Pool party!

Sunday was a fun-filled day in the sun and my skin proves it. R&T recently bought a pool – shallow enough for the visiting three year old to stand in but big enough to fit seven adults and a teenager comfortably having a water gun fight. To celebrate the purchase, they had a holiday-style cookout. Burgers and hot dogs cooked on the grill, potato salad and coleslaw recipes competed for side dish space, ice cream packed the freezer and beer filled coolers. Couples and kids showed up to play in swimsuits and the day lasted forever.

The Bald One and I determined that we now need to designate a beach/pool bag. While we knew what we needed for the pool, we don’t seem to have it in a central location. As we were walking out, the cooler of beer & jug of iced tea in the car, both of us started to remember the stupid little things you realize you don’t have usually as your feet hit the sand. Where did we leave the sunscreen from last season? Oh – should we grab saline solution for your contacts? My hat is by the door, can you grab it since you’re right there? Finally, we had our bag of clothes/towels/gear and off we went.

We arrived to chaos. There were people everywhere – an unusual event for R&T, as somehow everyone ends up in different places and is either late or nonexistent at most of their last-minute-ish shindigs. We had a few water gun fights, hilarious moments watching the 3yo on the slip’n’slide and general cavorting in the sun. The burgers were a highly fought-over dish, where the Bald One stole more than his fair share claiming he wouldn’t be around for the second round because of work…then managed to eat two more later that night after his return. The coleslaw, I’m told, was the usual expected excellence and the potato salad I know was fabulous. Red velvet cupcakes were out to celebrate a birthday, but nobody was targeted for bad singing.

Later, after many of the folks packed up and went home, the remaining die-hards took naps or relaxed in a shady spot. I finished off another book and enjoyed just being able to sit in the sun for a bit. After naptime, we all jumped back in the pool, enjoying the ability to be submerged up to one’s neck and having a conversation. As the skies grew dark and the temperature dropped with the impending storm, we moved inside for another round of food and hilarious television. The hour being rather late, we finally headed home twelve hours after we left.

Despite my sunburnt shoulders arguing with me, I’d class it as a satisfactory day.

 

Houseguest & the History Channel

Nikolai moved to the Carolinas and is bunking with the Bald One and I until his apartment was found and ready for him to call his. This means that when I get home, my television is set to one of two things - the Wii or the History Channel. Neither bothers me, just amuses me. He does get home way before the Bald One and I make it out of the Park, so he has the run of the entertainment.

Between Nikolai and the Bald One, there have been almost all the tracks in Mario Kart and almost all of the pieces of the LEGO Indiana Jones have been opened up for fun. The crazy-fun part of having Nikolai around is we’re getting a bit of an edjumacashun. He flips on the History Channel any time things can’t be found to entertain him. We’ve learned about subs, boats, all manner of weaponry and the most amusing episode - the making of Wonder Bread. (Side note: Americans eat a lot of white bread.)

I won’t say that this hasn’t been interesting. I’ve been amused at finding what can be found on television, as the Bald One and I are usually too busy to watch anything but our usual shows and get caught up on our Netflix list. I don’t think I even knew we got the History Channel until Nikolai came to stay. It’s also nice to know that our Wii is a great source of entertainment, as the two boys will often double team the games and clear levels in the blink of an eye.

I’ve also discovered that our guest room isn’t that bad. I wouldn’t say it would be more than a week’s stay for normal people, but the futon is apparently comfortable to sleep on, and the room isn’t unbearable. Once the cat-tortured love seat has been removed, the place will be fairly cat free. Nikolai is even allergic and is doing remarkably well between the allergen reduced bedroom and the Dyson-vacuumed household.

But I’ll be happy come Fourth of July has come and gone. I’ll have another Eno under my belt, my house back to just two humans and two days to vacation.

 

I live with a killer

A mouse killer dwells here. I can’t tell you which of my four heathens is responsible, but the clues point to one suspect - the chubby one.

You wouldn’t think that a twenty pound cat with a head the size of a vidallia onion would be capable of capturing a fleet footed mouse, but she has done it once already. She toyed with her victim until a scream startled her into releasing her prey. Watch her now slowly pad around our home and stare at you with the most innocent eyes. But I swear - she kills.

Last night, the Bald One and I were seduced away to our friends’ home with the lure of pulled pork for dinner and a slip’n’slide to play upon. The slide appeared to be hilarious and resulted in a bruise or two while the kiddie pool decorated in monkeys was quite comfortable to sit in. After the sun went down and the bugs came out, we all ventured in for conversation and shredded pig. The conversation wound down as the hour grew late and we returned home.

As I ventured off to our room, I saw what appeared to be a destroyed tampon. Being the only female in the house and knowing that I’ve taken out the garbage in the past month, I wasn’t sure how that was possible. Without looking closer, I knew what it had to be. Ducking into the bathroom, ostensibly to hang the swimsuits and remove my contacts, I begged for the Bald One to remove the carcass before I would open the door. He did, then fed them despite someone already having a light snack. All ate heartily and we went off to bed.

But I slept a little uneasily, knowing one of our domesticated animals was a murderer.

 

Posting live from the new toy!

I won’t tell if you won’t…I’m using the Bald One’s iMac to post.

I wanted to see if I could do some very basic navigation on his toy without him being around to either complain that I was playing with his toy or be whined at about using it at all. So he’s at work and I wanted to quick check my reader that I didn’t get through before my battery on my laptop died this morning and to do a little post.

His toy is very cool, so far. He’s in love with it and playing on a computer. He’s excited about plugging in his guitars and recording riffs that he has bouncing in his head. And I’m excited for him finally getting this creative outlet out somewhere. The other exciting feature is that it has necessitated a cleanup in his office that has made the place very clean and shiny and bright and I actually feel comfortable being in here for more than sixty seconds.

Okay, I just discovered Safari has tabbed browsing. *love*

Why I’m really upstairs on this gorgeous day is I’m waiting for my yard to finish drying out and the sun to dip low enough I won’t bake when I’m working outside. Instead, I’m getting the Purple Room ready for my allergic friends to be able to crash in there. This means dusting the shelves on tippy top, moving the bookcase and desk around a bit so they’re in better positions to have the new (to us) couch that is being delivered in that room. The couch is actually a futon of full size bed proportions and should happily sleep the ex-Bostonian until he finds local digs to match his new local to us job. After that, the room will still remain an allergen free zone so that our lovely friends can occasionally crash there when the need arises. And it will be pretty. I think.

No more goofing off - dust is calling my name…

 

T13: Reasons I’m Working for the Weekend

It’s been one long spring and I’m ready for summer. The past ten weeks have been one of the longest shows I’ve worked on since I left college. We started a week early and this production company likes to run for four weeks instead of the usual three. No biggie, but at this point we’re all looking at each other thinking “done.” Luckily, this one ends on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. I’ll have two glorious days where I have no commitments that I don’t make myself. So here’s a list of why I’m counting the minutes to the weekend.

13 Reasons I’m Working for the Weekend

1. Three Day Weekend! Three whole days where I don’t have to go to my little cubicle and listen to other people have conversations I’m not supposed to hear right outside my wall.
2. Closing night Always a great time to reach that point in a show, where you can all look at each other and say “we made it!” This one culminates with a party at Spice Street.
3. Spice Street on a Saturday Throughout this show, we’ve tried to have a drink over at Spice Street and routinely been blocked out by some chickie in some scantily clad yet oh-so-stylish outfit saying “it’s a private party” Once was the annual Latino thing, another time was a white party, and still another was just some odd event where we got no explanation. It’s nice to be on the guest list this time and tell them off.
4. Brunch The world stopped turning and the Bald One and Five Diamond (T) have Sunday and Monday off. This means we’re getting the long awaited brunch. Hopefully with cheese biscuits.
5. 5 hours of BBC I acquired the 5 hour version of Pride and Prejudice recently. Part of brunch is going to involve curling up with the hubby and our friends and watching this epic.
6. Gardening! With both of us off, we might actually finish mulching our front flower beds. Will wonders never cease?!?
7. Lazy Monday The other benefit of having both days off with the Bald One, we can be lazy and sleep in on Monday until the indecent hour of 10am.
8. new iPhone (maybe) Mercury went into retrograde and took out my cell phone. This means I lost connection with the world. Today (well, Thursday is almost weekend…) I go to the Genius Bar and if they can’t fix it, I get a new one. Woohoo!
9. new tattoo? I’m hoping to go visit the tattoo parlor and get the one that has been in my head for a while put on my body. It’s going to be a garland of gerber daisies around my ankle.
10. Ez Clean House Having had a “professional” come do the place last weekend means I should be able to rock through cleaning the house this weekend.
11. No more quiet office Things supposedly start to get interesting here after Memorial Day. Growing season kicks in and people start doing things fun.
12. Cheese Biscuits Have I mentioned these enough???
13. Sleep I miss it so. I’m looking forward to spending quality time with my bed.

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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T13: How to disappoint a Mother

Mother’s day is coming…and with that, the guilt of how to properly thank the woman who brought you into this world and could quite possibly take you out of it.
How to Disappoint a Mother

1. Move Out The number one thing I have ever done to make my mother sad was leave home. They count the days until you walk out the door, but they never seem to realize that it actually means that you leave.
2. Live in another state/country To add insult to injury, if you’ve decided to be a functioning member of society by not living at home and setting up your own household - choose another state to do it in. It means that both parties will end up “wasting” vacation time visiting family…but it also saves you from the last minute drop-ins
3. Don’t have children* Not a guaranteed way to totally destroy your mother, but many seem to believe that the best way to get even with you for the hell you put them through as a child is to have one of your own. If you decide against that, then they automatically lose the right to laugh at you when your children pull a trick you did so many times.
4. “Waste” your education Often nowadays, parents help their darling offspring get a further education. Be it becoming a doctor or getting your contractors license, if you decide after a year or a day that this is no longer the career for you, it is a guaranteed arrow in to their heart.
5. Be employed in a shaky profession My parents are rational adults. My mother was so happy when I looked at a career in chemical engineering. Then, I switched to drama the same year my brother started performance jazz. Neither screams stability.
6. Be unemployed Even if no fault of your own, one of the fastest ways to disappoint is to not be gainfully employed. As I’ve been told, it is very scary to have one of your children (or their spouses) unemployed. It’s almst worse than #5.
7. Have debt Especially now, the idea that you owe money or don’t pay off your credit cards every month is a cringe worthy offense. How do you know something catastrophic isn’t going to happen and you will need your reserve?
8. Don’t Call Please.
9. Don’t Write The art of letter writing is gone, but you still need to send cards for the major holidays. If you don’t, that’s horrible.
10. Don’t listen to their advice They’ve got years of life experience and don’t want you to make the same mistakes. So by not listening you’re rejecting them completely! Evil child.
11. Buy her the wrong thing If you don’t know her size, go with jewelry. Or flowers.
12. give gift cards This just means that you have no imagination
13. forget Don’t forget your mother.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

 

Weekends are for social insanity

Last weekend, amid opening Clean House, we had a full schedule. Kicking off the weekend early on Thursday was Opening Night which – for the first time ever – was attended by the Bald One. He seemed to enjoy the show and meeting the people I’ve been spending way too much time with and we escaped to our home at a decent hour.

Friday, the actual start to the weekend, had me enjoying a fabulous apple martini at Spice Street after the show with some of the cast, the director and our house manager. When I left at a decent hour, I was cajoled into driving fifteen minutes past my house to R&T’s new digs. After about an hour of checking out the nifty place, sitting on their deck enjoying the weather, the week caught up with me. We all migrated in to play Mario Kart and I started to fight sleep in the comfy leather recliner. I eventually give up, the boys run off to play loud music and I’m prodded awake around 4am to go sleep in a real bed.

Saturday – blissful bed as long as I want – followed by an attempt to clean and do useful things before running off to my show. The big deal this time around was that following the show, I was meeting the gang at our favorite little downtown bar for the Class of 1985 Prom. Complete with costumes and more AquaNet than I thought still existed. I can’t think of a song that they played that we weren’t singing word for word. What a deranged bunch we are.

Sunday was quieter, as suits the day of rest. Our matinee audience was refreshingly unexpected. After the show, we closed up shop for the next three days and I went off to a small house party in the opposite direction of my home. The party was a good mix of theater and civilians from all walks celebrating the Rites of Spring and the Fifth of May. After enjoying some excellent imported cheese in quesadilla form, I headed back home for a lazy evening with my husband.

You would think I’d learn to take a weekend of down time? Nah, why live that way…it’s too quiet.

 

Darnit, I want my deck

Today is the absolute perfect day to have a deck.

There are twenty gazillion things I should be doing right now, ranging from scrubbing six weeks of life off the interior of the house to mowing the weeds. What I really want is to have some kind of cushy recliner set out on my non-existent deck and enjoy the cool breezes as I doze in the sun. It’s been that kind of week.

Our show opened on Thursday, which was quite excellent. I felt loved and admired as one of the actresses proceeded to say how fantastic I was. I made bonus points with her daughter as well by recommending that she check out the Maine State sumer theater camp. Just the fact that I knew about such a thing apparently was awesome. And, for the first time ever, the Bald One was in attendance. That made my night.

This show’s tech wasn’t a particularly hard one, but the week before of running and notes and discussion every night and will we/won’t we get the set elements in time was a little taxing. Add to that opening on the first of a month when bills are due and being in that odd limbo at work of being on the cusp of being busy but not being busy yet and you have one whacked out little Rae.

The yippy-skippy news is our federal “economic stimulous” package arrived. I should throw it at a bill and make it go away, but at current, I have a plan where we actually are managing to pay things down in a reasonable fashion. Combine that with the couple that gets us to go downtown and have a beer with them so often moving out to the boonies and we have an instant extra money supply. So the majority of the funding went into a savings account.

The not so yippy-skippy news is that the Bald One’s employer officially filed Chapter 11 yesterday. Blaming the sagging home market and the lack of retail confidence and you’ve got a failing home-goods store. Oddly, they’re not closing any stores in this area - despite our bets that one of them really should be. The Bald One does have his resume all shined up and has already applied for another position with a prescription home delivery company. Normal hours and theoretically better pay? If he’s happy, I’m all for it.

But now, I’ve delayed long enough. The house isn’t getting cleaner with me playing online. The bills are paid though, the one odd charge is gone and the breakfast has long been finished. Time to get cracking on life.

Even though the breeze is blowing and the birds are singing. Damn reality.

 

Spring! Well, maybe…

After it warming up to the upper 70’s and low 80’s for a week followed by a cold snap that brought all our plants indoors, we’ve started to warm up again. Just in time for my show to open and me to have time on the weekends to think about making it pretty. The Bald One has put in many hours while I’ve been at the theater or at my day job and all but one island in the front has been weeded and mulched. Since we were starting from a complete lack of mulch and a mess, this is an amazing feat.

The fact that our front has gotten this far has made me realize that we need a lot more work to make the front yard match the rest of the neighborhood. We don’t live in a showstopping community. It’s more of a tired, real community that your see inmore established areas. The picture perfect houses scare me. But even with a quieter set of standards, we still look too new, too disorganized.

Part of the solution will likely be adding more color. We’re slowly getting there as the roses take more presence in the yard and the burning bush is loving taking center stage against the blue-grey house. Our winter honeysuckle has established and is climbing insanely on a different side. To contrast, the jessamine has overgrown the trellis on the side of the house. It just takes time and I’m impatient.

the other thing our yard desperately needs is grass. Currently we have a mix of three different types of weeds along with bermudagrass and some kind of fescue. Pestering some of my coworkers, I discovered that the best bet for the moment is to keep the lawn and weeds closely trimmed and spray a broad-range herbicide to kill what survives trimming. This should keep things down until fall when we can re-seed. At that point we should be able to keep things at bay and crowded out by the grass root structure. Hopefully.

Really, I don’t give the Bald One enough credit. A majority of the heavy lifting when it comes to getting things done around the house - inside and out - is done by him. I guess it makes us even - I’ll get the bills paid and do some of the artsy point of view nonsense, and he gets to buy power tools. As I type this, supposedly I am getting wall mounted shelves put up in the office which will give us more book stashing space and a place to display his action figures.

I have a good one.

 

see why I love him?

Conversation via text message with the Bald One this morning:

Rae: Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick at the Creek this summer. We going?

Bald One: Fuck ya!

Rae: Love you!

Bald One: love you too

See why I love him?