Those Four little words we all long to hear.

It has been a while since I tried to make a quiche. So I attempted one today. I think it turned out pretty well, all things considered. Mom used to eat them at least. Anyway, tonight I head those four little words everyone who cooks a meal for someone else longs to hear, "It tastes like cardboard." Music to my ears for sure.

My mom thinks that I am super valuable to the Smith. She asks me if they appreciate me. I think they do, most of the time. I am making a list of things that have happened during my tenure at the Smith, big and small. It is actually a pretty impressive list. Ok, I think it is impressive. I might ask Kelly to weigh in at some point. And maybe Jessica. I guess this is partly because I want to be known partially for what I have done and not just for what I have done lately.

It is weird. I haven't really done much today, yet I feel like I have accomplished a good bit. I am slowly getting closer to being ready to video tape a puzzle put together. A friend asked me why I wanted to create the video - and I realized the answer: I love time lapse photography. In college, a couple friends and I put together a little stop action film. I wish I could find it. I found a lot of my other film work - ok, not a lot - I have found a few pieces. All crap - except for the Alice in Wonderland bit I did in High School - it had Abigail Saltonstall and Karen Bowlby in it - go me! And Doug Orr, Hunt Stehli and James Marquand. I wonder if I ought to digitize it and put it up on the internet. Yes, I think that will be another project sometime soon. I have it on videotape somewhere so I can get that digitally transferred somehow - actually I think Karl (my brother)(who doesn't read this blog - or much of anything since he is so busy!) might actually have that technology. Hmm. Anyway, I remember seeing time lapse photography of all sorts of things - flowers growing, buildings being built, I just thought a puzzle being put together would be cool. And it might help me to see my process. And document my obsession if I time stamp. Can I time stamp a time lapse film? Hmm. I don't know. We shall see, I guess.

One game down, many still to go. I finished Assassin's Creed Liberation today. I do enjoy the Assassin's Creed games - great historic places they recreate - and all the climbing around and exploring is fun. And there are some elements of Role Playing involved - not a lot, but a little.

And that is about all, really. And working on that Smith accomplishment list. And trying to get through a teeny headache - I don't often get headaches, so I am confused whence this one came. Maybe not enough water?

Despite starring Emma Stone, Amazing Spider-Man 2 was pretty bad. Fun, but bad. Glad I rented it from Netflix instead of watching it in the theatre!

Run Augustus Run

I liked that movie - Run Lola Run - didn't love it, but thought it was interesting at least. I think. From what I recall.

I like feeling like I am running every day. That isn't fun. And that is how I have felt all week. Ick. I mean, I am not exhausting myself or anything. It isn't like I am up at dawn (ok, sometimes I wake before the sun is up, but I generally go back to sleep after puttering for an hour or so on the internet) and then go, go, go all day. This is what was happening: wake up, putter for a little on the computer, get up, check on mom, go to the Smith - work for two hours getting some stuff done, not accomplishing all I wanted to accomplish, head home - make lunch, clean the kitchen, eat lunch, check on mom a few times, sit and check email and suddenly it is 2 and I head back to The Smith - work for a couple of hours, which sometimes turned into three hours - come back, check on mom, head to the grocery store (I love fresh groceries) - return home - sit for a few minutes - checking email (usually fruitlessly in terms of who I would like to hear from but usually some last minute stuff for the Smith) - cook dinner - snarf dinner and head to the Smith to show a film. Get home, check on mom, and eventually unwind enough to sleep comfortably.

Today (Saturday) I was planning on relaxing until I had to head into the Smith. Though I must admit, I am thinking of heading in and working on the Slide show a bit - I have a couple of things to add and want to add a couple of new Smith/Graphic slides that are going to take some work. But we had snow today, from what I can see from my bed through the bedroom window, we had a decent amount of what looks like pretty heavy snow, which means a modicum of shoveling is in order - and car cleaning off...oh, and bills to pay and mom to check on...Sigh. Run, Augustus, Run! (Or am I Forrest...)

I am sick, sick I tell you!

How do people survive ailments of import? I had a tough time falling asleep last night just because I had a little head cold! Glarg! Hopefully this shall pass soon. It would be aided, of course, by plenty of sleep, fluids and a modicum of exercise, none of which has been happening for the past several weeks because of all the time I have been spending at The Smith. Don't get me wrong, I am happy to have the stuff to do at The Smith. I just also need time to sleep and such. And of course to spend time with my mom, which is my primary reason for being in Geneva.

It was a two movie day Saturday. At the Smith, I projected Michael Cera in Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus. Overall, I thought it was ok. I am not a huge Cera fan. He is good, not great. The story was sort of rambling and all over the place. As many of the theatre goes said, we weren't sure what the point really was. Still, I am glad I saw it.

The other movie was Moonrise Kingdom. Great movie! I thoroughly enjoyed it. A Wes Anderson movie with lots of high powered actors in it. Very quirky and fun. The two lead kids were very entertaining. I had put it on for mom before I left for the Smith not knowing what her reaction would be. Turns out she loved it! Yay! I am sure she missed a lot of the subtleties. Nevertheless, the fact that she liked it is great!

The NY Banjo Summit went really well! The people who showed up to work for The Smith, Kate, Daniel and Charlie, did an amazing job. Kate did lights, Charlie and Daniel moved equipment and helped with set-up and I supervised excellently (if i must say so myself) (and a lot of other stuff...just sayin'). Mark and Bill from Rosewood Sound got their stuff set up and working and Sound Check was right on time. The show went off without a hitch. The music was great, there was a decent sized audience. Load out was very smooth and I think everyone was happy. Can't beat that.

I had a minor Smith epiphany. There is a crunch in a couple of weekends when we have three events right in a row. Dick Clark, Lone Bellow and then Ballet X. Ballet X is the most demanding technically - especially their need for a dance floor and for a completely different configuration of lighting that the house plot. I was trying how to get all of it done between the end of Lone Bellow and 8 am the next morning when the Ballet is to load-in. I think we can get the marley dance floor down to relax after Lone Bellow leaves. The lighting, we might be able to get away with reconfiguring the lights before lone bellow and just using that set-up (minus the side booms/trees) for both Lone Bellow and Ballet X.

Who is the Person?

I am the person! I rocked it at the Smith yesterday. My intention was to get the house lighting plot rehung, recircuited, refocused and regeled. And all of that got done. Well, one bit still remains, one of the two boom boxes or lighting positions in the front of house still has a little work to be done. Hopefully we will be able to accomplish that during load-in. We shall, of course, see. Anyway, I got there and was immediately pulled in three directions. Luckily, Kate was working with me and started to plug along on getting the house ploy back in shape.

First visitor, John from the Geneva Historical Society. He was borrowing some pipe and draping for an event. He had never used it before, so I gave him a quick training, loaded his truck and sent him on his way. Next, Chuck, the guy who seems to run the bar, came and asked me to get the video working. Sigh. I know nothing to less than nothing about what is wired where regarding the video. I tried a few things and then spoke with the man who had actually installed the camera. I had never noticed it there before! Cool! Then he mentioned that there was a plug/transformer that could have become unplugged. Sure enough, it was. So I plugged it in, fiddled with some wires and amazingly got video. Crappy, ugly video, but lots better than nothing, I hope.

Next, I wanted to get the red lights behind the busts house left fixed. I climbed up there with various things - light bulbs, trash bag, step unit etc. and proceeded to a) put in some bulbs, b) started to clean the space and c) helped focus and replace lamps and regel the boom box on that side. Yay!

Earlier, I had climbed the sixty feet, give or take, up to our grid and catwalk in order to add some weight and take some weight off of some battens. It wasn't all that scary. Yippee!

Oh, I forgot. A potential helper/student came to be interviewed and to get a tour of the Smith. Nice person and I hope that we will work together at some point in the not too distant future.

Mixed into all this, I tried to clean up for the upcoming show. Putting away things, neatening and generally preparing. Yay!

Eating for health

Eating to enhance one's health makes sense to me. Seems sort of common sensical in fact. I swear, though, that some food makes me sick. Not food sickness, sick to my stomach sick, but low grade infection or cold sort of sick. Perhaps it isn't the food itself, but a germ that happens to have piggy-backed on it. But though I believe in germs as a transmission methodology for illness, I also believe in the immune system, mine in particular, that prevents such transmission in most cases. I do know that sometimes I eat food from a fast food place and I feel depressed afterwards. I think that is some sort of psychic transmission - not just the normal depression that comes from doing something that really, we know, not so deep down, that what we did was perhaps not the best, most healthfullyness thing to have done. Anyway. I am sick right now. Not Big Sick, but little sick. A little sore throat, a little stuffed nose. Poo.

I swear that I asked mom if she would like to see a Marx brothers movie. And I swear she said she would like to. So I ordered a set of Marx Borther's movies from Amazon. The other day, I asked if she wanted to watch one. Her response? "I never really liked them." Great. Well, luckily, I recall enjoying them! Yay even!

Learned a lot at the Smith today. Played with the fire curtain. Fun and easy. Way too expensive, but that is the price of safety, apparently. I also spent an hour with people who know things about boilers! Wow! We have a boiler in our house, so I was a leg up from someone who doesn't know about steam heat. Still, it will take some maintaining. Joy.

Mastication and Fire Curtain

Eww, mastication. In public. Sometimes I have to watch, sometimes I can avoid watching. Sadly, I can't turn my ears off. Sigh.

My friend asked me to talk a bit more about he fire curtain - or as it is called, a safety curtain. In larger theatres that have proscenium arches, there used to be a large fire hazard on stage. Gas lighting, and then early electric lighting was fraught with possibilities for starting a blaze. A curtain was rigged to close off the stage from the auditorium in case of a fire breaking out - allowing the patrons to escape. In the old days, these were often made of asbestos, because they were flame retardant. The curtain was sort of like a wall, only made of fabric.

In The Smith's case, our fire curtain was deteriorating. We had to have it replaced. The modern safety curtain that we have is made of Zetex - apparently made from fiberglass. It was a huge job. The new curtain weighs almost twice as much as the old one. It is run electronically - so motors and winches had to be installed. The old smoke pockets weren't large enough to easily accommodate the track into which the curtain was to be set, so they had to be removed - large pieces of steel reaching from the stage to the grid - about 60 feet worth! Then new ones had to be installed! Add to this all the wiring that had to be done. And a manual release system, so that people on either side of the proscenium (Backstage - not front of stage) could pull a handle and have the curtain lower. Not a small job!

I just got a call saying they were done. Yippee! I am heading down there in a few minutes to lock up and will get training tomorrow. Even cooler, in my book, is that I found out that it is ok to paint on the fabric, as long as we use fire retardant paint. Huzzuh!

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!

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.

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!