Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Craig and I went to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert at The Pantages Theatre. I took this picture of my dress while I was trying to decide what to wear:



As we've made a habit of doing before a show, we had dinner at Delphine. It's quickly becoming one of my favorite places to eat. [Edit: Pictures added.]

After the show, I took Craig to LAX to catch a flight for Singapore.

Another busy weekend

I'll start with a silly picture of my helper. She was quite excited to have me back from Kansas. So much so, that she followed me in to the bathroom while I was trying to shower. As soon as I finished, she found a job - squeegeeing the shower:



On Thursday, Mal drove up to our house. On Friday, Courtney, Mal, Craig and I headed for Vegas. Craig had tickets to see Garth Brooks. It was a very small venue, as you can see from the one picture I took:



It was an amazing show!

We spent the night in Vegas. We did some shopping the next day, then headed back. Bryce had several friends over, but they had ordered pizza for dinner already so we went out. We enjoyed the rest of the long weekend, grilling and eating outside.

Kansas

I headed back to Kansas on Tuesday. Rebecca picked me up at the airport and we spent the evening catching up. We were able to go to one of my favorite places downtown (but I can't spell the name of it).

Wednesday, Rebecca took me to the Kansas side to meet mom and her chauffeur, Regan. They had had quite an adventure getting to the restaurant. But we had a nice lunch before mom, Regan and I headed for my cousin Baron's house. I drove, as Regan had already gotten her fill of city driving. After a brief stop there, we headed for the farm.

Of course, Katie had to show me the new set of kittens. We took a picture of Kai, who is too allergic to get this close to them:



I got to see a bit of farm work:



And I got a picture of everyone else watching:



I went to a (not so well attended) CLE, to catch my remaining hours for the year:



(There were actually two women in attendance other than myself. But it was certainly a small crowd.) Mom drove with me down to Wichita and went shopping during my class. We were able to have lunch together, and to meet my cousin and great aunt for dinner.

I was home to celebrate mom's birthday, which was nice. Before I left, I discovered that the kittens had relocated under mom's steps:

A short weekend

Craig had two business trips nearly back to back, with Mother's Day between them. Mal drove up for the weekend, but Craig was still making his way home from Rio when the kids left for their mother's house. Craig and I had a quiet dinner at home.



Fried chicken, corn on the cob, and homemade french fries! The kids returned on Sunday and we were able to have a meal at home because Craig's trip had been postponed. (I don't seem to have taken any pictures of that.) Then Craig was off to Abi Daubi and I was heading for Kansas.

Slime!

Pinterest occasionally yields some fun ideas. I found a recipe for slime and Kai helped me make it. We mixed 3/4 cup cold water with 1 cup (2 small bottles, because that's the only size I could find at Target) of Elmer's glue and some green food dye. I mixed 1/2 cup hot water with the 1 teaspoon borax (we have enough borax to last the rest of our natural lives, again because Target carried only one size). I mixed them together with Kai's assistance. And we had slime!



Courtney enjoyed it at least as much as Kai did.

Busy Week

It's been a hectic week - starting with the housewarming party last weekend and Dancing with the Stars on Monday. Craig had a client dinner Tuesday night, so I cooked dinner for the kids at home. On Wednesday, we had tickets to see The Killers! Before the concert, we went to Taps. We started with oysters, a favorite of ours:



Craig ordered scallops for me and asked the server to pick between a couple options for him. I can't remember what she picked, but here's what we got:



Like my mom often does, Craig also preferred my entree to his own. We enjoyed a very nice dinner. The nice thing about going to a concert is that you don't have to worry about being there on time...an added bonus in this case because traffic was incredible that night!

We turned around to take a picture of ourselves, and someone in the row behind us offered to take the picture for us. We weren't really thrilled with the resulting picture, but it's awkward to turn around a take a second one yourself after someone offers, so here's what we got:



Craig also took a couple pictures during:



Thursday night, we had a quiet night at home. Ha...surely you know better than that. We were actually both home Thursday night, but Courtney had asked us to watch Kai so that she could have a night out with her boyfriend. After Courtney left, Kai and I made bread dough and peanut butter cookies. I started a pork loin in the mostly working oven (we are actually getting that repaired next Monday) and Kai helped me shape the bread dough into rolls. We made the pull-apart rolls by dividing the dough into three balls per roll. We rolled half the dough in cheese before putting it in the muffin tin, to make cheesey rolls for the dairy-eating-portion of my household. Kai helped me smash the peanut butter cookies (we tried with a fork, but that was a bit beyond her small motor control at this point). I don't seem to have taken any pictures of the resulting meal, but I think it turned out pretty good.

Friday night, I drove in to Burbank to meet Craig at his office. Along the way, I marveled at the outgoing traffic (the traffic Craig typically drives home in). My side was pretty open, but eastbound was bumper to bumper the entire route. It was so bad that I took several pictures:

Dancing with the Stars

On Monday, we attended the live taping of Dancing with the Stars. Craig and I don't watch the show, but his long-time carpool partner, Les, and Les's wife are avid fans of the show. They got tickets and invited us to join them. As you read this account, remember that Craig and I know NOTHING about the show.

Before the show, Courtney helped me with my hair. First, I borrowed her hairdryer because I had to leave at 12:45 for the show and I'd only taken a shower an hour before. She asked which attachment I wanted...I ended up just taking the one she had on the hairdryer. She apparently doesn't know that my working knowledge of hairdryers is limited to: I will point this at my hair and it will dry more quickly. But I got my hair dry and straight:



She did this fantastic style for the housewarming party and I loved it so much I asked her to do it again for the show. You won't see it on the show, but she took some pictures before I left:



We were instructed to arrive by 3:15. So we were in line at the gate at 3:05. The instructions said we could not bring our phones, so it was an interesting wait in line. We actually had to talk to one another. It's remarkable how many things you want to look up when you cannot.

At 3:15, they started down the line checking ID's against a list of names. The instructions said that jeans, even expensive designer jeans, were not allowed. We did see a few people wearing jeans turned away from the gate. The crowd seemed to consist primarily of mother-daughter groups, all nicely dressed. A cart came by on the road, selling snacks and odd toys (beach ball, anyone?).

Shortly thereafter, they let us walk across the studio parking lot. I understand that Dancing with the Stars plays on ABC, but we were at the CBS studio. ABC had several trucks outside.

Once inside the studio, we stood in line again to have our names and ID's checked on another list. Here they stamped our hands and told us which section we were to be seated in. We were in the "right" section. The line then went into the building through two metal detectors. A few people had their cell phones taken away. Craig set of the metal detector and was wanded by security. They never found what set off the alarm, but apparently decided he was no threat.

We were directed back outside, to form lines according to section. The instructions had said that everyone had to be seated by 4:20 and that no late seating was allowed. We were somewhat amused to find ourselves still standing outside at 4:30, with a few late arrivals still making their way across the parking lot to the check in stand. As we waited, a truck pulled up blaring music and a young woman got off and announced she was selling snacks and drinks. We would be allowed to take water only into the studio. She assured us that we could buy from her and not lose our place in line.

Once we got inside the studio, we found the chairs were marked with full sheets of paper with our names on them. With assigned seating like this, I'm really not sure why there was such a fuss about not losing our place in line. We found our seats around 4:45. The chairs were so small and placed so closely that Craig and I could not sit side by side, our shoulders wouldn't fit.

After a brief introduction and instruction, we spent the next two hours clapping, booing, standing up, and sitting down mostly without any identifiable reason. We could hear very little of what the judges said and we could only see the dancers from the waist-up in most places on the floor. I understand now why the judges on these types of shows always sound like they are shouting...they are shouting and still cannot be heard by the crowd. I do wonder how often the crowd reacts inappropriately (booing or clapping) simply because that's what the first person started doing and the rest of the crowd followed along without hearing anything.

By the end of the show, I was certain I had bruised one hand from clapping. It's still tender, but no bruise has appeared. We were instructed on how to exit the studio, which we started doing promptly. Before we had left our seats, there was a loud bang and I looked over to see a television remote on the floor next to Les. He picked it up while asking the lady seated next to him if she was alright. The lady put her hand on top of her head and said she was okay. But then blood started flowing from her upper lip. The remote had fallen, presumably from the third balcony where there was a television screen, landed on her head and flipped down to hit her in the face.

Craig found a crewman, who seemed more bewildered by the fact that a television remote was down on the floor than concerned about the bleeding woman. So he grabbed another stagehand and we started with the fact that the woman was bleeding. Les left his card with the lady and we left.

Last night, we watched the taped show and found ourselves on the screen. We've added helpful circles to these pictures (because otherwise, let's be honest, you'd never find us):



And a "close up" shot (also with circles):



We left to go to dinner at Gordon Ramsey's Fat Cow restaurant. The food was good, but not spectacular.