Finster Finds

I look around and the monumental task of tidying it just overwhelms me. Plus I have other things that are technically work, but far more enjoyable, that I would rather do... sigh, I guess I should get out the vacuum cleaner...

It is good to breathe the Edmonton air. Already the boys both sound better so I wonder if the 'cold' that both of them were hit with was really allergies to something in Minnesota. We got in later than expected last night. A delayed flight to Toronto from Thunder Bay in the morning resulted in re-scheduling our connection and spending far too much time in the Thunder Bay Airport. I lost it a bit here and there, but was more frustrated with Air Canada (not having anyone on the desk, not being able to seat us together initially, delaying the flight to begin with...) and I know that it is difficult to expect 2 young boys to stand still for an hour while we wait for help to fix the problems. It is good to be home, and now we wait for my luggage which they said would be here this morning but will likely not make it until the afternoon based on the phone call I just received. I indicated to the caller that I was a little annoyed that it would not be here in the morning as I had

On Wednesday, in the early hours, I will be leaving with my two sons on a plane to Thunder Bay, Ontario. Once there we will pick up the rental car I have booked and drive to the ancestral home in Beaver Bay, Minnesota and further to Duluth the next day for a Strand Family Reunion. I am not one of those people who hates family reunions. I quite love them. I am feeling a bit of trepidation about travelling and being alone with the boys for a week. They require a lot of energy. I am looking forward to seeing all the cousins and aunt and uncles and re-visiting all the haunts of my childhood. It always looks different, but the same.

It was a cranky day but maybe tomorrow will be better. I am glad for the haircut, and the fact I can sleep in tomorrow. I still have to sort out my packing, but Mom says she and Dad can take some stuff for me in their car. That will be nice. It is going to be a long journey with just me and the boys.

This week we were much more successful weather-wise and soccer-wise. If all goes well we will have our last day of soccer tomorrow. It took Gibson 2 days to settle in and today he went to the class with no issues. He had more challenges in the playground afterwards when his sand castle got stepped on and he banged his head twice on the slide. He is also going through a 'I want to play, but I want the rules to favour me' phase which is really annoying. After soccer we went to see Ice Age 3: The Age of the Dinosaurs . It was hot and the movie theatre was air conditioned. Lovely. This weekend Mark and I went to The Lion King at the Jubilee. It is part of the Broadway Across Canada package. This was the show that made me most want to buy this season. It was wonderful. Conceptually it was so complete. The puppetry and the set and the lighting were amazing. Some mic balance issues and the young Simba was occasionally robotic, but he was only 11, what can you do?

It's a bit of a challenge to deal with rainy days during summer holidays. The boys have been pretty good considering we are pretty much house bound, but I would love to have a dry day so we can get outside! Saw You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown at Walterdale earlier this evening and we all had a great time. I knew it would be strange to see it considering I have directed it before and it remains one of my most favorite directing experiences, but the choices were so different that I didn't compare and just enjoyed watching and listening to the boys laugh and relate to it. Gibson was so rapt any time there was music. This was his first 2 Act Play and he did pretty good. Oliver gets what a play is a little better now and he was asking about the program and things like that. It was pretty cool.

Time. I had a rehearsal planned for this afternoon for the Interplay/Fringe show and one of my actresses called to say she was experiencing a bout of the stomach flu. She is in almost every scene and when I tracked through to see what I could do with the other two ladies I found about 2 1/2 pages. One of them has to drive in from Stony Plain and I didn't think that was fair so I cancelled the rehearsal. This will mean the rest of the schedule is tight, but we will make it work. And now I have some time. There is always laundry and grocery shopping and cleaning to do, but maybe I can actually do some writing or take a nap. Both of those sound very good.

I went in to the theatre on the weekend to 'help' paint the Charlie Brown set and have since spent 4 days there painting, watching paint dry and waiting around until someone could help with set up so I could paint. The job was much bigger than anticipated and there was no plan in place to get it done. Once we got a grip on what was entailed in completing the process (Wednesday night - late, late, late) we sat down as a small group of painters (3 of us) and made a much needed plan. Hopefully we will be done tonight. If all goes according to plan, we should be. I know that it will look really cool and will be all lovely, so that is what pushes me to do it. I really didn't have the time to spare, but apparently no one else did either. I felt really guilty that I couldn't go help last night, but I had other plans and I shouldn't feel that way. I had only thought I would be going in for a few hours on the weekend, not spending 4 days in there (including all of Ca