Saturday, March 22, 2014

Next...song...is...

Today was a big day.  We sort of began the Great Kitchen Renovation of 2014-2017 by emptying and removing our cabinets.  Tomorrow my goal is to get the stove moved and maybe the trim taken down around the kitchen window. 

And the other big part of the day is that Jeannie and I were mostly able to work at the same time while Samuel entertained himself on the front porch.  It was pretty great.  It was warm enough for us to leave the front door open, so we could hear him jabbering away to himself through the screen door, and every now and again I would look out our front window and see him sitting on the top step in the sunshine, wearing a bright red vest and playing with his yellow truck.  Not much in life better than that, I'm thinking. 

Work was crazy yesterday.  Super busy, about 10 different e-mail conversations all happening at the same time, but good and productive.  A couple of semi-big wins, a half argument over e-mail with a guy who's trying to sell me a phone system (tip:  if someone tells you that you've got half of their business, don't lose that half while you're trying to go for the other half), and some time spent walking around downtown in the sun. 

I had a G&T last night.  It tasted good and was uneventful. 

Thursday, March 20, 2014

I Prefer Jelly

Tonight I was putting Samuel to bed and we were sitting in the rocking chair and reading 2 books, and he smelled strongly of maple syrup, because he ate pancakes over at the babysitter's today and he must've gotten some in his hair, and Jeannie and he and I took a walk this evening when we all got home so there was no time for a bath.  And by the time he was going to bed he was a bit over-tired and threw a fit because he didn't want to brush his teeth.  He won that battle, I'm afraid, and so got to go to bed without brushing his teeth and without taking a bath, and so smelled strongly of maple syrup.

This week has kicked my ass a little bit. 

Here's a picture of Sam helping Jeannie with the dishes.  Belted to the chair...

Monday, March 17, 2014

Quiktrip

The Jeanners and Sam and I got back last night from a brief, yet pretty fantastic, trip to Ohio.  A lot of driving for not very much time, but most definitely worth it.  Uncle Rico drove in from St. Louie, and the cool kids (and the cool kids' kids) were there, and it was just very mental battery-recharging, as usual.  A delicious fake-Thanksgiving dinner was cooked and served, Cards Against Humanity was played, and a walk to the ravine and train tracks was taken.  2 trains were seen, by the way, a fact which made Sam so excited that he was shaking as he pointed to them.

It was really wonderful to see Sam playing with everybody.  We had been prepping him for most of the week, letting him know that we were going to be going on a long car ride, that we were going to go to Ohio, and that we were going to be seeing Jen, Brad, Henry, Jack, and Uncle Rico, and I think he got a big kick of putting together the names with the people once we got there.  The fact that the house was full of new (to him) toys didn't hurt, either.

Also, it snowed last night (again).  Very snowy winter here.  And I like snow, but even I am ready for winter to be over.  So work today was kinda slow because of the snow.  But I got some good stuff done -- organizing our props storage and talking with Ian about an idea that I had for Midsummer.   Also went to the building this morning and this afternoon, but it was closed and locked both times -- I guess the burly construction guys with their ginormous trucks were too snowed in.

Oh, and Katie the North American Traveler had her baby!  A healthy baby boy named Micah.  How truly exciting.  Welcome, Micah!

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Downtown Julie Brown!

Ugh.  Haven't written in a million years.  What's the point?  Work, work, work, blah, blah, blah, Sam, Sam, Sam, blah, blah, blah, poop, Jeannie, work, yada yada yada.  That's about it for my life right now.

My brain feels like it is going at about 100 mph about 80 percent of the time now.  Luckily, it still seems to be able to shut down most nights.  For a couple of weeks now I've been having beers here and there.  No G&T's yet, though.  The beers taste delicious, by the way.

Sam is talking up a storm.  He says fun things like, "What's up, Dawwwg?" and "Downtown Julie Brown!"

The fam and I leave for a brief trip to Ohio beginning tomorrow evening.  We're gonna drive for a few hours tomorrow night and then shack up at a hotel.  Finish up the drive on Friday.  During this trip I plan on:                            
                   1)   letting other people play with my kid while I take a nap and
                   2)   hitting up Steinmetz for free scenic design advice.

Katie the World Traveler is probably having a baby AS WE SPEAK....!!!  I hope it's going well.  Childbirth is the stupidest process I have ever been witness to.  Ugh.  So stupid.

Sunday, March 02, 2014

Pisser

Lil' dude went pee pee in the potty today for the first time.  Pretty cool.  Although, lately I've been realizing that helping him try and go to the bathroom in the potty is going to be more work than just letting him piss/shit in his diapers and then changing them.  Everybody always talks about how hard potty training their kid is -- do they mean it was hard for THEM (the parents?)?  If so, this is a swift kick to the parenting groin, and one that has caught me a little bit by surprise, although it probably shouldn't have. 

What else?  Jeanners and I got to go on a date Friday night, to see a play by a local theatre company that also recently (within the last few years) renovated an old building downtown and turned it into a new theatre.  So I got to scope out their place and see how it differs from ours, and see any similarities (they were both designed by the same architecture firm).  More differences than similarities.  But I liked their space.  Their production was a little too well-produced for my taste -- perfect set, perfect lights, perfect costumes, good acting, not a hair out of place -- but the whole did not add up to more than the sum of its parts.  But it was good to get out, and seeing someone else's work has made me think a lot about the work WE'RE doing --  what should change, what shouldn't change, etc. -- and it was nice to check out their building and compare and contrast. 

Some big work decisions coming up -- picking a phone system, picking an A/V company, making some lighting inventory decisions, figuring out if there's money to buy a lift or if there isn't money to buy a lift.  Things like that.  Basically, my job is to figure out where all the stuff that isn't already paid for is going to come from.  It's been fun so far, but now that we're getting closer to the time when all this stuff actually needs to get installed it's getting a little scary. 

I guess that's all for now.  We're expecting snow and ice so who knows if I'll be going to work tomorrow.