Well, dear readers, I had a perfectly lovely Father’s Day – very relaxing and then a fun partay late in the afternoon hours. I was hoping for nine hours of sleep and got seven. Once up, I got ready for the appearance of the helper and the helper replacement. The replacement helper seems very nice and the helper assures me she’s ready to go, so that puts me somewhat at ease. What did NOT put me at ease was when I found out later that she’s going to be gone twice in July – once for four days, which is fine, but once for nine days, which isn’t. So, I told the helper to figure it out because I cannot let orders sit for nine days and we may well have a release that week to ship. We may have to bring in someone to take care of those things that week, and the helper had already been training Greer Geissman, so maybe she can be with us for those nine days.
After the helper left, I just relaxed, then wrote the opening patter. It’s always about the first joke and once I find the way in with that (it’s always a riff on that I’m elderly and must read from the paper) then everything seems to flow. I’ve done the elderly line 58 times already and it’s just getting harder and harder to come up with a punch line, but thankfully one came to my whilst I was in the shower, and it’s really funny and it led me to a running gag that should work throughout the show. I love when that happens.
Then I moseyed on over to Karen Staitman’s parents’ house for the Father’s Day partay. I know a lot of the family because they’ve been to the Kritzerland shows, but I also met some folks I didn’t know. There were several kids there in the swimming pool when I arrived. I sat with Sami and her sister, Sarah, then Sami decided she wanted to go in the pool, so she changed and did. It was really funny to watch, because she instantly regressed into an ten-year-old, splashing and yelling and doing crazy dives with the kids. Sarah and I had a nice chat, then food was ready – barbecue – burgers, hot dogs, some Chinese chicken salad (homemade), beans, corn on the cob and a few other things. I knew in advance I wanted to be good, so I just had one burger (they were actually mini-burgers on mini-buns) and a half a hot dog on no bun. I had a nice big helping of the Chinese chicken salad, and passed on the corn and the beans. It was all very good, and one of the moms and I bonded and yakked and laughed a lot, and her husband was fun, too – a writer who’s now doing reality TV. For dessert, I had some angel food cake and strawberries, with whipped cream, of course. Later I had a tiny piece of chocolate cake that one of the kids made. It was really good. I was there for almost four hours, then said my goodbyes and headed home.
Once home, I buckled down, Winsocki, figured out the show order and finished the first third of the commentary, which basically took what little of the evening was left. Oh, and of course we had yet more drama for the Kritzerland show – after finally being fully cast and finally finding our musical director, we found that the MD neglected to mention that he’s gone this entire week – completely unacceptable, as I have to have a work session to figure out all the arrangements and that has to happen a bit in advance of the first rehearsal. So, I sent him on his merry way and hired Shelly Markham – it’s a pretty easy show this time. And I’ll know this morning if we have our guest star.
Today, I will finish the commentary, eat, do errands and whatnot, hopefully pick up packages and then relax.
The rest of the week is meetings and meals, a work session with Shelly, and catching up on a lot of stuff. Also, when I got home I was thrilled to see we’d had a large contribution made (the second $2,500 one – and it actually was from the same person who’d done the first $2,500 one), and it put us over 40% funded and over $30,000. I will be doing Facebook and Twitter updates every two days and the final major eBlast goes out on Wednesday. I’m hoping we can keep going up and up and up and maybe even a miracle will occur and we’ll get all the way to our goal. Miracles do happen, so let’s make this one happen.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, finish the commentary, eat, hopefully pick up packages, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite foods at a barbecue? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that we’ve hit 40% and rising.