Merry Christmas

Well, here we are December 28th. Hard to believe that 2009 is almost over. Harder to believe that I'll somehow manage not to say o-ten when speaking of events after Friday.

I'm still in Toronto with FIDDLER. John is in Miami this week with 101 DALMATIANS. I envy him the weather. He envies me my schedule. Next week will be a great week because he gets to come visit me! Hooray!

I've actually had other visitors here too. The folks came up for almost a week early on in December. We had a great time eating delicious ethnic foods and sightseeing.

We had Indian food one night and to their credit the folks tried a little bit of EVERYTHING at the restaurant we went to in Little India. Nothing was too spicy, but it was all quite delicious. We also went to Chinatown one night. We each ordered something different and tried the others (sesame beef, chicken and broccoli, shrimp and peppers). It was all pretty tasty.

They saw the show one night and we all went to the Royal Ontario Museum one day and saw the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as the regular exhibits. The ROM is pretty fantastic as far as museums go and I hadn't been in years. Since that previous visit they've added an enormous addition to the front of it that looks rather like a glass space ship that has crashed into the staid old building it used to be. Despite the car being towed (and the ensuing 2 block chase after it) it was an enjoyable outing. Fair warning: Ontario parking signs are confusing.

I managed to make it home for Christmas this year. I carpooled with 2 of the show's musicians. One lives in Detroit and one in Ann Arbor. It was nice to be home for the whirlwind 2 days that I was. It was fun to see the neices and nephew and everybody else. We all made it this year except Rob. Stuck on an oil rig for Christmas. Booo. At least he'll make it home for New Year's.

Now back at work, I'm enjoying the christmas cookies and cheese that came home with me. Mmm. Sorry no pictures. I'll blame it on not carrying my blackberry and using my not so svelte/functional work phone instead.

On ice...

Off to the great white north!

I will be in Canada for the next 7 weeks doing my best impression of Kenny from South Park except my coat is brown instead of orange. Now, as most of you know, I am an EVIL person when cold. Not when chilly, but when bone achingly cold. And supposedly Canada is known for cold in December and January. A couple years ago, I invested in a giant parka/nanuk of the norh type coat and so hopefully there won't be too much evil going on. Pictures to follow. Probably in a week or two when the folks come to visit.

OH YEAH. MY PHONE WILL BE OFF WHILE IN CANADA. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CALL MY NORMAL NUMBER AND IT WILL FORWARD TO MY WORK PHONE (WHICH IS FREE TO ME, DON'T FEEL BAD CALLING) BUT DO NOT TEXT ME. I WON'T GET IT. ALSO, IF YOU SEE A 240 NUMBER COME UP ON YOUR PHONE OR CALLER ID, THAT'S BECAUSE I'M CALLING FROM MY WORK PHONE. THIS WILL KEEP ME FROM ACCRUING MASSIVE ROAMING FEES. BUT I WILL BE IN BLACKBERRY WITHDRAWL FOR A WEEK OR SO. NOT HAVING INSTANT EMAIL WILL CHAFE A BIT. BUT TO SAVE A FEW HUNDRED ON THE PHONE BILL WILL BE WORTH IT.

Boston

I was in Boston for 2 weeks with the show and John was on layoff from his show so he got to come visit for 8 days!! On my Monday off we drove down the coast to Plymouth Rock. I must say, it's not very impressive, not even as big as a car. But it has a huge monument over it.

Still not so impressive. We did see a big old boat and a bunch of small lobster boats. We took a stroll around the dock and then headed up the coast to meet some musicians friends from a previous tour. They live in Cohasset, a tiny lobster town right on the coast. This is their town's beach. They treated us to an AMAZING lobster dinner. You can see the remnants here.I had never, that I can recall, eaten a whole lobster before. The lazy person in me always ordered the lobster roll (already in convenient sandwich form) when I lived in Connecticut and I've had a tail here or there, but until that Monday had never picked up my still squirming lobster said "goodbye" and put him in the pot. It was delicious!

After dinner there was much catching up to do and John tried his hand or should I say lungs at the digereedoo.

Very funny. Janet and I laughed ourselves silly at John and at Gene laughing and giving tips. It was a fantastic evening with very good company!

Baltimore

Tonsillitis. 'Nuff said.
Yes, I'm better now. And some med student in Maryland has a picture on his iPhone of my blackened tonsil. Eww.
Oh and prior to the tonsillitis, there was a Halloween party. It was a themed party for the show. You were supposed to go to a drug store and using what you found there and make a costume out of it. I went as Frugal Sarah. (Based on a character from the show - a long dead wife of one of the guys who comes back to haunt the lead characters.) Anyway, a couple of pictures exist on Facebook and here's a picture of my hat. Notice the little tiny skeleton in the middle! Tee hee, I had a good time.

Ft. Lauderdale

I'm in Baltimore this week and am enjoying the Fall. 60 degrees is nice. I had kind of forgotten what Fall felt like. But I spent the previous 2 weeks in Ft. Lauderdale. It was hotter than usual down there, but I was loving it.

The other stage management assistant and I decided to room together for the 2 weeks. We found a fantastic 2 bedroom/2 bathroom apartment just across the river from the theatre. It was great! Full kitchen and massive balcony on the top floor of a condo tower.

We could see the theatre....

If we had a canoe we could have gotten to work fast. If we had a zip line we could have gotten to work REALLY fast. From the other side of the balcony the train bridge was visible and the ocean in the far background.

The river was full of boats at all hours. Huge yachts, river taxis and sailboats came and went all day long. I even saw some manatees on the last day I was there.On my Monday off, I borrowed a bike from the condo and rode to the beach. All along the road I could see the canals with the waterside mansions and the yachts pulled up to the personal docks. Some of the boats were as big as the houses.When I go to the beach I had an overpriced but excellent Caesar salad with shrimp and a glass of sangria in a beach cafe. *sigh* I do love the beach. I did feel a little guilty though. The day I rode to the beach, John had snow in Minneapolis.Looking forward to Boston next week!

childhood dislike..turned fabulous with garlic and oil

Thanks to my tour roomie Betsy for this fabulous recipe!

Delicious Brussel Sprouts

brussel sprouts - cut them in half
bathe them in olive oil and a lot of minced garlic- do not rinse it off, it is key
place on a cookie sheet
bake at 400 degrees for close to a half hour or longer if they are large brussel sprouts.

Basically they want to be slightly browned in spots. Some of the outer leaves will fall off and caramelize a little bit. (like potato chips only brussel sprout chips!)

Very tasty!

New York State of Mind

On layoff from tour for this week (and the next 2) I am in NYC visiting John who is prepping his show for tour at the shop. I have had a lovely couple days and will be sad to leave tomorrow. Mostly because there's no John in Savannah right now. Not so much missing the city. Don't get me wrong, I love the electricity and the excitement and the immediacy, but the city makes me a hard person. I love to be there for about a month every year for rehearsal, but when that month is over, I am ready to go.

Yesterday was a windy day, but no rain till late. I took the opportunity to visit the High Line. For those of you who've never been, the High Line is a decommissioned elevated freight train line on the lower west side (Meatpacking District up to Chelsea) that has been allowed to go wild and has recently been turned into a park. Click here http://www.thehighline.org/ for the official website.

I accessed it from Gansevoort Street and walked up to 20th enjoying it immensely. It is well designed and is a nice haven from the chaos on the streets below. It feels rather tree house-ish. Here are a few pics. There are groundskeepers for it now, but the wildflowers were naturally occurring. I imagine that topsoil was brought in to help the process. The old railroad ties and rails are still there. There are large benches and chaise lounge type wooden chairs scattered along the rails too, some are on train wheels, though I doubt they roll anymore. Sorry, no pics of those.This is the north end of it (for now, supposedly it will be 3x the length sometime...) and I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the sign.I wasn't the only one enjoying the High Line yesterday. There were sunbathers (despite the chill), people on lunch break, tourists, and fashion folk. (It is Fashion Week after all and the Meatpacking District has become so trendy.) Anyway, I enjoyed my day.

Today is September 11. It is a windy and rainy day. Broken umbrellas lay scattered on the sidewalk like so many dead birds. Here and there a colorful one. A hard day, fitting weather for the remembrance.

On the road again...(insistent guitar riff... go)

Well, it's been a lovely vacation, but it's time for work again.

I'm back on the road with FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. It's a great contract, schedule, and show. It's a long one. (Fair warning: this puppy clocks in at just a hair under 3 hours including intermission, but the show is really good.) I picked the show up in LA and and am now in Costa Mesa. You forget how strange California is until you come back. I'm fitting in well as the middle person on the stage management totem pole. I knew most of the crew and a third of the musicians coming in. Bonus. Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to update this blog occasionally,and John may get a chance to as well. He'll be going out with 101 DALMATIANS at the end of the month. Unfortunately we didn't get the same show this year. But maybe next year. Sigh. Conveniently for us, my show has frequent layoffs and so I'll get to go visit John out on his tour.

Movie ..uh...star?

So I was an extra in a movie that is being shot in the Savannah area about a week ago. I spent 16 hours at the beach getting a tan and reading a book. Didn't pay much, but I didn't have anything else going on that day. It was almost 100 degrees that day but I managed to find the shade most of the time.

The movie is called The Last Song and is based on a Nicolas Sparks book. Apparently he has a ton of books and at least 3 others have been made into movies and not the "made for TV" kind though I suspect most of the ones I've heard about would end up on the Hallmark channel. The movie stars Miley Cyrus who, as my niece had to explain to me, is Hannah Montana of Disney channel fame. Apparently she's a "rebellious teen who goes to live with her estranged father (played by Greg Kinnear) for the summer".

In the perhaps 1 minute of finished film that was shot repeatedly over the course of 16 hours it is possible, though in my opinion not especially likely, that I will be seen in a light blue tank top, greenish khaki shorts and a big straw hat likely at a concession stand or waving at my "kid" on an amusement park ride.

The 600 or so extras for the day were to be playing the festival goers for the 37th Annual Tybee Island Seafood Festival. Tybee hasn't had a 1st in actuality, but...

The following is an edited transcript of John and my text messages throughout the day:

John @ 11AM: Did you make the cut so far?

Heather @11:10AM: So far. Have paperwork and security wristband. Am waiting for wardrobe to say yea or nay.

FYI: Extras were told to bring 2 options of clothing in addition to the best option which we were to wear there. Natural makeup and hair. Naturally, some people showed up in nearly drag queen attire and with more makeup than the Estee Lauder counter at Macy's.

Heather @ 11:30AM : Option 2: shorts and blue shirt. I think it was a no long dresses kind of thing.

John @ 11:35AM: You draw a lot of attention, no matter what you wear. I love you. You're beautiful.

Side note: Aww. Inn't he sweet!

Heather @1PM: Finally out on set. Gotta turn phone off till lunch break.

John @1:30PM: Cool. Call me at lunch if you want.

Heather @ 2:15PM: Still on set. Not doing anything. Been sitting under the pier for the last hour. Waiting. Easiest work I've ever done. Ripping through my book.

John @ 2: 40PM: Nice. About to have some of my chicken salad.

John @ 4:30PM: How's the shoot going? Any ideas when you be released?

Heather @5:15PM: Boring. Rumor is lunch break at 6:30pm and then more. Releasing the minors at 9 maybe. Lots of rumors no actual info.

John @ 5:16PM: Gotcha.

Heather @ 7:03PM: I'm hearing 2am release. I'll let you know when I know more.

John @ 7:30PM: If this storm has it's way you may be done early.

John @ 9PM: There is some flooding on 80 due to high tides.

Heather @ 9:05PM: It filled up under the pier here. Doing some volleyball watching now. They're putting up the stadium lights.

John @ 9:07PM: Weird, huh?

Heather @ 10:15PM: A production assistant just confirmed the 2am tonight. Pleasant now though, temperature wise.

John @ 10:20PM: Right on. Is there anything you would like when you get home? Other than to go to bed?

Heather @10:25PM: I have a pair of black work pants in the laundry room. Not too dirty. Can you make sure they're not under something stinky?

Side Note: Though not in the habit of wearing dirty clothes, in this case, I made an exception. I was going to a load out of a corporate gig at the trade center then next day and after loading a truck for an hour, with another 3 hours ahead of you, dirty clothes aren't the worst of your problems.

John @ 10:30PM: It's done. Off to watch Batman.

Heather @ 10:31PM: Have fun.

Heather @ 12:40AM: Cut now. Got to go get signed out and then bussed back to Coastal Middle parking lot for the car. Hope to be home by 2am.

John @ 12:45AM: Very good. Safe driving.

I made it home at 1:55AM. Not much actual work, but interesting. And yes I did see Miley Cyrus. Poor kid was in tight black jeans and double tank tops all day. Of course every time they yelled "Cut" there was a dude holding a sunshade over here, another person toweling her off, a third misting her with water, a fourth offering drinks, and a fifth fanning her. Oh yeah, and the makeup and hair people were waiting to fix her up. Crazy.

My Bonaventure Adventure

Needing to get out of the house the other day, and wanting to be outside even though it was close to 100 degrees, I decided to go to Bonaventure Cemetery. It is one of 80 cemeteries in Chatham County (Savannah area) and has been used since 1794. It was featured in the movie "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". (Side note: they don't sell indivdual plots, only family plots (for 6-12 people) for a minimum of $4810 as of this writing.)

Anyway, all that aside.....it is heavily shaded by live oaks and on the Wilmington River so it is pleasant even on hot summer days.

I took a lot of pictures and a lot of them were crap, but here are some of the more interesting ones.

The Bell family arch.

This urn shows a common situation with the marble here. The most exposed ridges are blinding white but the nooks are quite dirty. I did not see any stones from the 1700s but I did see quite a few from the 1800's including these from the mid to late 1800s.

So detailed!I liked this one (except for the creepy dead eyes) and so I had a little fun in photoshop.

Bloomsday is upon us

For those of you following along at home, you may remember that last year we received a small branch of gardenia from John's dad. 2 pots and many moons later it is happy and healthy and it put out a bloom! Just yesterday, a massive flower opened up on the top of the plant. It may be the only one we get this year, but it smells amazing and classes the patio right up. In other news, the 6 unit concrete pad in back of our building is now under construction. At 7:30 on Tuesday the work started. It seems that 2 crews are working simultaneously and it won't be long before that sucker is done and sitting there unsold. It has been fun to watch it being built despite the extra noise. Memorial Day Weekend marked the arrival of a bunch of friends from DC. Unfortunately it rained all weekend, but much fun was had anyway in the form of too much food and drink, too much Rockband for the Wii (they brought it along in a retrofitted suitcase which implies to me that they take the show on the road regularly) and too much Scrabble. A whole bracketed tournament was setup (yes, we are dorks here) and many rounds were played. The victor was neither John nor I but John did make a lovely trophy to commemorate the event. It is now on display in Rockville MD until such time as someone else wins it away from the place of honor on the toilet tank.

The "inscription" reads International Scrabble Home Invitational Tournament. John appropriated an old Land Judging Trophy from his youth. Yes, that is a golden plow on the top. It was a fantastic weekend.

A little more patio.....

Last week, John and I decided to add on to our patio. With all of the herbs and vegetables in containers on the back slab, in addition to our sizable grill, trash can, and small patio table and 2 chairs there was no room to enjoy all the enjoyable items out there. Our backyard is 20' wide by 10' deep before it become "common area" to the Home Owners Association, but the slab was only a meager 10' x 10'. The air conditioners take about about 4' along the fence and that left us with a weird little patch of grass that was just over 6' x 10'. The pic below is the original patio situation.John got out his mad photoshop skillz and did a fantasy/fantastical patio incorporating a number of elements that were cool to both of us and some that were not so. Check out the "land of the lost" lemon trees! Our lemon tree is still a tiny plant, but maybe one day...... Unfortunately, even in a photoshop patio the neighbors still have their grill cover over the fence.

Sorry for the lack of mid-project pics, but here's the run down. After much internet research we drove up to Low Country Pavers in Hardeeville SC (about 20 minutes from us) and after some dithering and pretending we were possibly interested in full price merchandise we went to check out the seconds yard. It was full of remnants from large projects, overstock, or color mixed concrete stones that the color wasn't evenly distributed in. We ended up getting a half pallet of an overstock that we both agreed wouldn't look too strange with a concrete slab. We got it home in 2 trips (so as not to blow out the shocks on the CRV). We also got the easy peasy snap-edge barrier wall from them.

We dug out the 6' x 10' area next to the existing slab and leveled it with a solid clay/dirt/sand mix and put down the plastic edge wall. Then we put in a layer of play sand and got to work on the pavers. I made up a design that was basically 2' squares made up of an even number of pavers. And then we rotated it as we laid it down. It wasn't too hot last Saturday when we did this, but it was very sunny so we put up our sun tent so we could work in the shade. Here's a first row pic.Below is a picture of all the stones in place. John is removing his leveling stakes.

We hadn't put the sand between yet. I liked the colors in the stones. They had some fancy name at the paver yard but I can't remember what it was.
Next we poured out quite bit of sand and swept and tamped it into the cracks. We replaced the sod around the edge too. A week later it is blending in much better.

Here's the finished patio from several angles. We continue to put more sand into the cracks every couple of days and after it rains. I think that we won't have to do that more than twice more. The stones are quite stable and we are both really happy with the extra room!
We redistributed the plants and they are all doing well with more space. The cucumber has a trellis now (next to the grill) and if we can keep it from also wanting to be on the air conditioner, all the plant battles will be fixed.
Who's coming over for barbecue?

Garage Sale GOLD!

I love a garage sale. I love multiple garage sales in one morning even more. I love finding the item you've been looking for for a couple years at a garage sale for $50.

Last Saturday I found the dresser! I've been looking for a cute small one for our bedroom for quite a while. I got it from a family that used to own an antique shop.

They said it was from the 30s. It has a little wear and tear but is in surprisingly good shape. Also, it has the original hardware! Check out the cool drawer pulls.

The flowers were leftovers from a party that John and I loaded out last night. We had quite a bit of work this past week. A couple of 20 hour days and lots of corporate bull.

St. Patrick's Day - a month later

Ooh... bad blogger! This post is more than a month late!

St. Patrick's Day this year was great fun, as expected. Raynor came down for the festivities again, as expected. I didn't get bagpipe overload, and that was unexpected.

The Budweiser Clydesdales were here this year. More interesting that seeing them in the parade was seeing their 3 semi trucks with police escort come into town 3 days prior. Sorry, no picture of that.

A Shriner's group had this bizarre dragon duck mobile.

No, that's not Raynor under there. This boy was with his sister and grandparents, camped out on the sidewalk in front of us. He spent the whole time trying to create a dance that would show off his green beard to the most-test.

Dressing ridiculously wasn't just left to the young. This guy had spent some time on his outfit.

Look! Irish Bedouins!The fire tugs sprayed green dye into the river again this year.

Not sure why this is popular.

Hollywood legacy lives on, here in Savannah. The Pirate contingent was out in force, complete with aging wenches and guys who needed haircuts. This mini ship had a go cart in it and would whip around at high speed, popping wheelies and firing pop cannons.

These old guys got off the couch to get on the wagon. Instead of watching the parade, they watched those watching the parade.

We had a great time. Got some lunch at our favorite rooftop restaurant on the parade route and a little too much sun.

The Cycle of Life

A month's time has gone by since we last posted. A long and happy life has ended and many new ones have begun. Most of you know my Grandmother Alice Goins merged with the infinite on April 3, 2009. What a perspective changing event that has been. As my Mom, my Dad, my sister, and my Mom’s sisters gathered around during Grandma’s final moments, I began an examination of that very moment and how we got there.

I believe the experiences of life and life itself are accumulated and processed for the sole purpose of teaching us that we only get one chance to share this time with those around us. It is our responsibility to take each of those precious moments and use it to help shape a better life for all of those that we come in contact with. We should feel free to share our stories and feelings and have the faith that one day a stranger may be spared the agony of a setback because we cared enough to give help when help was needed.

My Grandma shared her life’s experiences every chance she got. She made it her mission to share her experiences with everyone. She sang when she was happy and wanted others to sing with her. When she was concerned she would let you know. Sometimes, that concern was caused by an extraordinary paranoia brought on by watching too much Lifetime Television, but she believed that she was sharing with you the potential pitfalls and snares that could threaten your well being both spiritually and physically. After having considered what it all meant, I decided to begin focusing on the new life that has come to us this spring.

I’m talking about a new garden. Each spring the Sun returns to a position in the sky that allows for a flood of life giving light on our back patio. That's where we have the most space for a container bound garden. I know that it's time to start planting when the sunlight can reach all the way across the concrete slab and touch the bottom of the backdoor.

This year, Heather and I have cluttered our back patio with this summer’s potential harvest. Honestly, I like to plant seeds, watch green leaves push away the ground and grow into strong, healthy green plants. Really, that’s what I love most. But there’s this added bonus of having fruits, vegetables, and herbs come from those plants that you just can't beat. Cooking and eating items that you have produced with a little help from Mother Nature is a great and satisfying reward. If all goes well this spring, we will have the additional pleasure of growing too much. We will be forced to give some away. I may have to learn how to can tomatoes this year.

We are excited about how green our patio is. Every time we have visitors I have to give a tour of our container garden. I tell them, “Here are the chives. And over here are the tomatoes and basil, just started though. It will be at least another month before we start consuming any of it.”

In the mean time, Keller’s Flea Market off Highway 17 North has good produce vendors. Heather loves to patronize one in particular because she loves to watch the little boy scramble around in their van for extra produce. His mother yells at him, in Spanish, “get the good stuff. This lady is valuable customer.” At least we think those are the words based on the mother’s flailing arms and snappy tones. The tomatoes are always ripe and juicy, the lemons are cheap and zesty, and the cucumbers are not waxed like the ones you find in the grocery store. (Heather can't stand a waxed cucumber. It makes her nuts.) The Flea Market cucumbers are almost as crisp and fresh as the ones my Grandma Alice use to grow.

So now, let me show you around our garden...

The Dill is off to a nice start.

As well as the Fresno Peppers.


The basil and cucumber plants have quite a ways to go before they start putting off any useful goods.


If you are wondering...I place a napkin or paper towel on top of the dirt then I sprinkle the basil seeds on top of the paper towel. This helps to keep in the moisture. Basil likes moisture.



Chives. These are last years sow. They are suppose to be perennials. They lasted through the winter and they still look pretty good. The other little plant in the pot is Mint. A lady at the market last year gave it to me. I didn't really have a use for it since we don't drink Mint Juleps so I stuck them in the dirt. They took root, died off for the winter and then came back this spring. They produce a fragrant flower.

Garlic. We typically get our garlic from the grocery store. Recently, I have noticed that the grocery store does not sell garlic that is free of sprouts. So I stuck four cloves that had sprouts already into the ground. We're curious to say the least.

Another plant that I am experimenting with this year is the tomato. I have grown these from seeds that I scraped out of tomatoes that we bought from the grocery store. They seem to be doing fine so far. I have read that growing a prolific tomato plant from seed is the toughest common garden plant to grow. The professionals do it, why can't I.

Besides, I will have many opportunities to get it right this year.

The Thyme is doing so well that it had to be pruned back, no wait, divided and repotted into two different pots. How long will its other half survive? You'll have to ask my Dad. Maybe Schrodinger's Cat can help.

Lastly, we have had success so far with the Dogwood sapling that my Dad gave us last year as well as the Gardenia. They have both been repotted and have a ton of new growth. I can report that the Gardenia has a lot of new green shoots and the Dogwood has had such a good start this spring that it is beginning it's second set of leaves already.













And to add to our tree collection...Lemon Tree.Terrible picture, I know. When the seedling gets a little larger I will give an update. This is the result of 4 weeks of germination and 1 week of vegetative growth. I sowed the seed 5 weeks ago and kept it wet. I had all but given up on it in the third week because I had no idea how long it would take. I brushed away the dirt to find that the lemon seed had split and green was starting to show. I quickly covered it up and started it on an artificial light cycle. At the end of the 4th week it started to push the ground out of its way. It has now been in a green house environment that I created from a plastic tub with lid for 1 week. I have a lot of reading to do about growing lemon trees. Meanwhile, Peter Paul and Mary will be my inspiration. Wish us luck.