled to my satisfaction.

Ok, off to do laundry! And the library! Yay!

I must admit...

I must admit to being a little stressed out. All this getting up early every day is for the birds! I cannot wait to get back to a more relaxed schedule with the occasional early call. Glarp. And mom is getting on my last nerve and I don't really have any recourse there. True, Juliet has offered a respite in November, which will be very welcome - we just need to figure out the details. I need to figure out what the schedule it at the Smith. I doubt we will do anything that weekend - unless the Nutcracker is coming up around then. Nope, not on the schedule yet. I will check with Kelly. Eventually.

Meanwhile, stuff progresses at The Smith. The riggers are still working on installing the new fire curtain. The electrician popped in and did a little work today and now says that he doesn't know when he will be able to get back to do his bit for the curtain. Sigh. Bruce our volunteer carpenter is working on building storage thing for some lights. And the HVAC people are apparently coming in to finish up the work they started back in June! Yippee!

The other day I watched a video of a recording session of a song done by the Capital Children's Choir from London, England. Good stuff - catch them if you can!

I went out on Tuesday and had a mostly boring evening. I went to Canandaigua to have some wings. They weren't really buffalo style - I will have to see what they have on their list. These were just hot. Not bad, but not awesome either. And it was pretty dead there. Sigh. I guess I will go to Red Dove next Tuesday.

Went to Parker's last night and had a lovely time with Bill, the technical and design person at Hobart. We had drinks and chatted about all sorts of things. It was nice to have a chat with an adult. We might actually do sushi next time!

Ok, too exhausted and, yes, a little stressed out to write more. Though writing this has helped a teeny bit! Yay for public therapy!

Underwhelmed

I was excited to hear what Apple was going to announce and underwhelmed when I read about what will be coming out. Hopefully they will do better soon. Anything is possible and hope springs eternal.

Speaking of underwhelmed, my home work ethic is underwhelming me just now. My room is habitable - just. No sorting is getting done. In fact, nothing much is getting done. Bills are being paid, mostly on time, dishes are getting washed and food is being prepared. Mom is being taken care of, for the most part. Just nothing above and beyond that is being accomplished. Yes, I am doing more work at the Smith and that is taking some mental and emotional time and energy. Still, I feel like I am slacking! Yay!

I think I need to make a list:
Establish World Peace
Create limitless free energy source available to all
Save the Environment
Eradicate Hunger
Eliminate Disease

That should about do it. I think that is all in a day's work.

Actually my list looks more like:
Clean Room
Sort one box
Pay Bills
Do Laundry
Do paperwork

Oh, I might add do daily blog to that second list. Or the first.

Last night I watched Your Highness. The vulgar humor was not my cup of tea, but despite that, I enjoyed the movie a lot. I like fantasy. I like satire. I love Natalie Portman. Win, win, win!

Worrying vs. Planning

Most worrying and most planning are equally fruitless. Though it seems that planning is a little less so. And sometimes, planning can help you be prepared for when things take a left turn when a right was expected. For instance, I am going to borrow some light trees from HWS for a ballet in October. And I was going to store them until HWS did a dance performance the next month. Figuring out where and how to store them was taking up some grey matter but I did come up with a couple places and a few questions about space at the Smith. Yay! Then I get a message saying that HWS will need them back after all. So, see, worrying and planning...

Mom is still surprising me. I keep waiting for the next shoe to drop and thankfully it hasn't. Yay! Yesterday she even asked to go to the library! And to New York to see a show! She hasn't asked to do anything like that in a long while. Maybe the heat was debilitating. I don't know. But it is pretty ok by me! She would like tickets to Matilda for Christmas. We will see if we can make that happen. And I hope to get us to the library on Monday or Tuesday.

Things keep percolating along at The Smith. The work has begun to install the new fire curtain. Yay! I didn't realize that they were going to rip the old smoke pockets off and install new ones. Fun, fun, fun! I am hoping that Kate and I will be able to do some more work next Thursday. That would be good. It is our last full week of being closed for a long while. And I can think of six projects right off the top of my head that I would like to get accomplished. The tech cemetery needs neatening - again. The stage right corner under the apron needs cleaning out. The orchestra pit under the apron needs cleaning out. Two closets stage right need cleaning. And a storage space near the dressing rooms needs cleaning out. Yay cleaning other places that aren't my house!

I think I have come to a small realization. It isn't that I am a saver. I am just not good at letting things go. I think they are different mindsets. Similar, but not the same.

Extra Random Thoughts

There are some things for which is it better to have too much (or too many) than to have too little (or too few). High on this list, for my mom especially, is toilet paper. Another I guess is money (which is a lot like toilet paper). But this isn't really about the list of things, rather than being about the toilet paper. I went shopping yesterday with only a mental list of what was wanted and what was needed. The needed list was short - a vegetable for dinner - I went for spinach. Wanted - not much at all, so I just wandered through the store. I picked up a yam, some cookies and a huge thing of toilet paper, because mom really does go through it like it grows on trees. (Yes, I know, trees, paper...) As I was taking stuff out of the car I remembered that I still had a good bunch of toilet paper in the paper closet - not a closet made of paper, but the closet in which the paper products reside (along with other residues, or is that residents?).

Now that the drip is gone from the bathroom faucet, I don't have easily and pre-filled watering containers. So the plants are getting a little parched. Then, one day, I was getting mom some water from the refrigerated brita pitcher and I realized that I had water in her glass! In the past I have put it in the top of the pitcher. But from that time forward, I use that little bit of water in a plant! Yay! Win win!

As some of you recall, no doubt, I listen to audio books. And when I do, I turn off the CD player and thus lose my place. Some CDs have few divisions - either they divide only by chapter or by some random method - but most of them have less than 31 divisions. There is one company, though, at least, that breaks each CD up into 99 pieces! Eeek! How on earth is a calendar supposed to accommodate the number 99? Then I had one of those epiphany-lets: Months have numbers associated with them - who doesn't know that April is 4. So, I use the day of the week - 0-9 for the tens place and the month for the ones place! It has worked so far! Yippee!

Get video replay out of golf! Really. Seriously. Tiger is the most video taped player of any player out there. So there is much more video of him than anyone else. From a bazillion angles. Golf has always been a gentleman's sport, hasn't it? And honestly, who hasn't fudged a shot here or there (especially on mini-golf when the damn ball just won't go in the hole and who wants to write down 27 as the number of shots, so you just put down par...). The latest Tiger incident is his ball moved when he moved a twig and he didn't see it move. Or if he did he thought it was so little that no one who wasn't standing right on top of it could see it move. And it wasn't like it moved enough to make any difference at all. But some video guy was editing his extreme closeup of the ball and it moved miles in the frame - the equivalent of 2 millimeters. But most anyone else wouldn't have had that shot on tape. Why penalize Tiger for being scrutinized? Sigh.

And there is it, a thought filled and thought provoking post. See, they happen!

Maybe you noticed?

I took yesterday off from the arduous schedule I have given myself in regards to blogging. It wasn't that there wasn't time. There is always time - weird, but most days have just as much time in them as every other day. Anyway, it wasn't a lack of time, it was a lack of mental energy and physical time combined. You all may not realize this, but it takes a decent amount of mental energy to even come up with a boring, nothing filled post. Just think how much a pithy, interesting post takes! The mind boggles (which is a fun game, by the way...)!! So yesterday, since I did work at The Smith a good bit, I just didn't do much in the way of anything blog related.

Speaking of working at the Smith - Kate and I got a lot done! All of the lighting instruments that we can find are now stored in one place. Yay! We tested a lot of instruments and found many that work - some that could easily be repaired and a few that probably could be junked. We emptied out of most of the area under the apron and discovered a bunch of random things under there. Some of which will go away. Some of which was redistributed. We have stored the lighting cable under there for now. We still have two areas under there to go through and that will be one more area touched. Yay!

We also went through the storage area where the extension cords were. Mostly empty now - except for a few hundred (literally - maybe a ton worth when I think about it and do the math - 50 at 46) pounds worth of stage weights. Wow! I guess we might need them one day if a show comes in and has a lot of heavy stuff to fly. Right. Anything is possible. All in all it was a sweaty and productive Smith Day.

And what happened on Wednesday? I couldn't tell you without a lot of thinking - and my thinking cap is in the wash. Actually, I can't remember where it is - and no, it isn't on my head - I already looked.

Looking forward to sleeping in!

Really, I am. This getting up early is for the birds who like worms. Me, I am a steak and potato sort of bird. Let me rise when my body wants to and all will be right with the world. As it is, I am feeling a bit on the tired side. Ok, a lot on the tired side. I really am looking forward to my nap. Which I will have as soon as I post this. Yippee!

Yesterday was not a learningful day. I did get up early again. Yay. And it looks like I will be up early the next couple of weeks. Sigh. I thought a job in the theatre would be starting later in the day generally. Poo. But I digress. I didn't spend a lot of time at the Smith yesterday. I did, though, spend a lot of time on the computer at home doing Smith things. My Smith mail folder is already bulging at the seams. Yippee?

My friend Jeff asked me what about Middlesex made me say that it was the sort of novel that I would like to write. First, I would say it was balanced in terms of description and dialogue. I didn't think it was too talky or too wordy. There was an economy of language in regards to description that I liked. I also enjoyed the fact that the narration changed between first and omniscient third. Not being much of a refined sort of critic mostly I just liked it - which is what I would like people to say about a novel I wrote.

And that's about all. I made some arsenic laced rice (when did that happen?) with veggies and eggrolls for dinner. Tonight I am making home made chicken nuggets. Mom likes finger foods!

Another Learningful Day

I learned, to my chagrin, that Abscom wanted to start work at 8. Oops. I thought they had said 9. Oh well, better late than never. The Syracuse Scenery people had said between 9 and 9:30 - which is when they arrived. It was an interesting experience to watch the "containment" wall go up. I couldn't really see the work that was being done on the curtain rigging - it was happening on the grid which is out of sight from the house. Heck, it is hard to see from the stage!

Meanwhile, I was keeping myself busy with various Smith related tasks. First, I contacted our film distributors and started getting my ducks in a row there. We normally preview/screen a given film a few days before it is presented to an audience. Originally, David would sit through the whole film to see if there were any problems. Later, he learned that the film could be run without turning the projector on - and then checking the server log to see if there were any errors. Saves wear and tear on the projector and saves someone from having to sit through the film. I also asked them a technical question, to which I have yet to receive a response.

Another mission was to try to nail down the schedule for the rest of the work being done. There are four parties involved and I had to contact them all multiple times. Fun, fun, fun! (I finally managed to do figure it all out today.)

In other news, I decided I wanted to start working on possibly getting our "cloud" machine functional. I didn't know where to start except for the internet. I put in Cloud Machine and found a picture of something that looked like ours. Turns out we have a Brenograph. Yay! Next step, finding out more about the machine. And finding out how difficult it will be to change the carbon arc illumination to something more modern and safe.

All in all a busy day at the Smith. I was busy doing my stuff while the Abscom people were busy doing theirs. By the end of the day, the curtain was completely in the containment unit awaiting dismantling (which happened today - but more on that tomorrow).

Last night, I watched 50/50 which I thoroughly enjoyed. The lead was a little wimpy for my taste, a nice guy, but that is ok - I kind of identified with him. And I love Anna Kendrick. Seth Rogen appeals oddly. I don't know why. It was funny and poignant. Glad I rented it!

Slow Sunday

It was just one of those days. Nothing too exciting transpired. In fact, nothing even barely interesting transpired. I don't think I even perspired. Not a bit. I had intended to neaten up my room - it is in a pitiful condition just now - but I didn't get there. I did, though, do a bit of cleaning in the kitchen! Yay! That was also a little overdue. I also made it trash day - collecting trash from all over the house and putting it out onto the curb for pick-up.

And that was it. How exciting is that? Mom watched a lot of Downton Abbey - it is all new to her. I played and prepared meals. Lunch was standard fare and dinner was left overs.

That's it. That's all. Sigh. Not very exciting stuff. Ho hum. I guess I could think of something pithy to write, but that would take effort. And I am busy-ish at the Smith today. So, um, thanks for stopping by!

Wow, quite a day!

I finally finished listening to Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Interesting, entertaining - the kind of novel that I wish I could write. Well, ok, I would hope mine would be a little funnier, since that is how I like to think I roll, but still...It took a lot longer than I thought it was going to - more than three weeks! Eeek! I had a dream, that I read a book (350 pages or so) in a day. Haven't done that in a while. Haven't read an actual book in a long while in fact. Maybe one day it will happen.

I ran a few errands yesterday. Grocery store was grand central station - really busy! I guess Saturdays are normally busy. Lots of staff standing around peddling stuff - a cashier friend was pushing papayas. Ran into Cassie while buying veggies. And they finally had salami in stock. I asked the guy what the issue was - he happened to be standing there stocking things - and he said the distributor was slow. Not really an answer, but I am not sure what I expected. Maybe something about there not being as much supply as their used to be as people moved away from things like salami in their attempts to eat more healthfully. Hmm. Speaking of shopping, though, I need to go again soon and get more nose tissue. Someday, I might actually pay attention to how long it takes mom to go through ten boxes of tissue. I hope it is more than 10 days!

After the grocery store, I stopped and got gas in the car. I haven't had to do that in a while - I don't really drive that much. I got my gas at Kwik Fill - they proudly proclaim that they only sell gas from crude that is from North America. Go them! Last stop, Rite Aid to get some pills for mom. I miss my favorite pharmacist. The one who was there didn't even look up or smile the whole time I was there. Remind me not to go when she is there again, please. 

Our lunch was one of mom's favorites. Or at least I thought it was. Junior bacon cheeseburgers from Wendy's. Turns out that mom thought the hamburger tasted weird and that the fries were limp (they are Wendy's fries and are never particularly crispy). Oh well. Our mass produced food is done for a while. Back to Augustus made food for the next week or so. Yippee!

We watched a movie together last night - The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer - starring Cary Grant,  Myrna Loy and an older Shirley Temple. Madcap comedy ensues. Fun and worth watching. At least in my estimation. I don't know if mom enjoyed it as much as I did, but I think she liked it ok.

Early to wake...

I am not a fan of early morning meetings. Not the schedule to which I currently adhere. I normally rise around 9 - sometimes later - so am easily ready for a meeting that starts at 10. Unfortunately, not everyone is on that schedule. They are early risers - five and six in the morning are not unheard of times for them. So a meeting at 8:30 seems like getting off to a late start for them! Eeek! I managed to get to my 8:30 meeting a few minutes early - yes, even for early meetings I like to be early. The third of our triumvirate arrived soon after - the first was there waiting. The meeting was about the HVAC system at the Smith.

The person representing the controls company seemed young - but that was only to be expected when it turned out that there was a lot of control scripting that happened under the hood of the controls application. Who knew? Apparently this guy did. After listening to our woes, he opened up some files and found the major culprit - one piece of logic had been mis-written - making it so that no matter what we did after we turned the system on, it would try to cool down the space to the unoccupied coolness setting - a not-so-balmy 55 degrees! Eeek! No wonder it never turned off!!

After the technician made such quick work of figuring out that problem, my fears were assuaged about the system. We spent the next couple of hours tweaking things and learning some of the ins and outs of the program. All in all a well spent few hours, I believe. Yay, even!

Unfortunately, it made Augustus a tired puppy. I dragged myself home and made lunch for mom - note to self (and anyone who reads this) - mom does not love left over quiche. The supermarket has been out of salami the last two times I was there. Poo. If they are out the next time, I will check at Tops. Glarp. In fact, I plan to head to the supermarket today before lunch and resupply with salami for mom's lunches.

After lunch, I napped for a bit to try to regain my customary alterness. It worked to a teeny degree - at which point I started working on my blog - hence the lateness of the post yesterday. I also started thinking about dinner. I thought, heck, I will do the normal Friday dinner - salmon for mom and pizza for me - but I couldn't face making pizza and the salmon hadn't been thawed - so I came up with the idea of ordering pizza! Yay! Except that mom informed me that she didn't like pizza. Sigh. I got pizza anyway - and some chicken wings - mom mostly ate most of the chicken wings. I now have pizza for meals for the next couple of days! Yippee! Everyone, mostly, was happy with the dinner.

Late post full of Wonders!

Sorry, it was an early morning for me - more on that tomorrow. But why don't people realize that I can do more if I am awake than when I am still half asleep. Hmm...
Here is a thought that I keep having and wanted to share: Racism (here on Earth) (and maybe bigotry, though I think that one is tougher) might only end when we find actual aliens from another planet and realize that we all here have a lot more in common than we do with them...

I finally broke down and bought honest to goodness Bandaid brand bandages. The others just don't seem to work as well for some reason. And mom needs and deserves bandages that work! Yay!

Work at the Smith continues. Kate and I spent four hours there yesterday working out more of what is where and how things have been cludged together. I think I have a handle on what is working, what is not, what is where and why - for the most part. We discovered two more instruments that have burned out lamps. We got the remote control for the lighting board figured out again. We got a couple of instruments relamped. Tested 30 instruments and found some working ones - stored the bulk of the lighting instruments in a space that isn't used very frequently, and cleaned up the stage in preparation for the removal of the fire curtain. Yippee! Long day - lots of exercise and lots of accomplishment. I like it like that.

Mom and I watched Oz the Great and Powerful last night. Overall I liked it. Sadly, I didn't love it. Mom, despite it not being anything she really understood, liked bits of it. Her phrase that she uttered several times during the movie was - "I hope little kids don't watch this movie" meaning that it was scary for her (and for kids) in some places. I didn't find it that scary. I didn't like the lead actor at all. Maybe I wasn't supposed to. I didn't like his acting. He actually made me cringe a little. I also thought Mila Kunis was did decently until she turned green (yes that was a spoiler). All in all, decent, not great. I did add Mary Poppins and The Lone Ranger (when it is released on DVD) to my Netflix cue.

Learned a butt load!

What an odd phrase - "butt load." I use that and variations on that a good bit now and again. And yesterday I was schooled (in a good way). I had a meeting with the two main parties going to do some work at The Smith next week. I am glad that they were able to meet face to face as a realization was had - each thought the other was responsible for an important part of the task! Eeeek! I think it all got resolved to everyone's satisfaction and the work will still take place early next week. Yippee!

That wasn't what I learned. Sure I learned some stuff during that conversation, but the important stuff happened after the communication snafu was discovered. I learned a) how to put on the harness for going up on the grid, something I plan to do at some point in the future, b) that what I call electrics, lighting installation people call connector strips and c) that it will be possible to maybe fix at least one of the broken circuits fairly easily. That would be nifty indeed! Yay! I am so excitimacated (thank you George Bush satirizers for that word)!

When did it become difficult to get pictures off of my camera and onto my computer? It used to be so easy - yes, my computer is old and the software is out of date - but still, it should be fairly simple to get the photos into iPhoto still. Shouldn't it? Grrrr. It seems like I have to restart the computer each time I want to upload pictures to the silly application. Poo! Well, at least they are there now. Safely ensconced on my computer, never to see the light of day again...

Just kidding - here are a few pictures:

A not so great picture of the fire curtain that is being replaced

Close up of the corner

Fuzzy front of harness

Fuzzy back of harness

Wow, I have missed having pictures in this blog. No, I am not going to start doing it again - see the above paragraph.

I think Fall is coming. Yippee?

A little of this and some of that

What must it be like to live in Alzheimer's world? Not remembering if you had slept or not. Not knowing what was a current memory and what is a memory from the past. And to be so frequently unsure of what is going on. Eeek! And as caregivers, it is suggested that it is easier to go along to get along. In other words, if the patient (I don't know what else to call mom - mom?) says it is cold - agree - even if it is not. Being right is difficult with an alzheimer's patient for both parties - I know this from experience. The two actual cups of coffee has helped a lot, by the way!

Yesterday, I went into the Smith to meet with a man who is going to help around the place by doing some woodworking and stuff of that ilk. That will be amazing! I would like to have the place a bit better organized! Yay! Very nice man, loads of experience - I haven't seen any of his handy work yet - but am looking forward to it.

Last night was my night out on the town! Woo hoo! Red paint all over the place. Ok, not really. I did go down to Beef and Brew and stuck my oar into a little bit of trivia. Mainly because I was waiting for it to be over. One of the team participants had agreed to go to Canandaigua with me to partake of beer, pool and inexpensive wings. Sadly, our desires were thwarted regarding the wings. They were sold out of them! How the heck does that happen? Whatever. We settled for garlic fries instead that were great! I think I must have eaten 6 cloves worth of garlic. Yippee! Beer was, as usual, inexpensive and the pool was only $1.00 per game - we played five. I do so enjoy playing pool.

Double Decker

This is something that I keep meaning to write about - and soon won't be doing much - Double Decker Steaming - something the Chinese have been doing for centuries - maybe millennia. I had the epiphany-let a while back. Steaming two things in succession - or steaming them in two separate pots was getting old. I have four of those wonderful steamer thingies (vegetable steamer baskets) - two of them have little feet - one has lost its feet - and one is much older - it has adjustable feet and opens completely flat - so it really isn't so much of a basket at that point. Anyway, I put one of the ones with decent feet into the pot - put the corn on that - then I extend the feet as far as they will go on the oldest one and put that down around and on top of the corn. Lastly, I put whatever vegetable I am "also" steaming on that - broccoli and green beans were the two most common. When the top vegetable is "done" (I prefer my vegetables to be still almost crunchy when cooked) I bet the corn is two and remove them both. Now, here comes the less than optimal bit. I like most of my vegetables to be covered with butter and garlic salt (hey, did you know that there is salt in garlic salt?!) so I transfer them to another dish and adulterate (in some people's eyes at least) them there. I still often end up with two things to clean, but it still feels like I am being efficient somehow. Yay for double decker steaming. With the disappearance of corn on the cob imminent (hopefully just for the winter), I don't know how many more times I will be doing this - but it was so cool, I had to share!

Yesterday, Kate (a person who has done a good bit of work at the Smith) and I spent two hours working on the electrics. For some reason, there were two sets of numbers on them - one set of huge, lovely old numbers and a second set of teeny weeny little numbers - both represented the dimmer pack number to which the socket was supposed to be related. I, for one, was tired of telling people who came in what was going on - and I wanted to get a handle on exactly what was working and what wasn't. Turned out that we really only had one bad circuit - the receptacle had been pushed into the electric somehow. There was one other place where a circuit had never been. Four circuits that we have no idea what happened to them and one circuit that somehow isn't connected to where it should be connected. Weird stuff. But I am glad we are taking the time to do this. We also found six instruments (lighting instruments) that were non-functional. Most of them probably just need their bulbs replaced. But that is for another day. The next day will be for working on the front of house light trees. Fun stuff!

Remembered the forgotten

Yesterday's Daily Challenge was to turn the computer or TV screen off on hour before going to sleep. Oops. I have a hard time with that. Often, as I am shutting down for the night (me, mentally, not the computer) I have thoughts that could be aided by the computer - one last thing to check before sleep - so it isn't running around in my brain anymore - how much something is - where someplace is - it could be anything. Like how much a followspot costs. (I wonder if it would cost less to fix the carbon arc spots we have in house...) Or - who was that in that episode of Star Trek TOS? Or who does the voice for Lilith on Borderlands 2?

Yay leftovers! And there are still more. I hope mom likes quiche again - we have a lot of it left. I wonder if it freezes well. I would tend to doubt it. Just looked it up and apparently it freezes and thaws out ok - in a toaster or conventional oven - not the microwave.

Intense dream last night about being in a show - theatre - I was playing a wizard - and everything was not going that smoothly - well, one of my scenes went really well - John Cleese riding on a horse being funny with a fiery lance that I was apparently responsible for (or at least took credit for). Weird.

I started writing with an idea that I was aiming for - digressed a smidge and in the process forgot what my original aim was. Glarp.

Everything has many facets. For instance, fixing the faucet drip was a good thing. Unfortunately it means that the little green watering vessel doesn't get filled - which means that it takes more effort to water the plants. Which I already hate to do. Sigh. (This was the thought that started me writing today..)

Aha! I wrote some notes!

I did it, and it works. Ok, I knew that. I have done it before. But seriously, my posts have been short because a) not a lot has been happening and 2) I forget the few thoughts and interesting bits that do occur. Sigh.

Mom scared me the other night. I was up latish watching TOS - the episode where the people from Andromeda are turning people into interesting shapes that are easily crushed - when I heard someone (hmm, who could it be, I didn't wonder) creeping down the stairs. I got up and found mom at the top landing. She was heading downstairs to tell the kids who were sitting on the porch to move along. I told her to come get me next time she had such concerns (not that she will remember to, but she might) and that I would happily zip down to check for her. Sure enough, no kids on the porch, just some kids walking by across the street. This incident did scare me a bit, because it proved that mom could be a wanderer, despite her dislike of moving around. Eeeek!

I had a cooking epiphany the other day. Quiche! It has been months since last I cooked it. Mom doesn't know what it is but seems to enjoy it. I explain it as "egg pie." One of the two was a quiche lorraine sort of thing - the other was more of a garbage type - tossed in a bunch of leftovers (not the taco meat) and called it dinner. I forget how easy it really is to make - basically milk product (I use half and half) and eggs in a pie shell. Just about anything else can be added. In my second one we had feta, spinach, mushrooms, onions, chicken and cheddar cheese. Yay. We also had what was probably the last two ears of corn on the cob that we will have for the year. They are just getting small and unappetizing. And a salad. I need to use up my salad like ingredients! I dislike things, especially food, going to waste!

Speaking of which, I noticed some pistachios lying on the floor of my room. There were in a ziploc bag, so I was hoping that they would still be happy and fresh-ish. Sadly, they weren't. Ick. Soggy pistachios are not the best thing on the planet to eat in my opinion. But I didn't want to throw them away, so I suffered through the eating of them. Luckily, there weren't many left! Huzzuh!


At Wegman's, they don't sell Hershey's ice cream - I will look at Tops is I remember - but they did sell a store brand called Cappuccino Chip that might suffice. I bought a tub of it for mom - so when she finishes her pistachio ice cream, she can try that one. Yay!

Mom and I watched Big Miracle together last night. She seemed to enjoy it and I know I did. Loosely based on actual events from 1988, it tells the story of the media frenzy and eventual rescue of some gray whales near Barrow Alaska who had gotten cut off from open ocean by ice. Worth a watch if you like feel good movies about nature.