Week in Review

Being a cat is exhausting!

And, sidenote, we all absolutely love Winston's coloring.  

There are THREE cats in this photograph.

Can you find all three?

He is a jungle cat.

(My hanging plant is in a bowl of water, as I water it periodically from the bottom.) Winst needed to check it out. Or hide. Or something. Who knows what goes through his mind.

I was in the backyard and heard Evie nosing around in the garden window, where Cora keeps her glassware. Probably she was after a fly.

Stace's coworker came back from out of state and was able to get to the Cornish Pasty Co., and brought back two of these beauties! 

Stace asked me to bring him something at work, so Violet came along and we ended up at Havana Savannah for a Monday treat.

Violet had another weird week with state testing limiting her time on campus. 

We still can carry them both! I love Violet's smile here. Great to see her smiling again with her teeth.

Vi and I saw this snake skin on a walk at Quigley this week. At least we didn't see the skin's former owner!

And I walked with Melissa and Rose this week. We stuck to the paseos.

Family Visit

 
As I alluded to earlier, Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty have been here for a few days. It was so nice that they could see Chicago - Aunt Patty liked it so much, she came twice. While we were busy with the show, we also did try to do a few fun things with them.

On Friday, after Violet was done with school, we went to Elsmere Canyon for a walk. They were really impressed with the beauty. We had perfect weather for hiking, lots of wildflowers and the sound of running water.

Stace and Uncle Bill went to the monthly Porsche dealer car show on Saturday morning, before Uncle Bill and my mom went on a day trip to visit Aunt Carol. 

Meanwhile, Aunt Patty took Violet on a date to Old Town Newhall, where they got Loaf and walked around.

Also while they were with us, we were having problems with our kitchen sink not draining properly. Uncle Bill worked on it Friday while Stace was at work, but it was still not working right.

So on Sunday, we rented a powered drain snake from Home Depot. It could only go in a couple of feet, so we looked outside for the drain cleanout. It was NOWHERE to be found. Weird. 

So, Stace cut a hole in Violet's closet, on the other side of the kitchen sink. He was thinking of cutting the pipe just past the bend where the snake was hitting.

But what did he find? 

The drain cleanout! Turns out it was going into the playroom, which used to be outside before the playroom was enclosed. 

But not only was the cleanout covered by wood paneling - oh no. It was covered by stucco! Likely, the original homeowner had the house restuccoed instead of repainted, prior to the playroom being enclosed. And the stupid workers put stucco OVER the cleanout! We couldn't believe it.

Thankfully, using the snake, we were able to get the pipes working well again. And, when we come to do the new addition, we'll plan around this cleanout, to ensure it's accessible, as it should be.

Although it wasn't what we'd have wanted to be doing with Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty, it was great to have them there to help, and think through, this situation.

Chicago - Friends and Family Edition

As I do every show of Cora's, I'll share some photos of her many adoring fans, for posterity. 

Here, Jen and Jason, and Kelly, Yass and Char (who is now an actor himself at Cora's old school), with Grandma and Grandpa, before Cora came out after the opening night performance.

On Friday night, Coach Greg and Colleen, Rigo and Liana were among the crowd.

Cora has a hard time with the after-show attention and lobby craziness, so it's hard for me to get photos with everyone. For example Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty flew down and timed their trip so they could see Chicago, but I wasn't able to get a photo of them with Cora. And many other family and friends are also not shown here. Just know that Cora brought in up to 50 paid attendees...

Mel, Nick and ELLIE came to watch! Ellie did great, and was wanting to do all of Cora's dance moves the next day. She's in dance class already, so we'll be watching her on stage soon!

I made sure we got a family photo this time - we've missed that opportunity at other times when Violet didn't attend a show and we'd forgotten.

Check out my T-shirt! Jarod is taking the program bigtime - he's using a platform where you can order merch!

Saturday closing night fun - Sue, Melanie and David, Christina and Cami. Everyone was raving, and Cora was signing programs for random kids!

Cora was so pleased that some of her friends from her old school - and her old elementary school! - came out to support her. 

Anna, Shayan and Maxine, and Vaughn as well, got to chat with her new theatre costars and friends.

Playing around with Cora's wig... Cora's hair is so long, it was quite time-consuming to deal with her hair. It involved a LOT of pin curls all over her head so she didn't have obvious bumps under the wig cap. She was one of three girls wearing wigs, and luckily, one of the actor's moms IS a working industry professional with wigs! 

Cora's theatre friends from her old school came out, too! Grace and Sadie, Abbie, Cami, Brooklyn and Sam all enjoyed the show.

Here's the completed photo board. Thanks to Grandpa for taking the headshots and to Violet for helping me get the names on them and helping me splatter gold on the board to mimic the promo poster.

Playing with the new photo editing tools - I was able to erase the background. Kind of cool. 

The actual photo...

So, so proud of this girl. 

 

Chicago!

 Cora's acting, singing and dancing abilities continue to grow and develop, and she was blessed to play the lead, Velma Kelly, in her school's production of Chicago (Teen Edition).

When Cora performed All That Jazz on opening night, I got teary. She's fabulous, truly professional quality. I don't say that solely of my own opinion... so many people asked me if she's pursuing acting as a career, including the vocal director for the show, who didn't know Cora previously. Another man who works in the industry tried looking for her IMDB profile, certain she must already be working.

More from All That Jazz, Velma showing her vaudeville singing and dancing moves.

This is from Cell Block Tango, the song where we learn about how it is that Velma is in jail. She walked in on her husband and sister "doing No. 17!" and, well, she blacked out! Didn't even know they were dead until she was washing blood off her hands! Mmm hmmm. 

The Cell Block Tango number was amazing. Very talented girls, great choreography and lighting, catchy song. Cora really shone here, too, growling her way though.

Here, we meet Matron Mama, who holds the keys, and the access to Velma's post-jail connections. Cora had some nice acting moments here.

As Roxie - Cora's friend Dani - starts to claim all the spotlight after shooting her lover in cold blood, Velma begs her to take her sister's part in their doubles act. 

In "I Can't Do it Alone," Cora shows off her newly honed dancing ability. 

This scene is from "Velma Takes the Stand," where she describes to attorney Billy Flynn how she wants to approach her upcoming trial. 

This is from "Razzle Dazzle," the big number with Billy Flynn and Roxie. I am so proud of all these kids, and Jarod the director, for how this whole show looked and sounded. It was so much fun to watch.

After our stars bamboozle the juries and get away with murder, they do in fact perform as a doubles act. 

Hot Honey Rag! A great dance number, totally vaudeville style. 

And the finale - All That Jazz!!

The theatre had such a successful show - bringing back quality musicals for the first time in years, and selling more than 460 tickets for the four shows. We are so, so proud of Cora.

Oh! I nearly forgot the actual star of the show - Stace's mock piano! Gotta love it! 

Closing night final bows, with roses on the floor, from Melanie, thrown from the wings during "Hot Honey Rag."

Dani gave Jarod a bouquet (made by Mel) and a lovely speech of gratitude, and Kyle is handing him a rose.