Tag: scheduling

Early Summer Planning

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

First, a general update. I’m tired today, likely because my wife didn’t sleep well due to problems with her CPAP mask. Probably just the remants of Monday, which had numerous small but annoying mishaps occur (for example, putting a flank steak in the crockpot in the morning, and then forgetting to plug the crockpot in). But, I am getting stuff done, which is what is important.

Now, on the subject of the post. One of the things that was in the family trust I inherited from my father was a timeshare condo in Hawaii. I just got an email from the fellow that normally rents it (covering expenses) that he was planning on using it this year. As I’m still sorting things out, that’s fine with me… and it helps solidify my vacation planning. The original plans were: If Hawaii wasn’t in use, go there; if it was, visit relatives in New York.

So, I’m thinking of going to New York for about 1½ weeks during the summer. We would visit relatives in Manhatten, take in some shows, see the sights (I hear the Hippodrome is a sight not to be missed…

My father told me, “Chip, my boy,
There’ll come a time when you leave home;
If you should ever hit New York,
Be sure to see the Hippodrome.”

…but anyway). However, I’ve got to work things around a lot of dates (S&F going to camp the first week of August; tickets to Purlie (Pasadena Playhouse, July 16), The Wizard of Oz (Cabrillo Music Theatre, July 23), and Wicked (to be purchased). I’ve also got to see if I can redeem miles on Useless Air for LAX-(a New York airport). I’d be interested in getting tickets for Avenue Q and Spamalot. Does anyone know how available those tickets are mid-Summer, and what the pricing would be? I’ve also got to see what hotels would be, if we’re not staying with relatives.

At least I’ve got something to plan towards…

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by California Highway Guy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

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We Interrupt This Meme to Bring You Life…

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

We interrupt this cycle of memes to bring you an update of today’s news.

Yes, I do more than just memes :-). I’ve actually been quite busy and productive the last few days, so let me bring you up to date.

  • Yesterday, I participated in a meeting of the CSUN Industrial Advisory Board (basically, industry advising the School of Engineering and Computer Science). It was a really good meeting; I always enjoy hearing about the good work they are doing there. I also got to see some early drawings of the Envision 2035 CSUN Master Plan on how the campus will morph to accomodate increased enrollment. Very interesting drawings on how they will increase capacity while still retaining the same amount of green space, and not buying new land. They are also being smart and planning faculty housing. As long as they don’t do a UCLA (which I think has gotten overbuilt since I went there in the early 1980s).
  • I got a wonderful surprise (well, not really a surprise) in the mail yesterday: a copy of Tigris and Euphrates. I obtained this in trade for some Speed Circuit expansion maps with a fellow in France. I’ll try playing it on the upcoming Southern California Games Day on January 22nd, the day after my birthday. I’ve also got a copy of Exxtra on order from Germany.
  • Last night I got to watch S&F and the Karate Kid while gf_guruilla and ixixlix went off to the spa (my turn is next week). We had fun watching the videos from all three session at Camp Hess Kramer. Some things have changed. Some haven’t.
  • This weekend will be a busy one. Saturday, we’re going out to Monrovia to visit the Fountain Pen Shop. Sunday, I’ll be taking S&F ice skating on a temple youth group activity, while gf_guruilla, ellipticcurve, and a friend of ellipticcurve‘s go shopping. That evening, we’re having dinner with gyesika at Johnny Reb’s before she goes off to Austin.
  • I note that they have announced the new set of players for Survivor Palau. Interesting mix of ages, including some lawyers (including a graduate from the University of San Diego Law School), a civil engineer, and a CSUN graduate. There’s also someone from Ventura. However, anything will be better than the last season, which really wasn’t worth watching.
  • Quote of the day, from a CNN article on Prince Harry: “Prince Harry seems less interested in preparing for a life of royal service than auditioning for the role of village idiot in Poundbury”. Well, if he doesn’t get the position, I understand Crawford TX is missing its idiot.

So, that should bring you up to date for now.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled meme.

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What’s Happening With Us

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Of late, I’ve been so preoccupied with the stresses and handling of the situation with my father that I haven’t really reported on what is going on with us. So, here’s an update.

Today, I’m at home, doing some desk stuff (and shortly, restarting laundry). ellipticcurve will be coming over shortly, and we’ll be working with her to do some organizing. This evening we have theatre tickets at the Pasadena Playhouse to see Side by Side by Sondheim, which should be good. Tomorrow, in addition to religious school and the usual Halloween stuff, will mostly be a home day. I know I need to do highway page updates; I just don’t feel like doing it so I’ll probably put off the updates until one Sunday in November.

Next weekend (11/6-7) we have Mitzvah Day at Temple, as well as tickets to see Annie at Cabrillo Music Theatre in Thousand Oaks. More musicals. Good.

The weekend after that (11/13-14) will be my daughter’s birthday party, the Karate Kid’s birthday party, a Games Gather (if I can make it), religious school, and a religious school youth group event.

The weekend after that (11/20-21) will be Orange Empire Railway Museum.

The weekend after that (11/27-28) is our jaunt up to the Bay Area and Sacramento for Thanksgiving (full planning-friends only). If you would like to try to get together with us, please leave a comment. We’re looking at SF Bay Area on Wed., Thu.; possibly folks in Davis on Fri., Dickens Faire on Saturday, and heading back sometime early Sunday, hopefully down Route 99 because I want Basque food!

The weekend after that (12/4-5) and after that (12/11-12) is occupied with travel to/from Tucson for ACSAC, the conference I chair.

Of course, in all of this, I need to make a weekly trip down to Mission Viejo to see my dad and pick up his mail. Stress?

By the way, we received a “Notice of Pending Lien Sale” from the tow shop that my dad’s car went to. This bothers me, as my understanding is that we signed off the car to Insurance, and they took care of getting it out of there (which they couldn’t do without paying). So why would we get this notice. Something else to investigate on Monday.

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The Quiet of ‘Morn

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

 
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.]

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Humpday

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

 
It’s humpday, which means the weekend will be here shortly. Good. This is shaping up to be a good weekend!

It starts with the July Southern California Games Day, which I’ll get to attend most of. gf_guruilla will be attending the graduation of a friend of ours from an Internet school, and Small&Feisty will be off with ixixlix and the Karate Kid. I’m looking forward to a day of gaming, and perhaps I’ll play some games I haven’t played before.

That evening, gf_guruilla and I will be going to the Pasadena Playhouse to see 110 in the Shade, which has gotten excellent reviews.

Sunday will be a home day, for the most part. I’ve got to do the mini-Newsletter, and hopefully that won’t take long. Other than that, we may do some furniture rearranging and getting ready for our vacation.

Music Update:

The Cy Coleman marathon continues. So far, I’ve made it through the following CDs (in general, I’m listening to each twice):

cover cover cover cover cover cover cover cover cover
“Presents Barnum” (Cy Coleman Trio)

Still to be listened to are:

cover cover cover

Of these, I seem to be enjoying the Jazzier scores the best, i.e., “I Love My Wife”, “City of Angels”, “Little Me”, and the Trio-version of Barnum (although “Sweet Charity” has its moments). The concept version of “The Life” is notable because of some of the cover audiences—it includes the last recording of George Burns (who covered Easy Money). “On the Twentieth Century” has some good numbers, but some weak ones as well.

[Disclaimer: The pictures are links to Amazon—it was the easiest way to get the images]

Lastly…

coverI’ve been corrupting ellipticcurve with Steve Allen. In addition to “Meeting of Minds” (which I mentioned previously [you might not see it in your journal due to the table]), I’ve introduced her to the book Dumbth and 81 Ways to Make Americans Smarter. This book addresses the unprecedented amount of mental incapacitation in society today, and explores the distinction between ignorance and stupidity. A great book.

[BTW, I’ve been enjoying being able to include the book/image links—I think they enhance readability—from Amazon. I’ve been generating them via my associates link on my highway pages. If folks think this is too crass, please let me know. I’m doing it more to talk about the items.

Also, has anyone had trouble with Semagic hanging on posting or taking forever. It seems most posts I need to cancel it and go through the web interface.]

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Free Concerts

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

 
The LA Daily News just published their list of free summer concerts (alas, I can’t seem to find it online). In addition to the ones being done by the Valley Cultural Center that I’ve mentioned previously (and that we typically go to—we’re going to Preservation Hall Jazz Band this Sunday), there are some other interesting ones:

In Santa Monica, there is the Twilight Dance Series on Thursday nights. I don’t recognize all of the names, but I do note that Young Dubliners is there on Thu, July 15 (which would permit ellipticcurve to see them and still make SLO faire), and Janis Ian is there on August 5th.

In Pasadena, there is the Levitt Pavillion. Some interesting concerts: For children, there is Joanie Bartels on July 21st and Parachute Express on August 11th. I don’t recognize any of there other artists, who are categorized into Eclectic, World Beat, Latina, and Jazz, Blues and Fusion.

There are also concerts at the Galleria (but no artists of interest to me), Amoeba Records (this page includes Bay Area and Hollywood concerts), LACMA, the Skirball, and various other places.

Another article on free concerts in Southern California is here.

Alas, we won’t be able to make all of these, but I am looking forward to Dixieland Jazz this weekend!

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I Need A Clone

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

The title says it. There’s just too much good stuff happening this weekend for me to even remotely make it all:

Things I’ll make (so where’s my wife on Saturday, you ask: Simple: Having a quiet day on her own, without “small and feisty”, so she can relax!):

  • Saturday: SoCal Games Day: Going to game with my daughter.
  • Saturday: Y Princesses: Going to a minor-league baseball game with my daughter.
  • Sunday: Going to see Urinetown with the family. We’ll probably walk around Beverly Hills afterwards, or perhaps go to Farmers Market or the Grove for dinner.

Note the emphasis on doing things with family here. ’tis mucho important.

What I’m missing:

(and of course, part of me still needs the weekend to relax, do laundry, clean and declutter the house, work in the yard, etc.)

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