Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. We do not travel for Thanksgiving, and it's just an enjoyable family time filled with far too much eating.
This year we tried to entice my brother and nephew, along with my Dad, but were unsuccessful. Maybe next year.
Our usual "Black Friday" shopping took place as normal. This year, though, we were very heavy on the online Black Friday deals. Makes more sense to us to go ahead and secure that bargain deal online--if you can get it--rather than fight crowds and be disappointed later. Also gave us two bites at the apple in most cases, as many of the Black Friday deals were available online before the stores opened their doors.
Susan and I finished online shopping around 3:30 a.m. on Black Friday--at which point she headed out and never went to sleep. She finished the brick-and-mortar store shopping around 9 a.m., and came back home and grabbed just a few hours nap. Andrew and Caitlin both hit the stores as well. We managed some success, and ended up getting almost every single item we were looking for this year. With five kids, and the bargains sometimes just too good to pass up, it's a big day for us generally.
We enjoyed the Alabama vs Auburn Iron Bowl yesterday....with Caitlin home, my girls were all rooting for Alabama, with the boys rooting for Auburn, and me managing to irritate both sides by getting excited for every good play and not rooting for either. Tonight Kentucky plays Tennessee. I'm sorta on the hook for going to Kentucky's Bowl Game this year, and if they win tonight, they'll go to Tampa...which has been pointed out to me is only 85 miles from Orlando and Disneyworld. Connect the dots, and the kids are big UK fans tonight.
Lose and the Cats will probably be going to Nashville for the Music City Bowl, or possibly to Atlanta for the Chik-Fil-A Bowl. Smart money has them going back to Nashville, which will be fun, but doesn't have the "oomph" that the former Peach Bowl will have. I'm hoping for a Cat win, or in that absence, for the Cats to play well and convince the Chikin' Bowl reps that they'll make a good SEC representative in that game. Goodness knows, the Cats fans travel.
Anyway, nothing too specific here. I need to find some time to prepare an Exam for the law school class I"m teaching, and to grade some papers I need to grade this weekend, but all in all, still going to chill the rest of the weekend as much as possible.
Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
In this Secret Garden......of Mine
Well, the show concluded Sunday afternoon, and what a wonderful weekend it was.
Rachel did a fabulous job as Mary Lennox--I was so proud of her, for her poise, her timing, and that terrific British accent she maintained from the opening of the show to the closing line (above). I did not realize so many people attended the performances based on the number of compliments we received on her. I'm starting to wonder if this might be a case where there were 200,000 people that claimed "they were there" when an event occurred in a stadium that holds 40,000 lol. Rachel performed the role Friday night and Saturday night, and realizing that I'm just a proud, biased parent, I thought she did a truly magnificent job acting the part. She worked SO hard on it, for many weeks prior to the performance, both at rehearsal, and at home (or my office), running lines, working on acting and blocking and cues, and generally treating it as a professional role for which she was obliged to work hard. And she did. Often when we ran lines, she would, just for the fun of it, recite Dickon's line, or Colin's line, or Mrs. Medlock's, just for fun before doing her own. That told me she really knew her stuff.
Anyway, it was a great weekend. My Dad, Mother-in-Law and Father-in-Law all came in for the show, and were not disappointed. Our Lady of the Valley may be an elementary/middle school, but the shows they put on are much better than you would expect from that show. The director, Mike Bridges, and the two wonderful ladies who assist him, Donna Corneil and Dava Fant, put their heart and soul into it. The lighting is good, the sound guys do a terrific job, and they try, best they might, to make everything the same quality as you might see anywhere around town.
I have mixed feelings on what they did this year with the show. They took the 18 "lead" characters, and double-cast all of them, with one "lead" playing two nights, and the other "lead" playing one. That gave 36 kids opportunities to have more of a role in the play, which is a great thing--but it also limited the actual time on stage rehearsing for any one of the individuals. With Mike and Donna there with scripts ready to whisper a cue, it works, and realizing that it is "merely" a school play, that's probably the right thing to do. I would've loved to have seen this play, though, with all of the leads getting full rehearsal time with it. It was an excellent play as it was, though, and I have no complaints.
It's back to normal (thank goodness) now, with "free time" available. Rachel will begin going to dance again; an activity she basically lost for the last two months during rehearsal. Basketball season has begun, but that will merely occupy 2 hours of her time a week now, and when she arrives home, there will be no more running lines for an hour or two. It's a joy to be in a play, but it's also a joy when it's over to relax and regain some free time.
For me, it's back to work. The last two weeks I'm involved fairly heavily in doing whatever publicity I can do for the play, taking and printing head shots, with captions, cropping, etc., taking cast photos (for souvenirs), taking photographs and/or videography during the play (photos dress rehearsal this year, video the actual performances), and even making a couple of "props" this year--old photographs blown up to 11 x 17 that came out wonderfully.
I'm taking a quick early lunch break to write this, as I haven't done much of it lately and don't want to let this go, but I probably should get something to eat and finish up. For now, I'll continue to be content that"the memories and miracles are ever so fine in this secret garden.....of mine."
Rachel did a fabulous job as Mary Lennox--I was so proud of her, for her poise, her timing, and that terrific British accent she maintained from the opening of the show to the closing line (above). I did not realize so many people attended the performances based on the number of compliments we received on her. I'm starting to wonder if this might be a case where there were 200,000 people that claimed "they were there" when an event occurred in a stadium that holds 40,000 lol. Rachel performed the role Friday night and Saturday night, and realizing that I'm just a proud, biased parent, I thought she did a truly magnificent job acting the part. She worked SO hard on it, for many weeks prior to the performance, both at rehearsal, and at home (or my office), running lines, working on acting and blocking and cues, and generally treating it as a professional role for which she was obliged to work hard. And she did. Often when we ran lines, she would, just for the fun of it, recite Dickon's line, or Colin's line, or Mrs. Medlock's, just for fun before doing her own. That told me she really knew her stuff.
Anyway, it was a great weekend. My Dad, Mother-in-Law and Father-in-Law all came in for the show, and were not disappointed. Our Lady of the Valley may be an elementary/middle school, but the shows they put on are much better than you would expect from that show. The director, Mike Bridges, and the two wonderful ladies who assist him, Donna Corneil and Dava Fant, put their heart and soul into it. The lighting is good, the sound guys do a terrific job, and they try, best they might, to make everything the same quality as you might see anywhere around town.
I have mixed feelings on what they did this year with the show. They took the 18 "lead" characters, and double-cast all of them, with one "lead" playing two nights, and the other "lead" playing one. That gave 36 kids opportunities to have more of a role in the play, which is a great thing--but it also limited the actual time on stage rehearsing for any one of the individuals. With Mike and Donna there with scripts ready to whisper a cue, it works, and realizing that it is "merely" a school play, that's probably the right thing to do. I would've loved to have seen this play, though, with all of the leads getting full rehearsal time with it. It was an excellent play as it was, though, and I have no complaints.
It's back to normal (thank goodness) now, with "free time" available. Rachel will begin going to dance again; an activity she basically lost for the last two months during rehearsal. Basketball season has begun, but that will merely occupy 2 hours of her time a week now, and when she arrives home, there will be no more running lines for an hour or two. It's a joy to be in a play, but it's also a joy when it's over to relax and regain some free time.
For me, it's back to work. The last two weeks I'm involved fairly heavily in doing whatever publicity I can do for the play, taking and printing head shots, with captions, cropping, etc., taking cast photos (for souvenirs), taking photographs and/or videography during the play (photos dress rehearsal this year, video the actual performances), and even making a couple of "props" this year--old photographs blown up to 11 x 17 that came out wonderfully.
I'm taking a quick early lunch break to write this, as I haven't done much of it lately and don't want to let this go, but I probably should get something to eat and finish up. For now, I'll continue to be content that"the memories and miracles are ever so fine in this secret garden.....of mine."
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