Backer rewards.

Look how happy someone is that he supported the Veronica Mars movie at the sticker/shirt level!
 

 

More squirrel action

I put two more sunflower heads out for the squirrels.  It took them more than a week to discover them.  Which made the incredibly lazy naturalist in me to wonder if they have trouble finding food that is out of season, because they found the freshly harvested sunflower heads in about an hour.  But three weeks later, maybe their little squirrel noses are sniffing for something else?

At any rate, this fellow was happy to eat everything up.  And Antares did his best to melt that glass so he could eat the squirrel.  But he failed.

Order amongst the chaos

Thanks to an influx of new clips, we go from wibbly wobbly...
 

...to neat and tidy.
 

New for the cats

These cardboard things cost $10.00 a piece.  I found that to be a reasonable price.
 

They come with everything needed for assembly, namely binder clips.
 

Here they are, assembled.
 

Closeup of the binder clips.
 

Collage of the cat investigations (fueled by treats)
 

Bingo!

My bingo party.  I took not a single picture.  Harumph.  Too busy hosting, I guess.

We had a baked potato bar with a bevy of toppings:  cheese sauce, cheddar cheese, bacon, ham, broccoli, sunflower seeds, cottage cheese, sour cream, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, green onions and chives.

Then we played 10 games of Bingo for fabulous prizes, all purchased at the dollar store.  Every other game people bought their boards for a quarter each.  Our last game was blackout and the winner (Deborah!) took home the pot of money.

There was also cake.  But I do have a picture of that.

Birthday Celebration.

Is it that my family is so exciting that Matt falls asleep partway through the party?  Or is it the lack of stimulation that causes the dropping off?
 

We had my favorite birthday dinner of chicken in a wine sauce with cheese.  And then we dove into this lovely birthday cake.
 

 

Installing.

Look!  Picture wire hung!
 

And with a maximum of mess and tools.
 

The cards are up!  But I'm not pleased with the wibble-wobble that's going on.  I need more clippy things.  It's back to Ikea I go.
 

Planning

I bought curtain wire from Ikea in July so I could hang my postcards.  I'm finally getting around to installing it.

At right, I've taped up a few cards as guides so I can mark where I will attach the things that will hold the curtain wire.

And that was as far as I got today.  No anchors.  No desire to go and get anchors.

For want of a front paw.

When I empty a bag of cat food, I usually set it on the floor so the cats can sniff it.  Sentinel often tries to get his head in the bag, but this is a case where that extra limb would make all the difference.
 

 

 

 

Aunt Carol's & Chris' Birthday Celebration

Boston Cream Pie-lets!
 

Presents!
 

And my mom's cat Esmeralda.
 

She gets two pictures.
 

Peace restored.

The mess is cleaned up.  Though that bed still needs to go.

NWCTC Richard III

We didn't set out to become Shakespeare fans.  Reading and watching all his plays was just another projects in the very long line of project ideas that have come and gone over the years.  The first play or two we read aloud ourselves and then watched movie versions.   But then we discovered Portland Actors Ensemble(PAE) and watched Henry IV part I one fateful July day.  That was a joint collaboration with the Northwest Classical Theatre Company and NWCTC continued the saga in the Autumn and so we took our place in the tiny Shoebox Theater and it was in the Shoebox Theater we became Shakespeare Fans.  We see Shakespeare other places, of course.  There are too many good companies here, and many of them provide us our Shakespeare on a donation basis.  But there is something about the intimacy of the setting, combined with the camaraderie of the company that hits a pleasure center in the brain hard and fast and keeps us coming back.  In fact, we haven't missed a show since our first foray.

All that is to say that the production of Richard III was incendiary.   This wasn't even the first time we've seen Richard III done.  PAE did a bonus performance in the autumn two years ago and we attended.  Matt won a shirt.  It was a good performance, and absolutely nothing like this.  Grant Turner, as Richard III had a raw physicality and intelligence that grabbed attention and held it.  The rest of the cast just kept going and I'm not a theater critic so I can't parse the whole show, but this was good stuff.  If you saw it, you know it to be true and if you didn't, well friend, you missed out.

The names of the dead were chalked on the wall as they fell.
 

We chose our side carefully...
 

We went with York.
 

Staged for the opening.
 

At intermission, you could see Richard's power grab.
 

These chains were important several times.  And they were stored right beneath my feet.
 

Our team.
 

After the show.
 

This was the only show I've seen evidence of the prop table.
 

A shot of real life

You know how Facebook and blogs are all cheery-cheery with a side note of things-are-great?  Here's a dispatch from the front:  The house is a freaking mess.

Dishes: not done in days. Dishwasher: full of clean dishes that need to be emptied.
 

The living room has spent a week still set up in Game Night mode.  Plus, it's been joined by Matt's old twin-sized bed that needs to go elsewhere.
 

The dining area is hosting the living room furniture and the games are all still out from the Game Night.
 

Laundry is overflowing in the laundry room.
 

My laundry has not been folded.
 

And my desk is a mess. Not to mention that those cords being vomited from the computer are totally bringing me down and have been for months.

Luckily, there are two cute cats to perk up the picture.  And it's the weekend, so things can be put back in order.

New Bed!

Matt sorts through his storage containers because....
 

He now has a new, full-sized bed!  With storage drawers underneath.
 

Matt works on his sexy poses.