Flower survivors

I resurrected a few of the roses by trimming off about six inches of stem and peeling away some withered petals. Looking much better!

Happy 24th anniversary to us!

Anniversary Flowers

These are my anniversary flowers -- the other 23 got pretty shrivelled and sad looking. I guess they woudn't fit in the refrigerator, and I'm guessing the ladies didn't trim the stems, because they usually last better than this. I didn't ask, because it doesn't matter at this point! I'll take the survivor and put it in a bud vase, so I can enjoy it for awhile.

Poor Hermione!

Our kitty disappeared last week while we were out of town. I think our house sitter only saw her once, then couldn't find her anymore. She wasn't feeling well when we left -- droopy and not eating well -- so now I feel guilty for abandoning her.

Catherine and I are bad pet mommies, I guess.

We're in process of playing musical chairs at work. My department will be moving to the building next door later this week. It's a good time to clean things out, but it is a pain in the neck otherwise. Some people are already starting to move in here, so things are in a general uproar. Hard to get anything done with all the distraction and noise!

"Over the Hill"

A group at work threw a 30th birthday party for one of our co-workers today. I put in a quick appearance and left a card signed by our department, but didn’t stick around for the festivities.

I started thinking later that I have enormously mixed feelings about "milestone" birthdays. I remember my 21st very fondly – we went to Magic Mountain to celebrate, and it was just a wonderful day. I still remember how much we enjoyed "Spillikin Corners" (which no longer exists).

I was in the midst of a major career change when I turned 30, and all I remember is I was 29 when I had my first interview and 30 when I had my second at the company I ended up at.

My 40th birthday passed without notice because my life and future had shattered around me, and I was busy trying to hang on to some teeny semblance of sanity amidst it all. If anyone tried to make it special for me, I apologize for not remembering!

So, I guess I’ll have to figure out something special to do for my 50th (ages from now!), so maybe I can stop being so conflicted about milestone birthdays....

It's Twelfth Night, Baby

Just found this review:

by Lisanne White
Issue date: 10/15/05


Catherine Frye as Viola (left) and Chelia LaTour as Olivia during the dress rehearsal of Twelfth Night.

Students at Delta are deep into the fall semester. The air will quickly begin to cool and the ground is soon to be scattered with leaves. As the drama department kicks off its theatre season, Delta drama instructor Harvey T. Jordon offers us a way to hold on to the lapping waves and sandy beaches of summer, with his exotic interpretation of William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night."

Through Jordan's vision, the story takes place in 1870 on a Polynesian island. Jordan feels that Shakespeare is perfect material for being conceptualized in different ways and places, and the tone of the islands during this time compliments and represents the themes of the play."

[There is] the idea of freedom of expression and merriment versus a moralistic oppression", said Jordan.

"Twelfth Night" is one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies. At the core it tells the classic love triangle story, only with a twist; girl (disguised as a boy) falls in love with boy, boy is in love with another girl, that girl loves a different boy (who is actually a girl). The play has a spectacle of things to offer, from laugh out loud satirical comedy, a bit sexual ambiguity, to very tender romance, with some dance and traditional Polynesian music in between.

"The play is hardly musty and dusty as Shakespeare usually might seem to be," said Jordan.

The cast is made up of all Delta drama students with the help of two instructors, Jordan as the drunken Sir Toby, and John White as Malvolio. White also serves as the show's set designer Starring in the play, and making up the characters of the love triangle, are three experienced Delta actors, Chelia LaTour as Olivia, Brian Peccia as Orsino, and Catherine Frye in the dual role of Viola and Cesario. Frye also lends her talents as assistant lighting designer. Peccia is a seasoned actor of Shakespeare, having performed with a professional Shakespeare company.

"I've been doing Shakespeare since I was 12," said Peccia.

In preparation for the Oct. 14 opening night, the cast and crew has been rehearsing every night for the past week, ironing out the last bit of kinks and bringing all the pieces together. Jordan is excited for the curtain to finally go up and hopes audiences are surprised by the production."

I hope that people take a chance and come out and see Shakespeare is not, necessarily, what they think it's going to be," said Jordan.

"Twelfth Night," showing in the Tillie Lewis Theatre, opens tonight at 8 p.m., with a second showing on Saturday, Oct. 15 also at 8 p.m. and a final performance on Tuesday, Oct. 18 at 10 a.m.

Tickets for the 8 p.m. shows are $12 for adults and $10 for children and seniors. For the 10 a.m. performance, they are $5 for all age groups. To purchase tickets, the Delta box office is open Tues. to Fri., 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sat., 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. They can also be bought online at dca.deltacollege.edu, or by phone at (209) 954-5110 (both online and phone ticket orders are subject to additional fees).

The Impact Online

It's raining...surprise!

Belshazzar's Feast

Here's a cool review of the concert Catherine participated in last week. We went on Thursday night -- very impressive! And, no...I couldn't pick Catherine's voice out of the crowd....

Stockton Symphony ends its season with a big finish

Rhonelle Runner
Special to The Record
Published Saturday, Apr 8, 2006

At first glance, the final concert of the Stockton Symphony's 2005-06 season appeared short and sweet, with only three pieces on the program.

Appearances can be deceiving, however, and that was certainly the case here. One piece is short, one piece is sweet, but the third is something else entirely. The program will be repeated tonight at Atherton Auditorium.

The concert opened with Aaron Copland's brief "Outdoor Overture" from 1938, featuring solo trumpet passages nicely played by Brian Anderson. The orchestra performed well but without much distinction. Fortunately for the audience, the players seemed to become more engaged as the evening progressed.

Next on the program was Johannes Brahms' tuneful "Variations on a Theme by J. Haydn" which included some wonderful moments for the woodwinds, especially the oboes. The choice to program this particular piece proved timely, as conductor Peter Jaffe announced that Bob and Marcia Davis, two of the symphony's three oboists, were retiring after 25 years with the orchestra.

The focal point of the evening was William Walton's massive oratorio "Belshazzar's Feast," featuring baritone soloist Ralph Cato and the combined voices of the Stockton Chorale, San Joaquin Delta College Concert Choir and choral ensembles from University of the Pacific. The work also featured members of Pacific's Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Concert Band, who were seated in the aisles of the auditorium.

Though first performed in 1931, seven years before Copland's overture, "Belshazzar's Feast" sounds newer and more modern, thanks in part to the use of some very challenging rhythms and harmonies. For the most part, the musicians rose to the challenge and turned in spirited performances.

As the soloist, Cato was ideal. His powerful voice, stage presence and self-assuredness set just the right tone for the work.

Under Jaffe's baton, the instrumentalists did a fine job of supporting the choirs without getting in their way, and the nearly 250-voice choir managed to make most of the lyrics comprehensible. While not perfect, the performance was nuanced and had a real dynamic range, a pleasant surprise for such a large ensemble.

Since "Belshazzar's Feast" employed the talents of well over 300 individuals, it was surprising to find that the performance could have benefited from more sound, especially toward the top of the choirs' dynamic range. Even so, a thoughtful, dynamically shaded performance is always better than an unrelentingly loud one, and this performance is definitely worth hearing.

The joke's on me!

Being as it's only April, and I didn't want to rush things, I decided to go ahead and figure my taxes today. I downloaded a copy of TurboTax, then I went to the shelf where I always put my various tax forms and ... no W-2. No nothing. Zip. Nada.

I think to myself, "Well ... maybe it's in that humongous pile of mail I've been accumulating. Good news is I sorted through the pile of mail, and was able to throw at least 90% of it away. Bad news, no W-2 to be found.

So, on to Plan B. I drove to my office and grabbed my check stubs to do a "rough cut" for now, just in case I owe. Guess I'll be requesting a new W-2 on Monday, and filing for an extension if I don't get it in time. And guess what else. I'm owed a return by both Federal AND State, so now they both get my money, interest-free, for even longer. Sigh.

Happy April Fools' Day to me, I guess!

Climbing to new heights

Here's where I spent much of the afternoon yesterday, inspecting catwalks. Beautiful day for sky walking...

Daffodils

Glad I took this photo of my daffodils (from Daffodil Days) last week. They only lasted a few days, but they were lovely. Carnations last better - those are left from Valentine's day, believe it or not!



And, this must be one of the best locations on earth for rainbows. I caught this one last Thursday or Friday - a strangely non-rainy day. I think Sacramento is about to break a record for the most consecutive days with rain. The news folks were talking about it this morning.

Coco View

Here's another peek. And look...they're having a wedding, just a little while later! The date stamp is off; all this happened Sunday, not Saturday.

High maintenance

I just realized today that I've become high maintenance. Nearly every other day, I'm at the indoor tanning place, working on getting a teeny bit of color before I go to Honduras. Yesterday, I put down money for another month AND bought some more of that special lotion one must use.

Today, I had a cut and weave, which I do every couple of months, now. I keep it my natural color, just with most of the gray gone. Fortunately it's somewhere between wavy and curly, so I can just style it with my fingers. Lots of scrunching.

And then there are the nails -- every three weeks, like clockwork. I'll have the toes done before we go to Honduras, because flip-flops are the standard there. Can't be having raggedy feet!

And make-up. I wear make-up all the time now. Mainly the eyes. I only do foundation and blush for going out. And I'm really bad at remembering lip color. I usually just use a colored gloss for everyday.

Used to just pull my hair back in a braid and go. How times have changed!

Chicago!

We went to see Chicago The Musical on Tuesday night in Sacramento. It was absolutely amazing! The level of dancing, singing and acting was so high - what one expects from a Broadway touring company, I know. And dinner at The Broiler was also incredible. I had the "surf and turf" special: prawns and filet medallions with Concannon potatoes.

What a terrific evening!

Where I want to be...

Coco View! That's Poncho on the deck rail.

View from the window

Isn't this a pretty bit of rainbow? It actually was a double, but only one shows in these images. And, as another bonus, the bushes completely block the "view" of the freeway!

I got a bonus yesterday, but Cat's car found out about it and broke down. Hopefully it's nothing too serious.

And the sun breaks through!

I was out back inspecting fire extinguishers and oil containment and couldn't resist snapping the sky. Isn't it glorious?!

Yesterday was stormy as heck. I drove back from my Accordion Works rehearsal in Berkeley and rather regretted having gone at all. Most people drove conservatively (45-50 mph), but there was that insane minority going 70 or so and throwing up great waves of water on the rest of us. Several times I hit sheets of water and could feel my tires letting go of the pavement. Loads of fun.

Glad I was early!

I just spent eight minutes watching the world's longest and slowest train go by. I was on track for getting to work 15 minutes early; instead I was only about 5 minutes early.

And here's a "Murphy's Law" thing: It seems like whenever I'm early, my boss is late, and whenever I slide in a minute or two late, she's early! What's that about?

Ouch! Doggone it!

I put in some pretty solid workouts Wednesday and Thursday evenings (weights and kick boxing), and I woke up this morning barely able to bend my right arm and with two numb fingers on my left hand. After ice, hot shower, some of that "icy heat" ointment, and a bunch of bending and stretching throughout the day, they're both about 1000 percent better and the numbness is entirely gone. I think it was just a severe case of sore muscles which stiffened up during the night. For a while there, I thought I'd really injured myself. Whew!

Our weather is pretty unpleasant today -- cold, windy and raining. We got so spoiled last week, it's difficult to go back to winter!

I have no big weekend plans. I hate driving on holiday weekends, so my only travels will be over to the bay area for my Accordion Works rehearsal on Sunday. I'm also looking forward to lots of Olympics viewing! And maybe I'll take myself to see Chronicles of Narnia, if it's still playing anywhere near here.

Just another work day...

Two factory workers, a man and a woman, were sitting around talking one day.

"I think I'll take some time off from work." said the man.

"How do you think you'll do that?" said the blonde.

"Wait one minute, and I'll show you!"

He proceeded to climb up to the rafters, and once he got there, started hanging upside down.

The boss walked in, saw the worker hanging from the ceiling, and asked him what on earth he was doing!

"I'm a light bulb" answered the guy.

"I think you need some time off, " said the boss.

The man jumped down and walked out of the factory.

Without a word, the blonde got her stuff and started walking out, too.

Puzzled, the boss stopped her at the door and asked her where was she going.

The blonde answered, "Home! I can't work in the dark..."

Golly, the sun sure is bright...

Maybe I had a little too much wine and champagne last night. Is it naptime, yet?

We had a terrifically wonderful Valentine's Day dinner - prawn cocktail, ribeye with crumbled bleu cheese, pommes frites (or however it is one spells french fries in French!), steamed vegetables, and chocolate souffle.