You spin me right round baby, right round....
1. We had an outright tornado warning (which means a funnel has been sighted somewhere) this afternoon, although I didn't believe it at first, since we weren't having any weather at all at the time. However, the rain started shortly afterwards, like this: drip ... drip ... distant thunder ... sprinkle ... FWOOOSH! The kids, dogs and I were out in the yard and I had only JUST stepped in the house to get something when the torrent started, so I was the only one who did not end up completely drenched (although the kids thought it was hilarious). And shortly afterwards we decided maybe obeying the warning would be a good idea, just in case, and went down to the basement, dragging the terrified Nala with us. (She hates stairs and, as far as I know, has never willingly gone into the basement. Or possibly even unwillingly.) We watched the news, which was All About The Threat at that moment, until the window for danger had passed, maybe 15 mins later, and we ventured upstairs again to find that it was barely even drizzling, and nothing awful had happened. Still, Will said people in the 4th-floor of the main campus building saw suspiciously swirly clouds passing as the storm moved through (clearly, they weren't obeying the campuswide order to go to ground), so it was just as well we took precautions. Given that tornado threats are rare here, it was rather more excitement than we needed today, but at least it all turned out ok.
2. MiniPlu and I went back to the Shakespeare Festival tonight (where she, Two and I had seen Les Miz on Saturday) to see Around the World in 80 Days tonight. I've never seen it before, in any form, and have no idea how it's normally done on stage, but in this case, five actors handled ALL the roles. Phileas Fogg was one guy, Passpartout (sp?) was another guy (although he did have one other very minor role), a woman handled Aoudi and four other small roles, most of them men, and of the remaining two men, one had about 7 roles and the other had 16. Yes, they were all bit parts, but it was ASTOUNDING how well they handled jumping roles all over the place, especially as extremely quick costume changes were involved for each one. The one with 16 roles was clearly sweating by the end, and who could blame him? But the entire effect was fantastic, and hilarious, and just so cleverly done. Even the set - they used a table, four chairs (said table and chairs kept being moved around and used to represent boat rails, train seats, an elephant's saddle, a courtroom - you name it), and a few props, and everything else was left to your imagination. We loved it.
3. I know it's stupid, but I'm sad that the divorce rumors about Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck appear to be true. They met on the set of Daredevil, which Will and I saw repeatedly on the trip to (and from) our first trip to China, and I never forgot where I first saw them together. And they just seemed so relatively ordinary, as celeb couples went. So, yeah, sorry to hear they're splitting.
4. I finished reading The Secret Lives of the First Ladies the other day. Really loved it - fun facts about the women behind the White House. Some who wanted nothing to do with politics, some who wanted nothing to do with politics but sucked it up and became a crucial part of the team anyway, and some who were the driving force behind their husbands' runs for President. Mamie Eisenhower, who loved As the World Turns so much, her staff knew never to schedule anything during show time. The First Lady (drawing a blank) who was an invalid but managed to crochet 3500 pairs of stockings while her husband was in office - and then never had another seizure or health issue after he died. The number of First Ladies who lost children - even in fairly modern times - was staggering. The number of Presidents who didn't have First Ladies at all surprised me, too - didn't remember that. Anyway, it was a lot of fun to read.
Also finished reading the fourth (and, it would appear, final) Theodosia book aloud to Two the other day. That was a really fun series, too. Right now I'm reading Rose by Holly Webb, and although the villain was ridiculously easy to pinpoint, I'm enjoying the rest of the story just fine.
5. I dug up the suspected poison sumac yesterday, both dogs got a bath, and we washed the potentially contaminated things that we could. Hopefully that'll be the end of it.
6. Still need to do the final write-up for our trip. One of these days. I consider myself lucky that I finally managed to get on a computer long enough to handle some finances today, and catch up on a little bit of email. Having kids underfoot all day: yay?
2. MiniPlu and I went back to the Shakespeare Festival tonight (where she, Two and I had seen Les Miz on Saturday) to see Around the World in 80 Days tonight. I've never seen it before, in any form, and have no idea how it's normally done on stage, but in this case, five actors handled ALL the roles. Phileas Fogg was one guy, Passpartout (sp?) was another guy (although he did have one other very minor role), a woman handled Aoudi and four other small roles, most of them men, and of the remaining two men, one had about 7 roles and the other had 16. Yes, they were all bit parts, but it was ASTOUNDING how well they handled jumping roles all over the place, especially as extremely quick costume changes were involved for each one. The one with 16 roles was clearly sweating by the end, and who could blame him? But the entire effect was fantastic, and hilarious, and just so cleverly done. Even the set - they used a table, four chairs (said table and chairs kept being moved around and used to represent boat rails, train seats, an elephant's saddle, a courtroom - you name it), and a few props, and everything else was left to your imagination. We loved it.
3. I know it's stupid, but I'm sad that the divorce rumors about Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck appear to be true. They met on the set of Daredevil, which Will and I saw repeatedly on the trip to (and from) our first trip to China, and I never forgot where I first saw them together. And they just seemed so relatively ordinary, as celeb couples went. So, yeah, sorry to hear they're splitting.
4. I finished reading The Secret Lives of the First Ladies the other day. Really loved it - fun facts about the women behind the White House. Some who wanted nothing to do with politics, some who wanted nothing to do with politics but sucked it up and became a crucial part of the team anyway, and some who were the driving force behind their husbands' runs for President. Mamie Eisenhower, who loved As the World Turns so much, her staff knew never to schedule anything during show time. The First Lady (drawing a blank) who was an invalid but managed to crochet 3500 pairs of stockings while her husband was in office - and then never had another seizure or health issue after he died. The number of First Ladies who lost children - even in fairly modern times - was staggering. The number of Presidents who didn't have First Ladies at all surprised me, too - didn't remember that. Anyway, it was a lot of fun to read.
Also finished reading the fourth (and, it would appear, final) Theodosia book aloud to Two the other day. That was a really fun series, too. Right now I'm reading Rose by Holly Webb, and although the villain was ridiculously easy to pinpoint, I'm enjoying the rest of the story just fine.
5. I dug up the suspected poison sumac yesterday, both dogs got a bath, and we washed the potentially contaminated things that we could. Hopefully that'll be the end of it.
6. Still need to do the final write-up for our trip. One of these days. I consider myself lucky that I finally managed to get on a computer long enough to handle some finances today, and catch up on a little bit of email. Having kids underfoot all day: yay?