Well, dear readers, it is very late and I am very tired and very happy and very excited and very annoyed and very very. The late and tired have to do with an incredibly long day and evening – I arrived home at midnight, if you can believe it. I believe it, since I arrived home at midnight. The incredibly long day began early, dealing with the paypal glitch – it took a few minutes for their tech person to figure out the problem, but once he did it was a very easy fix and the fix was applied and thankfully didn’t involve the designer or the site itself – we’d just ticked the wrong box and once we unticked it everything worked fine and the payment notification went exactly where it was supposed to. I grabbed a sandwich and then toddled over to LACC for our first music rehearsal. That led to the happy and excited. First up was Ted Detwiler and Michael Irish doing their Harry and John duet – it was really fun to hear it come together. Ted’s sort of new to this kind of thing, but he’s picking it up pretty quickly. Michael, who is doing my role, is going to be wonderful. Then Niki Scalera joined us and she’s just terrific and a nice gal to boot. Once they were done, Robin Shelby, our Eunice, arrived. We played with the key of her song, but ultimately kept it in the original. She’s getting over some kind of bug, but even now she’s doing a really nice job. Then came our Dick Davis, who I actually hadn’t met before, Harrison White. He learned his ditties and I think he’s going to be fun. Then Alet Taylor arrived and I do adore Alet Taylor – and she is sheer perfection as Mary La Rue. Her second act showstopper will indeed be a showstopper. We finished about a half-hour late, but got everything done. Now it’s up to the actors to learn and get comfortable with the material. I then had to toddle off to the LACC banquet, which I was asked to attend because the chair of the department wanted to thank me. The dinner at Taix, a French jernt that’s an LA landmark, was actually quite nice. They give out a lot of certificates and commendations and awards to the students, which takes quite a lot of time. And I was quite surprised that instead of just thanking me, they gave me a Certificate of Appreciation, which was lovely, and the chair made very nice comments about me, which I very much appreciated. As noted, I didn’t get out of there until eleven-thirty, and then I got on the freeway only to find bumper to bumper traffic for the next three miles or so – two right lanes closed for freeway work – work that was not in evidence – the only thing in evidence was two closed lanes and a lot of unnecessary traffic, thanks to the usual inept planning of the city. Go city. Not.
Happily, Jan Abrams had to cancel our rehearsal at six, so that, at least, wasn’t an issue and I didn’t have the madness of that driving back and forth to deal with.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I have to get up really early and attend to a very exciting thing.
This morning, very early my time, we will be taking the new Kritzerland site live, so please send humungous excellent vibes and xylophones for a successful and easy transfer with no problem, no bugs, and no worries. Send ’em, and send ’em now. I’m so excited about the new site, and it’s ever so much friendlier and easy to use, not to mention easy on the eyes. I hope you all like it as much as I do. And again, a million thanks to our two guinea pigs, DAW and JMK, for helping with the testing. DAW, especially, gave a huge amount of time and went through each version as we’d fix it – it was so helpful. And a big call-out to Doug Haverty, who designed it and, despite being out of his element, really stepped up to the plate and got the thing done. I’ll be he gets more work for other websites after people see this.
Then the Kritzerland helper will arrive and we have to address and postage a lot of packages in two hours, at which point I’ll have to be on my way to LACC for our second music rehearsal, where I’ll be meeting our mighty ensemble. It’s going to be a long involved rehearsal, because I have to assign all the solos, which I haven’t done because I haven’t met most of the ensemble. And there’s a lot of music for them to learn, and we still have a couple of principals coming in to learn their music. If we have to go late, we have to go late. Then I’ll have to get a bite to eat and then I’ll finally come home and get some rest. And the rest of the week is going to be very intense and I’ve kept the evenings free for that reason.
The God’s Little Acre CDs will be here Wednesday afternoon, and I hope to get them all packaged up that evening, and to the post office the next morning. That’s the plan, anyway.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog (if at all possible, which it may not be), I must take Kritzerland live, I must address and postage packages, and I must have a rehearsal. Today’s topic of discussion: This from one of our dear readers – what is the worst kitchen disaster you’ve ever had? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and don’t forget the excellent vibes and xylophones for an easy and perfect launch for the brand spanking new Kritzerland – or Kritzerland Reborn.