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May, 2004
May 30, 2004
Where did this month go??
Maybe
Pooh can answer the question. Hmm, maybe not.
Anyway, it appears I have about two weeks left at work. I think the last day of classes for my student is June 15. I know he's scheduled for summer school but I haven't been approached yet about working with him. I also haven't heard a word about next year, which is a bit unsettling. I don't know for sure if I have a job or not but I'm under the impression I'll be given some word by the end of the school year.
The Blue Angels are in town for an air show at Jones Beach. Maybe we'll go see them today. They're based here at Republic Airport so Bill and I went over for a quick look at the planes on Friday. Billy and I saw other planes Thursday afternoon that looked red, white and blue but they don't appear to be at Republic. I'm sure they weren't the Blue Angels. I would recognize those planes right away. I've tried to get a little gardening done in the front. The landscaper we have doing the weekly mowing is supposed to do a spring cleanup and hasn't done it yet. It's been about a month since we made the arrangements. I'm about ready to just clean up a lot of it myself. I'm getting tired of waiting.
I volunteered to beta test a new knitting/crochet sweater design program. I downloaded it today but I have to make a gauge swatch before starting to design a sweater. I have to knit or crochet the samples to see if the program works. We have all summer to do this. I can start now and then really get into it when I'm finished working. This will be a really busy week so not much will get done until at least next week. I'm anxious to play with it.
I also just started a program with a personal trainer at the gym. It's called Jump Start and that's exactly what I need. It includes four weeks of sessions with the trainer and sessions with a nutritionist. I started my first session Friday evening. It made me feel like I was really accomplishing something. I'm also less likely to look for junk food if I'm keeping up with the gym.
Still have tomorrow off, yes!
comments?
May 28, 2004
Day off
School is closed today so we have a four day weekend. Nice. Bill and I met Jan and her husband, Al, last night to see Little Shop of Horrors. It was so much fun, dinner at John's Pizza and a very funny show. We were closer to the plant at the end. It really is cool to see that huge plant come out at you! And Douglas is just so funny.
Douglas is indeed leaving the show mid-June, three weeks, he said. When asked about next projects, he mentioned several options, one in Washington, D.C., several here in NY and one in LA. So, we will have to wait and see. He seemed particularly interested in the project in D.C.
Yes,
it's raining again. We've had such unsettled weather, thunderstorms and
showers. Ugh. Well, the green things are growing. That's not a
bad thing. A little sunshine once in a while is welcome, though!
In the months of April and May, I've seen nine Broadway shows and two shows at Smithtown. Wow.
I'm off, still haven't had breakfast and it's 10am! For me, that's an eternity!
comments?
May 23, 2004
42nd Street
Bill and I saw this show last night. It's been open since 2001 and I've never seen it. Since it was a Saturday night, we just took a chance at the TKTS booth since discounts are not applicable on Saturday nights. It was fun to see Shirley Jones and Patrick Cassidy in the show and I loved the dancing on the staircase at the end. Really cool. It's a cute show. I had to laugh. I remember seeing the movie and the scene that stays in my mind is the scene where the director (in this case, Patrick Cassidy, can't remember the actor in the movie) is giving the chorus girl, Peggy Sawyer, a pep talk before the NY opening of the show. This was sedate but in the movie, it's so melodramatic! The director is literally shaking this girl by the shoulders, "One hundred people, $100,000, all resting on your shoulders!" Geez, let's not heap any pressure on the girl or anything. She's just been rehearsing for 36 hours straight before opening night. Then, of course, there's the infamous line, "You're going out there a youngster, but you got to come back a star!!" It's so funny. I had to laugh while watching the show. Since Douglas is leaving Little Shop in mid-June, we're going to see it again this Thursday evening. We being me and Bill, Jan and her husband, Al. It's the first time the four of us have been to the city together.
I have baked ham in the oven. Smells great! I'd better get to the potatoes.
Ta-ta!
comments?
May 17, 2004
Avenue Q continued
I forgot I wanted to include the website, which I still haven't had much time to explore. Avenue Q.com
It was a nice weekend, weather wise, and it was relaxing for once. I've been running around so much. Well, last weekend, I ran around but it was fun, Mother's Day festivities and all. I did a little sewing and quilting yesterday. On Friday evening, I saw a preview performance of The Odd Couple at Smithtown. It looks great, very funny. Again, I'm amazed at the set and how detailed it is. There are details you'll never see from the audience.
Ta-ta!
comments?
May 14, 2004
Avenue Q
This was one of the funniest shows I've seen. Think perverted Sesame Street characters. We loved it. I particularly like the song "You Can Be As Loud As The Hell You Want (When You're Makin' Love). Priceless. Yes, there is a sex scene.
If you're familiar with Sesame Street at all, you'll think this show is hysterical.
comments?
May 13, 2004
What is America thinking??
American Idol, what is happening??? Jennifer and LaToya are gone and Jasmine and Diana are still there? For that matter, George is gone and Jasmine and Diana are still there. I just don't understand. In my opinion, put LaToya on Broadway tomorrow. Put her in Aida before it closes.
Sigh. I'm off to work.
comments?
May 12, 2004
Tulip Festival
I knew I forgot something! I meant to write about the Tulip Festival, which was back on May 2nd. Jim was performing, playing guitar for a singer of children's songs at the Tulip Festival in Hecksher Park in Huntington. It was fun seeing Jim onstage and Steven really seemed to enjoy going backstage to the dressing room! The singer is Jeff Sorg and here is his website.
Yep, those are tulips in front of the stage!
When Jim sent me the brochure for this event, the exhibit that caught my eye was the Sheep to Shawl Festival, which was held at the Daniel Kissam House and Museum. There was a sheep shearing exhibit, which was really interesting. I never knew that when they shear the sheep, the fleece is removed in one piece and that it takes a year for the fleece to grow long enough to shear from the sheep.
Although the sheep looked brown originally, that color is from the sun. When the fleece was removed, it was a beautiful, blue gray color. I have a small bit of the fleece. It's so soft. There were also exhibits about spinning the fleece into yarn, knitting and weaving.
I've read about spinning but I had never seen it done. First, the wool must be carded. This process removes the smaller threads and leaves the longer threads, which are then twisted and spun on the spinning wheel. The resulting yarn can be knitted or woven. One woman showed me a small swatch knitted from spun wool. It was so soft, much softer than wool yarn you can buy. I don't think it would be scratchy, as many wool knitted sweaters tend to be. The weaving process looked like fun but I didn't have enough time to stay and really investigate that. This was really interesting and gave me a chance to see something I'd only read about before. Now, I'd like to research the cost of spun yarn. There must be a resource somewhere on the web.
A very interesting day!
comments?
May 9, 2004
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!
It's been a really busy week. Let's see if I can recap. Kelly and I saw Twentieth Century again on Tuesday evening (and for those playing the home game, it's not over till it's over....in our sitcom lives!). Now that I think about it, I don't know what else I was doing, just running around, getting things done around here. I just feel like I've had no free time. We met Jan and Lori for dinner on Tuesday evening. They saw Assassins.
Last night, for my mother's day outing, Bill, Kelly and I saw Rent. I have discounts for shows I'd like to see but none of them are in effect for Saturday nights so we did the TKTS thing and got tickets for $48 each. I'd been listening to the music a lot lately and I was thinking about seeing it again. We really enjoyed it. Jeremy Kushnier is really good as Roger and Matt Caplan as Mark was equally as good. Loved the girl playing Maureen, Maggie Benjamin. We didn't see "Scary Spice", Melanie Brown, who is the current Maureen. We did dinner at Barrymore's, as we did Tuesday evening, but missed out on the Cold Stone Creamery ice cream last night. It was crowded. Kel and I did have ice cream on Tuesday. Really amazing stuff and a fun place to visit. I hear they're opening one of these places near here on Deer Park Avenue.
We had weather in the 80's on Friday and I bought new sandals in anticipation of the nice weekend weather and it was chilly yesterday, in the 50's. Should be around 65 this afternoon. It's not sunny but not raining so I guess that's better than nothing!
Dinner with the family today so I'd better get moving. And, just in case you thought I'd abandoned the Pooh obsession for the day:
Roo
has some flowers for Moms today.
Ta-ta!
comments?
May 1, 2004
May Day
Spring is finally in the air, too! It was a beautiful day today, although rain is in the forecast for tomorrow. I went to the city this afternoon to meet Susan White, Diane Perri, Pat and DeDe to see Stephen Hope in a Bob Ost revue, "Not Quite What You Expected" at Dillons on 54th Street. We had a great time. Stephen managed to make us laugh and feel sad as well. The performances were top notch with clever songs and laughs. After the show, we stayed at Dillons for dinner and discovered a large party was gathering for a performance in the main dining room. As always happens when we of the Pimpernel gang gather, something silly/funny/unusual occurs. Let's just say it involved the performers for the proposed show (which we didn't wait to see), a cast member of the show we had seen and a missing broach (an "antique" broach, mind you). The missing jewelry item was eventually found, apparently by Carlos, the waiter. Good thing, too, or the show may not have been able to go on! Sigh. That's showbiz.
Here is Stephen in a photo borrowed from his aol website:
Incidentally, while walking on 8th Avenue yesterday, I passed a small clothing store with a hand-written sign out front, "Business Sucks Sale, three days only, Friday, Saturday and Sunday". Only in New York.
Tomorrow, I'm going to the Tulip Festival in Huntington where Jim will be playing guitar for a singer performing there. I hope it doesn't rain. The last I checked, there was a 30% chance of rain so maybe it will be ok. I'm particularly interested in an exhibit at this festival called "Sheep to Shawl". It's a demonstration of sheep shearing, spinning and weaving. Right up my alley!
Getting late, I should be...
Yep,
Pooh's got the right idea!
g'nite!
comments?
