226-BR

I just saw a car with a license plate 0226BR. I immediately thought, what does that template look like? 226 is a GAM number, and the "B" means it's "B" sized, and the "R" means it's round.

So I looked it up, and this is what it looks like. Cloud 3. The more you know, eh? (If you were a lighting person this post would be 86% more interesting/funny.)

NY Times Metropolitan Diary amuses me weekly

My partner and I live in an apartment building on one of the West Village’s prettiest blocks. Next door is a very old single-family house.

One Sunday afternoon not so long ago, the lady of the house was standing on her stoop, looking perplexed. Her family had just returned from a weekend in the country.

“Did you notice that our front door was open all weekend?” she asked.

Steve replied that he hadn’t, and expressed his concern. “Was anything taken?”

“No, but it’s the strangest thing,” she said. There’s a Chinese takeout menu on every bed in the house.”

Wow, kitties

funny kitten

I can't even believe the cute contained herein.

Yesterday we went to see The Prestige, starring Batman and Wolverine as rival magicians. I enjoyed it, but Christian Bale's accent wasn't very good. I won't spoil the ending in case somebody else plans to see it, but I will say that the ending isn't what you'd think from what you see in the commercials. You'll probably also figure out at least some of it before you get to the end.

After the movie we had dinner, then went home to do some drinkin' and video game playin'. After a couple hours, the 3 boys tried very hard to convince me to take them to Chubby's. While they were very amusing, there was no possible way I was going to drive 3 drunken nerds anywhere at midnight. I compromised by making them some Bagel Bites, and they were satisfied.

it begins again

Yesterday I was going to be productive and get work done for the Lyric. The first stupid thing was that I had to go pick up the gel. I can't really explain very well how ridiculous that is, but trust me, it shouldn't be my damn problem. I also wanted to buy brads, specifically 3/4" brads. Therefore, Office Depot had 1" and 1 1/2"; and Office Max had 1/2" and was out of 3/4". I shouldn't be surprised, but it's kind of an indicator of how the day went.

Once I finally got the gel and got to the theater, it was probably around noon. Then I needed to print out lists of what gel to cut, how many, and what size. Very important information. Without that information, I literally couldn't do anything. Being an idiot, I didn't bring the Lightwright file with me, so I was going to save it on the Lyric computer from my email. Naturally, I can't download the Lightwright file from my email without it being corrupted. Oh boy, that's annoying. I called three different people to try to track down another copy before I called Donald and managed to catch him at the exact moment he was going into the house for lunch. Donald re-emailed me the file from my computer and saved the day. This also resulted in "me" sending the following email response to Robyn:

"Our mens is great. Our mens is wonderful. We could not do without our mens. We should thank our mens with food and sexual favors. (The ones we’re married too anyway.)"

I laughed. It was a good moment. I finally got the paperwork printed out, and finally went downstairs to get to work. The stage is currently occupied by a hundred or so chairs and music stands, set up for the Symphony. I wound my way across the stage, around the corner and to the back area where the gel box is stored. (Additionally, that room is only vaguely heated and was pretty chilly.) Then I tried to find a table to work on. I needed a table to put the 24" paper cutter on, if nothing else. I can't get gel ready with no workspace. I wandered around looking for a table, and finally found one. Try to picture me, carrying an 8' table across a stage filled with chairs and shit, THEN around 2 sharp corners and up and down some small steps. Right, no way that was going to happen. I eventually found a metal card table. THEN I got to work. I think it was maybe 1:30 by then. Frickin' ridiculous. I was too annoyed to be hungry until about 3, and then I ate the lunch I brought with me, making it so I wouldn't be hungry when my friends came up for dinner.

I bit a big chunk out of my lip earlier this week while attempting to eat a jelly belly. It hurts most of the time. Then I had balsamic vinegarette on my salad last night, which made it hurt like fiery burning hell. Great choice!!

So my Friday was filled with futile work attempts, and firey vinegarette torture. :(

sigh!

now that's a random dream.

Last night I dreamed that sometime after I graduated CMSU there was a schism (lol) within TAP and there was some kind of coup where the other side took it over. This was all being discussed at some kind of conference that included many former members of the theatre department. I saw Dan I. there but forgot to ask him how he liked substitute teaching in St. Louis. Apparently Players wasn't really a "player" in the non-violent undergraduate theatrical takeover.

I know who the other one is

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 2 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

home again

We're back from my cousin's wedding in Wichita. Now that we've experienced driving through Kansas on I-35, I can tell you that it is much like I-70. Boring. We didn't see much of Wichita, but I doubt we missed anything wonderful. The wedding was fine, everyone looked very nice. With any luck we won't go to another wedding until next June.

climbing isn't just for kids

We had good times in St Louis this weekend. Cirque was very entertaining, and our seats were great. It was very much worth the ticket price. It was good to see Ken and Mandy when there wasn't a wedding on. Then the real fun was the City Museum. (Even though I lost my green leaf necklace. :( ) Joe said that having fun hurts, and Robyn can confirm. Her poor knees are all bruised up, and probably have gone from purple to yellow by now.

Here are some pictures from climbing indoors. Look, rust!

Growing up in Missouri

Oh look, local color. I'm going to delete a few that aren't funny, (or even less funny) so that's why the numbers don't line up.

-----------------------------------------

1. You've never met any celebrities.

(Well, met is a relative term. Several of us saw John Malkovich in a hotel)

2. Everyone you know has been on a "Float Trip,"

(Everyone but Robyn, who is allergic to the outdoors)

3. "Vacation" means driving to Silver Dollar City, Worlds of Fun or Six
Flags.

5. You measure distance in minutes rather than miles. For example,
"Well, Hannibal is only 40 minutes away."

6. Down south to you means Springfield or Branson .

7. The phrase "I'm going to the Lake this weekend" only means one thing.

8. You know several people who have hit a deer.

10. Your school classes were canceled because of cold.

11. You know what "Party Cove" is.

12. Your school classes were canceled because of heat.

13. You instinctively ask someone you've just met, "What High School did
you go to?"

14. You've had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.

16. You know what's knee-high by the Fourth of July.

17. You see people wear bib overalls at funerals.

(My grandpa was buried in bib overalls. Hey, comfort first)

20. You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition.

Example: "Where's my coat at?"

21. All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit,
vegetable, season or grain.

22. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both
unlocked.

23. You think of the major four food groups as beef, pork, beer, and
Jell-O salad with marshmallows.

24. You carry jumper cables in your car and know that everyone else
should.

25. You went to skating parties as a kid.

27. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

29. The local paper covers national and international headlines on
one page, but requires six pages for sports.

30. You think I-44 is spelled and pronounced "farty-far." (St. Louis
only.)

31. You'll pay for your kids to go to college unless they want to go to
KU.

33. You know that Concordia is halfway between Kansas City and
Columbia, and Columbia is halfway between St. Louis and Kansas
City, and the Warrenton Outlet Mall is halfway between Columbia and St.
Louis.

34. You can't think of anything better than sitting on the porch in the
middle of the summer during a thunderstorm.

35. You know which leaves make good toilet paper.

36. You've said, "it's not the heat, it's the humidity."

37. You know all four seasons: Almost Summer, Summer, Still Summer
and COLD.

38. You know if another Missourian is from the Boot-heel, Ozarks,
Eastern, Middle or Western Missouri soon as they open their mouth.

39. You know that Harry S Truman, Walt Disney and Mark Twain are all from
Missouri.

41. You think a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor.

42. You know what "HOME OF THE THROWED ROLL" means.

$#%*@!& cell phone

Wow, am I sick of Cingular. Lately, people who've tried to leave me a message have been told by the pleasant phone voice that my number wasn't receiving calls. So I call Cingular AGAIN. The helpful lady tells me that my voicemail had been turned off September 1st. What the hell. She turned it back on for me, and I had to re- setup my voicemail. Why?? What did I do to anger the cell phone gods?? How did I provoke your wrath, O digital deities??

Who even has china these days?

I have to renew my ranting about people registering for stupid stuff. My cousin, whose wedding is next weekend, registered at BBB (like everyone does.) She registered for this bone china ---->

She registered for EIGHTEEN place settings. They cost $69.99 EACH SETTING. I wouldn't even want to have china in my house that cost that much, much less eat off it!

She also registered for 18 soup bowls, ($23 each) 18 each of 3 different glasses, ($9, $10 and $10 each) 18 place settings of silverware, ($55 each) two 14" oval platters ($98 each) and $430 of other matching dishes and silverware.

All I can say is wow. I don't even want to add that up.

I don't get it.

I watched Donnie Darko last night on my laptop during the opera. (Director's cut) Can anyone tell me what the big deal about this movie is? Is it the whole teenager alienation thing? I enjoyed watching it, and I wanted to see how it would end, but then I just thought what's the point? Am I too old for this phenomenon?

aw, dammit

About 12:30 last night I realized something stupid. Donald and I went to Kin Lin then got coffee, and then when we went home, we forgot the leftovers on the back of the bench. Dammit! I had 2 meals in those leftovers! I was going to eat that tonight! Argh! Now what am I gonna eat?? Gawd, I might have to cook something.

October already?

Tech is done at the Lyric. It was pretty hectic at times but it all seems to have come out fine in the end. One thing that's very different about opera land vs. theatre land is that the opera tech guys start at the ridiculous hour of 8am. They are of course, out the door by 4:30. Then it's all different for the tech reherasals. The lighting designer writes many of the light cues during a rehearsal with the director stitting at the tech table, and the cast isn't there at all. Then the tech schedules aren't even the same every day, and get done a lot earlier than I'm used to. They also have realy long dinner breaks. I'm still not really sure about this whole opera business. They pay well, but it seems like (here, at least) they're so poorly organized that you have to put up with a lot of stupid stuff. And I don't really like opera. I don't hate (all of) it, but I'm just not into it. The stories tend to be just stupid, with the characters doing ridiculous things that real people would never do. And yet, there's an audience for it. There were a lot of people in the audience for opening night Saturday, and I'm sure there will be plenty of people to see tonight's show too.

The Renfest trip Sunday wasn't a disaster, but it wasn't great either. It got unreasonably hot yesterday. Way too hot to be walking around in the sun breathing in huge amounts of dust. Everyone was getting more and more tired as the day went on. I was willing to stick around longer, but also very willing to leave when everybody else wanted to. I think we left by 3. The whole thing was a lot more fun ten years ago. Not sure why really, but I did enjoy it more back then. When we got home I greatly appreciated my running water and electricity.