As I sit here in the quiet of morn, a few observations. Last night was noisy—evidently Small and Feisty didn’t get enough sleep during the first two days of “the run”, and decided to take it out on us last night. I was exhausted from cleaning up the glass from the broken shower door, and my wife was exhausted from driving. So a “coyote girl” was the last thing we needed. The screaming started when my wife wanted to watch While You Were Out, and I wanted to watch (get this) Abbott and Constello Meet the Mummy. S&F wanted to watch Full House. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take Abbott and Costello over the Olsen twins any day. Well, she didn’t get her way and… 1… 2… 3… meltdown! But she went to bed (melatonin is a wonderful thing).
I mentioned “the run” before. No, this isn’t grunion, but quilters. You see, quilters have this strange obsession with visiting quilt stores. Often, they do it individually, but occasionally, they “run”. The Quilters Run, in this case, is a four-day attempt to visit 20 quilt stores spread over Southern California, from Palm Springs to the East, Newbury Park to the West, El Cajon to the South, and Santa Clarita to the North. Over Thursday and Friday, my wife and daughter hit many of the stores to the East and South (San Gabriel, Montclair, La Habra, Anaheim, Yorba Linda, Orange, Mission Viejo, Oceanside, Carlsbad, El Cajon, Poway, Temecula, Palm Springs, and Calimesa). This weekend (around other things), my wife and her crew (which is being augmented by ixixlix, ellipticcurve, and the Karate Kid) will be hitting the remaining stores. I still don’t understand this, as my wife has only made one quilt (yet, she says), and the sewing room is overflowing.
In the middle of the run, we’re all getting together to go see West Side Story at the Cabrillo Music Theatre in Thousand Oaks. This I understand. Cabrillo, for a community group, does excellent and affordable productions. I get balcony tickets for my family, which run $99 for 3 shows for 3 people: you can’t beat that. This year, the season was The Scarlet Pimpernel, Ragtime, and West Side Story. Next year, it is Annie, Annie Get Your Gun, and The Wizard of Oz. I think it is so important to expose children to live theatre… and West Side Story in an excellent show.
So, I’ll have this morning and tomorrow morning to myself. Part of the time will be spent packing, as we go on vacation Tuesday. I’m really looking forward to the vacation. We’re going to St. Louis, where I haven’t been since 1987. We’ll be visiting with some long time family friends, and S&F will get to meet the only relative left (other than me) that I know of in my mother’s family. There’s loads to see and do there—they have a great Museum of Transportation, the Arch, everything in Forest Park [zoo, planetarium, “jewel box”, botanical gardens, the 1904 exposition centennial, the Muny Opera (we’re seeing Guys and Dolls, etc.], St. Charles, St. Louis Union Station, Grants Farm, the A-B Brewery Tour, and loads more. So I’ve got to start getting everything together.
Well, the alarm for the rest of the family should be going off shortly, so I’ll finish this off.
[Explanation of “What I’m Listening To”: We live under the radio towers for what used to be KGIL 1260AM. They are now 1260 KSUR and play easy listening standards, and they come through my computer speakers when something doesn’t overpower them. So it has been Frank Sinatra this morning. Not a bad thing.]
