OK: It's Cute Once, Don't Do It Again Department.....

Note to self:

Never, NEVER again sign up to take a class---online or not---that crams 16 weeks into 8 weeks if you're already working 30+ hours a week and taking two other "conventional" classes.

Just don't. This way lies madness.

Especially if the class is heavy on papers.

I may not see daylight again until May.

Oy.

Bubbles!

Somehow (tiny fingers playing with the camera and turning all the knobs, I suspect) I ended up taking a movie of Squeegles at the Zeum in Naperville when I meant to be taking a still.

Quality ain't what it could be, since I was taken by surprise. Still, here it is....

Somewhere along the line, I'll get more of the "Zeum" pix up.....but I think we'll be skipping the ones Little Squeegles took.

You see, the only time Little Squeegles got her hands on the camera in the museum was when Big Squeegles was Using the Plumbing Facilities. Which is now digitally commemorated.

When you're committed to sitting where you're sitting, you cannot confiscate a camera from a toddler dancing just out of your reach, snapping shots of you sitting there, drawers around your ankles.

**(sigh)**

Fortunately, digital shots don't have to be sent out for some stranger to giggle at as they develop them....that's an image I could live without. :)

Life in the Arts.....

.....or how not to grow your community theatre (thereby insuring it's just you and your buds, undisturbed.)

A new calendar year dawns. You are contacted, out of the blue.....

Newbie: "Hi, I'm new in these parts, and I'd really like to come help out at your theatre. I have experience. Can I come play?"

You: "Are you a member? You have to be a member. It's $15 a year. Here's your membership form. It includes a place to mark what areas you want to volunteer in."

Newbie: Sends in membership form with money and areas marked.

You: "Thanks, you're now a member of our theatre for the next six months." [We didn't mention that our membership year is by season, and there's no discount, no matter how far into the season we are? Too bad, we have your money now.] "By the way, here's the form to order season tickets." [They're on the same basis: half the season's over, tickets are same price they were last summer before the season started.]

Newbie: Once bitten, twice shy, does not order "season tickets" for the back half of the season.

You haven't said they have to buy tickets to come and play, and they probably don't---you're just hoping in their enthusiasm they will.

You: Add them to the mailing list for new shows and auditions. Never contact them again. When they don't re-join, either don't notice at all, or mutter about how "they must not have been VERY interested, after all...." and feel self-righteous about not having wasted the time actually responding to them.

Just a hypothetical scenario, of course......no real community theatre would act that way, would they? Certainly not any here in beautiful Indianapolis.......

It's Curtains for You!

Well, I should be in bed.

But I just couldn't resist seeing what the finished curtain panels would look like; I had to piece one.

Of course it's going to acquire backing and batting and get quilted and bound, but this is the core piecework.....

I think it's going to be very cheerful: I like it.

Not Dead Yet!

Just nothing momentous.....

Closed the campus last night....after I spent an hour and ten minutes making the 25 minute drive there in a sleet storm....

So no idea when that midterm will actually happen. Presumably Easter week (gack, like there's not enough going on that week...)

Electric's done. Ceiling fixing next.

Working on curtains for the great room. Furniture rearranged; some new picture frames bought and pictures redone and hung. Pix online eventually.

Trying to make weekly posts in a spiritual blog. We'll see how that goes. So far managing to get it in on Sunday or within 24 hours thereof, but that's only two weeks....

Da Stove!

Og!

Invent!

Fire!

Og Roolz!

Erm, sorry, not quite caveman...(ahem)...cavewoman department.

But the stove, she works! She gets hot enough to invoke blower! She commits beauty (and warmth) upon the room!

Woohoo!

Death of a Fireplace

Nothing like buying a house in a significant part for the fireplace only to discover it's a firetrap that should have burned the house down 35 years ago. **sigh**

It's gone, now; torn out, and the underlying construction of it as it came down started to make one suspect that the room it lived in (an add-on 15-20 years after the original house was built) was one of those semi-clueless owner-and-brother-in-law projects.

Once we had the fireplace out, the first other thing that became apparent was that they weren't much as electricians, either. Bare wire splice in the ceiling---I really don't like looking up at live bare copper wire. **sigh redux**

Call electrician. What started as "tear fireplace out and replace with woodstove" project is getting pricier by the minute.

Stove should be here tomorrow and installed, blizzard/ice storm permitting. Electrician next week. But it's going to end up with a number of outstanding electrical issues fixed that I knew I'd have to deal with sooner or later.

Then I suppose I have to find someone to repair the ceiling. **trinity of sighs**

Eventually, I'm going to redo the terminally-70's panelled walls in there, and that room is going to ROCK. It will all be worth it in the end....if I survive.....

Once the stove is in, I'll try to get some pictures up.