Our Furry Children

This is our entry into the Papillion Picnic Club calendar. They spelled Fiyero wrong on this initial picture but they fixed it when they put it into the actual calendar. They made page one -- January -- as well they should have.

Paula and I just came back from a trip to Palm Springs where we stayed at a timeshare with some friends. We took the cable tram up to the top of the mountain. I'd never done it before and the others that had, had never done it since they changed the cars out for the new rotating cars. The trip alone was worth the price of admission, but once you are up there, there are lots of great, easy walking trails to take, amazing vista points, a restaurant that smelled of heaven, and a bar that served a verry jazzy bloody mary. If you ever do end up doing Palm Springs, that tram is a must do.

We also did the Palm Springs Follies, and what to our wandering eyes did appear but a friend of ours at the far stage left of the chorus line. Surprise surprise. The show was very fun, very long -- over three hours -- and a bit kitchy but all in all a very good time. There was nothing you could fault with the production values of that show. The costumes, sets, lights, sound all were top notch, as good as anything you'd see on Broadway or in Vegas. And the talent certainly consisted of the most seasoned veterans you'll ever see assembled on a single stage. Guest star was Kay Ballard, you remember from the old sitcom Mothers in Law among others. She's as big as a house and older than dirt but she sang really well and told a good joke. They had a pretty darn good impersonator too. He did a couple of impersonations of people I'd never heard of or seen but even they were funny.

We struck out hard in the dinner department. We tried two different restaurants and both were failures. The breakfasts were winners (Elmer's and Mimi's, the former is a Palm Springs institution and the latter is a chain but always very good). Next time I go to Palm Springs I'm definitely getting some recomendations from some locals. I do know a few of them that I could have called but didn't.
Looks like we are spending most of January at the cabin. I'm doing to try telecomuting and coming down the mountain only for VERY urgent biz that requires my presence. I'm also going to try using an IP phone through my computer so I'll still seem local to my coworkers. We'll see how THAT turns out. But I'll be in the crisp clean stress free mountains and I'll have lots of time to do lots of projects on the cabin. That will almost be like a vacation!

But first I've got to survive High School Musical and Jesus Christ Superstar, both are selling extremely well, thank goodness. We are also cranking up for next season. We've got a new venue, The Balboa Theatre is finally coming back online next year and we are going to have some events in that space. It's a brand new renovation and the experience in that place is going to be without comparison. I'm really looking forward to it. Especially since I was that last person to direct a show in the space before it was renovated. That was the show Closer Than Ever back in 1997ish and was a gala for the Balboa Theatre Foundation.

So they are keeping me hopping like usual and I'm loving it as much as ever, or at least I keep convincing myself that I am. And that's all that I really need right now.