You must, MUST go here and listen to Mika's new CD. And if it's not there anymore, go to his website. He is very talented (and so reminiscent of Freddie Mercury sometimes!), and this CD is just fantastic. Part Smashing Pumpkins, part Beatles, part Queen, maybe a little Tori Amos... I mean, Perez Hilton's been talking about him for months, but this guy is the real deal. Seriously. (Oh, and he's cute, too.)

I'm feeling better, but I'm not perfect. It's probably just allergies... I've also started taking a new multivitamin with a lot more iron than I'm used to--if I don't take it with food I feel nasty for a while.

My father's staying with us tonight--he has a checkup with his oncologist early tomorrow morning. He goes several times a year, and I know there's really nothing to worry about, but hearing about Elizabeth Edwards and Tony Snow this week makes me nervous. But that is the point of these checkups, after all--and his doctor is one of only five or six specialists in the country for his type of cancer. Just something to make myself crazy over, I suppose.

I finished the blanket! Pictures soon.

Good news: I was offered the part I wanted, Flora in La traviata. See, I said it was a small part!

Bad news: None of my good friends who auditioned were cast in the mainstage shows, even though at least two of them were perfect for the parts...

Good news: The weather has been beautiful, even too warm.

Bad news: It may be time for my annual spring cold. My throat is sore and I have a crippling headache--I've been getting headaches almost daily for a while now, but this one is just awful. I took tomorrow off of work so I can get lots of sleep, eat my weight in tangerines and end this thing pronto. (It might be allergies...but if it is it means I'm going to have to live like this for a while. I really hope it isn't.)

Good news: I'm nearly done with the blanket for Sandra's baby Naomi, due May 12. It's really beautiful, and while the lavender color wouldn't necessarily be a first choice for an aran-style knit, it seems to work well.

Bad news: Augh, it has been painfully slow. I've never knitted a blanket before, and this will probably be my last. Crochet is perfect for blankets--it works up quickly (especially if you're making afghans from panels), and blankets can have lacey holes in them (unlike most things I like to knit, besides scarves). This has been the biggest pain in the ass. And the blanket is pretty heavy, and the entire weight of it is usually borne by my left wrist while I'm working on it.

Good news: We've been watching Barney Miller: Season One from NetFlix.

Bad news: Only the first season was ever released on DVD. No more episodes! :(

The ocean is a desert with its life underground
And a perfect disguise above
Under the cities lies a heart made of ground
But the humans will give no love

Ah, pothead philosophers. Dude, that's like, so meaningful and shit. And quit bogarting the bowl!

(That's from "Horse with No Name", by the way. And it's supposedly about heroin, but as I have no experience with heroin I find it easier to relate the lyrics to being stoned.)

I think spring has finally arrived for good here--nothing but highs in the 70s and low 80s for the next week. I have to enjoy this while it lasts--before we know it it'll be in the 90s for two straight months...

The audition went fine last Sunday--at least I sang well. That nagging feeling that the accompanist was going to drag was right on. Dramatically it felt static, because the timing was off. This was a pretty low-risk audition. I'm considering using that aria as my regular starter--which means that maybe I ought to start bringing around my own pianist. (Though I think the typical New York audition accompanists would fare better than this one, who was completely sightreading.) More to think about...

Just got an email today--I made the next round of Jeopardy! auditions!! I did okay on the online test a few months ago, but I didn't think I would qualify because I blanked on Sheryl Crow's name. (Seriously, it was weird.) The audition (which I think includes a written test and a mock game) is on a Saturday in May in DC. At least I know what I need to study: British history (especially royal succession, blech), geography (sub-Saharan Africa in particular), names of crappy modern novels that I will never read (eg. Sue Grafton), names of poets... oh, and the Bill of Rights. I always confuse Four through Seven. Gaah, it's like being in school, except that maybe I'll get to be on TV. Oh, and maybe pay off my student loans. (Though that'd take three shows, after taxes...) But I think it'll be fun, even if nothing comes of it.

Speaking of auditions, I feel pretty good about the audition on Sunday. I'm not particularly fond of the accompanist--and my starter aria has a bunch of tempo changes, so hopefully he will follow me very carefully. If not, I'm punching through anyway. I need to get better at leading anyway--it's just a matter of being very determined and not oversinging (my old bad habit when I'm trying to lead the tempo, which has gotten me into trouble). I think it'll be okay, really.

Tomorrow I'm taking a mental day off work (since I didn't really get Saturday off, and Sunday was spent recuperating from Saturday)--I'm having lunch with a very pregnant Sandra (who just passed her dissertation defense!!), then getting my hair cut (much needed). I'm having the "bang area" (for lack of a better term) cut shorter than usual. At this point it's several inches past my chin, and everything is just way too droopy. I wish I could find a decent picture of what I want, though...

OMG the cutest purse ever!



And the pattern is here. It's almost a little-old-lady purse...but I don't think it would give that impression in my hand. It is felted, and I've actually never felted anything before--I usually stick with acrylic and cotton or rayon because of the allergies. But as soon as I finish the blanket for baby Naomi I will felt a little something for myself. I've also found the perfect pattern for Cathy's birthday--but it's felted, hence the need to try out felting. My sister-in-law gave me the most beautiful wool for Christmas 2005, and it is sitting there waiting to be used--so I'll make myself a little purse first, maybe. Then Cathy's awesome (seriously, AWESOME) item, then I completely disassemble my ginormous green sweater and make a new one, THEN I will attempt the cutie-pie birdhouse purse. The funny thing is, I'm not even really into purses (though I do love my faux Prada, mainly because it's red)--but this thing is just so adorable, I want to eat it. (But I'm still trying to figure out how it exactly works...the pattern seems vague on that.)

So I am turning in my Project Linus squares today--all twenty-eight of them! And no two are exactly alike. But many of them contain bubble-gum pink yarn (from an ill-fated sweater that--surprise--was way too big!). I guess they might go to a baby or a little girl, then...

On the homefront: crazy shit is going down in town here--some of it confidential, so I can't even say more. All I know is that Mark has seriously committed himself to finding a new job, even while he's getting very busy at his current job. Oh well, I guess I'll see him in bed, at least.

It tastes like candy...

Rest in peace, Brad Delp. I raise my lighter and beer can (MGD, perhaps?) in the general direction of Boston... Seriously, where would I be without hearing "Smokin'" on the radio every other day? That much grumpier, I tell you.

I had my first Lupron shot today. They didn't tell me it'd be in the butt! It didn't hurt or anything, at least. Well, here's to temporary menopause! (Two toasts in one post! A disturbing trend...)

Mark has referred to his editor as a "soulless editing machine"...and I am even more inclined to believe him after this past weekend. I had early lunch plans on Saturday, and we were having friends over for dinner at six. At ten-thirty in the morning Mark gets a call from his android editor, telling him they need a piece for Sunday. Why they didn't figure this out FRIDAY I have no idea. So I was livid. Now I had to run to Costco and the regular grocery store (on Saturday afternoon!!), clean the very dirty living room and kitchen, and make dinner, all in six hours. Mark worked his tail off and finished around four-thirty, but that was after I finished all the mopping and vacuuming and kamikaze shopping. The dinner went just fine, and Mark will have a comp day this week, but This. Is. IT! Mark has tried everything to play nice with this guy--e.g. befriend him--but nothing works. I am tired of the way this man treats Mark. It's just not right. (And don't get me wrong, this isn't the first time Mark's had to work on a weekend, or on short notice, but this guy is just inhuman and tyrannical.) As soon as he gets a decent offer he is outta there. And he's made contact with someone who seemingly knows everybody in the business in DC, whom he really believes can get something in the works for him. I really hope so!

And Oh My God, this almost made me pee my pants.

Rough night yesterday--though for me personally that means entering receipts into a spreadsheet (yay tax time). Mark got chewed out by his editor because he got scooped on something--by a bigger paper that has six reporters covering the same beat he covers all by himself. So I insisted we go to bed early. This morning when my alarm went off Mark was already working--and on the phone. I didn't even get a chance to talk to him! I guess he took my advice yesterday when I said to "get back on the stick". (Where do I pick up these weird idiomatic phrases, anyway? I'm also the only person I've ever known who refers to being "thrown under the bus". Very strange.) And I tried to call him a few minutes ago, and he was too busy to talk... I wish he wouldn't beat himself up over this. He's been scooped like, twice in his entire career. But he feels like it's his fault--that he's not working hard enough because he's tired of his job. And that may be the case, but I hate to see him take this so personally... We really need to get him another job, and on the double!

Had the craziest dream the other night about spam emails, believe it or not. All of these messages would come up if you tried to delete them--and they carried a virus that spread to humans and made everyone act really immature and irresponsible. Then there were these ghost/zombie types, and Buffy came... Okay, it was weird.

Everybody's getting new jobs these days: Mark's best friend from college is moving to Des Moines (and he's lived his entire life in Cleveland!), and one of Mark's colleagues here is moving to the Dark Side (i.e. a party job). Even my sister-in-law, who's been dividing her time between rural Texas and Salt Lake City, has jobs ending so she'll actually be home (outside Denver) for more than two days at a time. New jobs are in the air! Maybe this means Mark will get one really soon. (Though he's not going to take the open Baghdad bureau job for USA Today. Over my dead body.)

Sunday I got an audition announcement from my friendly local opera company--auditions in two weeks! Well, they're only doing one show that has a part for me, and I'm not sure if they'll want to use only local people (since I'd be long gone by the time of this production)--but it would be a very nice role to have on my resume. Not a big role, but it's Verdi and would fit me just perfectly, I think. Fingers crossed!

I believe I have seventeen Project Linus squares done so far. Only another week--I'd like to send about 24, if I get to it.

Finally recovering from all that driving... I've cooked like, two whole meals in the past week (including yummy wild salmon from Trader Joe's), laundry is being done as we speak, and--what's this? I am actually sitting out on my freshly swept porch for the first time all year. In flip flops! Yes, I believe nanny-nanny-boo-boos are in order.

Anyway, the show went really well. I haven't been able to find a review yet, which ia annoying. Now I'm back to learning new rep, and figuring out my next step. Mark didn't get the job he was interested in here in town, so the quest to move to DC is back on. And not too soon--he gets a lot of grief from his higher-ups, mostly because none of them know him at all, and he's becoming more and more frustrated. And to be honest, I'm getting pretty bored at my day job, too. I am really tired of going through the same shit all the time--trying to track down reviews from people I know are not going to do them...Anyway, Mark's going into high gear. I just don't want him to dislike his job anymore.

The doctor is putting me on a medicine (monthly shots) which will basically put me into temporary menopause, shrinking the stray endometrial cells. I'll also be taking a hormonal pill to help alleviate the menopausal symptoms. After six months, we see how things feel. She was really averse to doing surgery, since even if I had a laparoscopy they may not see anything. Plus I'm pretty sure I have some of it on my large intestine (explains a lot!), and they wouldn't be able to remove it. And believe it or not, my doctor was aware of the dangers of intubating singers. Kind of a relief... So I'm waiting to hear back from the office, to see when the stuff is supposed to be coming in. Hopefully I can get started within the next two weeks. I'm not sure how a move (and change of insurance) will affect this process, but I'm trying not to think about this...

I decided to make a whole mess of squares for Project Linus this year for Lent. I have eleven squares so far (though I may redo one of them). I'll post pictures when I get a chance.