If you're an avid reader of my blog (or is that rabid?) you're probably going to get tired of reading about my basement finishing project over the next four months.  Yep, both of you.

This afternoon, our General Contractor is bring CAD drawings of the floor plan to our home and we're going to make adjustments that we need and the the floor plan will be finalized.

One small problem we have is that we're putting a full bathroom in the basement.  The bathtub/shower surround will be up against a window.  The window has plain old normal see-through glass in it.  There's nothing like showering in full view of the neighbors, no?

Back when my oldest son was born I worked for a window manufacturing plant, so one of my "skills" is that I can replace glass in vinyl windows.  I called today with measurements and all things considered (like double-sided tape and a pair of rubberized gloves so I don't need stitches later), I can replace the glass myself for less than $100.  At my next meeting, I'll find out what the contractor will charge to replace the window.  If it's enough of a difference, I'll just do it myself.

It's exciting though!  They're starting work in just over two weeks!

2006 was a year of large unexpected changes for me.

A year ago, we had no intentions of moving. We found our dream house, bought it, sold our first home, and moved in a matter of a few weeks. Then came the landscaping project. And now, thanks to the other big change in 2006, the next big change is already under way: Upscale Downstairs will start finishing our basement on January 22nd. This means that EVERYTHING in my basement has to be moved (temporarily, thank goodness) to the bonus room upstairs. We moved a bunch of stuff already. I thought when we moved in that we were DONE lugging boxes all over the place.

A year ago, I fully intended to stay at Symantec for another five or ten years. I was working on my Java certification so I could be in a position to continue working on the next generation of the product developed in my lab. At the end of July, that plan changed completely. Symantec was changing its plan for the product and I was told I wasn't part of the plan. Three weeks later, I accepted the job offer from Altiris and a new chapter in my career began. The severance package from Symantec will be paying for a chunk of the work in my basement.

Here's hoping for a more stable 2007.

Like I need another project to neglect.

I've been mulling it over though.  It could be a lot of fun AND it could be something that my son and I do together.

I can hear you now...  WHAT?  WHAT PROJECT?  What are you TALKING about?

I'm talking about something called Project 365.  I read about it yesterday.  For those of you too lazy to click on the link, it's simple enough.  You just take at least one photo a day for at least 365 days.  Then, at least one photo is posted on the web for each day.  It sounds like a lot of fun.  It could be boring.  It could turn into a tedious chore.  But it could go the other way and be something really worthwhile.  Especially if I have my son do the project with me.

He has his own digital camera.  He has a LOT of fun with it.  He makes stop motion movies for fun.  I'll mull it over for a few more days and talk with my son about it.  We'll see what happens.

We've been snowed on. We were almost snowed in. Almost.

My driveway is a pain when it snows.

Correction: My driveway is a pain for adults when it snows. All of the kids in the neighborhood want to sled down my driveway when it snows. We had a little bit of snow a couple of weeks ago and my sons' friends were calling to see if they wanted to play in the snow.

However, it's a pain to shovel.

On Sunday morning, we woke up to about six inches of new, heavy, wet snow. I figured out that it's easiest to shovel the steep parts by letting gravity do most of the work. I just start shoveling downward and pretty soon, I have a pretty good pile of snow moving pretty quickly to the bottom of the driveway.

That means that I have a LOT of snow to move when the driveway is actually clear, or there won't be any way to get our non-all-wheel-drive vehicles out. The Subaru would love the challenge. The Saturns would scream in terror, probably oiling themselves with angst.

So I used a scoop shovel to throw the piled-up snow to the sides of the driveway.

When we got home from church, an additional two inches of heavy, wet snow had fallen. So I repeated the process.

I don't know if a snow blower is even an option. I'm afraid that I would get it to the bottom of the driveway and it would remain there until Spring, unable to climb back up.

Today, I can point at all of the muscles one uses when shoveling snow. All of them are sore and incapable of moving quickly. If I were in an anatomy/physiology class right now, memorization of muscle groups would be a lot easier. I would simply rank them in order of most painful to least painful.

If, for ANY reason, we're EVER going to have to replace the driveway, I'm installing radiant heating. Maybe when I get older and less able to shovel snow, I'll accidentally jackhammer holes in the driveway.

Then again, maybe I'll to it today.

I'm pretty sure that the theater has now made all of the casting calls and I'm not one that got a phone call. *sigh*

There's always the next audition, right?

Well, maybe not.

This particular situation is quite a blow to me. I did better vocally in this audition than in any other audition I've done at this particular theater. In this case though, my voice teacher wasn't the music director. So I'm becoming more and more convinced that I was cast because of who I knew, not because of talent.

I'm taking an open-ended hiatus from theatre. I'm going to put my energy into other things for a while... maybe forever. I won't know how long this hiatus will last until I either audition for another show or until I'm dead, whichever happens first.

I think I'll go sign up for guitar lessons.

This is driving me crazy.

I said I hated the waiting game after an audition? Well, usually, by this time, the show would have been cast, and I wouldn't be suffering any longer. But others that auditioned haven't heard back either, so I've got to continue waiting and wondering.

Ugh.

Maybe tomorrow.

Saturday morning, we had a Christmas breakfast at our church.  I took Alton Brown's overnight Monkey Bread to share.  When we got home, I was reaching into the back of our Subaru to grab the serving dish and didn't duck quite low enough.  I hit my forehead, just above my hairline on the hatchback door.

Heads bleed a surprising amount.  I had to hurry into the house before I started dripping all over the place.

Fortunately, it didn't need stitches, but I spent the rest of the day with an oozing head wound and a splitting, throbbing headache.

1) No, I'm not interested in product XYZ

2) If I'm not interested in product XYZ, why in the WORLD would I want to invite all of my neighbors over to my house for a presentation about product XYZ. ESPECIALLY since the presentation about product XYZ will surely turn into a presentation about how you can make a bundle o' money by marketing product XYZ.

3) If I'm not interested in product XYZ, what makes you think I would want to help you grow your *ahem* "business" by selling product XYZ.

4) No, I wil NOT be in your downline.

5) As a general rule, if I can't find it in a store or online, I don't want it. I'm not going to buy it.

6) If my friendship means THAT much to you, why did you completely ignore me, rarely responding to my emails and never calling me until suddenly there's this GREAT opportunity?

7) If something is marketed solely or primarily through a MLM and without it, I'll die a horrible, painful death, oh well. I believe in an afterlife.

8) Leave me the %@#&! alone!

9) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It went as well as could be expected.

I showed up and they had preprinted a pink form for me, not a blue form. Um... Okay. So I filled it out anyway. I figured is might be a plus... anything to get the directors to notice/remember you, right?

I showed the accompanist the music I brought and she pretty much slaughtered it. I might have done better myself faking it. But at least everyone had the same accompanist.

The director and music director barely looked up from their forms. They couldn't have looked much more disinterested. I'm thinking that's not a good sign,.

And if they call me back, I have a conflict with the scheduled callback time. That's not good.

So after careful consideration, I believe that I really AM doomed from the start and I'd probably better not count on a part in this one.

Though, vocally, I think I did better in this audition than I have at any other audition at this theatre, so there's a slight glimmer of hope.

Slight.

Now the waiting and wondering begins.

How did my audition go?

I'll tell you tomorrow.

No, REALLY. I'll tell you tomorrow, because I didn't audition last night.

Somehow, I got "Tuesday" stuck in my head. I thought all day yesterday that it was Tuesday, the 6th of December. So I showed up to the theatre last night, Tuesday, the 6th of December, to audition. Imagine my surprise when I went downstairs (in the theatre) and found no director, no music director, no producers... nobody.

So I went upstairs and found a poster that said "Wednesday, 6 December" and I went through a strange time warp. Suddenly, it was a different day than I thought. Suddenly, it was a day earlier than I thought.

And I was at auditions a day early.

*sheepish grin*

At least I wasn't a day late.