B Team

I got home last night about 1:15AM from a light hang that took 8 hours. A light hang that would have probably taken 4 hours, with a different crew. A fast crew. A Dream Team light crew, like the crew that busted out the Love, Janis hang in less than a full day. It was really more like a changeover than a light hang. We had some tedious stuff to do, but 85% of the lights were already hung and circuited, (even patched already) due to the rep plot already being hung. All we had to do was hang and circuit 2 lights onstage, take down the lights we weren't using, cut pipes for 6 booms and hang 8 booms, change all the color, replace burned out lamps, and circuit the booms. That's the part that took the longest, because about every other circuit at Union Station can't be used for some reason. The booms only had 2 lights each! Argh!

Today I get to run 2 performances of Mockingbird, and get paid to read. Yay!

fun with baby

more funnies here: http://www.c00lstuff.com/1133/Do_s_and_don_ts_with_babies/

driving southish

Today I'm driving way the hell south to get an allergy test. I think I have some food allergies, and I'd like to know for sure. Anyway, my point is that I'm driving way out of my usual range, but I'm doing it for a doctor's appointment that is likely to leave me itchy. Being somewhere different, I think I should make the best of it by shopping or something. I bet though, that by the time I'm done with the Doctor's Appointment of +5 Itchiness I'll just want to go home. That's generally what happens. I'll be all unmotivated. I'll probably also be annoyed at Kansas drivers too.

Droool- BBQ

We went to Oklahoma Joe's yesterday with my folks. Sigh. So tasty. Donald and Mike agree, it's better for all that they don't deliver, and that they're not closer to home. We'd eat way too much. Man I love barbecue. I'd eat there 3 times a week if I had the chance.

We're hooked on Hellgate London. It's made by the same people who made Diablo 2, but not the same studio. You can download a demo from the website. You must fight the forces of evil in a futuristic London. Like D2, there are several classes of character to choose from. You can use swords, guns or magic, and there are 2 sub classes of each. I haven't gotten very far into the game yet because I have about 4 different characters going, 2 offline and 2 online. Unlike Diablo 2, you have to create completely separate characters to play online. Playing online, you can play with your friends, which is cool. You have to know their exact character name, and go through a few steps to connect with them. (I let Mike and Donald tell me what to do there.) Then you can join forces to kill the beasties, and swap loot once you get back to town. As Donald can attest, I'm all about the loot. If there were a game called "Loot" when all you do it smash boxes and get loot, I'd probably buy it.

birthday/ tech

Since I had to work last night, Donald and I celebrated my birthday Monday night. We went out to eat at Carmen's in Brookside for the first time. We were in no hurry, so we relaxed and took our time. Donald had a chicken dish and I had a very tasty pasta. For desert we shared a very good tirimisu. The restaurant was pretty dark, which always bugs me a bit, but otherwise had an inviting ambiance. We went home very full, and carrying leftovers.

Yesterday I went out for brunch with the rest of my family. Donald was unable to ditch work, so we went without him. Eggtc has really good waffles, if you wanted to know.

Then there was rehearsal. Last night was the final dress rehearsal. I got there at 5 intending to do about half an hour's worth of work notes, and found that none of the lights onstage would come on. They worked when I left Sunday night, but it seems that every time I show up something else isn't working with the lights. Sunday morning, all 4 moving mirrors weren't working. After much climbing around, phone calls, and ladder dragging, it turned out that in 3 separate places, vital things had come unplugged. Guess what was wrong last night? If you said "something was unplugged" you are a winner! The TD knocked things loose when he was working. Again. The DMX running from the dimmers in the booth to the dimmers backstage had come undone. Kind of important if you want the light board to turn the lights on. With the massive piles and knots of cables everywhere, I don't know why the place hasn't burned down yet. I didn't get any of my notes done, so I'll try again, and hope to get them done today. And tonight is first preview.

Fun fact: The Unicorn has SIX different kinds of dimmers. In three places.

Scrubs Dance Compilation

Silly fun to be had here:

So many t-shirts

I'm hooked on shirt.woot.com. These are the shirts I have ordered recently:


I have resigned myself to wearing t-shirts. I try to buy other types of shirts, but it just never works out. If it's all t-shirts for me, I may as well wear cool ones.

Misc.

• You can get free ice cream on your birthday if you sign up on the websites for Cold Stone and Baskin-Robbins. This is great if your birthday is in the summer, but still pretty sweet in winter. My birthday is in 5 days. Yum.
• I'm starting tech for the show at the Unicorn tomorrow. Opens next Friday. They have a weird tech schedule, but I like it. Saturday's tech gets out at 8:30, Sunday's at 11. It's nice to leave a theater before midnight during tech.
• I just got two cool t-shirts from shirt.woot.com. You should too. They sell one shirt each day, so you have to check every day. The shirt of the day is $10. You can sometimes get a shirt later for $15. The shipping is free, but very slow.
  
• I want to buy all the food at Costco. Every time I go there I taste something delicious that I want to buy and devour. I'm only stopped by the fact that my freezer isn't big enough. I also like that they have a good variety of healthy and organic stuff to choose from, even though I liked the nacho cheese I tasted the other day. I won't be buying a gallon of nacho cheese, but I'd definitely buy a tub of hummus.
• Battlestar Galactica: Razor was pretty good, but I'm glad I got it from Netflix and didn't buy it yet. I'm waiting impatiently for season 3 to come out on DVD the end of March.
  

Kitty present

Here is Anna enjoying her present from Robyn and Joe:
It's gotten much fuzzier, because she loves to wrap her paws around it and kick it into submission.

Chili more difficult than anticipated

The first time I made chili, I sent Donald to the store with instructions to buy (amongst other things) a can of Ro-tel, a can of red beans, a can of black beans, and a can of crushed tomatoes. He came back with a can of Ro-tel, a can of red beans, a can of seasoned black beans, and a can of crushed tomatoes in sauce. That chili turned out pretty tasty, so I've been buying the exact same products since.

This time I bought my stuff at a different store, so I didn't get the same things. I don't think most of it mattered, except the Ro-tel. I usually get a can of the regular kind, and all is tasty. This time, they were out. All they had was the hot Ro-tel. I thought, whatever, got a can of it and a can of the best choice ro-tel, and planned to do half each. I figured that would be fine. Well, it turns out that when they say hot, they meant HOT. I didn't even use half a can, and my chili is frikkin spicy. The hot Ro-tel includes jalapeños and a small percentage of habeneros. It's pretty damn hot, and I sure didn't need to add any cayenne pepper this time.

Donald doesn't really like the spicy, and it was hotter than I wanted, so I looked online for too spicy chili remedies. Number one was to peel a couple potatoes and toss 'em in to absorb some of the spicy. I did that, then went back to the computer, where I learned that the potato thing is BS and doesn't work. Other suggestions were to add honey, sugar, or brown sugar, applesauce, lemon, peanut butter, etc. The most sensible solution is of course to make a batch of chili with no spice, then mix the two to dilute the spicy. I didn't have enough ingredients to do that so I tried adding a few things. The results were tasted, then I resigned myself to putting a lot of sour cream on top, which I planned to do anyway.

Moral of the story: Just use the regular Ro-tel.

I hate winter

My computer tells me that its 7º outside right now. Our puny little furnace simply can't keep up, so it's all of 65º in the living room. Last night Donald set up the electric radiator right next to his desk when he was playing a game, and I sat next to it to read a magazine for awhile. That's always a bad idea, because I couldn't stay next to the nice warm heater forever, so when I got up my back felt even colder. :( Then I got in bed and all was cozy. Then Donald got in bed and his hands were cold, and his feet were cold and he was leeching my heat! I need to buy him some electric slippers or something.

I also hate how dry it gets. My throat is parched every morning, even though we have a humidifier. My nose is so dry that it bleeds sometimes. I'm ready for spring and it just turned January. Dammit. On the plus side of winter, snow is pretty.

I'm feeling the need for warm food. I think I'll make chili this week.

Happy New Year!

To start off 2008, here's a little story from the end of 2007:

Yesterday morning I sat down and had my breakfast. I poured my Cheerios, and finished off the milk. I read a magazine while I ate, then took a shower when I was finished. Donald and I got ready to go run errands, and my stomach started to feel weird. "I don't feel well," I said to Donald. Moments later, I was sitting on the floor in the bathroom certain that I was going to throw up. And I did.

"What did you eat?" asked Donald.
"Cheerios and the last of the milk." I replied, still sitting on the bathroom floor.
"Oh, I thought that smelled bad." said Donald.
"Huurk," I said.

So Donald smelled that the milk was off, then put it back in the fridge.
"I thought you would smell it!" he protested. "You don't take chances with dairy!"
"Then why did you put it back instead of throwing it out?!?" I yelled.

On the last day of 2007, my husband tried to poison me.