Juggling Work

Juggling work and mom isn't as fun as it could be. I would like more workers who are available at the drop of a hat and willing to work whenever. Sadly, that isn't the case. Oh well. I will survive. (Maybe it will be easier during the summer...)

My current plan is to have my staff members run the light board and I will run the followspot. There are like 5 cues in both shows for the followspot. I can pop in five minutes before the show and leave right after. Not that I am ducking responsibilities - I am delegating and allowing myself the freedom to take care of my mom. Yay.

Spent a constructive hour at the Smith - hung the mirror ball and focused four lights - two in the pit and two on the mirror ball. Yay. Also looked through the gobos and picked out a few stars. I will get staff to put them in some instruments between 3 and 3:30. 4 o'clock the students start rehearsing. Yippee. It is time for the staff to start programing the light board. Huzzuh!

It is great having people who can do what I ask of them! Yippee! Got a good start before the kiddies started arriving. Gobos in, mirror ball cord tied up, spotlight set up, headset for the spotlight, etc. Then I taught (or reminded) them how to build cues. A quick couple of putters, a little bit of questioning and off I went to feed mom! 

I got to feed mom in a relaxed fashion. This is much better than the times when I have to run home, throw some food at mom and run back out the door. When I was younger, rushing was ok - now I like to do things, generally, in a more sedate sort of way. 

After dinner, back to the Smith where I let my people go and did a little Smithing of my own. After the Toeprints people headed out, I played with my new electronic toys. It took a little troubleshooting - because it didn't work at first - to get it going, but I persevered. Huzzuh! We can now use a laptop on stage or in the sound and light area at the center of the theatre to run the projector in the projection booth. How exciting is that? Very!!

Came home, puttered some more, played a bit and went to sleep. Oh, and somewhere in here, I finished Order of the Phoenix and started Half-Blood Prince. Yippee!!

Mother's Day/Mom's Birthday

Yes, a twofold day of fun and excitement. Thank you everyone who thought of mom on her day. Lovely flowers from Joe and Ginger! Cards galore and a gift from Ernst and Betty. Juliet is planning to visit later in the month. Mary Flett is planning on visiting over the summer at some point. Lucky mom to have so many people in her life that care about her.

Meanwhile, I have been asked at least 20 times who gave her the flowers. Sigh.

We didn't get around to presents yesterday due to sleep. Mom is having more trouble keeping her eyes open during the day - though she seems really good at being awake at 4 in the morning. 

Finally opened the present from Ernst and Betty! What a great soft stuffed baby chick! A HUGE baby chick. Mom really likes it. Sadly, she thinks I gave it to her, no matter how often I disabuse her of the notion. I have hidden the chocolate, so that mom will not gorge herself and get sick from eating it too quickly. Sigh. 

She was underwhelmed by the huge thing of marzipan I got for her. Go figure.

Today worked out well - though I didn't do a bit of what I wanted to do. Yes, partly through my own fault, partly from the renter's fault. I didn't get a schedule or a break down of the "numbers" until the start of today's rehearsal, so I couldn't get started on programming lights, so that meant that my workers couldn't set light cues for the acts that rehearsed today. Sigh. Still, I got to go to the Marketing Meeting, and I got to feed mom a decent and relaxed dinner. I hope tomorrow works out as well. Anything is possible. Right?

And one more time

Looks like I will be doing more laundry again today. Sigh. I hope this is just a phase and that it too will pass.

Yup, I did laundry. And it was a zippy, pleasant experience, all things considered. I washed a second pillow. I guess I will be adding at least one pillow to each laundry experience. Who knew that you could wash pillows to give them a second, puffier life? Probably lots of people, just not me.

Did a little bit of Smith work today. That is a good thing. Wrote a bit of the "So you want to be the technical director at the Smith" manual. And a few other puttery sorts of things.

Mostly, I just didn't do anything - well, made lunch, made dinner, did laundry, played xBox (and did decently), listened to a good bit of Harry Potter, cleaned the kitchen, napped, played on my phone, went to the Smith and filled out my time card and did a little data entry.

Mom can be really cute at times. She always has been able to do that when necessary. Now it just happens on its own occasionally. Recently, she took a book from the Theatre Bookshelf outside of her bedroom. For the next day or two she asked me who Woody Allen was. I answered in the obligatory 637 different ways, mostly with elements of truth in each answer. Then, when I was heading back to my room, she pointed at the book and told me in all seriousness that I should read the book - I would learn a lot. It was the biography of Woody Allen, of course. I don't think I will probably read it.

There are so many books in this house that I have never read. Or have never been read by anyone living in this house. Ever. I wonder just how many. Hmm. I know that at one time there were 15,000 books in the house, at least. But of those, how many have never been read by anyone who has ever lived here. First, the house isn't that old. Maybe the 40s. My father came to the house in the late forties. And he certainly didn't read all the books that existed in the house in his time. And he most definitely did not read any of the books that have come to the house since his demise. My mom, also quite a reader, did not read many of the books here when she was avidly reading them. Me? hahahahahaha. Karl? Juliet? Ernst? Well, maybe Ernst and Juliet have read most of the books that were in the house in their times here - but since their time?

Laundry again

Not much exciting is planned for the day. I hope to get a load of laundry done - we shall see.

There will probably be a bit of Smithing today as well. Isn't there always?

I decided to just head out early in the morning (for me) for a change. First stop, laundry - which I will have to do again tomorrow or the next day too. Sigh. There, someone said, "Are you Karl Schoen-Rene's brother?" Small town life. Gotta love it.

Off to the Smith to pick up stools for tonight's performance at Club 86, which I will drop off later this afternoon. When I walked in, I found the meeting that I thought was supposed to be going on - building new railings for our removable front-of-stage stairs. Nice people and they seemed to have their acts together. Next, Fred and I went over the proposed catwalk for work on the HVAC system in one of my closets. Fred also helped me restart the Kiosk. It isn't difficult in itself, it is just that the ladder is perched a teeny bit precariously and it is good to have someone footing or holding it when I climb up to cycle the power.

Back to the laundromat where the clothes went into the dryers. I might just have to take some more pillows down there because the one I did clean came out all puffy and happy. Yippee! Who knew? Ok, I knew, I think I read it somewhere. On the internet - attributed to Lincoln, so I knew it must be true. I just hung out there a while - trying to use my phone as a wifi hotpoint - but I think because I use ATT and the service is notoriously bad here in Geneva, I couldn't manage it. 

Responsibility

Up at the crack of dawn to help mom out with bathroom issues. How fun! Joyous even. I wish I were still asleep.

I am not going to get to go back to sleep.

One thing about mom that has always rankled. She has lived in victim mentality for as long as I have known her. She has, over the years, managed to do a lot despite this. But to this day, most things in her life are "not her fault." Sigh. That and the whole pessimistic outlook on life thing she has going on can be awfully draining.

Sadly, my sister is feeling sick, so she won't be coming at this point to visit mom. (Feel better, sis!) Which is ok - as I now have longer to excavate the room at the head of the stairs where I was going to have her sleep. Maybe I will even fix the chair in there that was broken at some point.

It seemed like a busy Smith day - the morning was spent working on several TM things. IN the afternoon I had a meeting with a potential employee and then did more catch-up with Kelly. It is good when I feel in the loop.

Dinner was only a moderate success. Mom thought the yummy chicken bites (garlic and parmesan) were too dry. She liked her corn though and ate her over armed onion rings. At the grocery store, I got a couple of soups that I am going to try her on. Not cream based.

Oh My God

Half an hour of the same question over and over again. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

I am feeling sleepy for some reason this morning. I don't have a lot to do - but I do want to pop into the Smith and test all of the film equipment. And make sure that any laptops that are going to be used and are attached to my drop box account get an opportunity to sync up before they are used by others. Does that make any sense at all? I could talk someone else through how to do what I want done, but I don't know who would do it. So I will head down around 3:30 and do what I need to do.

I am in my second "office:" Lake Drum Brewing. They just released a new beer - so I get a mugful free! For a shandy it was pretty good. I don't really like Shandys though...

Dinner is going to be from Cam's pizza. I think Chicken Parmesan and some chicken wings and onion rings. Yum! (Garlic parmesan wings are yummy)

My stupid xBox game keeps crashing and it is irking me no end. Grrr. (Turns out a lot of other people are having the same problem. Yippee! Hmm, that didn't sound very nice...)

Ok, slogged through some tedium for the Smith. Yay. But I keep learning more about Theatre Manager. Yay! Did some dishes and am ready for bed. Lots of meetings tomorrow. 

Here's Hoping

Here's hoping that the cranberry juice is a miracle worker in an 8 ounce glass. Anything is possible, right?

Meanwhile, I think I may be a post behind. I can't tell anymore. Sigh.

Busy Smith day today. A meeting in a little bit - to which I will ride my bicycle. Oh, when I went in yesterday, our office manager was a little grumpy and was having a problem (well, looking for a solution to a problem) using Theatre Manager. Her desire was to print address directly onto envelopes rather than onto labels which then needed to be peeled and put on envelopes. Turns out that TM has a pretty robust label generating capability. In my capacity as an office manager years and years (and years) ago, I did a lot of playing around with label making. It is pretty amazing what you can do with a robust label making/merge file. So it wasn't all that difficult to make her a "label" that was envelope sized and to put the envelope drawer into the printer for her. Yay! She seemed much happier when I left. Maybe because I had left...

Lots of meetings - somehow I ended up with a lot of things to do. Which is actually a good thing. The stuff that I need to do will all benefit the Smith and the Smooth functioning of things in the actual theatre. Yay.

Watched The East the other night. Not a great movie - not terrible. Not something I need to see again.

She likes them!

The blueberry muffins are a hit with mom! Huzzuh and hurrah and all that sort of ballyhoo! And she says she thinks cranberry juice is delicious which is also a good thing. 

Lazy sort of day. Lots of things I could be doing and I am busy not doing any of them. Like get the room at the head of the stairs ready for a house guest. That would be a good thing to do. And look at the Serpent of Seneca movie. And sort papers. And do some Smith work. But instead, I am playing, eating, resting, etc. Yippee.

Interestingly, I haven't been feeling verbose lately. Hence the short posts. And I haven't been doing very well on correspondence either. Sigh. 

Next week is heavily meetinged I think. I hope I have them all in my computer and phone. (Good thing that they talk to each other from time to time...)(Yup, just updated my phone. Tuesday is the busy meeting day.)

Mom woke up long enough to eat some soup. Yay! But then she wasn't interested in shrimp. Boo!

Missed my morning writing time

How did that happen? Suddenly it is the afternoon. And late afternoon at that. Oh well. Life is like that sometimes.

I got some Smith work done this morning - working on getting another producing organization's tickets up on our ticketing system. I want to design one well and then go on to all the others. 

Got the one done, I think. Waiting on some information from the venue. 

Nice day. A little bike riding, a little work, a little play. Went to the grocery store and bought a UTI test for mom, as well as Cranberry juice. I also impulse bought some blueberry muffins. Don't know if mom will eat them, but it is worth a try. She didn't like my wonderful bacon wrapped mozzarella stuffed fried bread bites. Her loss. More for me! Bwahahahahahahahaha.

The cycle continues

So, after a couple of good days, we are off to a poo day start. Yippee! Apparently I don't care and won't help and am making mom suffer. My favorite line "Why do you get to sleep when I can't sleep?" Seriously? Sadly, logic doesn't work with mom at this point when she is in this particular state of mind - half asleep and angry. Yippee!

Sleepy. I did do laundry yesterday. I hope it turned out ok. I was otherwise focused. I also branched out and visited a new-to-me place. Interesting. Yay for interesting.

My next chore is to get off my butt and drive down to the car place, drop off my car and ride my bicycle back home. I can do that. I just need to do it. Then I will come back and knock out my list of tasks. Or nap. We shall see.

5 minutes down, 10 minutes back - not too bad. That is one reason I like Geneva, it is bike able. If only there were more bike lanes and places to lock one's bike. Though I would really love to live in a world where people could leave their bike unlocked for a month outside and not have it stolen. Wouldn't that be nifty? Sigh.

Lunch is done. She told me that she doesn't like crackers with cheese. I am really starting to struggle to find things she does like to eat. Sigh.

I do worry a bit when a day goes smoothly and as planned. Oh, and when it is a "pretty"day. I rode down to the Smith - got my work there done, turned over the show to Terren, went to the bank, and rode to pick up my car. Yes, the muffler needed replacing, and I had forgotten to get the car inspected (in November), got the oil changed, a wiper replaced and the right rear tire ministered to (it wasn't all that expensive - and I just got paid from the Smith, so...). 

Mom has been extra curmudgeonly today. I think I will maybe set up another appointment with a physician's assistant or a nurse practitioner. Mom seems to be in more pain than usual. Maybe it is psychosomatic, maybe it is real. Hard to tell, of course. And what level of pain it is, I have no idea. Maybe some physician sort will be able to get to the bottom of it. 

Anyway, I played some COD AW and did ok. I think I will do one full prestige and maybe a second and then give it up to play other stuff. I am not as attached to this one as I was to the previous ones. Yay.

Ok, time to do a little Smith work and then watch something on Netflix. 

Lucidity

Mom is being remarkably lucid just now - she was pretty sharp last night and is still sharp today. For the first time in a long time she asked me about her money situation. And she has been taking care of herself - going up and down the hall to the bathroom by herself - refusing aid to get into her bed (even though, it turns out, that she never did get into it last night - sigh). But still, it is a pleasant change. I wonder why it is happening. And how long it will last.

She is totally crashed now. I think she was awake-ish most of the night last night. Sigh.

I did a little Smith work today - and then went and returned returnables. I made a mess of my car - poop. But it was good to get the bags out of the basement of the Smith. We did have quite a few returnables.

Mom slept through dinner and I am torn. Force her to wake up and force food on her, or let her sleep. Normally I force her to wake up. This time, I am letting her sleep. If she is hungry later, I will feed her something, anything, who knows what? It depends on when she wakes up. I am still going to aim for my regular bed time - midnight or one or two am. Something like that.

My list of things to do for the Smith is getting larger rather than smaller. Sigh. I will do my best to knock most of them out tonight and tomorrow. Luckily I have a staff worker doing the RPO so I can go, say hi and leave. Yippee!

April - the longest month?

Am I the only one thinking that April is dragging on forever? Yes, I know it ends tomorrow, but it can't come soon enough for me. It has been an up and down month. For me at least. 

That's four rides with the bike, so I am down to $75 a ride. Yippee! I hope to get that down to pennies a ride by the end of the bike's life. That would be nifty. It is another nice day (eeek, two in a row) so I think I will toodle down to the Smith this afternoon on my bike. I can hardly wait.

At lunch time, I am going to empty out the fridge and see what all is in there. I used up a couple of things I think - like the icky chicken casserole - ok, it wasn't icky - just not enough juice and way too many breadcrumbs. And I ate all of the ham and turkey salad - though putting it in the food processor was a great idea, I thought. It made everything a single consistency. 

I am excited to see the next water bill. I hope that the newly fixed toilet will really decrease it. That would be awesome. If I am repeating myself about this, it must mean I am really excited!!

Yay! I had a nice ride. Got everything done that I had to at the Smith, I think. I didn't have my ducks in a row and need to get a bit more organized before the next time Kelly and I meet. I set up the sound system and checked all the movie stuff. Go me!

Now, time for a car ride to get some Chinese Food for dinner. Huzzuh! It has been a while. Hopefully mom still likes it!

Mom ate a lot! Yippee!

After dinner, we watched the most recent version of Into the Woods - enjoyable though long. I love Anna Kendrick who did fine. The rest of the cast was good as well. Stephen Sondheim's music is just so chewy. But glad we watched it. Mom stayed awake through the whole thing. I keep wondering if larger TVs would be a good thing...

Got an early start

Good thing I went to bed early. Though, a nap is probably in my future.

Mom's toilet is still broken and I had to decide whether to fix it myself (as I did last time) or get help. I chose to get help. Hopefully Justin will come and take a whack at it later today. That would be neat.

Saw a great recipe online today - french toast roll-ups. I am going to make a few and see if mom will eat them. I know they look delicious to me. But my sense of how much and what mom will eat is completely askew at this point. I give her a third of what she ate normally in the past and she eats half of that. Before, she used to be thrilled with anything and everything I put in front of her. Even is she didn't really like it, she ate it. Now, she eats only a bit of most things - and spits out a bit of this and that to show her distaste or displeasure. Not sure which one. So, for dinner today, er, French Toast? We shall see.

Justin came and fixed the toilet better than it was before, because he knows things! Maybe we will see our water bill go down. That would be great and nifty! And now I don't have to flush the toilet by lugging water in a box from one bathroom to the other. Yippee!

I have done very little Smith work today. I did, though, ride to the Smith when I went in. Yippee! Oops, almost forgot to finish up the weekly mail blast. Still not sure what to do about the temperature in the Smith. We shall see tomorrow. 

Maybe it is Call of Duty that is irking me. I will admit to destroying a copy of the disk just now - not intentionally (at first). But wantonly after it was clear that the disk would not play again (damn, xbox's bad read heads...)

The good news is that my window is open and the air is flowing happily around my room. Yippee!!

I cooked an interesting meal and of course mom thought it was disgusting. Yay. Bacon, corn on the cob (which she snarfed) and french toast rolls - stuffed with peanut butter and jelly, or nutella, or cream cheese. I tried to give her both PB&J.  

Need to find a new profile picture

The one I am using now, the profile picture that is, is so wintery. And I think that Spring is finally here. Maybe. Perhaps...

I am listening to Order of the Phoenix and something interesting has happened - Voldemort has gone from silent "t" to voiced "t." I wonder why. Maybe because the movies had started coming out and they said Voldemort with a voiced "t?" Who knows? Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

Lots of Smith Stuff to do today. I am up (at 9:30 am) and am gearing up, girding my loins, etc. to getting ready to work. Yippee! - Ok, two hours later, I have accomplished a good chunk of my list. Yay. It is almost time to make mom lunch - then downtown for a couple of hours at the Smith (and the bank and post office). I still don't know what will be for dinner. Hmm...

Unfortunately, I have begun the multiplayer for COD AW (Call of Duty, Advanced Warfare). I am not loving it. Nor am I hating it. I think I will do at least one prestige and then see how I feel. None of my friends seem to be playing it. Oh well.

Mom likes creamy soups. Unfortunately they don't seem to agree with her digestive tract. Sigh. So, I need to find a soup that is not cream based that she will eat. Preferably one that comes in a can. Yes, I am that lazy.

Speaking of lazy - it isn't even midnight and I am going to try to go to sleep. Yippee!

Cloudy Today

I like my status for yesterday's post this morning - Clouds providing lots of shade today - trying to put a cloudy day in a positive (not so scintillating) light. Yippee!

Watched Philomena last night. I enjoyed it. I kinda thought it was based on a true story before I watched it. Turns out it was. Judi Densch was great. Mom, unfortunately, slept through the whole movie.

Also started watching Daredevil on Netflix. Too absorbing. I think I watched five episodes at least before I forced myself to go to sleep. My eyeballs just about fell out of my head.

My goal for the day is to do nothing Smith related. We shall see if I can manage. I probably ought to pay some bills. And think about what I need to do next week for the Smith and for life in general. I think laundry time is creeping up on me again. Yippee. 

Yay paid a few bills. I feel so virtuous when I pay bills. I do remember a while in my life where paying them was painful beyond compare. Sigh.

Ok, so I am making a list of all the things I need to do for the Smith tomorrow - eeeeeek!

Spotify - One list (Cave)

Movie Playlists - two - Cave and Whiplash

Mail chimp - Tasting Note Send

Mail Chimp - start Mail Blast Movie May! (Even Toeprints is getting into the action)

New website - enter movies for May

Start list of movies for June

Double Check June with Kelly

Double Check May with Kelly

Update Instructions Sheet for Ticket selling

Send Email about training session for Projectionists (re box office and refresher on things)

Send email about cleaning session at the Smith

Send email about RPO on Friday

Check with Mexican Film and contact the guy

Look at Snake movie and contact them

Download Call Security’s music video

Contact Stephen Giamotti and see what is up with Young Adulterated

Contact HBO woman again

Meet with Jocelyn and do conference call

Meet with Jessica and talk about ticket selling - and scanning

Order the internet boosters (2 at least)

See if I can figure out what is wrong with the little computer and its battery

Call Damien and see if he can scrub our two laptops of viruses and such

Call Carl Blewshewke at Finger Lakes Health and see if he is doing the graduation or if somebody else is

Look through email for anything pending

There are probably more things, but I can't think of them off the top of my head - oh, wait, I did think of one - check the weather and set up heating/cooling. 

Now mom's toilet innards need replacing again. Yet mine remain fine. What is up with that? I will try to buy innards tomorrow or Tuesday.

So, I finally finished the campaign of Advanced Warfare. I really hate quicktime cut scenes and events. Which is why I like the Bethesda games so much - those only happen when in dialogue and nothing of extreme consequence happens during dialogue. Anyway, I played my first game online and went 17-18 and was second on our team, which makes me pretty happy. Playing on a map with a load out that was less than optimal and totally not understood by me, I am very pleased with that result. Yippee! Tomorrow is another day.

It is a sunny day!

We don't get a lot of them here in Geneva. So they are noteworthy. I am going to ride my bike down to the Smith to neaten up the stage, the area of the sound and light boards, maybe replace the sound board, set the theatre for tonight's movie and do a couple of other little things. Today is also bill day! Yippee! 

In all the hubbub bub, I didn't get to the bank to do anything with the filthy lucre that the IRS returned, grudgingly, to me. I still don't understand how someone who makes as little as I do needs to give anything to the government while corporations that earn huge profits get tax rebates?! WTF. Seriously. I don't know if Community Bank is open on Saturdays. Maybe till noon? I wish I could find Hannah again. I do like the staff at my branch, but she was funny.

I keep getting distracted. Found a new thing in Theatre Manager that needs to be tweaked and rebranded and such. I don't think I will be doing it, but will be paying inHouse to do the work. Oughtn't to take them too long so won't be too expensive.

Because it is sunny, I thought, hahahahahaha, that it might also be warm. It is 9 am and it hasn't broken 40 yet. So maybe I won't ride my bike downtown. Then again, I have only ridden it three times, which is about $100 a ride - gotta get that number down in case this bike, too, is stolen.

One cute thing mom is doing now, is that she can't really make clear the difference between her bed and her chair. I will say something like - Mom, (while she is sitting in her chair) do you want to get in bed? And she says "I am in bed." Makes me smile for some reason. Any excuse to smile is a good one.

Did my major Smithing today. Set up the movie stuff, cleaned up the stage a bit, did a couple other little things. Then a nice trip to the grocery store. Though, we are having Pizza and chicken wings tonight for dinner. I can hardly wait. Yum, num, yum, yum.

Mom the cat

Mom gets into bed. I move all of her stuff (water, food bits, tissues) to beside her bed and turn on her electric blanket. Ten minutes later, mom gets up and sits in her chair. I move all the stuff back, turn off her electric blanket. Ten minutes later she goes to the bathroom. (One good thing - she doesn't seem to just sit in the toilet for hours - yay! Or fall asleep in there - something I have done once or twice) Then back to her room to being the cycle again. At 6 in the morning. Yay.

Trying to play catch up a little. Just spent a few minutes cleaning off my computer's desktop. That was fun. I need to pay bills, but I think I will do that tomorrow - once Mary Chapin Carpenter is behind me. That brewhahaha starts at 12:30. But knowing them, they will probably just do whatever they want without regard to the schedule that they set up. We shall, of course, see. 

Ok, exhaustimicated. It was a long day flitting between the Smith and home. And I am fairly tired. So, more anon.

Dilemma

Not a huge dilemma, but a small one. Do I try and make mom eat lunch or let her sleep? I am leaning towards letting her sleep and feeding her around her schedule. I don't have a lot on my plate today, so that's a good thing. (That's what I did and it worked out ok. Huzzuh!)

Lots of napping to day, after a shortish stint at the Smith. I don't know why I was feeling so exhausted today. Oh, yes I do. I had to get up by the alarm. Grrrrr. Luckily tomorrow's load-in is later in the day. I think I have it adequately staffed so I don't really need to be there too much. That would be good. 

Playing through the campaign on Advanced Warfare. It is interesting that all of the friends I made playing COD MW4 aren't playing the campaign in this game. I wonder why not. Oh well, not a biggie. Lots of games to play. 

Mom didn't eat anything of her dinner - well, she ate about two thirds of her salad, but didn't like either the mashed potatoes or the turkey. Sigh. I miss the mom who ate too much. Maybe she will come back, but that is doubtful. If only she liked the vitamin shakes I got for her, but she doesn't. Double sigh.

Tomorrow we have a concert at the Smith. Today's show went very smoothly without me. Yay. I hope tomorrow's goes as smoothly. 

Haven't gone back to sleep...

So, instead of sleeping, I came up with a thought about why the problem we were having with ticket sales was occurring. I went online and fixed it. Yay me. Then I started working on a draft document that Kelly has created. I might be doing more than just editing it, though...I will do what I am doing and give it back to her. Maybe she will credit me with co-authorship if she likes the changes I am making. Maybe not.

Mom is being a real pain in the butt today. Yay.

I am exhausted again. Up at 3 and then up at 6 and then up at 8 all to help mom - then from 8 until 9 almost incessant calls from mom - where am I? Where can I go? What can you do for me? Me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me. For an hour. And now it has started again. Sigh.

I got a bit of a nap. Yay. I also did some good work on the Kelly doc. And I even went out to run some errands. Spent longer than I thought I was going to at the Smith, talking with Kelly and getting a few little things accomplished. Then a brief stop at the Public Library (I love libraries - I wonder how they will evolve in the future...) to pick up two Audio books that were being held for me. One of them I had completely forgotten I had requested. The other is the next book in the Harry Potter series - book 5 The Order of the Phoenix. Yippee! Last, a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up some corn on the cob, some of mom's pills and a few other things. Now I am back home again. And could use another nap.

I am almost finished with The Goblet of Fire. Yippee! 

I tried to watch The Boxtrolls with mom, but she was having none of it and slept through most it. It wasn't all that engaging on the small screen. It might have been better on the big screen. Or on my computer with headphones or better sound. All in all, it seemed ok, not great. Glad I rented it, though. 

A day of not much

Tuesday - gotta love 'em in general. They aren't Monday, which for most people is a good thing. Since I am either working or on call most weekends, Mondays don't mean the same thing to me as people who have weekends off from work. Still, Monday is a fairly full day for me most weeks. So Tuesday, being mostly not full, is a relief. Yes, I have a bunch of things that I need to finish up on Tuesday for Wednesday and the rest of the week, but I can do those from home for the most part. So, it feels like a relaxing day. 

I always feel a little happier when I have figured out the dinner menu for a day. We are going to have a chicken casserole. Now that I have an oven that works (yippee) I can bake a full sized casserole or even two smaller ones. I can hardly wait. I have chicken and some left over veggies - need some mushrooms etc. Yippee. Dinner will be the casserole, some corn on the cob and a salad. What more could anyone want? (Too many bread crumbs - oh well - where were my fried onions when I needed them?)

Well, Spring is definitely here. Our mower was out doing a quick spring cleaning of the yard. I am tempted to get out there myself and rake for half an hour. We shall see if I ever feel motivated enough to actually do that. Having done mowing/landscaping off and on throughout the years, I know full well that it is not something that I particularly enjoy. I really enjoy lying on my bed typing. Now there is an activity that I can get behind! :)

Oops, fell asleep without posting this. Good thing mom woke me just now. Yippee!

Feeling a bit grey

Such is fromage. I am feeling a bit frustrated and unhappy. Grey, not blue. All I really want to do is wallow in that a bit. Ok, not really. I want to move past it. But to where is the question. There isn't any place that seems particularly appealing. Grrrr. This too shall pass, hopefully soon.

Mom is ensconced in her room watching a nature show - I played Dark Souls and have become so frustrated that I am not interested in playing it anymore. At all. All the things online that I can find tell me things that I can't do with the character I am playing or that just don't happen - like leap down on the creature and hit it for 50% of its hit points. Right. I keep landing at its feet and am stunned for a few seconds so it gets a free hit on me which usually kills me. Fun? I don't think so. I don't have to like every game or finish every game I start. Do I? I don't think so. Life is too short for that.

Why is mom such a chatty Cathy at 5 in the morning sometimes? Weird. So I am awake for a few minutes while she wanders around and talks at me. 

I was up for an hour or two and then went back to sleep. To paraphrase Oliver "Sleep, glorious sleep..." Took a shower and fed mom. I also started back on my apple, beet, carrot, lime juice thing in the morning. We will see how long it lasts this time. And I found a usage for the vodka infused fruit...

Mom is dreading her shower, but in a seemingly good natured way. I told her that she had promised not to argue about it. She doesn't remember saying that of course. Does it matter if she ever really did? (She did, but I am still curious...)

Mom got showered, I worked at the Smith (off and on today) and got little of my Monday Smith work accomplished - I will just have to do it tomorrow. 

Simply Sunday

Off to a good start. I got  great amount of sleep after the past two days of having to get up at an hour to which I am not accustomed. Huzzuh! And mom did a decent job of getting herself to and fro from the bathroom. Without calling for me. Double huzzuh!

Mom's tummy is upset. That isn't fun for anyone. Poo, even. :)

We have had lunch and mom ate everything without complaint. Yippee, even. 

No exciting plans for the day. Some Smith work is all I really have on my plate.

I really need to start working on getting mom either more care here or get her to a nunnery, er nursing home. I can feel that those next steps are imminent. I thought it would be in January, but we have managed to Mid April. Go us.

Spring is spronged! Yay! We have bluets in our yard. And next door some daffodils. And our lilac bushes are starting to leaf and bud. How exciting is that?

Went shopping at the grocery store and bought some hamburger so that I can make meatballs for dinner. Yum. 

I also bought mom a red heart ballon and bought myself a whole pile of boxer shorts. I am so excited to change my underwear now. But I am holding on - anticipating the excitement tomorrow. So excited!!

Ok, definitely not playing Dark Souls or any of its variants anymore. When the first boss you play is 3 times as strong and the first thing that happens is that you are stunned without recourse - that just isn't fun. On to the next game.

Another early day

Today was another early start with an alarm sort of day. Huzzuh. I did get a couple hours of sleep, which is a good thing. I only went in to get things started for my staff member. Got there, got things going and came home. I have been working and napping since then. 

Lunch went much more smoothly today. Mom was awake and cooperative. Yay. Dinner will be corn on the cob, left over chicken and some salad. I need to use up my lettuce.

Wow, mom is in a state today! Wide awake and full of it. Where am I? It's not safe in my bed. I'm cold (it is 75 in her bedroom). I hurt all over (I have given her as much pain medication as I can according to the directions. And all of this over and over again. Yippee!

Just came back from the grocery store where I got a bunch of vegetables primarily. I don't know why, but I had a hankering for Challah and they were ought. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since it is Saturday. I bought some little bread rounds instead. Maybe a snack tonight of nutella or cheese or something. We shall see. 

Started a new game - one which promises to have the protagonist die a lot - and so far it has been true to its word. Joy. It might be too deathful for me to play. We shall see. So far it is pissing the hell out of me. Grrrrr.

Mom ate all of her dinner! Well, she didn't eat a little bit of the tiny salad I gave her, but she did eat everything else! Yippee!

Up way too early

Went to sleep at a reasonable hour, sort of, and woke up an hour later. Yay. Did a couple of work things. Then went back to sleep. Then woke up again a couple of hours later. Did another work thing. Then went to sleep again. Then woke up to hear mom in the bathroom. So I did one more work thing. Back to sleep for a third (or is it fourth?) time and suddenly the alarm was going off. Joy. Got up to find mom in a confused state (not all that much more confused than normal, but a little) and helped her out, got her a yogurt and bundled myself off to the Smith. Where I am now, typing in my sleep. Zzzzzzzzzz. 

Home again and going to take a bit of a nap. It is, after all, a time when I am normally asleep. So is it really a nap? Or just a postponed continuation of my nighttime sleep? Hmm.

I slept for a while until, you guessed it... Sigh. Mom and I got a little contentious around lunch time. She tried to kick me. Which was actually really, really funny!

Trying to get my ducks in a row for next week. Two shows that are going to be really, really easy - which scares me a little bit. When I think they are going to be easy, trouble might appear out of nowhere. We shall, of course, see.

Two more forays to the Smith today. One for the conference, one to see if the ticket person tonight wants to be trained on how to use Theatre Manager for ticketing. Fingers crossed that he does. 

I slipped out of the training! Yippee! So I made salmon balls - they weren't awesome and need more spice. But they weren't terrible. Sadly, mom did not snarf them up. Poo even. 

Just watched The Imitation Game and was sad about the ending. What a loss. People's fears suck. Yes? Fear is the mindkiller. (Thank you, Frank)

Hate it when it is like this

I hate being understaffed at the Smith so that I have to do the actual hands-on-sit-around-for-hours stuff. It makes me feel like I have no time, which in turn makes me be short with Mom which is no fun for anyone. Probably least fun for mom, in fact. 

One of my staff members called and told me he was sick and couldn't come to work. I bet he is well enough to travel to visit his father tomorrow. Whatever. This is his second strike. Another staff member, the one who cancelled yesterday with such late notice, I think that is her third strike. I am going to take her off the list as soon as I can get another projectionist.

I have been at the Smith most of the day. I did get a teeny nap at lunch time, but not much of one. Tomorrow I am going to need a nap big time since I am going to be getting up so frickin' early. Poo. I really hate getting up early with an alarm. Maybe my body will wake me up before the alarm. That would be nice. 

The event went better than I thought it would. I did spend half an hour working with a performer to build light cues for his performance piece. Oops, I think I forgot to give him back his CD. I wonder if he needs it. I doubt it. It looked like it was burned just for this sort of event with only 3 tracks. Still, I would rather have had that half hour to do other stuff. But it went well. And I got out when the movie started. Mom was oblivious to the timing - and luckily she was fairly awake when I got home. Made chicken and corn on the cob and green beans (a smidge under done)(which is way better than over done IMHO) for dinner. Mom ate almost everything. I snarfed my food and zipped back to the Smith in time to help get the Panel up and running. The panelists were pretty good about using their microphones. Huzzuh for small wonders.

Got home, chatted with mom, fed her ice cream and then later cookies and prunes (she ate two prunes - yippee!) and gave her some water. Then I played Tomb Raider on the xBox until it was done. Overall I enjoyed the game. Not great but pretty darn good. I do hope they come out with a sequel. 

Now it is time to sleep for a few hours before I have to go back to the Smith. Yippee.

Time to nap

Up at 6 something, tried to get some work done, but mom was busy hallucinating - not in a pink elephant for of way - but she was convinced that I had been out playing pool and that the roads were dangerous. When in fact I had been in bed asleep. As she probably had been as well. Sigh. And of course there is no convincing her that she was hallucinating (or dreaming even).

I did, eventually, get my work done. Later, I get to have a free lunch for running a slide show for Kelly. Huzzuh. Free lunch! Yum! And later later, I will be going in to help a second person learn to sell movie tickets the "new" way. 

Theatre Manager continues to get deeper - turns out that we can use old laptops as scanning devices for tickets - by using a web interface. Who knew? Well, the people who work at Theatre Manager of course...So far, can't get the web interface to work, but I did scan some tickets and that is a good thing. I couldn't get out of the screen for some reason. Not sure what that was about.

Anyway, I am not amused. One of my projectionists wrote me at 4 in the afternoon saying that they couldn't project the movie and couldn't get anyone to cover it. So, here I sit, at the Smith, projecting a movie and I am not amused. At all.

All I had for dinner was an artichoke. Reminds me of when I lived in Paris and managed to live on a dollar a day for a couple of weeks. That was fun. Good times.

I do have more to say but I will save it for another day. Happy Dreams (busy two weeks coming up).

Ahhhh

It is nice not to be running around. Yesterday I did a good bunch of Smith stuff and some errand running (meaning mostly that I sat in bed and paid bills). But then I did go to the Post Office, City Hall and the Bank. Mom got her tax refund from the IRS. Huzzuh! We are solvent again! (Just joking, we are doing ok for now). And I deposited a lovely surprise from Ernst and Betty! (Thank you both so much!) I also got to visit Lake Drum for a beer - and tried to watch the Space-X launch which was, sadly, scrubbed because there was a thunderstorm 10 miles away. Really? Big tough rocket is scared of a wee, itty bitty storm? Waaaaah! :) They are trying again today, but I am not holding out a lot of hope for it since the weather is supposed to be worse today. I think I got a couple of people excited about Elon Musk and Space-X attempting to land their first stage. I know I am excited...

Today, I got up really early, well, early for me, and did a bunch of Smith Stuff (worked on two email campaigns, set up HVAC for the week, worked on the slide show and added a movie to the Smith Website. (Only one more to go and we will be all confirmed for May already! Yippee!) I am planning on heading out to do some laundry this afternoon while also doing some stuff at the Smith. Multitasking. And I might head to Lake Drum again. I do need to go to the grocery store for veggies. I might actually go back to my Apple Beet Carrot juicing. We shall see. I can't wait for my CSA to start. That will be interesting and hopefully nifty.

Well, poo. The first stage of the Falcon 9 Space-x launch vehicle landed too hard again. I will wait patiently for the reason, if we ever hear it. Double poo.

Trying to get through Tomb Raider. Generally I like it. I don't like the cut scenes and the quicktime events. Both of those are "not like the other (the rest of the game)" and thus aren't as enjoyable to me. Just sayin'. Hey, where does that phrase come from?

Zip, zoom, zowie

Here we are, almost to mid April. I think the time goes weirdly when the weather is weird. Then again, maybe I am just weird. Weird is a weird word.

I just paid a couple of bills. It is that sort of day. Time to get some stuff accomplished that has been accumulating. Mom gets her STAR exemption, I mail the taxes (I still don't understand how I, who earns so little owe state taxes - seriously it is mind boggling - but then again, I do live in NYS and we are one of the more heavily taxed states), Netflix gets its latest movie back, and my retirement gets another bit of funding (yes, mom's Publisher's Clearing House entries are waiting to be put together). And I am sleepy. I am looking forward to the day when I can sleep and wake when I want to, not with the Mom Clock waking me at hours that make sense to her. Sigh. Snore.

My plan is to crank through the stuff that I have piled on my bed, and then start to think about Smith stuff. I know that I want to go in and work on the copier issues - get scanning and emailing up and working, get the PS (post script) printer drivers up and running on the two office computers and maybe some of the laptops, keep working on Theatre Manager (trying to learn how to design tickets to be scanned and how to scan them to show them as used)(and other stuff).

Honesty is a rare thing, I find. A checker at Wegman's gave me $.75 because she took my bottle return coupons one day six months ago and forgot to take them off my receipt. How great is that?!

So many great lines in The Big Bang Theory. Just saying.

Lovely and not

It is lovely that mom had a great visitor for 6 hours tonight. Truly it is. For lots of reasons. Mom felt unabandoned. That is a great thing. Will she remember it? Vaguely. Which is bad. A part of her will remember all of the attention and judge the rest of her time against that - at least for a day or two - maybe longer depending on her brain power. Tonight is one of the nights (I am writing this bit before I pass out from exhaustion on Saturday night/Sunday Morning) that she would try to make a self motivated excursion downstairs because she is over stimulated. Which is one of the reasons that a visit like this one is not lovely.

Another reason it is great is because she did not sleep off and on for the hours of 6 until 11 or 12 tonight. She was chatted with. I do wonder how often her visitor got to listen to the same story throughout that time. Sometimes it is possible to go six hours with few completely repeated stories. My hope is, despite her brain being over stimulated, that in the not too distant future (say half an hour or so) she will go to sleep and sleep until 8 or nine tomorrow morning. Hope springs eternal. 

Another reason it is great is because I knew that there was someone in the house with mom so I didn't have to worry to much that she was going to have any problems - lack of food, water or bathrooming.  Peace of mind is not something to be taken for granted or taken lightly. Ok, so I did check in on my phone (looking at the cam in the bedroom) a few times. And I did send a text or two. Nothing too pithy - just telling the visitor that there was ice cream if mom expressed a hankering, which she did not. 

So excited for Monday!

Though it will probably be postponed, I am looking forward to the next Space-X launch as they are trying once again to land their first stage on their floating landing pad. I still don't understand why they aren't trying to land on land? Found the reason - less expensive and safer. Good reasons.

I don't like black licorice. Yay.

Here we are, on Saturday, and time is passing before the show this evening. I can hardly wait. I think the lights are in decent shape. Great shape, no, but they will do. And I will have a helper around, which will be a great aid to my peace of mind. I don't like being tied to the light board, but life is like that sometimes. 

So, finally home from the show at the Smith. Good thing that there was someone here hanging out with mom. Apparently they chatted the whole evening. Good for them! Huzzuh even!

More on Sunday or Monday!

Quick note

Long day - 11 hours maybe of smith work? Eeek! Also a quick lunch and dinner for mom - I really hate when work takes me away from her for this long in a day. Just because I know that she already feels abandoned. Sigh.

But it was a good day of work. Mostly. I got a lot of stuff done for the SPA show. And the rehearsal went decently - not great, but not terribly either. 

Yup - that's it for the note today - more later on Saturday for sure!

Busy next couple of days

So, that brewhahaha is over for another year. Next year is a milestone-ish one, though. 55. What was once the national speed limit. The year that a lot of "senior" discounts kick in. Watch that change next year to 60, since, 50 is the new 30 or some sort of blather like that. But I did have a pleasant birthday. A couple of birthday cards (maybe 4, actually), a present or two (Thank you Juliet and Rosanne and Ernst and Betty), a bit of self-pampering and indulging - I still have two thirds of a pizza in my fridge - does pizza freeze well? (I am leaning towards no.) Yay.

But I didn't escape from my two jobs at all. I spent two hours on Smith Stuff yesterday - tempted to charge them quadruple over time - except that they (we) are not fiscally well endowed currently (all donations accepted). And I did not figure out how to get respite from caring for my mom. Who, by the way, still seems at a plateau. I like plateaus. I don't like the slippage from one plateau down to another too much - c'est fromage.

Starting today, the Studio for the Performing Arts is bringing their rendition of Sleeping Beauty (the ballet) to the Smith. Huzzuh. I am not too worried about it. I have help today and over the weekend (not enough help but lots better than none). Friday, I don't think I have anyone helping. Oh well. We will all survive. Theatre (and life) are that way.

Oh, a quick clarification - one of my readers thought that Rosanne was the name of the masseuse. Her name was Barbara. Rosanne is a great friend of mine (and lots of other people I am sure).

Lots of time for the Smith today. Mom seems to have survived, so it is ok. And the weather has turned frightful. Big rain and lots of wind. I guess the jet stream is wiggling around still. Sigh.

My Birthday Day

First thing, mom wanted water. Which was beside her bed. And she was in a chair. Three feet away. And was mostly asleep. Just thirsty. Instead of listening to her bleat (yes, I sometimes think of her as bleating) for hours and hours, I decided to get up, put on some clothes (TMI?) and hand her her water cup. Then, back to sleep (since it was 7 am and I need my beauty rest. I need a lot of beauty rest!!). Until 8 when mom complained she didn't have any water, which was on her tray, out of sight (not really) behind a box of tissues and a roll of toilet paper. Up, dressed and water pointed out, I was going to go back to sleep but decided to check my computer and do a smidgen of work. I forgot to post the Smith Mail Blast yesterday. Sigh. Life is that way sometimes. I also launched Facebook to reply to the 15 or so people who had taken the time to wish me a happy birthday. (Thank you everyone.) And to receive a diatribe from a woman I don't know who friended me for some reason. Maybe so she could write diatribes to me. Who knows? Anyway, I wrote "money isn't real" and she told me it most assuredly was. I feel edified. (Ok, not really - glad she womansplained it to me.)

What is next on my agenda for the day of the anniversary of my birth? No idea - maybe play on my phone a bit. We shall see. I do have a massage scheduled for later this afternoon. And we are definitely pigging out on pizza and wings tonight for dinner for me. What I am feeling mom is still unclear at this point, but I will figure that out at Cams when I am there.

Oh, watched Interstellar last night and enjoyed it. I don't care about the science (which I thought was ok). I just like Mathew Mc(however you spell his last name)y who did (as my friend Jeff might say) chew the scenery just a tad. Just fun stuff. Yay Science Fiction. :)

Rain it a raineth. Good thing my parade wears rain clothing. And carries an umbrella. It could be snow, so...

Getting dragged into Smith things. Sigh.

At least the next Harry Potter book is waiting for me at the Library. I was getting towards the end of this, the third and was worried. A little. Not a lot. Really.

Time to catch up on my day a little. Where was I? Oh, yes, dragged into Smith stuff. A few times today. No day off for me. Grrr and sigh.

After lunch, I went to my massage. (Thank you Rosanne!) Pleasant but not great. I will keep searching for the masterful (mistressful?) masseuse next time. It was raining pretty heavily as I got into my car, so I decided to postpone any Birthday shopping until another time - maybe next week sometime. And I didn't get myself a cake (which is a good thing as I will explicate a little further along). I just headed home, played for a few minutes (I restarted playing Tomb Raider as I had forgotten how much of it worked), then put Karl on the phone for mom. She barely reached her hand out at all, one of her more infuriating behaviors. At around 5:15 I headed downtown to get pizza and stuff for dinner. Yay Cam's! A quick beer at Lake Drum while waiting for the food to be prepared. Back home, ate too much food (mom ate a lot too, yay) and now it is time for a shower. Huzzuh!

All in all a very pleasant day. Showered, clean sheets, mom is in bed and I am headed there too. Soon.

Toilet Paper Butts

My mom has cut down on her paper product usage quite a bit. Yay. Still prodigious are the amounts she goes through, but lesser so. Huzzuh! When she goes through toilet paper, she often gets down to the end of a roll and then ignores the poor thing. So I have taken to snagging what I have termed toilet paper butts and using them in my little bathroom (because it is smaller than the big bathroom)(and it is fairly small - not teeny apartment in New York Small, but not expansive by most definitions of the word). Go me.

I had a weird dream (are they any not weird dreams?) about losing my shoes on a train to Berlin. So I asked for help from a police person. I was speaking mostly German with a little bit of English thrown in here and there. Then, just as we were about to start actively looking for my shoes, the conductor walked in with them and gave them to me. And said something in English about not expecting a lot from people with terminal cancer. I thanked everyone profusely, but in Mandarin until I realized that they all had no idea what I was saying, so switched back to German. Then it was off to explore Berlin with a digital SLR. Fun stuff. Time to go back to sleep for a little bit.

So, tomorrow is the anniversary of my birth. Yippee? I have no plans. And no one to do anything with. Boo hoo. Actually, I am ok with doing this for and with and by myself (for the most part - I know that even islands are part of a greater whole). Unfortunately, I didn't do anything about getting someone in for respite. I just can't get my mind around it yet somehow. I will, though. I have 60 hours to use in a couple of months. Eeeek! Anyway, I was planning on getting a massage - but have not done anything about that yet. Other than that, no exciting plans. Pizza and wings for dinner, probably. And maybe an artichoke. 

Part of the reason for my lack of motivation to do anything is because I am going to have to run the show the rest of the week, as my "staff" all were too busy to work. I really need to find a good deputy. Someone who could even take over for me if I were to change jobs. Finding someone I trust enough to do that hasn't proven easy.

Aha! I have booked a massage with an unknown (to me - I am sure someone knows her somewhere...) masseuse for tomorrow afternoon. Pizza and wings for dinner for sure. And that is the extent of my birthday plans. Oh, and to try and not do one single solitary thing for the Smith. That would be novel.

Great - beer made me sick again. Sigh. I had some Sierra Nevada and suddenly had the urge to perform reverse peristalsis. Crap. Good thing I enjoy throwing up now and again. Sad that it is the day before my birthday. We will see if leftovers and some other beer has the same effect. I hope not...

Awake at last?

This morning around 7:15 am, mom was calling out to get help to the bathroom. She doesn't really need help to the bathroom - she just likes to have help to the bathroom. And, go figure, I like to get some sleep. So I didn't answer. It was kinda funny to hear her talk about where is everyone (like there are more people in the house than just her and me). My favorite line was "Where is everybody? Trying to sleep? Ha!" Then, grumble, grumble, grumble as she comes down the hall to the bathroom. Made me smile. In my sleep. Sadly, though, she had made enough noise for long enough that I am awake at last. Yippee.

Now to do some Smith Stuff before the hordes descend at work - I can work on two computers there or three, before anyone else comes in and wants to use them. Update the slide show, set up heating/cooling, make playlists for the movie and for Spotify, and play with the movie ticket face a bit. Oh, and start work on the Mail Blast for this week. Those are my exciting early Monday Morning Smith Tasks. Huzzuh!

More Smith stuff - and I am feeling a little frustrated there - couldn't find a cord that is pretty important - and the people who should know where the cord is are claiming ignorance. I will look again tomorrow afternoon. 

And more Smith Stuff - I have been working on the Mail Blast and a couple other things for hours it feels like. I think I have solved two more "issues" that were had with Theatre Manager = finding Will Call tickets and exporting email addresses to another email program. Then I spent some time working on the email blast. Oh, said that before. Anyway, my brain is feeling mushy. I will finish this up tomorrow. When, I hope, I will also find the copy of a movie I have misplaced. Sigh.

Broken Chair

Someone broke a chair in my mom's room and didn't mention it to me. I don't blame them. It always feels weird to break something that isn't yours. Oh well. I will do my best to fix it. One day.

Meanwhile, yesterday, I sorted a big box of papers - I think I let go of about 5 pieces of paper. I was looking for those documents Karl wanted me to find for my taxes. But I didn't find any. I have two other boxes of papers, but they are from when I first moved up here - still - I will go through them at some point today. After I head to the Smith and help with electronic ticket sales again.

At the Smith helping out with electronic tickets sales. So far only one Box Office person is trained. Sigh. Baby steps.

Tried a new cooking methodology tonight - baking bacon. It turned out ok - not as crispy as I would like - maybe it just would have taken more time. I will try it again. It certainly seems less messy than frying on the stove top. I also made baked omelette muffins again - this time with muffin wrappers - and still they came out unwilling to pop out of their muffin tins. Grr. I will keep trying this, because they are easier than frying them and I like less effort in general.

Circling the papers

It took about an hour and a half to go through the big box o' papers that I had accumulated over the past three years - to no avail. Poo.

Harry Potter is making me fat

Because I am enjoying listening to the Harry Potter books on Audio, I am finding excuses to stay in the kitchen. Late night, my excuse lately has been bread products that get toasted and then covered with butter. Then I add cream cheese to one and honey to the other. Yum city, but I can't see my shoes anymore. Sigh. I think I am wearing shoes...

The day has been passable. I did, finally, get my act together and start sorting papers. I did not see one of the 1099s papers that Karl thought I needed. My guess is because all of my debts were under $10k that they didn't bother to report them. Who knows? I am going to roll the dice and submit my taxes and see what happens. The worst that will happen is that I will have to file some other forms and not get my refund (if I am getting a refund)(which I should - I think anyone who makes less than $50k a year ought to get all of their taxes back - all, not just a bit - every penny) for a while. 

Great Friday!

It is going to be a great day. I can just feel it! (Ok, no, I can't, not really. I woke up feeling a little worse for wear for some reason.) The reason I wrote what I wrote is because today is "Good" Friday. See what I did there? 

I got a lot done yesterday for the Smith. I am about a third of the way through my instructions on how to use Theatre Manager for selling Movie Tickets. I don't know that I will finish it in time for Saturday, but that doesn't really matter as I plan to go and be there for whoever is doing the box office for the next few showings. 

Just paid all the bills that were lying around. Now if only I could start sorting papers...

Why does it feel like Saturday to me? Weird. 

Lunch is done - time for a little nap and then off to the Smith to help out there for a bit. Sigh.

No nap, though I did sit quietly for most of fifteen minutes.

Stuff and nonsense. Watched a movie. More tomorrow. 

Actively Avoiding

That pile of papers in the orange room is mocking me. Every time I walk past there, it looks at me with a glint in its eyes. It knows I need to buckle down and go through what could very easily be a wild goose chase - since I probably threw away anything from creditors after the bankruptcy - but you never know. My hoarding, must save just in case mind set might have led me to save the pieces of paper. And it all could be moot - the creditors could have sent their paperwork to the Fed and actually checked the "bankruptcy" box. Anything is possible. We shall see if I can get my act together and tackle that project at some point soon. 

The library wrote and told me that my next Harry Potter book came in! Huzzuh! So, I went down and got it and did a little bit of Smith stuff. Made lunch and did more Smith work. And I get to head in to the Smith for a meeting this afternoon. All in all a pretty easy day - despite the amount of work. It is such a lovely day outside, that I think I will ride my bike downtown. Yippee!!

I did, I did, I did ride my bike downtown. Hooray!!

Tonight's movie was the Stephen Hawking Biopic The Theory of Everything. I enjoyed it. It is interesting how thoughts he was just thinking at one point longish ago are taken for seemingly granted nowadays. 

After watching the movie, I watched a couple of episodes of Fringe and then was about to go to sleep when I remembered that I had to set up a mail blast to go out Friday morning at 10:00 am. Glarp. I had most of it down, just needed to add/change some graphics, tweak verbiage and such, create links and look them up and bob's my uncle - not really. I don't have an uncle bob. More's the pity...

Up and at 'em

When I was a kid, I thought it was "Up and Atom." Yes, I like(d) science. 

I woke up around 7:30 am this morning and have been cranking away, sort of, on stuff - mostly for the Smith. Yay. I needed to get some things done before other staff members got on the machines. I know that a volunteer comes in this morning and will be on the Slide-Show computer all day. And there are often two people signed onto Theatre Manager during the day, which means that a third person can't. Sigh. That is one of the more frustrating bits about Theatre Manager. Whatever. Maybe their pricing model will change one day. Anything is possible. 

My laptop screen needs a cleaning!

Oooh, Kelly showed me yet another computer to play with - this is a teeny weeny IBM laptop - I mean maybe 10 inches across. The battery has died, which isn't the end of the world. I am going to see if I can get Theatre Manager up and running on it. If I can, I will try to use it in the Ticket Booth for movies. Since it is so small. Something to try this afternoon when I head in.

I get to show the movie tonight. I am not excited by it. The movie is fine, I just don't want to be stuck there, at the Smith, for three hours. Grrrr. No one else asked for the date and when I begged, no one responded - well, not no one - I think Darnell responded that he had other plans that evening.

And no one is responding to the SPA event. Well, two people have and they were both negatives. This will not do. If no one has responded by close of day, I will have to send out a reminder text. Really don't want to have to do that. And I really don't want to have to run the show - I would like my birthday week to be as free as possible. I know that is too much to ask, seriously. 

Uneventful movie showing in terms of things going wrong. On the other hand, I did a few hours of work - first getting the ticket system working for movies. Yay. We had a couple of little glitches - wrong ticket printer first, then not knowing to click a certain place to get receipts for credit cards and not knowing how to run a report that broke down how many people paid how. But they got worked through. I need to add some steps to my list of how to do things, but that is not a big deal. Then I got the Kiosk up and running with Time and Temp. I don't know why it glitched before, but it is working now. Or at least it was when I left. Then I worked on getting the teeny laptop up and running - still need to add printing capabilities to it - but that will be easily done tomorrow. Chatted with a man who worked at the colleges and knew my mom and knew of my father. And generally kicked movie night butt! Huzzuh!

Did we have dinner?

This was the question I woke up to this morning at 7:30 am. Mom was concerned that we hadn't had dinner. Had we? What did we have? (We had chicken with sauce and cheese - sort of chicken parmesan like except we didn't actually have any parmesan cheese - asparagus and mashed potatoes.) This was all really a way for mom to tell me that she was hungry. Which is a good thing. So I got her a yogurt which seemed to mollify her. Yay.

The one hour copier set-up visit ended up taking 2.5 hours - not because of the copier set-up, but I got caught up in a lot of other things. Yay?

It has been a much busier Smith day than I had anticipated. I still have things to do - I did just add another movie to the month's list. And I need to add it to the Slide Show - which I will do tomorrow morning at some point. I am still fighting spam and junk on one of the computers I bought for the Smith. If I can't solve the problems, I will take it to Damian and see if he wants to take a crack at it. It is just way too frustrating to work with at this point. Grrrr. I hate, hate, hate windows machines. Greedy companies agree to put crap on their machines so they are guaranteed some money. Poo on them. 

I did look at the bills I had to pay and they can all wait until after April 1st when mom's bank account will be a teeny bit replenished. Sigh. 

Tomorrow is April 1st! How cool is that? I really need to dig through my papers and see if I can find any of the 1099c's that Karl thinks I have. Grr and poo. IRS is for ninnies. Will I remember to rabbit?

I am so far behind in my correspondence. Sigh.

What? Still March?

How did that happen? I thought it was April. Sigh...

I really need to make up a quick to do list for today. I don't have a lot of stuff scheduled which is good. That means I have a lot of time to do stuff. I know I have a couple of calls to make to the Alzheimer's association. I would like to see about getting a respite person in. Mom doesn't take well to strangers generally, but we can hope. I also need to look for those papers Karl seems to think I have. I probably did get them, but I am afraid I might have tossed them since they came from creditors that I no longer cared about. I am tempted to just let Karl file and then worry about it afterwards. It isn't like I was counting on a refund from the blinkety-blank IRS anyway. Why does anyone who earns less than $50k pay anything in US taxes anyway? Every penny of that money that we do get to keep is used anyway, just to keep our heads about water - or a roof over our heads, food in our belly's and electricity for our lives. Sigh. I would like to send back the camera I got that was, once again, the wrong sort. How on earth am I supposed to get the right one? Grrrr. I would like to do some Smith stuff - take in the laptop that I have here at home, set up the Movies for April in Theatre Manager (we really need a third permanent log on), and all that sort of thing. Some of it I can do from home. Much of it, actually, if I can be sure that I can have one of the Theatre Manager spots available to me. I would also like to call Rosanne at some point and thank her for the early tremendously generous Birthday present she sent me. I think that is my to do list.

Oh, get the Dave Crosby ticket selling announcement out ought to be on the list. And send out work requests for SPA. I don't know that I can get three people to help them. We shall, of course, see.

Tonight will be chicken for dinner. Yum. And what else? Some sort of vegetable. I believe I still have potato in the fridge - if it isn't bad. Gotta check that. Speaking of which, mom has gotten some of her appetite back. Yippee and huzzuh! I fed her almost as much as I was used to feeding her before and she ate almost all of it! Phew!

Talk about a shit storm! Eeek! (My browser keeps changing that to Week!) We had a murder (or two or three) of crows in our trees the last few days. And they decided that they wanted to help fertilize my lawn. And my sidewalk. And my car. Ew! I went and got it all washed off the car at the car wash. Yay!

I started playing a game, Red Faction: Guerrilla, which is ok at best. I got it free, so I am not too distressed over its lack of quality. I think I will put off playing it for now and play one of my good games that I have lying around. Which game to play, though, is the question. And when.

March is ending

In case you hadn't realized, it will soon be April. Eeek! How did that happen? Hopefully, with the end of March will come the end of winter. That would be nifty. The mini-blizzard the other day and the cold temperatures really aren't as fun as they could be. 

Yesterday was a pretty long day at the Smith. I went early to finish up from the night before. Went in again to get ready for a show. Went in again to make sure that everyone was playing well together. I hope the event went well in the end. Today I need to go in and set up everything for a two showings of a movie. Yippee! 

I got mom some prunes. And some prune juice. I don't know that I have had much prune juice over the years. Worf thought it was good. Maybe mom will like it. Heaven knows she didn't like the ensure like drink that I got her. Sigh. I am hoping that her shingles will be over soon. That would be nice for us all. 

Sometimes I feel like I am that frog in the slowly heating pan of water. 

Tried to watch a movie with mom last night, but she slept through it. It was ok - The Soloist - Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx. Definitely had good music. And the story was decent. So, glad I saw it. Wish that mom had stayed awake for it. 

When it was time for sleep, mom complained that she could have gone to sleep "hours ago" which was funny to me because "hours ago" she had been asleep...

Got a lot done at the Smith in my one hour there. The legs and borders all look happy. I played a little bit of everything on the movie server and it all went ok. Now I am home where I am doing more Smith work. Yay!

I almost rode my bike to work this morning, but I chickened out when I saw the breath in front of my face. It has warmed up considerably since then, so a bike ride may just be in my near future. Yippee!

Well, crap. I just was moving my lap desk and it slipped from my hands and scraped up my laptops screen. Poo even. Oh well - this is not the end of the world. Right? Yup, I thought so.

Up and at 'em

I get to go into the Smith again. I think I will go in sooner rather than later - get up, do my morning ablutions and then head into get the lighting equipment set up. I don't want to be in the way of the sound people taking away their stuff. I jus need to get through this and then I have an easy week or so. Huzzuh! 

Hopefully tomorrow I will get to looking through my papers for any of the 1099c's that I am supposed to have had from the creditors who forgave debts to me under my bankruptcy. I don't remember receiving any, actually. Not that I paid much attention to anything around that time, being sort of mentally and emotionally shut down about it. Not a high point of my fiscal life. 

Oh yeah, I forgot that we had snow last night. Not feet of it, just an inch or two that stuck. Yippee.

What happened?! Eeeeeeeek! Look at the time. Zzzzzzzzzz

Two posts in one day?

Trying to catch up - I had the post all written last night and then got confused, what with working at the Smith when I thought I was going to have a night off, to realizing I needed to go to sleep early anyway since I had to be at the Smith this morning at seven - I plain forgot to post the silly blog post yesterday. Grrr. I am still aiming for 31 posts this month, so I hope to get this post written and up. Though it is going to be another long day at the Smith. 

We got the lighting all done in a couple of hours - but we were going at a very relaxed pace as far as I am concerned. But we got everything done. His board was not that much different from our board so I could actually be a little helpful. Yay. 

Had a nap, which helped a lot. I always feel a little discombobulated when I have to get up at a time that is not natural to my body. And only 5 hours of sleep doesn't help all that much either. I like sleep. Generally.

I sat and dozed through the show this morning. I will probably doze through the show this afternoon as well. There really isn't anything for me to do besides make sure that the place doesn't burn down. And then we have load-out and restore. The biggest problem will be moving the legs and the weights around again. Sigh. Though the first electric will need a good deal of work to get back to the rep plot, pretty much everything else was left unchanged. Hopefully I won't be there all night. The difficult thing is going to be getting mom her dinner. My plan is to leave as soon as Terren gets there and come back and feed mom and then head back down before the show starts. Joy and rapture.

And tomorrow is another show. And a little bit of work will be needed to be done for that. I hope that Darnell and Teajay will be able to handle running the show. 

I glimpsed the shingles on mom's side and boy howdy are they scary looking. But they are scabbing over and I hope that they will be leaving soon. Her anti-viral is done with, which is great. Speaking of mom, a long time friend of hers sent her a postcard. While mom is not always clear who sends her mail, she does love getting it (hint, hint).

Just got back from the Smith. I still have work to do on resetting, but it will just have to wait until tomorrow. I will head in around ten and get some of it done. Really, I just wanted to get out of there.

Sleepy already

Ok, I am just sleepy thinking about being at the Smith at 5 in the morning tomorrow. Sigh. I got up at 8 this morning and I am dragging. And I completely forgot about getting gels for the show. Know what? It will all work out, I am sure.

First stop this morning was The Smith. I wanted to be sure that the legs were up, the piano out and the sound system put away. Two out of three happened last night apparently and Terren put away our sound system this morning so there was nothing for me to do. Yippee! Instead, I did some other Smith work. Yay.

Got mom dressed and to her dentist appointment today. It is getting more and more difficult to get her anywhere. She is, though, a bit more biddable at times. Mixed blessings. Anyway, her teeth are ok, especially considering that she brushes her teeth, probably badly, once a week. Or sometimes two or three times in one day and then not again for two weeks. Sigh.

So, this morning I got a call from the incoming show saying - oh, hey, by the way, we were totally wrong about what time we were going to arrive, so can we change the crew call from tomorrow at 5:30 in the morning to 7 tonight? Thanks. That'd be great. What? Really? You didn't know this a week ago? Or even two or three days ago? Couldn't figure that out? Luckily a few of my staff are coming in to help out tonight. My hope is that we will be able to knock this out tonight and not have to have a 5:30 call tomorrow morning. But I am a bit chafed by this. It seems really unprofessional to me. But what do I know? I haven't been working in the theatre for 40 years...

Oooh, maybe I could crowdfund my trip across North America. As I think I have mentioned - my thought is to get a Mobile Home - teeny one that is electric or something - and go to all the mini golf places, pool halls (if any still exist), breweries and brewpubs and write about them. Hadn't thought about getting people to give me money upfront. Oh, and I could passively run for president at the same time.

Loose Ends

Life is loose ends? Who knows? Anyway, I finished listening to the first Harry Potter book. I wonder if there is an audience for watching the movies on the big screen again. I will float the idea at the film committee. It would have to be an Event - with vendors and food and things. Butterbeer! And other things. I think there are seven movies - three on Saturday, four on Sunday or vice versa? I would also like to show all three Hobbit Movies. Costly, but I think we might be able to make our money back. I have started on the second audio book. Yay.

Call me "cable pulling guy!" Yup, this morning, I helped our electrician with some very difficult cable pulling. I stood there and every time he pulled the cable from where he was, I pulled the cable from where I was so he could have some slack to work with. He said he was going to get me a certificate, but I think he was joking.

My good deed for the month has been accomplished - in looking through some papers, I came upon 6 movie gift certificates that a lovely young lady gave me for my birthday a few years back. They are only good in Raleigh and since I don't envision myself living there again anytime soon (or ever in fact), I offered them up on Facebook. Two friends asked of them, so I am mailing each of them three certificates. Good deed accomplished! Huzzuh!

Every Wednesday an email comes from Travel Zoo. Some weeks I only drool over one item, sometimes I drool over five or six. I miss traveling and being on the road. Sigh. It is so sad that my relatives live so far away and that none are willing to come spell me for long enough so that I can go on a real vacation. Then again, all too soon, mom won't be around, so...

Speaking of mom, I think her shingles are definitely winding down. I heard the aide today saying that they looked better. That would be nice. I think another week and the external manifestations of the shingles will be gone. Here's hoping that there is no residual nerve pain. That would suck.

Pinched

The gate at the head of the stairs got me finally. I guess I was just not paying attention. A little pinch on my right pointing finger. I woke up this morning and there was an actual owie there. Owie!

One of the pluses about mom's current state is that she seems to be using less tissue paper in general. Small blessings?

My brain is feeling fuzzy. Maybe it is lack of good sleep. Who knows? I do know that I am a tiny bit concerned about the shows coming up. Not in a large way. I mean, it is the theatre, right? It will all work out in the end. (What is that line from Shakespeare in Love?) And it is a finite thing, this too shall pass. Eventually it will be Sunday again and both shows will be over and done with at The Smith. So, what's to worry about? Nada. But I digress. I am also concerned about how awake my crew is going to be on Friday morning at 5:30 am. I guess I will need to be in bed around 9 in order to be at the Smith by 5 ish. Sigh. And I don't know if anyone is going to be able to stay and work the shows - besides Terren who has to since no one else on my staff (well, maybe Pablo) is able to run Greg's sound console.

Went in and fixed a problem I had created with Theatre Manager. I will get my mind around that program at some point. It is starting to make some sense to me. Not a lot, but some. Later in the day I got the ticket booth printer up and running. It helps when both ends of the cable are plugged in as they ought to be. Sigh.

Watched Birdman tonight. Not sure what I thought about it. I have never really enjoyed Michael Keaton as an actor. I like Ed Norton generally. And Emma Stone, well, I love her. Overall, I liked it. But I didn't love it.

Getting fat

Seems to me that I am eating for two - making up for mom not eating by eating everything in sight. It will even out eventually, I do believe in moderation in all things (including moderation). 

Smith day all day. Yippee. I got a couple of steps further along in the setting up the ticket booth as a place from which to sell tickets. With a lot of help from the Artsman tech support people. I didn't know there was a green switch that I needed to move in order for tickets to be usable. That would have been a useful piece of information to have from the beginning. And it turned out that there were a few things unstated in their tech notes - first - that you can only use the browser option without an ethernet switch if you have a mac - of course - and that only Firefox seems to work. After we got those things worked out, we actually got the printer to accept its changed IP address. Huzzuh! I tested changing my printer in Theatre Manager to the new printer and I got half of a yippee - I guess that would either be a yip or a pee. I will work on it more tomorrow or the next day. 

And that was most of my day. I did meet with a guy who is going to help try to get me the right boxes so that I can connect sound and laptop images wherever we want them to go. After our Electrician did his thing, we now have a whole lot of plugs in the projection booth - so I replugged everything into their own separate plugs which makes me happy. I also replugged some of the other cords to try to make things a bit neater. And it is a bit neater. And everything that I tested worked. I didn't test the BluRay player or the laptop - maybe tomorrow. We shall see.

Amongst that, I also went to the bank, made lunch for mom, went to the library and took a nap. Fun stuff. 

Soon it will be dinner time. I can hardly wait. Mom is getting salad, salmon and tater tots while I get chicken pockets, salad and I don't know what else. Maybe a tot or two.

Mom ate about two thirds of her salad, a bit of salmon and a few tater tots. She is, though, mostly asleep. Not sure what to do about that...And she hates the ensure stuff - too sweet. Hmm...

Look, more snow!

Now, "look" would make one think that I am putting in a picture of the new snowfall that we got last night. And, if I get my act together, I might just do that. Probably won't, but anything is possible.

Feeling a little tired this morning. Oh well - gotta push through a little work at the Smith - getting the projector back to baseline for the movies this afternoon and evening. The group that came in yesterday needed a lot of video tweaking to get it how they wanted it - and to accommodate using the cyc(lorama) as the projection screen. It would be really clever of me to write down these settings, wouldn't it. Sigh.

Went in and the settings were what they ought to have been. I don't know what that is about. Honestly, I am not making an effort to understand this projector that well. We will, hopefully, soon get a new projector. And server. And become, presto, DCI compliant. That would be nifty. Though movies that we get on DCP are probably going to be fairly costly. Rental and shipping. Anyway, it only took me half an hour to do all the movie stuff I had thought of. Then I took another half hour working on getting the second ticket printing printer set up - to no avail. I will try again on Monday. It really oughtn't to be as difficult as it is. Why they don't just factory install it with a large (high) IP address, I don't know. What ever. Maybe the Artsman support people will be a great help. Anything is possible.

Home became lunch land for a bit. I made mom a small lunch of crackers (she didn't eat them) a third of a banana, some ensure type drink and some orange glop. Oh, and hot coffee. She took a long time to take her pills, but did a decent job on the food. Still holding out hope that her diminished appetite is due to the pain from the shingles. Which, apparently, is getting worse. Fingers crossed that the shingles and the pain go away soon.

I am playing a sniper world war two game on my xBox. Not the best game, but entertaining in its way. I am also cruising through the first Harry Potter book on audio. Put a hold on the second. I wish that mom would like or understand Audio books. Sigh.

The second things that came out of the new oven - six chicken pockets and two pizza pockets! Yum!

These turned out much better than my last ones

More pictures! I am working on a de-cluttering track on Daily Challenge. Yay! I am only going to do it for 9 days for now, but will go back to it as it seems like it will be what I need a lot of in my life just now. I don't think Daily Challenge has a dating track. Hmm. I will have to see. But I am doing the challenges. One of them was to declutter my kitchen counters - something I did a few years ago when I first moved back. Here are the newly cleaned counters:

Left Counter all spiffy

Right Counter even spiffier

I hope to keep it about this clean, give or take, more or less...

Ditto with this counter - sans the laptop and the Harry Potter Book

Some of the stuff that came off the counters (not the puzzle stuff...)