Taking on big responsibilty behind the seams

The New York blog is coming I promise! First I have some exciting news to share. For the past 5 or 6 years I have been involved with local theatre groups, first with just front of house stuff ushering etc. In the past couple years, I have gotten more involved with the production side of things working with costumes. I have previously blogged about my various hallowe'en costumes over the past few years and how that connects with my love of theatre so this shouldn't come as a surprise.

During the course of my time assisting on 6 different shows I have altered  a $600 shirt (among other various alterations), made puppets (Both amphibian and human), built corsets, skirts, pants, Disney inspired Princess dresses, sewed buttons and trim, built an octopus costume from a vintage coat to name a few projects. I plan to one day have a blog relating some of my successes and failures, some of my more interesting stories from behind the seams. A couple of times I have been credited as a costume assistant. I had my own little bio in programme of the last show I worked on. I have taken a bit of a break because it can be intense working on a show, even with out all of the responsibility on your shoulders especially when there are 200 costumes required.

I have wanted to work on this one show since last spring. I have the broadway soundtrack and saw it a few years ago. I figured it would be a good show to cut my teeth on for designing a show on my own, because it is a small cast of 9 and only takes place over a single day with very little costume changes. Believe it or not that makes a HUGE difference, for example if you have a cast of 20 and the play takes place over the course of 3 days that instantly triples your costume count to 60, a different outfit for each day etc, plus whatever else might be required.

Last week when I saw that auditions were being held for the show I emailed the director expressing my interest in doing costumes and she put me in touch with the producer. (I had worked with the director before when she was an actress in the last show) I didn't hear anything back for a few days after I replied to an initial email saying they would like to meet and discuss things. Yesterday I got an email asking if I could meet them this morning, of course I said YES (but avoiding saying with bells on).

Today I arrived with a headful of ideas as having sketches would be a little presumptuous. I left being welcomed aboard with a script in my hand. The director is really cool she is visual and wants a lot of input from me, which is nice, it sounds like I will have a lot of creative freedom. The seat could even be influenced by my colour palette! This is such a big responsibility, that I am both excited and scared about! *Deep calming breath* I  hope I do it justice. I am just a self-taught sewer with a love of theatre, fashion and clothing, but I have learned a lot in the past couple years.  I am just really honoured and grateful that I have been entrusted with this and I've got this opportunity. This is my chance to shine and to prove to myself and everyone that I can do this! I will have my Tim Gunn moment and make it work!

A new year and a whole new world!

Hello 2014 hope it is finding my readers well, and that Santa was good to you! This year has been interesting thus far and started off with a bang. On January 2nd I damaged the grill and licence plate holder of my car, that is a $218 mistake, it will be fixed tomorrow. Stupidly I wasn't paying as much attention as I should and didn't break in time, insurance isn't involved, but I am okay which is the main thing.

I still owe a blog post from my December trip to New York City, but for now we'll focus on the first show I have seen of 2014. Yesterday I went to see the musical adaptation of Disney's Aladdin. This will probably come as a shock, especially because I am a HUGE Disney fan, but I have never actually seen a Disney musical  before (No Lion King, Beauty and the Beast or Mary Poppins, nothing, even though they have all played in Toronto within the last few years) I think I have been hesitant, because I tend to be purist, and I know they tend to change stuff, the movies are masterpieces and if it's not broke, don't fix it.

I think it was the chance to see Aladdin, before Broadway audiences that really pushed me to see it before it leaves (Today is actually the last performance). When I was in NYC I saw the theatre marquis of where it is transferring to. I was curious to see what they would do with the Genie and how they would do the magic carpet for the number A Whole New World.

My first mistake was deciding to go to a matinee, because there were a lot of children. The kids were tearing up and down the aisle loudly during intermission and one child had to be taken out because they were bawling loudly. I was way up in the mezzanine and the little girl two rows ahead of me kept on moving around during the first act blocking my view. Grrr. I also had to bitch out of the usher's because she was letting people go back to their seats in the middle of a musical number a big no no. Everyone knows you have to wait until after the song or during a scene change, because it disrupts the other patrons. I have to admit, one of my most unpleasant theatre going experiences EVER. On to the show: minor spoilers ahead.

Parts of the show were great. I absolutely loved the sets, they were beautiful especially the palace sets and the costumes sparkled all the way in the back row.  I don't know why all the reviews seem to skewered the sets, especially with the cave of wonder's scene, when Aladdin becomes trapped.  I wasn't even put off by the fact that the part of Abu the monkey was cut out and replaced by three friends of Aladdin, and that Iago the parrot was just human henchman of Jafar's.  Or even that they cut out the subplot of having Jafar conspiring to marry Jasmine so he can be Sultan. I think enough of the original story remained, a lot of lines were taken verbatim.

One of the highlights for me was seeing Jonathan Freeman play Jafar, he actually voiced him in the original movie! How cool is that? I didn't stage door after though. I loved Adam Jacobs who played Aladdin, he came across as sweet and charming and had a great voice. Vocally I found the casting of Courtney Reed as Princess Jasmine questionable, her acting was fine. I think she really only had three big numbers in the whole show and I found her really weak during the show's iconic number A Whole New World. (Weak to the point where I was wincing) Sadly the majesty of that song's staging wasn't enough to distract me from her singing. I loved the starlit background and the carpet that really did seam to fly through the air as the ensemble danced around almost invisible with glowing planets.

I don't know what I am missing, but everyone is apparently loving the James Munroe Iglehart portrayal of the Genie. Granted Robin William's left some big shoes to fill, and it isn't Iglehart's fault. I blame the book writers for taking the character in a different direction at the risk of sounding racist more black then Jewish. I found him over the top. I didn't like the way they had him break the fourth wall and sing snippets of the composers other works from Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, it takes me out of the story and typically that is not what you want for your audience.

Overall the show was okay, I don't regret going. It makes me glad I didn't go see my favourite Disney movie show of all time The Little Mermaid when it was on Broadway, if this is what I can expect from the adaptations. I will stick to the original going forward, but I might make an exception for The Lion King when it is back in Toronto later this summer.

Who I ran for

Today would have been my Aunt Melanie's 44th birthday. She is definitely on my mind. In rememberance of her  I am wearing the ring and necklace my grandfather brought her back from Egypt in 1973, just to feel like I have a piece of her with me. Last month I did something for the first time in her honour. I participated in the CIBC Run for the Cure. I am not an athletic person in the least, but something got into me this fall and for the very first time I participated in a run/walk for Diabetes and the Run for Breast Cancer.

I didn't really properly train, and I am not in shape like I was in summer 2012, so I did a mix of running and walking, but I am okay with that. The important thing is that I got out there and did it. I am hoping that next year if I train all summer I will be able to run the whole schmeer no problem.

The Diabetes run was really small in comparison. The CIBC run had a more festival like atmosphere. It was neat seeing some of the team names that people came up with. People were decked out in pink boas wigs etc. I don't think the rain dampened anyone's spirits There were over 1500 participants at my location, a wee bit more than the 40 at the Diabetes run.

 It was alot more emotional than I thought it would be more so seeing the survivors in their special pink tees wishing Mel was one of them. It was kind of crazy just seeing so many people affected by this disease. It was great seeing all the men supporting them too. The local MP participated which was nice to see. I has my pic taken with some fire fighter's in pink suits. I will leave you with a pic of Mel's ring and of me at the race with the firefighters.

Theatre and hallowe'en: a match made in heaven

It goes with out saying that costumes and theatre go hand in hand. I have to admit that Hallowe'en has been heavily  influenced by my love of theatre. At my work dressing up is a really big thing, we even have a costume contest. For three out of the five years that I participated I dressed up as characters from a musical.

The first time was going as Tracey Turnblad from Hairspray, this was before I lost the weight, As bigger woman I really found Tracey an inspiration. No one really understood who I was, I think they just thought I was a school girl. Doing the hair was a really bitch, my grandma Betty who had been  hairdresser in the 60's helped me tease it.  Here's a pic of me getting ready:

 
The next year I was Scaramouche from We Will Rock You. This was the first time I actually made a costume from scratch. My short skirt helped me flirt with my future boyfriend, and we got together a few months later. Again no one really got who I was until I showed them a pic from my WWRY programme. I am not sure what they thought I was, but DEFINATELY out of the orindary, plus my hair was purple, boy was that fun washing out... I had borrowed my mom's Eddie Bauer jacket and there was a purple ring around the neck that I got out without her ever knowing about it lol.. Here's a pic of me in costume, and a snap of the from the programme.

 
The next year I went as Velma Kelly from Chicago. I didn't recreate the Catherine Zeta-Jones movie version. Most people just thought I was a flapper, but I did have a little toy gun with me. That red dress I made got a lot of mileage. That fall I knew I was volunteering for a theatre fundraiser where we had to dress up from the 20's so it was kind of a no brainer what I was going to do for Hallowe'en. I also wore it to a Hallowe'en party the boyfriend and I had, plus a year later I wore it to another work event where we dressed up from the 20's to go a party for the Boardwalk Season 2 premiere. I placed in the top ten with this costume.

 
 Last year I placed again, but my costume wasn't from a musical this time. It was definitely more conceptual.I was a garden. I just saw the wings and knew I had to do something with them, aside from being a butterfly. Again I don't know if people quite got what I was at first, but once I said garden they got it.



 This year was more influenced my interest in women's history. I went as Rosie the Riveter/Bomb girls from the 1940's. For those who don't know they were the women who worked the factories while the men were off at war. People thought I was a mechanic or a cleaning woman, not everyone got it, however the word adorable was bandied about quite a bit and I placed 8th. I will leave you witha pic of this years costume.

 

Anything Goes and TIFF

I will make up for my lack of posting with a very long, newsy post. I have been to Toronto quite a few times in August and September, some times for shows, and for TIFF, one day I went just to be a foodie

On my foodie day, I went to the Chickery, which is run by  Celebrity chef, David Adjey. It was okay, the chicken tenders were moist, but I prefere my dad's beer can chicken and my mama's coleslaw. I really liked his ranch dipping sauces though. I don't think the value was there. Here's a pic of the food:
  

Afterwards I went to go a Magum pop up shop. The Magnum brand is pretty new to North America, but it is a British ice cream bar. This pop up shop let you customize your bar, with choices of what kind of ice cream, chocolate coating (dark, white or milk), and toppings, some of the flavours are crazy for example grape nerds! Seriously! There was a line to get into the store to be served by a "pleasure maker" which is what the employees are called. I hada vanilla ice cream bar, with white chocolate coating, macadamia nuts, strawberries and toffee bits for toppings and milk chocolate drizzle. It was $6 and worth every penny, glad I got to try it, as the store was only around until the end of August. Here's a pic of the goodie:

Another thing was was only around in August was the touring production of Anything Goes. This was one show that I knew I wanted to see when Mirvish announced it was coming. It didn't disapoint, it was everything I love about musicals, the costumes, the sets, the dancing, great music. Cole Porter really knew his stuff. I would love to play the part of Reno Sweeney, it seems like a fun role. The one negative, I kept on wishing it was Sutton Foster playing Reno, not Rachel York, even though she did a fine job. I love the title number... "god knows Anything Goes"

The show was being performed at the Princess of Wales Theatre which will eventually be demolished to make way for ugly condo buildings. In case you can't tell, just a little bitter about this. I have known about this for a while but it makes it sort of bitter sweet when I go to the PoW because of that, everytime, I wonder, will this be the last time. This time I noticed something I never noticed before: a letter to Ed Mirvish signed by Princess Diana! I took a pic:

 

I also found myself in Toronto for the Toronto International Film Festival.  My friend Siob had offered my tickets to a South African made kids movie called Khumba, it was really cute. It was about an zebra (Khumba) born with out stripes on his backside, (so he had a white bum) the other zebra's thought he was cursed because of this, and blamed him for the drought, so he sets out to earn his stripes. On the first Saturday I dragged my friend Alex along and we were on the road at 7 am to make it on time for the early morning screening. The Q&A with the director was fun, I got a kick out of watching the kids ask questions. We were the first North American audience to see the film.

After the movie we were walking down King St plotting our next move, what celebs we wanted to try and meet etc. I saw people waiting at the red carpet at Roy Thomson hall in the rain no less. We found out Mike Myers was coming in an hour or so for his directorial debut "Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon" so we stuck around. I was talking to this guy from etalk who was covering the red carpet, and we found out Alice Cooper was going to be there too.Apparently my eyes lit up, and the guy from etalk tried to talk to me but I was interview me, but I was speechless, this girl next too me, called me cute. While we were waiting this guy came right over to me, and asked me if I wanted tickets to the movie, um let me think.... Yes! I would have been happy enough just to meet those two, sadly because of timing, they couldn't spend alot of time with the fans so I didn't get to, because they had to go do the interviews. Here's the pick I snapped of Mike Myers and Tom Arnold.

  

As we entered the hall, I was greeted by Yvan Pedenault who was the lead in We Will Rock You back in 2007, he didn't recognize me from the multiple stage doors (I was over sixty pounds heavier back then) We also noticed that out tickets were Red Carpet Lounge ones, when we asked, even though there was only 5 minutes before the movie, we got to go into a lounge were that they gave us free drinks and snacks. I tried Chablis for the first time, it was nice. I don't know why we didn't take pics of the room though. Alex and previously quipped that the only thing that could have made this day better was free alcohol, I didn't think that would happen, little did I know! We even had reserved seats. I don't know how I got so lucky, my theory is the guy thought I was cute, or was attracted by my hot pink Betsy Johnson tights and scarf. (The tights dyed my feet pink by the way, because my Michael Kors boots got wet in the rain)

The movie itself was interesting, it is doctumentry about the life of this manager Shep Gordon. It had some really funny moments and poignant ones. After Mike and Shep were interviewed on stage. It would have been better if the audience could have answered questions. I did learn neat factoids though like why Alice Cooper performed his new stuff during the movie Wayne's World. Basically Shep his manager said if you don't let him, then you can't have him. (I love Wayne's World) Alice Cooper didn't come on stage even though he was interviewed in the movie, he just sat in the audience (He got mobbed afterwards)

 

Day 2 was just about the red carpet, and I dragged my friend Verena along for the ride. I wanted to meet Sandra Bullock, so I found myself outside the Princess of Wales theatre where the premiere for Gravity was happening, I got to be right up front of the barricades. It was kind of crazy seeing King St closed off to traffic other than street cars. The poor security guard, who had to lift the pile ons everytime time one need to get by. My impression of Sandra is she is a real lady, who seems to really care about her fans, she came early and spent a decent amount of time on the red carpet. I was lucky enough to get my copy of Miss Congeniality signed. I was a little more prepared this time and had brought stuff to get signed. I thought George Clooney was going to be there, but he wasn't. Here's a pic of Sandra signing and of my DVD:

 

After that I wandered over to the Elgin for the main event. I was a hugh Colin Firth fan, so my mission was to met him when I heard he was going to be in town. I got to the red carpet for Devil's Knot nice and early, and was right up front. I had brought my copy of Bridget Jone's Diary to have him sign, I wasn't sure if his Devil's Knot co-star Reese Witherspoon was going to be there, so I didn't grab one of my many movies with her in it, so I ended up running into to the Eaton Centre and buying Pleasantville for $8.

When the stars arrived, they literally stopped traffic on Yonge St, so that the starts could go see the fans, who had been lined up across the street from the theatre. Pretty crazy! Here's what the set up looked like:

Colin Firth apparently didn't like me, because he missed me on his first run by, and when he came by the second time, he completely ignored me when I was holding out my DVD, and said please Mr Firth. I know he saw me because he looked right at me. I don't know maybe he thought I was too eager or something, and thought you get nothing. What a jerk. So needless to say I am not a fan anymore. I might give him a chance to redeem himself in the future, but right now I am still bitter. Here's a pic:

 

Back to the positive, it was a really pleasant surprise to see True Blood's Stephen Moyer (he plays Bill) he didn't come near my part of the line.Here's my blurry pic of him:

Reese was prefectly polite, she almost crossed the back across the street, but stayed when fans called to her. She didn't sign the blank paper the lady next to me was holding out. I almost got a poised pic with her but Verena couldn't get the camera to work. I did however get Pleasantville signed so it was worth the money. So that was TIFF for this year, I will leave you with a pic of Reese and my autograph:

 

How I beat type 2 diabetes

I got some great medical news on Wednesday. For those who didn't get to flow the Myspace blog, I will give you a bit of backstory. On December 26 2011 (Boxing Day) I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I had gone to the ER because of a spot in my vision, and bloodwork showed I was "badly" diabetic, I still question can you by "goodly" diabetic? They wanted to admit me but I refused, I left the hospital with a couple of perscriptions and being told that I would get a phone call from some form of medical group, as I didn't have a family doctor that the time (A call never came) The diagnosis was really overwhelming at first, I cried my first trip to the grocery store not knowing what I could have or not have.

 I ended up finding a diabetes management clinic online, and timing worked out well, because even though they were closed a nurse Wendy who just happened to have to stopped in to pick something was there, and saw me right away. She set me up with a glucose metre to test my sugars, and showed me how to use it, Wendy fixed up me with an endocrine doctor  Dr Z. to oversee me. I got a basic idea of what to do food wise, and a follow up appointment with a nutritionist Nicole the following week. Wendy also supplemented my dose of metformin with glicazide (also known as diamicron).

For a person with well controlled diabetes your A1C sugar results should be between a 7-7.5%, mine was13.5%. A1C is a 3 month average of your blood sugars. To give you an idea when I was in the hospital my sugars were a 25, before eating you should be between a 4-7 and a 5-10 after eating. I was way off the charts. I hate taking pills, so right from the start I was determined to get off the meds. That was my goal, I very much had a can do attitude, I can and will reverse this. By mid March 2012  things were well enough for my to stop the glicazide, then in May, under supervision I reduced the dose of Metformin. By the end of May 2012 I had stopped the meds all together.
 

This was accomplished by radically changing the way I ate. I began to count carbohydrates, limited by number to 8 a day, and making sure to balance it out with protein, and making sure to eat my veggies as well.  The way it was explained to me, my dinner plate should be a 1/4 each of protein and a starch and 1/2 veggies. I made changes like eating half a banana instead of a full one because of the sugar content, switched to rye bread because there is no added sugar, switching to cheeses with less that 20% milk fat. Diet was huge, I needed to feel normal, so I went through the McDonald's drive thru ordering thing based on their nutritional info for people with Diabetes. Eating out for the first time was overwhelming, so I planned with Nicole, where I should go and what I should eat when I was heading to Toronto to see the show American Idiot. Here is a diabetic friendly version of fish and chips I made one night. I like to call it pink fish and chips, it is made with unbreaded salmon and sweet potato fries.
 

For a while it was a journey of discovery because I would find new sugar free or no sugar added items like Jelly Bellys, Twizzlers, ice cream or Reeses mini cups or even salt water taffy. Going through the holidays was a little tough like valentine's, I got through by making a diabetic friendly dark chocolate raspberry soufflee. (It was a definite change for me because I am the type of baker that likes making things like lemon meringue pie completely from scratch.) My mom was supportive though, she bought my no sugar added treats for Easter. For my first Hallowe'en I brought some no sugar added treats to work, because I knew there would be lots of candy. I got through it, here's a pic of some no sugar added treats and the soufflee.



 Alcohol was a whole other kettle of fish. I have never been a big drinker, but I am one of those girly drinkers who likes coolers and drinks where you can't taste the booze. Alcohol is basically liquid sugar and or carbs, so some modifications on what I could drink was in order. My metabolism changed as I result I can get buzzed off half a pint of cider, cheap but not always fun. It was interesting trying to sort out what wines I could have. I was so happy when I found out that Woody's makes a light cooler, that is low carb and made with sucralose! 

I also had to be more active, so it got to the point where I was using my Wii Fit 4 to 5 times a week for half an hour.  Within 6 months I lost 30 pounds (10 of which I have gained back sadly) all of this contributed to getting the diabetes under control. It is still a struggle trying to remain as physically active as I should be.

The fall showed that my A1C was in the pre-diabetic range, and when I saw my doctor in January 2013 she changed my diagnosis to pre-diabetic.I admittedly haven't been as strict as I should have been these past six months, far too much tasty but bad for me fast food, and the occasional sugary treat. On Wednesday, I was very anxious to see how the latest results would come back. I was really happy to have the doctor tell me I am not longer even pre-diabetic, and that my diabetes is in remission and that my A1C was 5.9%. 

This doesn't mean I can revert to my bad habits, or start having sugary sodas frequently again It is quite possible for it to come right back, especially if I gain weight. I am one of the lucky ones, because not everyone's body will allow them to even get off the medication, let alone reverse it. I worked hard to get to this point and I am going to keep it going.  As conceited as this might sound, I hope I can be an inspiration  to those living with this disease, you can control diabetes, it doesn't have to control you!

It wasn't always a picnic there were times when I did feel sorry for myself. I am very grateful I was diagnosed when I was, because had it gone undiagnosed my story would be quite a different one. I could have had kidney problems or lost a limb. I am also really thankful to my friends, family and boyfriend who encouraged and supported me through my journey, this sounds cliched but I couldn't have done it with out them!

What I did on my summer vacation.

I took the first week of July off because I wanted a chance to enjoy the nice weather especially because I work strictly evenings. It was mostly a stay-cation, but I spent more money than I wanted to even though I did as many free things as I could. (Because I totally needed that $22 Little Mermaid t-shirt with original poster art, really)

I tend to win stuff off the radio, movie passes, lunches etc. My boyfriend N. and I don't get days off together because of our work schedules, so that was a nice treat. We took advantage of it, and went up to Pentaguishine to check out "world famous Dock lunch". It was okay, (Webers north of Orillia is way better) The free gravy was pretty sweet though. We also checked out this beautiful Jesuit church, and snuck up into the choir loft to check out the pipe organ. I also manged to find a used copy of Book Five in the Mortal Instrument series.  (again spending $$) After Penetang we went to Midland and watched The Lone Ranger, just for a change of pace going to a different theatre. (I enjoyed it, the 2 and 1 /2 hours totally flew by) The we made our way to Orillia for Arby's and Target. I got a shirt for $1 from Northern Reflections because the one location was closing down. What can I say, I love bargains? Here's a pic of my famous lunch and the church.

  The next day, we took my neighbours Matt and Marilyn to a movie, because I won free movie passes with drinks and popcorn. We saw This is the End, it was funny, but not something I would see again. It was cool seeing Emma Watson, especially having seen in her in person at the Toronto International Film Festival last year (Siobhan won tickets to the premiere of Perks of Being a Wallflower, and we were front row for the cast q&a) Anyway prior to going to the movie we used a voucher for  a wing place and had a good appy sampler, so we didn't pay for dinner either. I had also got a free drink voucher from this bakery/cafe and N. had a pastry coupon for signing up for their loyalty programme so that was another free excursion.

I spent a fair bit of time at the beach too, soaking up the sun reading the Mortal Instrument books. I wore my first bikini in about 17 years or so. For those new to my blog, this is signficant because in the last 4 1/2 years I have lost 65-70 pounds. I also have a lot of body image issues because of the weight loss and struggle with disordered eating,

Of course there was some theatre involved. I went to the Toronto Fringe Festival and saw the show The Musical of the Musicals (The Musical) with my friend Siobahn. It was a really campy spoofy production. It had 5 different vignettes playing of the works of Roger's and Hammerstein, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Sondheim etc. Each of the vignettes had the same basic plot a young ingenue can't pay her rent. I learned that the same team wrote Chicago, Cabaret and Kiss of the Spiderwoman. I really like Chicago, and do a mean cover of All that jazz, but I lost all cred last time I performed it by falling off the stage and twisting my ankle at a work Christmas party but I digress) You would have had to seen alot of the shows to get most of the jokes.

Before the show, I had gotten a little lost and found my way in the wrong end of the city, because the map said Clafouti -(this cafe I was looking for - was at Queen St east not west. Fortunately everthing worked out, and I made it to the cafe and to the show on time. I wanted to hit the cafe Clatoufi to try something called a "crookie". It basically a croissant with Oreo cookies baked inside, boy is it good!  I blame my friend Judy, because I never would have consumed the 500 calories, if she hadn't turned on the news when it was being featured. I would have never known about it. Something I had to try though, a once in a lifetime thing, just like the lobster poutine I had that day. Here's a pic of the crookie and poutine

Getting back to my bargoons I was quite excited to find the Kobo cover I have been lusting after ever since I got one for Christmas was on sale for $10! It is regularly priced $48, but I saw on the Indigo website that is was on sale, but the cover I wanted was sold out. I called my local store and double checked that it wasn't just an online thing, and it wasn't so they held one for me.I raced over in my beachwear to get it as it was near closing time. I am a huge Jane Austen fan , and have read all her work  (I still get emails from the Jane Austen Society of North America from when I was living in London, Ontario) I digress I really wanted the Pride and Prejudice kobo cover even though they are trying to pass it off as the first edition cover art. (It's not because any Jane-ite knows that P&P wasn't initially published under her name, but by "a lady". It wasn't until after her death that her identity was revealed. Anyway here's a pic:

                                                                                           
I ended my vacation at my Aunt Michelle's farm having a birthday barbeque for my grandmother Joan. One of the highlights was getting to hold a baby chick which I haven't done since I was a baby. Here's a pic of my Grandma Betty, Grandpa Dan and I with a chick when I was a baby and here's one of me from the farm.

All in all it was a relaxing vacay, mother nature co operated for the most part, because I was expecting a lot more rain.