Home again, home again, jiggidy jog..

We were home for long enough to not want to go back to work. And long enough for me to paint the living room and the man of the house to install some really cool lighting timers for the outside lights.

Here is a virtual tour of the downstairs...

The front door and foyer area.

Looking down the hall toward the back door.

The dining room.

In the dining room looking into the kitchen.

Continuing around the table.

The living room from the dining room.

The living room from the kitchen.

That's the downstairs. No picture of the bathroom or garage or under stairs closet. After the next layoff perhaps there will be pictures of the upstairs.

Christmas Tradition

I know, I know "long time no post", but I've been having too much fun enjoying being at home.

Today, we recreated a particular holiday tradition from my childhood. The tacky christmas light driveby. I remember many a December evening from when I was little when all of us kids would pile into the van and the whole family would be off for an evening of christmas light sightseeing, or "light-seeing" if you will. It usually involved a stop at Domino's Farms for their over-the-top lumen-stravaganza. Ahh yes, the arches that for some reason we called the "particle accelerators". Nerds even then. That was the best free entertainment.

Well, here in Savannah, at the end of our road there is a neighborhood of very "tony" homes. We went through there looking for christmas lights tonight. I have always said that you can get away with almost anything as long as all your lights are the same color. The overabundance of bright as airstrips white lighted houses let me know that my secret was out, but the neighborhood did not disappoint for tacky.

There was tacky on an average scale.

There was desperation.

There was tacky on a grand scale.

Inflatable "snow globes" are the favorite abomination all over the south right now. I can't speak for the rest of the country, but every redneck in the south seems to have an inflatable piece of holiday crap in their front yards this year.

And the following is possibly the best tacky Christmas display I've ever seen. (And, as I've mentioned before, that is really something...)

What!!! Let's see that in close up!

Not only is there an enormous, yellow, badly lettered sign on the house... Not only is there a mannequin dressed as an angel on a wire placing a star on the tree... But the best may be the little noticed mannequin angel in the back driving the sleigh hitched to the reindeer.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Padookie

Paducah Kentucky has a lovely theatre. Tasteful, well appointed, well designed, nice house staff in the middle of nowhere. It could have been the fastest load in ever today but we had to stop for 3 hours mid morning for, what else, CHURCH. Evangelical church. Holy rolling church.

I would've gone to the service if they had had it in front of our set (a junkyard), but they closed the grand drape. Still it would have been funny to see preists walking around in front of a giant tire, oven, lampshade, etc.

If we had been delayed, I was going to report that it was due to an Act of God.

Choo Choo!

Chattanooga Tennessee's Memorial Auditorium is a huge venue. Nearly 4000 seats, a very wide stage and plenty of support spaces downstairs. My favorite feature is the 3 spigot shower in the stairwell. This is a shot as you're headed to the stage.

And from the other side. If it was a ramp instead of stairs I could see the shower being the place the circus animals got washed...but midway up the stairs with nary an elephant to be seen, I just don't get it.

Sandwhat!!!

So the other day, we got into Tallahassee and, desperate for clothes (naked load-in is a no no), we set off for the laundry mat. Between the laundry and the grocery store was a cute little restaurant. The line was enormous, so we figured the food had to be good. John and I got salmon sandwiches and a bowl of chili to go. We went back to the laundry and sat down by the windows. John started to eat his chili, I ate half of my sandwich and then switched the laundry. Meanwhile a girl was painting holiday scenes on the windows. I got back to my sandwich and took a bite of the second half. Immediately I knew something was wrong. It kind of felt like I had bit a plastic fork and the tines were jabbing me. I spit the bite out and there was a huge beetle. I bit a beetle. A big black beetle. A BEETLE! A HUGE BEETLE...in my sandwich. I think he was long dead, because there was no squish, no movement and I didn't sever anything when I bit him. He was just pokey. Well, I'm lucky I didn't empty my stomach contents on the spot. I'm still not sure how I managed to avoid that. The beetle was so big that I looked around as if "where are the cameras?" I felt like "this can't possibly happen to real people, I'm on TV right?" You should have seen the look on John's face. He said I jumped a mile into the air. The girl who was painting the window looked in aghast.

I closed the box up and went next door to the restaurant. I waited in the line. And when I was about 4 people till the register a bus boy came by and asked if everything was ok. I opened the box and pointed. He said "Oh my god, you can just toss that, I'm sure they'll give you a refund." I said I'd prefer to hang on to it till the front of the line as it was more impressive in person. When I got the front, the girl at the register was appropriately appalled. She took it in the back and showed the kitchen and said she'd be happy to give me a refund, however she had to go get somebody to show her how. So she called one of the other girls over who asked if I was serious and rolled her eyes at me. WHAT!!!! I told her I was dead serious and I was trying to be nice because there was a whole line of people behind me who wouldn't want to know that I BIT A HUGE BEETLE!!!!! in my sandwich.

It looked just like this only the legs were curled in because it was dead. EWWW!

reminds me of camping

Sometimes load-in reminds me of camping. First you crawl out of your bunk which for most people is slightly roomier than a sleeping bag. Then you stumble out of the bus and try and remember where you are. When you get into the theatre, there's the initial scoping out of the bathroom location and finding the power hookup. Then there's the excess of people standing around when they actually have a job to do. But are they doing it? Nope. They're just standing around saying how they would do it this way or that way, occasionally getting in the way, and then wondering if it's time for food yet. Also, there tend to be some people who could have used a shower before now. And if there is a tv anywhere in the vicinity, you can bet that there will be at least one or two people hiding out and watching it.

Then there's the prospect of taking a shower in a new and scary location. Again, like camping, there is a definite knowledge that there is probably not a regular cleaning schedule for the bathroom in question. Suspicion of such is confirmed by the variety and size of the bugs lurking in the drains. Dead usually, but you have to be careful. Roadie legend tells of the roadie that got soap in his eyes and, stumbling about, managed to kick off the hazmat flipflops (that are strongly recommended), and accidentally stepped onto a pair of cockroaches that were big enough to carry him down the hall. Yee ha!

Feels like summer...

It was at least 75 degrees today in Baton Rouge. It felt like summer. Last year at this time we were in Denver. It was ice cold and windy. This picture is from then.

Thugs on scooters. Damn those were fun.