Bad night...

I was getting ready to go into rehearsal for Little Shop of Horrors last night and I started feeling a little dizzy, then got a BASTARD of a headache. SO I laid down for just a few minutes. I took my blood glucose and It was heading south. It was still in the normal range, but getting low. I tried to get up but my head was just spinning. I laid back down and woke up at 730. I tried to get up and go in then, but I was shivering and freezing, and shaking inside, so I stayed home. I got up and fixed something to eat, and curled up in my spiffy new chair (had to shoo 3 cats off of it first) to watch TV. It was Martha Apprentice night. (whoot) and then it was E-ring. Not really sure I like that program. I like the premise of it, but I do not like the character that Dennis Hopper plays. He is too sarcastically funny, and should not be in a position like he has. He should be more in tune with what is going on. Now Ben Bratt's character is just FINE!!!!! I think with some tweeking and some new writers, the show would be pretty good.

I drank a cup of Constant Comment tea, and went back to bed. I snuggled down to enjoy the storm, and then the pain started in. My hip, my knee, and my back started hurting and aching so badly, it kept me up most of the night. I hurt clear through my body.

When I finally DID get to sleep, I got about 3 hours worth and then I woke up with someone trying to crawl under the covers with me. I could not imagine who it could be, because I could feel them the full length of me, so I knew it was not a cat. Sadie was still asleep in her pen, so I tried to roll over and could not. I was being pushed off the bed!! TILLY!!!!! She gets right up against you and tries to get UNDER you, and in so doing takes over the whole bed. I have a queen sized bed, so there should be plenty of room for her and me.

I got up made a pot of coffee and came in to blog walk. The storm is the first wind we have had in months, and it is snowing yellow leaves from the alders. Last night you could actually smell the rain coming. Night before last, it was still and foggy, and I smelled the salty brine of the sea. I woke up and could not quite figure out where I was that I could smell the ocean so clearly. Then I realized that it was really thick fog, and then I realized that the smell came in with the fog. It lays just off shore during the day, and creeps back in at night. I was confused because there was no fog horn blowing, so I gathered that the fog had risen, and was up at my level, but was clear at sea level. Thus no horns would go off. I love the smell of the sea. It is so primoral! It awakens my senses and it is almost like I was going back to my very roots, all the way back to the very beginning when my maker decided it was time to crawl out of the sea and start walking on dry land. I could almost feel the pull back to it.

I get that way sometimes. I feel another lifetime tugging at me, from the dark depths of the universe. I never quite know from where it comes, but I have a very strong feeling that I have been recycled so to speak. I get that feeling when I am in the mountains, staring out across a valley, or looking across at a forested peak. I KNOW I have to have lived before. I am so in tune with the past, that I feel I must have lived around the middle to the late 19th century. Maybe even the late 18th century, but away from civilization. In the Mountains. I feel that pull very strongly. I feel that I am still a young soul though. SO I know I will be recycled back again. Now whether or not that will be forward or backwards I do not know, Time being the strange creature that it is, I may go so far into the future that I go right back to the very beginning. I wonder....

Wednesday Funnies

You are driving down the road in your car on a wild,
stormy night when you pass by a bus stop and you see
three people waiting for the bus:
 
1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.
 
Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing that there
could only be one passenger in your car?
 
Think before you continue reading. This is a moral/ethical dilemma
that was once actually used as part of a job application.
You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus
you should save her first. Or you could take the old friend because he
once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back.
However, you may never be able to find your perfect mate again.
 
The candidate who was hired (out of 200 applicants) had no trouble coming up with his answer. He simply answered: "I would give the car keys to my old friend and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the partner of my dreams."
Sometimes, we gain more if we are able to give up our stubborn thought limitations. Never forget to "Think Outside of the Box."
 
HOWEVER...
The correct answer is to run the old lady over and put her out of her misery,
have sex with the perfect partner on the hood of the car, then drive off with
the old friend for a few beers.
 
God, I just love happy endings.

Just a little nap...

Well I have been sleepy all day long. I got to take my Zyrtek because I did not have a show today, and I was wheezing really badly, so I took one, and slept. I hate to take them because even though I take them at bedtime, I am awake until dawn, and then I sleep all day long. Maybe I should try them in the morning. Tonight I took one, and went right to sleep!! Yay!! But only for 1 1/2 hours! Boo! Then I decided that I would just get up and fix a cup of double strength blueberry tea. SO I did. Tastes good too, just cant stand to look at it. I take coffeemate in my coffee, the powdered kind, or cream or canned milk. SO I put some in my tea tonight and it curdled into chunks. YUCK! But they did not feel nor taste like soured milk, so I just closed my eyes and drank it.

I heard from an ex-blogger friend from Tennessee, tonight, and she said to tell everyone hello, and that she is fine and did not get hit too hard from the storms. She has another kitty now too. She would love to get back into blogging but made a promise that she would not. SOOOOOO We just email every so often. It is really amazing what friends this blogging phenomena has brought to me. Even the ones that have had to quit, like Dorothy K. And TW, and Leslie (USA), and Carol C. All will answer a long lengthy email when I send them one, or a card on their birthday.

I had to postpone my Friday night Date with Bob this last week, because I had a show and he did not want to go again. SO I baked Halibut tonight, and he came over with a DVD to watch. The Halibut was fresh, right out of the freezer, but really fresh and only dead for an hour or so when he got frozen. It was soooo good! I had tried grilling it before, and it just got all dried out and taste-less, so tonight I baked it on a bed of sliced onions and garlic paste. Poured 1 cup of white wine, some fresh rosemary right from the garden, and dotted it with butter then baked it skin side up for about 45 minutes. Oh Yummy!! Nice and moist and flaky! It could have used some dill on it though, I will try that next time. Cooked some winter squash with it too and that made a really good fall meal.

It is almost time to head over the mountains and get some apples and pears, and take more pictures of the fall color over there. Maybe around October 6 or so. Phyllis will be on vacation and maybe she would like to go.

Well my eyes are starting to droop again, time to get another hours sleep. Last night the fog was lying thick on the water, and there was a lot of traffic heading out. SO all night long BOOP, BOOP, BOOP. The big ships with their fog horns blowing would toot every three minutes. SO I laid awake listening to them. I could hear a big one coming up the sound and turning into the strait and I could also hear a big coming down the strait and turning into Puget Sound. Their horns were far apart and really low, then they got louder and closer until they were practically on top of each other. I was waiting for the sound of a CRUNCH and then the whoopwhoopwhoop of a collision horn, but all I got was their horns getting farther and farther apart, until they were well out of hearing distance. Another disaster avoided. The radar that the pilots have on their boats now are really something. They can see right through the fog and make out birds sitting on driftwood!!!

See ya tomorrow.

Navy blue deer...

It is really getting cold here at night. THe sky is crystal clear, and the heat from the day just dissapates, leaving the air brisk and just hovering above the 40 degree mark. Sure makes for some pretty nights and star watching. The moon does not come up until after midnight, so the milky way is brightly shining.

Tonight coming back from the playhouse, I drove along the back way, through the park, and along the bluff looking over the strait and the Olympic Mountains. THe sky
was just turning orange from the setting sun, and the mountains were sillhouetted in navy blue against the orange/mauve sky. I was looking for a good spot to stop and take a picture from.

I noticed there was a cruise ship just heading out to sea, and all you could see was the stern, and all the lights on the decks. It was so peaceful. I decided there probably was not enough light to get a good exposure with my digital and I did not have my 35mm with me. DRAT!! As I drove through Fort Casey, I looked over to the beach wall, and there sillhouetted against the sky was a herd of deer, just standing there, a picture perfect opportunity and I was not prepared!! GRRRRRRRRRR I knew that by the time I got home and got my other camera ready the light would be gone. There wont be another one like that in a while. Orange/mauve sky and navy blue deer and mtns. DAMN!!!

As I drove along the strand I looked on down the sound towards Seattle, and there all lined up and heading out were 3 more cruise ships. all with their cabin lights on and all full of happy people heading out on a wonderful cruise. I so wish I could go on one some day.

Saturday ramblings

Last night we taped the video of BLITHE SPIRIT, It is a video for archival purposes, and it went very well. I sat up in the booth with the videographer, calling the cues, and the actors were spot on! Not a goof in the show. They are such a great cast!!! They pull together when the going gets rough and things just run so smoothly. They laugh and have FUN! What a concept! I am so very proud of them and the job they have done. It makes all the hard work worth it.

This morning I turned CNN on and watched the updates on Rita. Looks like she minded her manners quite a bit when she made land fall. THANK GOD! Lots of rain though. And just now they showed the tracking map and it looks like all that rain is heading right for Brenda. Rita is making a slow circle back to the east/southeast. All that rain on top of that left by Katrina, might just make the lazy ole' Mississip over flow her banks. This is the time of year that the Atlantic Coast hurricanes usually hit too, SO I do not think that we have seen the last of nasty weather.

Last week I was watching update on Katrina's temper fit, and they were showing the food supplies that were being stored for distribution. COKE and PEPSI and SOFT drinks, and potato chips and doughnuts. WHAT!!!!! Those are frills, and un necessary items. Where is the flour, and the sugar, and the eggs and the meat and the canned goods that will last without refridgeration? Where is the powdered milk, and the ENSURE and the baby formulas? Maybe there is something wrong with me, but I think the starving would be better served by sending them staples! Once they are back on their feet THEN comes the treats. Mom always said if she had flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs and milk that we would not starve. We did not. We did not always eat correctly but we never went hungry. EVER. Lots of waffles, and biscuits and gravy and pancakes, and bread. And lots of Jam in the cupboard, and powdered milk. We had beans and cornbread, a LOT. With salt pork, not ham hocks. And Dad would make Mulligan Stew with a bit of hamburger. SO we ate and we learned to catch our fish, and dig our clams, and eat venison, and elk and bear. We were just always very very lucky to live in places where we COULD live off the land if we had to. And we NEVER had coke or Pepsi or potato chips. No wonder our children are out of shape.

Donna went over the mountains to see her husband this weekend and took Tilly with her. AHHHHHHH Peace! Sadie slept all night cuddles up with me, and not in her pen. And no boo-boos in the house either!! GOOD GIRL! She has come in here twice and barked and wanted to go outside, so I let her out and she runs all over the yard looking for Tilly. I think she misses her! They fight like mad when they are together, but she sure misses her today.

Another show tonight, so another late day! Then Tomorrow, I am taking my friend Barbara to the matinee, and then we are going out to dinner. She has been so busy since Butch died, and needs to slow down and relax. So this was a perfect excuse to get her to do so. I sure wish she could retire and enjoy her home. I would love to have her around more often. We are planning a weekend at her place in south Bend this fall, and then a trip to Oregon to the Lewis and Clark celebration. I am looking forward to that!

Well I have blathered on long enough, and have not said anything worth saving, so I will sign off for today and save my brain cells for another good post on Monday. I hope.

what's want to read about? Let me know and I will try and accommodate you.

Stay safe and dry!

TGIF....

Let's try Dark purple today...

I read on my comments that Leslie has put out peanuts and walnuts in her feeders too. The squirrels LOVE them. I also read somewhere, And I cant remember WHERE that peanuts will GROW where they are stashed (buried) by the squirrels. They must be RAW peanuts, right? I need to know more about this. Who's blog was it on? I went in to Albertson's after the show last night to get some bread and peanuts. I noticed that the mixed nuts are really really cheap right now, so I think I will stock up on these. I have a friend who has a walnut tree in his yard, and I get walnuts anytime I can get them away from HIS squirrels. ( :) ) I think I have 5 Douglas and THREE gray ones now along with 1 chipmunk. I just love the wildlife. I only wish I had a raccoon or two. I know they are in the woods, but they NEVER come in the yard. I have seen them out front on the street, but NEVER in my yard. The Deer were out in the woods last night, you could hear the cracking of the dry branches, as they came in closer. They know it is hunting season, and the woods behind me are off limits, and they seem to know they are safe there.



susie walnut

This is a really bad picture because I was rushing, and the screen blurred the picture, but this is the gray squirrel running off with a walnut in her mouth. It is even funnier with Lola, cause she is only about 6 inches long. The walnut is as big as her head, but she gets it!

It got really cold last night, my feet were two blocks of ice!! Could not get them warm at all, so I pulled out my fleecy socks and put them on, and woke up an hour later with my feet on FIRE!! There does not seem to be a happy medium. Getting older is the SHITS isn't it? And sometimes literally!!

I hope all you Texans and Louisianans are safe and dry. Looks like this time the powers that were sposed to, DID! Lessons learned! I would not be surprised to see the Mayor of N.O. and the Governor of LA. NOT get re-elected. Some body dropped the ball there and kicked it out of bounds, and NO ONE is admitting it. Yeah I know the GOV. Did, but Nagin did not. In fact he almost caused another mass drowning, by opening up his town to returnees, only to have to tell them to get out again. And a good thing they did, as I see that the dikes have been topped. What a shame. And no one has said anything else about Philippe that is sitting out there in the Atlantic. And we are only half way through the season. Whoo-boy.

Uh-Oh!! Quakes in California, and Mt St Helens is burping again!! Vancouver Island is moving ever so slowly towards Japan, and here we sit right in the middle. Mama Nature does not appear too happy right at this moment does she? Even sending out huge sun flares. hmmmm....Makes ya wonder doesn't it?

Clean up....

Yesterday I just got tired of this office being such a mess, SO I started re-organizing it. When you have two people using it at an almost steady rate, it has a tendency to get discombobulated. When you have a house keeper like me, it makes it even worse. When you have one right-handed person and one wrong-handed person, it gets even WORSE! The mouse is all wrong, the elbow room is wrong, the way the chair sits is wrong, the pens are on the wrong side, and your papers get all messed up.

I have an over-abundance of books, and papers that I just have not gotten rid of yet. SO they get all stacked up and in the way. I had two tall wooden CD cases out in the garage just collecting dust. I do not like them as they are black and don't fit into the rooms right. Well I decided that they would do fine on top of my computer desk, as a sort of hutch. They could hold all my back up CD's and some of my notebooks. I painted them the same color as the office, to blend in. Not Martha Stewart by any means, but not really bad either. It eliminated most of the clutter on the desk. I can actually see the top of it now!!

As soon as I am finished with this show and Little Shop Of Horrors, then I will have a huge break, and I plan on digging into all the papers I have saved for years and years and years, and go through them page by page and PURGE!!! If I have not looked at it in a year, no matter how cool it might be in the future, It is getting burned!! Actually I have a shredder, and will shred them and use them as mulch in my garden!!

Speaking of burning...Someone actually has a fire going in their fireplace!! I can smell the first wood smoke of the season, coming in through the office window. It got cold last night, down into the low 40's here and the 30's on the mainland!! Frost can't be too far behind! We had the tail end of a low come down the strait last night with winds up to 30 MPH. Just a heavy breeze for us. We have our worse storms in the Fall. The worst one was Oct of 1962. The Columbus Day Storm. I was in high school and at an away football game. The winds hit, and knocked out the power, and they cancelled the game, took all of us students that had ridden the Rooter buses and put us in the gym. The storm knocked all the power in the western half of the state out, blew roofs off, blew barns down, knocked over tons of trees and telephone lines, and generally made a huge mess out of our state and Oregon. Winds were over 85 miles an hour, and just called a big wind. Sounds like a Category 1 Hurricane to me!

We did not have the advanced warning that we do now, knowing far ahead of time that a potentially dangerous storm was heading our way. We were always prepared. When the first light blinked, we would get out the emergency supplies and be ready. We always had Kerosene Lamps, candles, and plenty of wood for the fireplace. Mom would always have a secret stash of marshmallows and would drag them out to make toasty marshmallows and we would roast hotdogs also. We always made an adventure out of our disasters.

There has been more than one Thanksgiving Day spent without power, and Turkeys in the oven! The restaurants with Gas stoves, made a killing opening up and cooking anything. It was an adventure.

The way the squirrels are stashing away the nuts, leads me to believe that we will have a fairly nasty winter. I am ready!! I have wood, just need to stock up on some food, and PET FOOD!!

Oh! And don't forget your MEDS!!! Take a look at the first aid kit too, Is it intact? Are the expiration dates still good? Most of them usually are expired! Get in the habit of changing out your OTC meds. Replace the ones in your medicine cabinet with the ones in your first aid kit, and remember to replace that one in your kit!! You should always have fresh dated meds that way.

Now, If I can only practice what I preach.... :-(

Fixed!!!!

Another night of no sleep. I wish I knew what was up with me. I am so sleepy, so I put my book down, hang up my glasses, turn out the lamp and cuddle down and fall right to sleep...For about 45 min. Then I am wide awake! My body and my mind says I am tired but the rest of me says nope, been there done that now you are awake! I hate this. This morning I finally got to sleep around 400 and woke up at 900. Got up fixed a pot of terrible coffee, got dressed, and around noon I was so sleepy I had to go lay down. Took a 15 min cat nap and was wide awake again. I went to bed around midnight, and read until 100 then went to sleep, and now here it is 200, and I am wide awake again! ARRGGHHHH!! If I take Zyrtec for my allergies, I sleep all day, and all night, so that is out. I just want to go to sleep at a reasonable hour, sleep for 8 hours and wake up at a reasonable hour. I don't think that is asking too much.

I have had the weirdest thing going on with my computer. I could not get to Amazon.com at all. We have tried EVERYTHING and no luck. Could not go to Borders books either. Or ebay! So Blogeois' wonderful Husband WS talked me through setting up a network meeting, so he could look at my computer from 300 miles away. (magic folks, sheer magic!) but with my crap dial-up I could not get there. SO he talked me through downloading a website that would take care of the problem. It did. What is really weird about this is that there were only a few other people this had happened to, and he found one other person listed in google that fixed it, and that is where we went. It did fix the problem and now I can go there, but now WS is trying to find out what or who caused the problem, and why. There were about 35 URLs listed that I could not get to.
I am not going to list them here for fear of triggering the mess again. It did not appear to be a worm or virus, but I did save the fix-it site. It took us about 2 hours on the phone, with my CRAP dial-up kicking me off every so often.

THANK YOU WS!!!!!!! You are The MAN!!! :)

OOOO I so love this new attribute. At least it is new to me. Now if I can just remember how to change the background color....

It is rather cold tonight. I almost thought about pulling out the electric blanket and getting all warm and cozy. Too early yet though. I did pull the window half way shut though. I puttered out in the yard for awhile this afternoon. The sun was warm and the breeze was chilly, just PERFECT!! I filled the feeders again, and changed the water in the bird baths. The baby birds have learned how to play in the water, and they go get really dusty and then splash in the bird bath, It is so much fun to watch them play, clean or whatever they are doing. I thought I was gonna have to run out and rescue one of them because he looked like he was drowning, but he perked right up and flew away. Babies are so cute. All downy and bright. And skitterish. They are learning fast though. And soon they will have to learn to survive through the cold winter.

I painted a CD cabinet today and will finsih it tomorrow. It was black and I hated it, so I thought If I painted it to match the office, that I could put my cd's and DVD's there, and have them handy. Then I can get all of my photos off the hard drive and onto CD's so I wont lose them. might just make the PC run faster too.

I guess Blogger is back up now, as I seem to be typing this right into the template, so I will try and publish and see if it works. Better save it first. Learned my lesson the hard way! ;)

Fall...

The past few nights I have driven home from the Playhouse late at night.  It has been very bright out because of the full Harvest Moon.  It is laying low in the sky, and creating a bright path on the waters of Penn Cove.  Last night, I looked for it, and the sky was covered with clouds, however, it was not a thick layer of clouds it was what we call scattered clouds, and thin.  The full moon was lighting the sky through them.  As the clouds would scutter across, the Moon would pop out big and bright and beautiful.  At times there was a moon dog or Ring around the full moon.  This usually means that there are ice crystals in the air.  It felt like it at times too.  The temperature got down into the low 40’s.  SO low that as I lay awake there this morning, I could see my breath again.  

Last night I took a hot shower, and crawled into a nice clean bed and nightgown, rolled over on my tummy, grabbed a book and my glasses and bunched the pillows up under my chest to raise me up so I could read, and that is when I got a good whiff of Autumn!  A cold fresh wind blowing right in on my bed.  I love nights like that! As I grew sleepy, I turned out the light and snuggled under the covers with just my nose poking out.  I slept like a baby!!  It felt soooooo good!  Maybe it was the air, maybe it was the hot bath, maybe it was the fact that I have 3 whole days off, whatever it was I needed it and woke up this morning refreshed, and feeling like a million pennies.  

I watched the feeder this morning for about an hour, until Sadie woke up and had to go out.  Lola and Susie were both at the feeder.  Lola trying to cram a walnut as big as her head into her jaw and carry it off to store for the winter, and Susie  sitting in the middle of the sunflower seeds chomping away.  Soon there were three Lola’s and TWO Susies’s!!  And soon there was no more walnuts to stash away.  They have all been as busy as can be stocking up their larders.  

I was out of cat food, So I had to get dressed after all and run into town.  Grabbed a bad of Iams and came home the back way along the farm roads, and started noticing the way that Fall has arrived.  It is earlier than usual this year, and already the trees are turning and losing their leaves.  Last year they were not turning until way into October.  The geese are on their way South also.  You can hear them honking encouragement to their leader as they fly over the house.  I am right under the North-South west coast flyway, so I get a lot of honking and quacking late at night.  I Love that too.

As I was settling in and Sadie was just going to sleep in her pen, I heard a long mournful howl out back.  It was a ways off.  It was the wolves down the street.  They were singing a concert with the coyotes.  The Wolves are hybrids, and are well kept, and safe from human harm, and the coyotes are wild and run through the woods and down the roads, all night long, looking for food and friendship.  The night was full of the symphony of Nature, the critters, the wind through the leaves, chattering against the branches, the popping of the wisteria pods as it gets colder.  A loud BANG BANG POP.  It was wonderful.  

Some people think I am strange because I find beauty in the sounds of nature.  They think of them as a noisy nuisance, I think of them as music written by the greatest composers of all time.  Makes me wish I was years younger and tons smarter, so I could get a degree in Science and go off into the wilderness and study.  It is something I have always wanted to do, but just never had the opportunity to do so.  Ah well, maybe in my next life…

Sunday boo-boos!

LOLOLOLOLOLOL
Yesterday during the 3rd scene of Act 1, Charles blanked, and there was 15 seconds (seemed like an hour) of dead air. Elvira was trying to feed him a line, but he wasnt getting it. You could see his neck getting red from the bottom clear up to his face. Then he picked up a line from two scenes away, and walked off the stage leaving Elvira there to stare off into the audience. It was a hoot!! I ran into the sound booth and they were panicing trying to figure out what to do, so I said curtain, and they finished the scene. Then I ran down the 3 flights of stairs to the green room and told them to just continue on with where we should be.

Elvira was in tears, and Charles was aghast. I was laughing!! Only in community theater can you get away with things like this. We are not paid, we are all volunteers, so things happen. They continued on, and when they got to the part that they had already done, CHarles paraphrased it, and the audience Never knew anything was wrong except that someone forgot a line. LOLOLOLOL

I just wrote a nice long post, and my CRAP dial-up kicked me off and I lost it. SO now I have to go back and re-do it in word this time. We have 3 whole days off, without having to go in for rehearsal or performance so I am not getting dressed, I am not going out, I am not putting on a bra, I am going to blogwalk and create, and do my laundry. This is the first time in 3 months that I have had nothing to do. And I plan on doing it too.

Interlude...

Wow, I just discovered the attributes available to blogger!! never knew I could change font, or color, or size!!!
amazing what happens when you read the fine print on the page, right?

Opening night went wonderfully! we did not have a full house, but we had a great crowd, Now LAST night was another story. The house was about the same, but these guys would not laugh!! I sat in the directors balcony and tried salting the audience with laughs and applause, but they just were not having it. They enjoyed the show, just did not laugh. Rough crowd!! I have our first Sunday matinee today, so I will keep this short.

Gosh this is fun!!! I love color!!! I just wish I was not such a chicken when it comes to my house. I would have every wall painted a different primary or secondary color. This one isnt a very readable one though. I will have to go to this one. THere.

TOmorrow when I have nothing to do at the playhouse, I will write a nice long lengthy post. I have one stirring around inside just waiting to get out and on paper. If I can only get it out in the right way. Sometimes I have them and when I get them out on paper, they change.

It got cold last night. down into the low 40's and not expected to get much hotter today. I expect a frost before Halloween. and snow before thanksgiving. :)

Until tomorrow then...

Thursday....

I have not had time to breathe much less write a posting for several days. We open our show tomorrow, and tonight was a charity buy-out and "dress rehearsal". The show was a sell out for the Catholic Daughters, so they made some money. The audience was full of old people, and they LOVED the show! I have updated it to current times, and they loved that too. I changed the locale to the Pac NW and that brought a huge laugh. :)
Our leading Man cracks up at his own jokes when the audience laughs, and it is so funny watching him try to control it. Our Pro, Madame Arcati knows this and will do ANYTHING she can to see if she can crack him up. She usually succeeds! We have had fun getting this show ready to open, It has been extremely hard work with almost the whole staff leaving for this that and the other, but by GOD we made it. Now it is sit back and let them go on their own time. AHHHHHHH

Right now I am so tired that I can not sleep. My back keeps wanting to POP but it wont, and that just aches and aches, right down my sciatic nerve to my left foot. SO needless to say comfort is not easy to come by. I went right to bed after I got home tonight, but I could not get to sleep. Toss and turn and worry about what I may have forgot, and know there isn't anything that I have forgotten. I take staff pictures tomorrow evening before the show, and that should be that.

there is an article in the Paper about the show. www.whidbeynewstimes.com/ click on the community tab and the story is there Blithe Spirit.

I will be getting an archive DVD of the show, and I can send it around if you would like to see it. It is not PRO quality, the sound is a bit of a stretch, but it works. The high school films it for us. I have them of all my shows, if there is any you would like to see let me know and I can mail it to you for a peek, then you can mail it back. kinda like our own NETFLIX!

oh SWELL!!!

Updated 2:35 p.m. ET Sept. 14

An important seismic event imperceptible to humans has begun in the Pacific
Northwest as predicted, according to the government agency Geological
Survey
of Canada.

The chance of a major earthquake is 30 times higher now for a roughly
two-week period, but the odds are still remote, scientists say.

The event is called episodic tremor and slip (ETS). It involves a slow
movement of the Juan de Fuca and North America tectonic plates along the
Cascadia
http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/050103_cascadia_tsunami.html>>margin of southern British Columbia. Faults associated with the plates have
been the sites of major earthquakes -- akin to the colossal tsumani-causing

quake last December in Indonesia -- every 500 years or so, the geologic
record shows. The last such temblor in the area struck on Jan. 26 in the
year 1700.

Slow creep

The movement is slower than a traditional earthquake but more rapid than
the
normal creep associated with the fault. It runs in the reverse direction of
the normal creep.

The movement was predicted. Scientists recently learned that these ETS
events recur about every 14 months. It has been detected by Global
Positioning System instruments.

The event does not mean an earthquake is imminent, but geologists are eager
to study it and learn more and they say sooner or later an ETS event is
likely to trigger a major quake.

"Compared to the steady year-round stress accumulation, this more rapid
stress increase implies that a large subduction earthquake is more likely
to
happen during the time of an ETS event," the Canadian geologists write.

The slippage and associated minor tremors "are directly related to
megathrust (Sumatra-like) earthquake potential," lead geologist John
Cassidy
and a colleague said in Tuesday's statement. "Neither the tremor nor the
slip can be felt."

Odds go up

The slip began Sept. 3 on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State and has
migrated north to the Vancouver Island area, Cassidy wrote. Victoria moved
0.12 inches (3 millimeters) to the West over the course of two days. The
events are thought to last six to 15 days.

Cassidy's colleague, Stephane Mazzotti, has done some calculations on the
odds of a large temblor.

"The probability of occurrence of a megathrust earthquake is about 30 times
higher during this approximately two-week window, than during the rest of
the 14.5 month cycle," Cassidy told LiveScience. "Having said that, 30
times
a small number is still a small number."

Geologists simply don't know when one of these events will trigger a major
quake, Cassidy said.

The immediate importance of the event is that it occurred as predicted and
can now be used to improve understanding of the region's seismology.

"By better understanding these events, we will be able to better predict
the
effects (and perhaps timing) of future magnitude 9 earthquakes along the
West Coast," Cassidy and his colleague write.

A separate

study recently concluded that a major earthquake along the fault could be
overdue, given clusters of the events seen in the geologic record. Because
the fault is offshore, scientists say its rupture could create a
devastating tsunami.


Phyllis has been harping on everyone to get their emergency kits ready. If in fact the big one hits here, we are right on the line so we will get hard!!! I took out earthquake insurance about 8 years ago, so I am not worried. I just do not want the island to sink under the North American plate. That could get kinda hairy.
I am not afraid of surviving, if I made it out of the house alive, but I would be terrible worried about the rest of the family. Phyllis is only up about 50 feet, I'm up about 150.

Well folks it is liable to get really interesting around here...Gee Thanks Kate!!

Seriously, Kate, thanks for the link. Good to see you up and about! ;)

Monday Stuff...

I got up late this morning. Felt so very good to get a decent night's sleep for a change. I took a hot bath, put on clean sheets and fixed a cup of tea, and went to bed with a book. I fell asleep about 200 and only got up once to pee!

I heated up the cold pot of coffee that Donna had made at 615, and turned on the tv as i fired up the old SLOW CRAP dial up! My favorite MIKEY was on Food Network, cooking a backyard lobster bake, so I watched it and drooled. Michael Chiarello's Easy Entertaining is the latest in his series. I just LOVE him.

THen came Paula's SOuthern Cooking. I have Never met Brenda in person, but Paula Deen reminds me of what Brenda must sound like. I drool all through her show too, but then I turn off the food channel because I cant stand that skinny bitch that cooks Italian. NO body that looks like that can possibly eat what she cooks.

I am still stymied on Amazon. DOnna downloaded foxfire Mozilla and that is no good. None of the blogs look right in it. so I went back to IE 6.0 THen she tried taking down my firewall, and putting it back up, that did not work either. We did a defrag, we got rid of cookies and temp files, we down loaded PC-Cillin's latest, and still can not get to Amazon.com. I cant even get to Blogeois.com right now. GRRRRRR
this is making me very angry...I even tried what Jimbob said and used the IP address and that did not work. I finally called Isomedia, and he had me do a something congig/flush and it was fine. but I still can not get Amazon. All I did was order 75.00 worth of books from them last week. Got them too. GUess I wont be ordering any more. Cant even email them.


Tonight is the last rehearsal before we go live. Tuesday is Members and family night, and then we open on Thursday for a fund raiser. Whew. I got the lights all set yesterday, the tech is all done, the theater is clean, and I am ready for the run!!

HELP!!!

Any Computer geeks out there...I have a unique problem. THe day that New Orleans flooded, I lost Leslie, Pureland Mountains comments, and Amazon.com.

Now I called Leslie, and found out she has a server problem. Pure land Mountain is ok now much to Roberts joy, but I still can not get through to AMazon.com/ I thought maybe my daughter had put a parental block on it, to keep me from ordering more n=books, but she said no, she cant even get to it from here either.

We have no blocks on our system that we know of. SO why could I not be able to get through to amazon.com? Jim Bob...you are usually good at this kind of stuff. Now speak real english if you know what is wrong. I am stymied. I need my Amazon fix,...NOW!!!!!

Fall....?

Yesterday as I was sitting by the open back door of the theater, running the light board, and finishing tech as the press was watching the play. The theater gets really HOT during the summer, so we open everything we can. Suddenly the wind picked up and the big oak trees right outside the door started chattering with their drying up leaves. This gust of wind, blew the driest leaves right off the trees and skittered them right into the playhouse. It felt really good, but there was also a distinct chill in that gust.

I was really concentrating on the show, and the cues I was setting, but back in the back of my mind there was a blog post brewing. As I was setting cues, so Was Mother Nature. She was telling us that the hot dry summer was almost over, that Autumn was most definitely on the way.

I came home from the theater, absolutely fried, But knew that I did not have to go in for two days, so I put on my nightgown, forgoing the nightly ritual of a shower, and just flopped into bed. I usually read for about 2 hours after hitting the bed, but I did not even make it through one chapter. I woke up around 400 with water splashing in my face.

I rolled over and sat up, and looked out the window. It was DUMPING RAIN. I do mean DUMPING! The water was coming down so fast, that it was filling the gutters and spilling over the sides of them in sheets. We don't get rain like that. We get a steady wet mist, all the time. I closed the window down 1/2 way and went back to sleep. I woke up at 615 and peeked out side. It was just starting to get light out, and just the contrast from the Big Cumulus clouds overhead and the clear sky let me know that we had some real weather. Suddenly Ka-BOOM! And a big thunderous rumble came over the house, and then another, getting slower and quieter as it went on it's way east.

This morning when I woke up for good, (well for at least an hour anyway) I looked out back to see what all was wet, and I could just about see through the alders into the bare spaces in the deeper woods. The leaves were falling, and allowing even more light to peek through. I looked at the thermometer and it was sitting at 48. BRRRR. Almost time to drag out that Electric blanket again, and hook it up.


fall

The other night coming home before dark, I noticed that the light from the setting sun was giving off longer shadows and a more golden color to the evenings. I passed a field of straw bales all ready to get put into the barn for stall covering. IT was just stunning. SO I stopped right on Terry Rd and snapped away. It isn't even often that we see bales sitting out in the field after the middle of June.

Soon the full golden Harvest Moon will be making his way over the top of the Mountains. It is usually the first full moon after the autumnal Equinox. I have already spotted Orion, framed in my bedroom window at 557 on August 28Th. Now I know that Fall is almost here. I look forward to Fall every year. There is something so comforting about Autumn to me. It is like coming home. It is a feeling of stocking up the larder and stoking up the fire. Getting ready to Hunker down for the long dark winter that will surely follow fall, as Fall follows summer.

I am at peace. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Dress rehearsal...

Have some Brandy

This is our first dress rehearsal to see how the costumes look and to see what else we need to do to make them perfect. This scene is after Madame Arcati the Medium has gone into a trance and has been pulled out of it.



wives

Both Dead Wives have been brought into this world by some psychic force, and are now trying to get Madame Arcati to poof them back. They are both dressed in gray and should have gray make up on, which I forgot to buy!!! :(



madame arcati

This Lady will steal the show. She is a hoot, and cracks Charles up every night. SHe purposely gets him laughing and he will forget his lines. FUNNY!!!!!

We are almost ready to open. I still have the light cues to finalize, but the set is mostly done. Press night tomorrow night, and then we have the weekend off. I am so tired of trying to do everyone else's job. I have been the only staff member there every night, and when there are cues to set, notes to take, and lines to read for people that are not there, it gets really hairy. I am so ready for a break.

Thanks, Mary Lou!

Leslie here.

I just got a call at work from Mary Lou, wondering where in the world I was and if everything was alright. It's our stupid server that's down, cutting me off from e-mail and my blog and just when I have such Tales to Tell too! I was so disappointed not to be able to update today and she suggested I leave a little post here to say I Live.

We saw a grizzly, two black bears, traveled over 7,000 feet straight up a mountain through the clouds, and had a rather harrowing encounter on the highway but it sure was an awesome weekend.

Thanks, Mary Lou, for letting me say Hi here. I appreciate it. I'm sorry to have caused any worry.

Onward!!!

I spent this whole weekend at the theater getting things done. We finally have the painting done. All that is left now is to finish pulling the props together set the light cues, that I still have not done, and then the special effects. I am fried!!! The cast has been great getting all this work done. We had a good rehearsal last night after all the work we did yesterday, so that made for a very long day.

I feel like I am floundering here all by myself, as I have no staff left. just a cast and a house manager. We will get there. Everything is going to be fine. I found out last night that I forgot about make-up! I never even thought about that. And I have no ghost make up. SO today I have to figure out where we get that from and go get some.

I apologize for the many typos in the last post, I knew I was really tired, but didnt realize HOW tired I was until I read it last night. OUCH!! Ah Well!

Hey is anybody else having a problem getting through to Critterchicks place? I cant get there, PAGE NOT FOUND and I cant comment on several blogger blogs. I click on comments but the only thing that happens is the page refreshes.

I sent her an email, and she usually responds right back, but I have not heard from her. Guess I had better call her this afternoon and make sure she is ok. I worry!

Busy week ahead, so I may be posting sporatically, but hang in there, if JOHN can post with all he has been through, I guess I can too.

WOW!

I just paid 2.96 9/10 a gallon for regular gas on BASE!!! ouch! I budgeted for 90 a month for gas, but at this rate it'll be 180.00 a month!! This really hurts me. I have to go into the rehearsals every night. that is a 40 Mile round trip daily!! Yeooouuuucchhhh!!!

TOday we painted the floor,and finished the piddley little things. TOn=morrow trim goes up and the light cues get set. I was told by one of my active duty cast members that she may be going to the Gulf to help with the emergency. SHe is a Navy COrpsman. so that would leave a big hole in our play. ANd if Mike went too, there would be another hole. I asked a friend to come read Traci's part and learn her blocking, and IF Traci went, (god forbid) Kyle could take her place and be Dr. Bradman's MOTHER! Now if they would decide to take Billy Ray I would be sunk!

I am hoping that there will people closer to the damage than our little people. I just have to go with the punches.

I am really wiped out tonight. THis has been a very stressful week for everyone! Let us hope that normalcy and civility return VERY FAST to those that need it.
I am gonna go take a much needed shower and hit the sack!!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzz

Tonites rehearsal...

Our play is coming along nicely. They know their lines, and tonite, since "Charles" was late because he had a late flight schedule, he ran in in his flight suit. His "wives" gave him a run for his money tonight, ad libbing and throwing his blocking off. You See, Billy Ray is a perfectionist!! And It drives him CRAZY when things are not the way they are s'posed to be. :)


Natalie

In this scene, Elvira, his first wife (now deceased) is showing his 2nd wife Ruth, that she is indeed here, even though Ruth can not see her. She is moving a vase of flowers. Charles is the only one who can see Elvira. And it becomes really funny when he tells Elvira to quit being a guttersnipe. FUNNY :)


Billy and MK

Madame Arcati is the local MEDIUM who has done a Seance and through it, has brought back Elvira, who in trying to kill Charles so he can be with her for all eternity, has in actuality, killed Ruth. Now Madame Arcati is trying to explain to Charles that she might not be able to get the ghosts back to the after life.



Madame arcadi and Ruth

Madame Arcati has just told Ruth (before she died, picture in wrong place oops...) that she has no idea how Elvira came to this side.


viv and traci

Dr and Mrs. Bradman are friends who were here during the seance and find the whole thing strangely funny. Violet keeps sticking her foot in her mouth.


taking notes

since I am the director, And have almost no staff left. Dottie, my costumer stepped in and prompted. Actually she was reading for Madame Arcati while she was gone.

This is a really funny play. And we should have everything done by Monday. The lights are pretty much set, I just have to set the cues, and train the light engineer. The set needs to have the finishing touches put on it, and the "Magic" added.

I had a Magic person who really wanted to have all of the special effects to do, but he sort of forgot and backed out, so that is one MORE thing on my plate. I have enlisted Traci and Mike's help when they are not on stage.

so Now let's see, my set builder quit, I found a new one, and he quit after the set was 1/2 built, so then I begged and got almost the rest built. My light designer quit, she had too much to do. (?) My Props person got a job that paid her 20% more so she had to drop out. And my Stage Manager quit. I have no idea what all this is about, but I really do not think it was anything I did. It has been a bit hairy, but it has been fun too. I just have to go with the flow. OH YEAH! And my producer went to Disneyland, and took a cruise to Alaska! JEEZ!!! It must mean we are gonna have a really great show.

OH GADS!!! We forgot the MOUSE HOLE!!!! AAARRRRGGHHHHHH!!!!!

Caution! Rant ahead....

I have been glued to CNN watching the devastation that Hurricane Katrina delivered to the Gulf Coast. I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard that John and his home were spared. Then I sat glued again, when I heard the dikes were breeched in several places, and sat there watching as the bowl that New Orleans sits in filled up with water.

I was amazed at people that actually decided to stay ON THE BEACH and wait out the storm. I was amazed that they actually thought they would be safe. I was flabbergasted type of devastation that the storm surge handed to Biloxi, and to Mobile.

I was horrified when I heard a commentator crying as she told of people who were hacking their way through the roofs of their flooded attics. I was horrified at the thought of people who would be breathing the little bit of air they had left, because they did not bring anything to chop their way out with. I was horrified when I thought of those people in the superdome, as the toilets filled and overflowed, and the water from the Lake was seeping in under the walls, and filling the field. As people got wet, they moved up higher.

My heart went out to these people because I have lived through tsunami's, hurricanes, typhoons, super wind storms, blizzards, and power outages and know how scary it can be, especially at night.

But what I can not understand is what in the hell happened to the theory of personal accountability? The ability to think for yourself. The ability to plan ahead for your safety and that of your family. The ability to prepare and have on hand the emergency supplies that you would be needing. The ability to have an emergency contingency plan laid out so that should you be separated from your family that you can plan on meeting at another place.

What I can not understand is the selfishness of these people as they break into and STEAL products from undefended stores. What I can not understand is what in the Hell allows them to think that they are entitled to those products? What I can not understand is the greed and the sheer lack of respect for each other that is coming out.

I am appalled at the anarchy that is running rampant. I am appalled at the way people are expecting the GOVERNMENT to be immediately on the scene to help them out of a fix. I am appalled that these people who CHOSE to live in these un safe places are blaming others for their predicament. I am appalled at the fact that people are rioting trying to get to buses to get out of town.

Someone said yesterday that a disaster brings out the best in people, but it also brings out the worse. I am glad that the Mayor finally declared a state of Marshall Law in New Orleans. Hopefully now the looting and stealing will stop.

I can fully understand taking food to feed your family, but I can not understand taking multiple pairs of Nike shoes, even if you are barefooted. Why CASES of them?
What are you going to do With a TV in a flooded town with no power and no place to plug it into? What are you going to do with those armloads of clothes that you had slung over your shoulder? Hang them from the chimney of your house?

I have always been self sufficient, or at least enough so that I could handle most emergencies. I have wood, I have water, I have food, I have sleeping bags and camping equipment and extra fuel to power them. I do not live in an area that has been repeatedly wiped out by natural disasters. I would NOT live in an area like that. (I also know where Phyllis lives, and SHE has EVERYTHING!!!!)

I am hoping that as the week ends that civility will return to those areas. I am hoping that the loss of life isn't as bad as it is being predicted. (although I am afraid that it will be much much worse!) I am hoping that disease will not take hold in this bio-mess of sludge and human waste, and decaying bodies, animal and human. I am hoping that life will get back to some sense of order soon so that the 3 million plus people in the affected area can get their lives back.

Ok Rant over....I just had to get it out....

****************************Play update********************************

We had 1/2 of our cast out last night for one reason or another, so we worked on problem areas with the three that I did have. I went in at noon and painted on the set, and worked on the lighting. This weekend I will have the set finished, and the baseboards and trim up and the lights refocused. Next week we film the commercial and have our first dress rehearsal. I will be taking lots of pictures, so as soon as I have them, I will post them. 15 days until we open...