Latest and greatest . . .

Things have gotten a little better since I last posted. The pool is still not fixed but parts are ordered. Geoff got his latest info on the pay period transition with the merger and we will get an extra check this month. Happy day with that! And one of my dearest friends is coming into town from Reno with her work on Monday. She will have Monday afternoon and evening for us and then Tuesday she is in a workshop and flies out immediately after. BUT . . . I get to have almost 24 hours with her! I will pick her up at the airport and then we'll take my Maddi to school and then who knows what. She wants to do lunch somewhere that she can enjoy our "heat". She grew up here but has been gone for almost 11 years. Right now the weather in Reno is cold and they actually had snow flurries last week! I'm trying to think of someplace fun that is outside but nothing yet. Any suggestions?
Had our read-thru for Little Mermaid today. The cast is VERY talented and I'm really excited about them. I am actually nervous about MDing this one - simply because there is no written music for it. Only a cast recording to learn from and then the tracks that are (much to my dismay) "sweetened". For those non-theatre people, sweetened means there are voices on the track to 'help' the cast sound bigger. I HATE THAT!! If the cast can't sing it - then they shouldn't be cast but there are no other choices. The show itself is really kinda cute. The writer went on to be extremely famous. . . he wrote JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH and the new box-office money maker, CHARLOTTE'S WEB, among others. So I'm excited about having the chance to work on this - especially at Hale.
Speaking of Hale, another thing to smile about is that Dave and Corrin have really opened up to me this week. Dave is not one of the easiest people to get to know and EXTREMELY hard to read!! Tuesday night at auditions he was very cordial and sweet and asked my opinions in places that normally he wouldn't. Cambrian says that I have 'made it into the Hale family crew' and that he KNOWS that Dave and Corrin really respect me and my talent. :) Makes me smile!!! I've worked so hard to get here and this point in my life and career. It's not been a smooth road and there have been many potholes. It has paid off!!