Saw this in California a few weeks ago while I was visiting Mum.
Take a closer look at the far right of the bed.
Category: pics Page 4 of 5
Only it was the Heart of Texas Fair, not the State Fair. K, one of the girls in the Woman in Black, which I’m stage managing, was given some tickets at work, and she invited me and M, another girl from the play to go with her. She’d never been before, and really wanted to check it out, and since the fairgrounds are right next door to the theatre, we didn’t even have to pay for parking.
When we got down to the end of the fairway, we came across the freak show booth; K had also never been to a freak show before, so we went in. For the most part it was a collection of live, stuffed and preserved animals of the conjoined twins gone more wrong than usual variety. One of the stuffed animals, however, was purported to be a chupacabra.
After looking at it for a couple of minutes M said, “That’s just wrong. That’s a deer butt, upside-down.”
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I was telling one of my coworkers about it, and he dubbed it the “chupacabr-ass”
On our way out, we saw one of those “Old Timey Photo” booths. Yet another thing K had never done (not that I had, either, incidentally… but then I’m not really one for voluntarily getting my picture taken). I agreed to join them in the photo under the stipulation that I was not going to wear anything frilly. They did have something in the Annie Oakley style, so I was happy.
I recently bought a set of shelves from Ikea for my tv and for some extra dvd storage space.
When I’d put it together, I found that it was a bit too tall for the space, and I didn’t like the amount of space between the shelves. So I decided to modify it. I set the shelves to a spacing that I liked, and then trimmed the uprights to the height of the top shelf.
I decided to use the scraps to make two little shelves to put at the back of the bottom two shelves to create even more dvd storage space.
I used the scraps I’d trimmed off, along with a plank of 2×2 that I bought to make the two small shelves.
I’m thinking of staining it a darker colour because it sort of fades into the yellow of the wall, but that’ll be later. For now, I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.
I usually get my taxes done at the earliest possible moment (I dread leaving them too late so I overcompensate), and this year all my paperwork was available before the end of January, so I already have my refund! I’m using most of it for sensible things, like paying down my credit card, but I wanted to get at least one fun thing, and I ended up getting this:
I’m calling it my NKDR (pronounced enkader), short for Non-Kindle Digital Reader. Eileen and I were in a silly mood when I told her I was getting it, and we came up with the acronym. It arrived yesterday, and I’ve been having fun playing with it since then.
I don’t particularly like the proprietary software that came with it (Sony’s eBook Library). It’s not particularly intuitive, doesn’t allow for much sorting or for editing of the metadata (which, since I’m planning on putting a lot of gutenberg texts on there, I’d need). Fortunately, I found a free, open-source alternative, calibre, which in addition to the things I’ve already mentioned, will also convert non-DRM ebooks from one format to another.
The reader can handle several different ebook formats (.txt, .rtf, .doc, .pdf, as well as their proprietary .lrf), which is fortunate, because there don’t seem to be a huge number of books available in their proprietary format. But most ebook stores I’ve seen offer secured pdf as one of their formats, so I don’t think I’m going to run out of books any time soon.
My main reason for getting it, though, was to use when recording, so that I could sit further away from my computer and its noisy fan.
So a few weeks ago, the Cachinnator wrote a post in which he asked whether they still made whole Heath bars, or if they only ever came in crumb form these days. I am happy to announce that I have found the answer to his query. Yes, Cach, you’ll finally be able to get some sleep, instead of pacing the room all night wondering about this. Yes, Virginia, they do still make whole Heath bars.
This particular specimen was found at a convenience store in Georgetown.
‘Course, now I have a Heath bar on my desk. I guess I’ll have to eat it. Honestly, the sacrifices I make.
I got Lucy a new bed yesterday, since she has refused to sleep on her cushion (which she used to love) since I washed it about a month ago. I was in Ikea yesterday looking for little tables, and saw a bin full of cheap, Lucy-sized dog beds. She took to it immediately. I’m kind of shocked. It usually takes her a few days at least to warm up to new things. But not this time!
She napped in it while I took my nap, then napped some more while I was working on the computer, slept in it (as far as I can tell) all night, and is napping in it again as I type now.
I heard back from the publishing company about my audition. They were pleased with my audio (something about the accents making the text come to life :D) and will be calling me within the next few days (all email so far), so fingers still crossed!
Bleh, I’ve let the whole blog thing slide again.
OK, let’s see… highlights since the last post. Finished A Christmas Carol; as usual, it was fun getting to play with friends from previous shows and meeting new ones.
I’ve discovered that Lucy only gets along with humans that she meets with their dogs (at least, that’s my theory). Mum and Nathalie drove in from California to spend Christmas. I had suggested to Mum that she bring Lassie to play with Lucy, but in the end she decided not to. They were here for ten days, and Lucy never really warmed up to either of them. But people like Crista and Eileen she goes crazy over. Mum was a bit miffed (especially when Crista came home halfway through their visit and Lucy went crazy greeting her). I don’t think she’d ever before met a dog that she couldn’t win over quickly. Maybe next time she’ll listen to me and bring Lassie. 🙂
I made a sweater and a little hat for Tredessa’s Jaxon. I finally finished the sweater over Christmas holiday. I found a pattern for a sweater with a train on it, and changed the colours so that it would look a bit like the Hogwarts Express. It was my first attempt at intarsia colour work. I don’t think I’ll be trying it again very soon. The knitting itself wasn’t a problem, but weaving in all the fifty thousand ends I ended up with was a pain in the patootie. Still, it turned out quite nice.
Train Jumper for Jaxon
I was contacted by a lady from a small publishing company called I Publish. A lot of what they do seems to be out of print classics, along with some new authors. She had heard some of my LibriVox recordings and wanted to know if I’d be interested in reading for them (for pay!). Naturally, I said yes, and she sent me a couple of chapters of Clara Vaughan by Richard D. Blackmore (better known for Lorna Doone) to record as an audition piece. She wanted them by the end of this month, and I sent them in last week. She emailed me that she’d received my files and would be listening to them over the weekend, so fingers crossed!
I have my dad here for a while. With the help of some of his friends in the DR and Andy and Auntie Ruth, we got him out of the DR (we sort of hijacked him, since he couldn’t make up his own mind). He’s been here a little over a week, and will be here till Andy gets a permanent situation settled for him over in the UK (much as I love him, hopefully soon).
I haven’t written in a shockingly long time, but I have an excuse! I’ve been busy… with my new doggie, Lucy! 😀
I picked her up from the local no-kill shelter in mid-September and since then we’ve been getting to know each other, doing some training and going for walks every day. She’s an Australian Cattle Dog mix. Not sure what the mix is… possibly some sort of terrier or pointer.
Other than that, I’d been working on Children of Eden. It was fun, but I don’t think I’ll do anymore shows where Tommy is music directing by himself. He’s much too vague without Lise. She’s got the true teacher instinct (she should; she’s a teacher!), so she makes certain that everybody knows everything they’re supposed to know ad nauseum. Tommy was all, “I’m going to treat you like professionals, so you just study your music.” All very well, except we’re not professionals, and not everybody could read music! Still, it ended up being a decent show.
At one point I’d been interested in directing Dial M for Murder, which came after CoE, but I was having health problems around the time the proposals were due and it just didn’t happen. I might have auditioned for it, but I learned that Scott was going to be directing A Christmas Carol, so I decided to audition for that instead. I was offered the role of the Plain Sister (in the scene at Fred’s house), but around the same time, I got a couple of projects with January deadlines at work and thought it might be safer not to take the part, since I didn’t know how much extra time I might have to devote to them. Tonight I got a call from Beth asking if I would please reconsider and take the part of Fred’s wife (same scene) as they were having a bit of an upheaval in the show and needed all the people they could get. So… three and a half weeks before opening, I’m suddenly in the Christmas show (panic!). Well, at least it’s not a very big part. I’ll get to do some carolling in Act I, possibly be a background person in the Fezziwig scene, and then be Mrs. Fred in Act II.
I’ve started working on baby projects for T. I’ve already made a little panda hat. I still need to buy eyes for it, but otherwise it’s finished.
The other project is going to be a pullover with a train on it. I found a pattern, and I’m going to change up the colours to make it look like the Hogwarts Express. I had ordered the pattern a couple of weeks ago, but they had run out, and I had to wait for their new stock to come in. It finally arrived at the end of last week. Now I just need some yarn – I have some in my stash that I want to use, in red, black, white, and yellow, but I also need some grey, blue and green.
The melodrama goes up in less than two weeks. I’m not particularly excited at this point, but then, I hadn’t wanted to direct to begin with. I wanted to be nice and rested when auditions for Children of Eden came along. Ah, well. We do get to use the theatre space as of tonight, which is a week earlier than we’d expected, so that’s nice. Even though we don’t get to do any set building as yet (the Children’s Theatre are still officially in the space), at least the actors will get a feel for the dimensions and the acoustics.
I went downtown to watch the fireworks last Friday for the first time since coming to live in Waco. The closest I’d come to this before was hanging out with friends in one of the Baylor parking lots when I was an undergrad and setting off some of our own little ground based fireworks and then watching the big display from a distance. It was quite fun. I hung out with Beth and the 92.9 tent; and Eileen came and hung out with us too.
I’ve just started working on Anne of the Island for LibriVox. I had been working on Mr Hogarth’s Will and Angelina, but I just couldn’t get into them and I kept procrastinating and not doing any recording at all. I’ve turned Mr Hogarth’s Will into a collaborative, and started up Anne as my new English solo. I feel sort of guilty abandoning Hogarth, especially because no one has shown any interest in it in the nearly two weeks since I turned it collaborative. But I’ve also started recording more often now that I’m working on a project that interests me. If no one picks up any of the chapters, I’ll probably do one here and there just to keep it alive. Oh, and for the first time since, I think, my second project, someone beat Ans to signing up to PL one of my English solo projects!
I’m still working on Angelina too (more enthusiastically since I started Anne). Spanish is so under-represented in the catalog, that I feel it’s my duty to contribute as much as possible, both in solos and collaboratives. I’ve currently got three collaborative projects going – part 6 of Aesop’s Fables, Jose MartÑs La Edad de Oro, and I took over part 2 of Don Quijote from Gesine when she needed some time off. Angelina is only the third solo Spanish work in the catalog, and one of the other two is mine as well.
Queen Victoria was a hit! I made a couple of alterations toward the funny side to the text Lise sent me and got lots of giggles. The worst was Tommy, who kept anticipating parts of the speech and would start laughing before the punch line. I watched the final performance in character and had an awful time trying to keep a straight face, especially when Regan looked straight at me and made a face at me.
I’m going to be co-directing this summer’s melodrama with MB. I hadn’t intended to direct it, because I knew MB wanted to try her hand at directing and thought the melodrama would be a good place to start (as it was for me, two years ago). But for some reason, the board decided they didn’t want a newbie directing by herself, and asked if I’d co-direct with her. As far as they know, I’m directing and she’s watching and learning. As far as we’re concerned, she’s directing and I’m offering moral support and suggestions.
When the new season was announced, I had wanted to direct the Hallowe’en show, Dial M for Murder, but I got sick and wasn’t able to get the proposal in on time. I learned today that a guy I know from a couple of shows this past season is going to be directing. He was kind of a pain in one of the shows, so I don’t think I’ll be auditioning as I’d originally intended. But that’s ok, because I also found out recently that The Cachinnator is going to be directing the Christmas show (A Christmas Carol), and I really enjoy working with him. If someone else had gotten DMfM, I might have ended up working on shows from June – December (not that I really expected to be cast in DMfM, because there’s only one female role).
I finally got around to working on my project for Jana’s baby (about time, since he was born over a month ago!). I had originally intended to make a little dress set out of one of the Baby Dale pattern books, because she’d been told she was having a girl. But then Elliott arrived, and I had to change plans. I decided to make a vest, and I wanted to try some fair isle, but I didn’t like the patterns I was finding, so I made one of my own. I’ve nearly finished it. I just have to do the ribbing on the armholes and neckband. I’ve posted a link to the pattern here: http://www.karenrsavage.com/blog/toddlers-fair-isle-vest/
So my new office is frickin’ freezin’ and I’m told it gets even colder in winter, so I’ve started preparing. I made myself a pair of fingerless gloves last weekend. They turned out quite nicely, and were ridiculously quick and easy to make. I may make several pairs in different colours, but these will do for starters.
I’m still working on the elephants as well. I’ve got all the pieces made on the first and I’ve started the second (finishing is my least favourite part of knitting, so I’m putting off the evil day until they’re both done).