A plethora of updates

Ok, I'm tired, but I promised more updates.

Christmas - If anyone remembers my post from last year I was wondering about the conspiracy of my family to give me alcohol or alcohol related gifts. This year I got 4 bottles of wine, 2 wine glasses, a wine carrier for two bottles of wine, and a set of 8 retro Tom Collins glasses complete with the recipe for Tom Collins printed on the front along with a serving tray for it. Yes they truly must think I'm a lush. :-D I also got some money, some gift cards, a lovely set of stoneware bowls and some nice new dress shirts. All and all a good Christmas.

The Condo - So about two weeks ago I signed all the paperwork for the Purchase and Sales agreement and with the help of my father put down the deposit on the unit. I'm officially in the process of buying my condo now. WOOOHOOO!! I also drove by on Tuesday and they had started construction which is also cool.

Tea at 5 - Patrick and I went out and saw the one woman show about Katharine Hepburn performed by Katherine Mulgrew (Star Trek Voyager's Katherine Janeway). It was, in a word, spectacular. It was a great show and Kate Mulgrew's performance really showed that she's more than just a Trek actress.

Phantom of the Opera - That which I have been waiting years and years to occur has finally happened. The movie version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera is theaters. To this I'm of mixed emotions. On the one hand I love the show and can't wait to see it. On the other the critics are SLAMMING it. To counter that, when have the critics been right about movies? Moreso, when are they even understanding about musical movies? The only real trepedation I have on that is that I have bought the soundtrack for it and I really do NOT like Gerard Butler as Phantom. What WAS Webber thinking. *sigh* I guess nothing can be perfect.

Apartment water damage - The latest is that my landlord is getting ANOTHER contracter to come in and size up the place. Whatever. I just want it FIXED! I've managed to salvage my New Years party by converting my bedroom into the party area. I'm moving the tables upstairs and the couch and moving my bed downstairs. The show must go on!!

Oh what a headache - I woke up with a bit of a headache this morning. That's what happens when you have several rum and cokes and you polish off one and a half bottles of shiraz with a few friends. Tom and Judd were over last night and we had a fun time which got drunker and drunker. Ahhh such fun.

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Transition Complete

Okay I've fully completed moving my entire blog over to blogger.com from the old site. My friend Kyle, who's been so graciously hosting this system, has gotten laid off, and with that has lost his space to put the server. He's going to give me a redirect so that you can still go to http://mist.thepond.com. You can also go directly to http://criostal.blogspot.com/.

That's all for now. I'll update more later. I'll post about the Christmas, the condo, Tea at 5, and Phantom of the Opera.

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Don't Rain on my parade!

Ok so I got back from Direct Tire last tuesday at about 7 and was all set to get ready and go skiing. I walked into my apartment and the first thing I noticed was an acrid smell, then I noticed it sounded like it was raining inside my apartment. I turned on the light and then immediately turned it off again as I saw that water was streaming down the light fixture. I went around the dripping water and got my flashlight and found that water was leaking from the upstairs apartment into my bedroom. The next thing I did was go to check the rest of the house.

The hallway was also drenched. I then went downstairs and found that water was raining ALL OVER MY COUCHES. *sniff*

About an hour later my landlord and a plumber was at the apartment fixing things. They stopped the water running and repaired the pipe but apparently there was still another leak so the plumber came back the next day.

I stayed at Judd and Tom's apartment for the evening that night and the night after.

The next morning I called into work since I had to deal with ServiceMaster coming in to clean the place as well as the plumber finishing up the work. ServiceMaster took down a great deal of the tiles in the ceiling as well as the insulation. They also cut up most of the rug.

The plumber spent most of that day and the next fixing the pipes and pushing anti-freeze through the heating system.

The next day I had the adjusters over. Tuesday ServiceMaster came by to pick up the drying fans and the de-humidifiers they had left running since Wednesay to dry out the place.

I've had the contracter over and the adjuster is finished. Hopefully this will all be fixed within a few weeks. *sigh* so much for a perfect party. Oh well, the show must go on!

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Gotta Love Stupid People

So I'm waiting at Natick mall to get my tires fixed on my car and I sit down to rest a bit at the food court. Just for the hell of it I check out the wireless and low and behold there's an AP available that's named "default" with no password at all. I'm currently surfing the web with it right now. When will people learn that they need to secure their APs.

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Let it SNOW!!!

Ahhh the beauty of winter snowfall. The flakes glide slowly upon the ground and build and build until it begins to accumulate. It continues to do this until everything is covered by the white powder. The wind blows it around creating drifts that are crisp, clean and unspoiled by any disturbance of any kind. The beauty is just breathtaking.

That is until the mountain grooming cat's come slicing across it to create perfect groomed corduroy. Now that is true beauty!

Ski season, here I come!

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Bittersweet Irony

This was in the Boston Globe today.

The artcile is: Churches Oppose Bill on Disclosure
The URL is here

The line which is priceless is:

''Many churches have deep historical memories of an experience of undue influence by the state in the affairs of the church, and thus many churches are wary of giving the state unnecessarily intrusive powers over their internal workings," said the Rev. Diane C. Kessler, executive director of the [Massachusetts Council of Churches].

Ahh, irony.

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Bid Night

Well Bid night went well this year. Its still continuing at the moment I assume but I've heard of no problems thus far and things seemed to be very calm. We got 22 great guys so we'll have a good and manageable size class this year.

At this point posutlancy begins and the molding of the boys into men of Alpha Cho Rho begins. They will learn the landmarks (ideals or precepts) of the fraternity as well as its history. I wish the house and all the new postulants the best of luck through the next phase of their journey.

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Which came first? Drama or drama?

So was the term drama created as a comparitve term to describe situations that are as crazy, hectic and problematic as can be in drama productions or was it the other way around....

Whatever... either way they both exist in this situation.

Ok, so at the same time I auditioned for Death of a Salesman I had also auditioned and got accepted for the ensemble role of Tyler in Merrily We Roll Along over at Holy Cross. It's been going on for the past few months here and there, not too hard of a rehearsal schedule, then along comes last monday. That's when the shit hit the fan.

First thing was that the producer abruptly resigned, which is a nice way of saying she bailed and couldn't be bothered with the show any more. Cited in the resignation were comments about increased workload and the fact that there were more problems in the show than were known when she signed up. I can understand that but you work with the directors and other administrative people to replace you BEFORE you resign.

Her resignation was followed rather quickly with the resignations of the Marketing and Fundraising directors. They cited their own concerns and used the producer's resignation as the final nail in the coffin.

Following this the rehearsal pianist resigned citing his own concerns on the viability of the show based on the recent mass exodus. This was then followed by two ensemble actors resigning over the next few days.

Thankfully it seems that, as it should, the show will go on. We've replaced parts that needed replacing, cut out of the script entirely areas that weren't needed with the reduced ensemble, and have replaced the producer. Fundraising efforts have been restrategized and are moving forward to cover all the costs of the production. The initial concept of the stage design has been revealed to the company and it looks good. The remaining company is pumped about the production and looks to be fairly gung-ho about it all.

Life wouldn't be interesting without drama, right? Right....?

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Happy Thanksgiving

Well I had a great time visiting the families. Got to see my little cousins, Abigail and Aiden. Both are absoultely adorable. I think Abby is two and Aiden is almost a year now. Aiden is getting so big so fast. I got to hold him for a little while and then put him down for a nap.

After visiting Grammy and all of mom's side of the family I stopped at Dad's. I ended up having a small arguement with my brother because he was pushing my buttons about a bit of weight I've gained. He does this EVERY time we get together. Every time I think he's grown up a bit and matured he once again proves why I can't stand him.

After that I made my way into Boston to have dinner with Nick, his sister Joselyn, Gabe, Jen, Steve and his mother, and Keith. Dinner was wonderful and Nick made a wonderful Turkey. Richard and Patrick showed up a bit after we finished eating from visiting their respective families.

It was good to see Patrick again. We got a chance to catch up, dish some dirt, relate issues and generally do some of the active things best friends do, as opposed to the AIM conversations every few days when we are both on at the same time.

Later that evening Patrick, Richard and I went out to Campus at Man Ray in Cambridge. It was a blast and the guys were hot that night, especially one of the gogo boys. DAMN! *sigh* I really do need a man right now.

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What a show!

Well the last of the people at my post-performance party just left. Amazing, two nights in a row the party has gone past 6:00 AM.

It has been an incredible time all around and it was an incredible party with everyone here both last night and tonight. I can't wait for New Voices 23!!

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