As i was saying...
Despite appearances to the contrary, I am not in a "fewest and farthest between" LJ post competition with gilpin25 (Which I won, BTW.) I can't tell you how many posts went through my head that never made it to the keyboard. They were all brilliantly witty and full of charming stories and I'm sorry you'll never get to read them.
So what, you may ask, have I been up to since last my last post in November? Well, for a while, I spent an awful lot of time (many people would say wasted) seeing The King's Speech. My final in theater count came to 12 as I decided not to jinx Colin's Oscar chances by seeing it a 13th time the same weekend as the Academy Awards. It worked out pretty well for him too! TKS elevated Colin from looks-sexy-in-wet-breeches-romantic-comedy-kind-of-guy, to full blown I-have-to-see-everything-he's-done NOW! That went on for awhile until I finally got to watch Downton Abbey and met (not in real life sadly) the lovely Brendan Coyle. My Netflix queue now looks like this: Colin movie, Brendan movie, Colin movie, Brendan movie. You get the picture. Some lovely person posted all six episodes of True Dare Kiss on You Tube which saves me having to buy the european DVDs and convert it NTSC format. It's funny when I think that when I was younger, I went for the older men in my celebrity crushes but now the older men are my age! Or in Brendan's case, 5 months younger!
Music always take a huge chunk of my time that I could be using on the internet. I've been working on improving my skills with the pitched percussion (ie: xylophone, bells, vibes, etc) to make me more useful to whomever may need me and wants to pay me. although I will work for free... or at least food during intermission. Got to put my skills to the test for a two week run of Little Women which debuted on Broadway the same time as Wicked but didn't quite catch fire. Still, it's a good show and the music is catchy and easy to listen to (Probably because the composer stole freely from other popular musicals like Les Mis.) Playing it, is another matter! It didn't take us long to realize that the orchestrator had no idea of the range and limitations of the various instruments. In the case of the percussion book, I think they may have though I'd have four hands because that was the only way to play some of the parts. But, once I figured out the best way to set up the instruments (which spanned the length of the pit) to keep the dashing back and forth to a minimum, I only had to drop a few bars here and there to play, what I decided were the important parts.
Beauty and the Beast was next and was almost a complete opposite. The ironic part is I got paid more money for BB. Or rather, I got paid for Beauty. Go figure. Next up are a couple of concerts this weekend and then perhaps, Once Upon a Mattress in July. It'll be nice to have some free time because...
I have started on my next DIY project! Yay! It's been a while since I've done anything that involved any kind of demolition. This time it's the master bath that's getting the full on treatment. It was the first room I renovated after moving in 12 years ago, back when I was just learning how to do things and compared to the rest of the house, it's looking rather dumpy. A lot of ideas have been going through my mind for months but I never could decide what to do and where to start. Then I found this vanity...
...and it kick started the project. I wish I could've used the recent 3 day weekend to make more progress but I have to wait for the faucet to be delivered next week (which was yesterday since this post has taken almost a week to finish) before I can finish the install and move on. I did go ahead and demo the old one and replace the water valves. If you look at where the edge of the vanity meets the wall, it doesn't. Not evenly, at least. That's because the cheap builders didn't care if the wallboard lay flat and level over the water pipes. I addressed this problem tonight and only need another layer of plaster and some paint and I'll be ready to install the vanity.
Had life gone as planned (and when does it, really?) I would have been in England this week, but my travel buddy decided it was about time for him to buy a house and couldn't commit the funds to our trip. Last week he signed off on a lovely 3 bedroom, with a yard and all that stuff for the price which would barely get you a one bedroom condo in California. I suppose I can use some of my vacation time to go visit him in Pittsburgh but I've told him we're crossing the pond in 2013 providing the world doesn't end in 2012. As a consolation price, my sister-in-law is in Oxford for a family wedding right now.
I'm sure there's more I could tell you but it's taken me three (now five) days to get to this point and if I don't post this tonight, it'll take another two days before I have time again. But let me introduce you to Gomez before I go. This big boy was living on the streets for quite a while until I finally gave in and liberated him. He took to being an inside cat quickly but has a sketchy relationship with the others. Often he'll stretch out on the stairs and I'll find Fran or Ulysses waiting a few stairs down (or up) trying to figure out how to get past him. He also takes up too much space on the bed but he's a love and let's me rub his tummy.
So, was it worth the wait? ;)
So what, you may ask, have I been up to since last my last post in November? Well, for a while, I spent an awful lot of time (many people would say wasted) seeing The King's Speech. My final in theater count came to 12 as I decided not to jinx Colin's Oscar chances by seeing it a 13th time the same weekend as the Academy Awards. It worked out pretty well for him too! TKS elevated Colin from looks-sexy-in-wet-breeches-romantic-comedy-kind-of-guy, to full blown I-have-to-see-everything-he's-done NOW! That went on for awhile until I finally got to watch Downton Abbey and met (not in real life sadly) the lovely Brendan Coyle. My Netflix queue now looks like this: Colin movie, Brendan movie, Colin movie, Brendan movie. You get the picture. Some lovely person posted all six episodes of True Dare Kiss on You Tube which saves me having to buy the european DVDs and convert it NTSC format. It's funny when I think that when I was younger, I went for the older men in my celebrity crushes but now the older men are my age! Or in Brendan's case, 5 months younger!
Music always take a huge chunk of my time that I could be using on the internet. I've been working on improving my skills with the pitched percussion (ie: xylophone, bells, vibes, etc) to make me more useful to whomever may need me and wants to pay me. although I will work for free... or at least food during intermission. Got to put my skills to the test for a two week run of Little Women which debuted on Broadway the same time as Wicked but didn't quite catch fire. Still, it's a good show and the music is catchy and easy to listen to (Probably because the composer stole freely from other popular musicals like Les Mis.) Playing it, is another matter! It didn't take us long to realize that the orchestrator had no idea of the range and limitations of the various instruments. In the case of the percussion book, I think they may have though I'd have four hands because that was the only way to play some of the parts. But, once I figured out the best way to set up the instruments (which spanned the length of the pit) to keep the dashing back and forth to a minimum, I only had to drop a few bars here and there to play, what I decided were the important parts.
Beauty and the Beast was next and was almost a complete opposite. The ironic part is I got paid more money for BB. Or rather, I got paid for Beauty. Go figure. Next up are a couple of concerts this weekend and then perhaps, Once Upon a Mattress in July. It'll be nice to have some free time because...
I have started on my next DIY project! Yay! It's been a while since I've done anything that involved any kind of demolition. This time it's the master bath that's getting the full on treatment. It was the first room I renovated after moving in 12 years ago, back when I was just learning how to do things and compared to the rest of the house, it's looking rather dumpy. A lot of ideas have been going through my mind for months but I never could decide what to do and where to start. Then I found this vanity...
...and it kick started the project. I wish I could've used the recent 3 day weekend to make more progress but I have to wait for the faucet to be delivered next week (which was yesterday since this post has taken almost a week to finish) before I can finish the install and move on. I did go ahead and demo the old one and replace the water valves. If you look at where the edge of the vanity meets the wall, it doesn't. Not evenly, at least. That's because the cheap builders didn't care if the wallboard lay flat and level over the water pipes. I addressed this problem tonight and only need another layer of plaster and some paint and I'll be ready to install the vanity.
Had life gone as planned (and when does it, really?) I would have been in England this week, but my travel buddy decided it was about time for him to buy a house and couldn't commit the funds to our trip. Last week he signed off on a lovely 3 bedroom, with a yard and all that stuff for the price which would barely get you a one bedroom condo in California. I suppose I can use some of my vacation time to go visit him in Pittsburgh but I've told him we're crossing the pond in 2013 providing the world doesn't end in 2012. As a consolation price, my sister-in-law is in Oxford for a family wedding right now.
I'm sure there's more I could tell you but it's taken me three (now five) days to get to this point and if I don't post this tonight, it'll take another two days before I have time again. But let me introduce you to Gomez before I go. This big boy was living on the streets for quite a while until I finally gave in and liberated him. He took to being an inside cat quickly but has a sketchy relationship with the others. Often he'll stretch out on the stairs and I'll find Fran or Ulysses waiting a few stairs down (or up) trying to figure out how to get past him. He also takes up too much space on the bed but he's a love and let's me rub his tummy.
So, was it worth the wait? ;)