Jungalbook Opens

We opened Jungalbook this weekend. The audiences seemed to like it, Certainly the cast and crew did. We have two more weekends to go. We had pretty good houses for the first three shows, so we are hopeful for a successful run.
The story is a little darker than the Diney version, as it is taken directly from the Junglebook stories by Rudyard Kipling. I read the stories in preparation for the play and I was amazed and their beauty and power.
I play Baloo the bear.
Here in this picture you can see the very cool set, designed by Peter Kappler, Jon Tallman, David Nowitz, and Mike Rathke from Studio 23 (who built it). I am so lucky to be a part of this very cool show.

School is Calling

We are feeling the first effects of Autumn. The days are getting ever so shorter and there's a whiff of coolness in the evening air which wasn't there a few days ago. We got our list of classes for the students and school supplies will need to be purchased soon. Miranda works on finishing her summer reading while waiting for her Henna treatment to set up.

A Case of Writer's Block

I was composing email to a project manager explaining that I had solved a technical issue with a project. I wanted to point out that the customer was awaiting this fix by reminding the project manager that this was listed as a BLANK in the customer's sign-off sheet, meaning the project could not be marked as complete.

I was unable to dredge up the keyword BLANK which is a necessarily loaded word. I asked a couple of colleagues what was the word or phrase we use to indicate a bug in a project for which the customer was signing off. Some of the answers I got back:

• Opportunity
• Unfunded Functionality
• Undocumented Feature
• Future Billable Work

The missing word was "deficiency."

New Car!

Well, new to us. The old van finally gave up the ghost. Or rather it dropped the tailpipe. Rather than put yet anohter $900 into it, Roxane went down to the dealer and got a 2005 Kia Spectra. It looks to be a very nice commute car and it's a relief to have a car which is not too scary to drive.


We provided the cat.

Family of Readers Redux

In Miranda's Language Arts class at school (why don't they call it English anymore), they are reading some Sherlock Holmes stories. Here she is doing her homework yesterday, laying on the bench over the radiator in the dining room. (Note the flip flops). I love our house.

But It's Snowing

Woke up this morning to see the snow falling. Hmm. Guess Spring got lost on its way out West.

They Say Spring is just around the Corner

The cherry trees have erupted into bloom. This is in front of my work. I like to pretend that when I'm looking at the Cherry Trees in bloom in March in Washington, that I'm in the *other* Washington working some G-12 deadend job....no wait....that's not right, I'm grateful, I'm *not* doing that. **whew***

And Of Course Miranda


Miranda has her own snowboard, which we got at a garage sale. Here she is tricked out in her boarding gear giving me what she describes as her "Cool, Dude!" gang sign. Look carefully and you'll see that it's a reverse 'bird'.

I like the baggy pants and big boots.

August does the Snowboard Thing

We went up to the snow last weekend for a couple of days, taking our friend Emmett with us. He and August discussed in the back seat their plan. "We'll do an hour of lessons, then go down the beginner hill once, then go have a snowball fight." All the while I'm thinking, "All for the low, low price of XX dollars."

Still, it's not about the money, right? So I said nothing. Here are some pix of August in his snowboarding lesson. Sorry they are so small, but I had to stalk him, Jackie-O style.


When asked about if afterward, he said, "Well, at least I didn't break my ankles like last time." (The ankle breaking did not happen, by the way, but has entered family lore).

Exciting Camera Strap Photos

I was surprised at the reaction people had to the Turkey Bowling. In the interest of full disclosure, here are the charming pictures of the camera strap people have been asking for. Click on them. They may get larger.

Snow Play

We went up to the snow this weekend for a postponed snowdate. It's about a two-hour drive to the ski place from our house. It sits on the edge of Mt Rainier. We had a fine old time, staying in a funky old motel with a kitchenette and cable TV. Our friend Emmett came with us, and he and AUgust tried their hand at Snowboarding again this year.
Miranda has her own snowboarding gear which we got at a garage sale last summer, so she was happy to finally give it a try.
Roxane was fighting a cold, so she and I sat in the lodge and had drinks and snacks while the kids had their lessons, then I went with Miranda and skied while she boarded. The boys bagged on the snowboarding (so much for the rentals) and horsed around in the snow.
This weekend was the winter carnival at White Pass and one of the events was the frozen turkey bowling. Here is August about the toss the bird. It's kind of a cross between curling and bowling. I took many charming pictures of this events, all but this one were obscured by the camera strap.

Today, on the way home, we went to the Visitor's Center at Mt. Rainier, at a place called Paradise. We had an all-family snowball fight in which everyone was reduced to tears at one point before we retired for hot chocolate and french fries.

Missed Sightings

I used to have an old manual Brother typewriter. Someone gave me a sticker which said, "What is going on in my typewriter is what is going on in my life." I feel like nowadays, what is going on in my camera is what is going on in my life.

Case in Point. This morning, after Roxane and Miranda had left for work and school, respectively, I heard sirens pull up on our block. Aftera c ouple of minutes, I went downstairs and watched the firemen and paramedics milling about in that there-is-no-emergency-after-all kind of way. I ran to grab my camera and got my obligatory picture.

What I missed getting a picture of was the fact that the firefighters were wearing shorts. It was 8 am and about 35 degrees outside. My guess is that they were doing something else when they got the call. Oh well. Got to keep the camera handy!

Back in BlogSpot Again

Well, afetr a series of attempts to move the Olympia Report to the olyarts website, I'm back to Blogpsot for now. I'll need some time to finish my own updating software before I move it back to the olyarts website. There were a series of technical issues to be resolved. Click here to see them.