No longer nasally challenged.

Okay, I’m back. The nasal crisis has passed… I left work early yesterday, got home and climbed into bed for an hour and a half. I can’t say that I felt better last night, but today I feel somewhat back on track.

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Last weekend was a busy one, with the three final performances of A Totally 80’s Wizard of Oz. In all, it was a very fun and very well-received show. The kids loved it… although on Sunday - when I took a totally-staged spill in my first scene - I scared the dickens out of a toddler in the front row. I later saw him out in the lobby and convinced him that I was all right and not the anti-christ. Before long he was smiling and giving me a high-five… I’m glad; the last thing I want to do is scar the lil’ tyke with a bit of physical humor.

What’s next for me, theatre-wise? A break. Then off to the ComedySportz national tournament in Portland, OR at the end of July.

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Also on the weekend agenda were dinner with Doug and Bill at Chili's on Saturday night, and the Oz cast party on Sunday afternoon/evening. Both were fun... it was really great to just kick back and enjoy dinner with Doug.

For those of you who don't know him, Doug is a long-time friend of mine... we actually dated a long, long time ago (1987 to be exact), but maintained a friendship after officially breaking up way back when. He's been one of my best friends since and has saved my life so many times I can't even count.

One of the best parts of our friendship is, quite honestly, just growing older with someone who knows all the personal references from many of the past eras of my life. He's been around for so long that we can practically talk in code sometimes. It makes me think of a line from the film Broadcast News, where Albert Brooks says to his best friend, Holly Hunter, on the phone: "Okay, I'll meet you at the place by the thing where we went that time." She responds: "Okay," and hangs up.

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I’ve got some vacation time coming up next week (working Tuesday and Wednesday only) and I’m really looking forward to the downtime. Bill and I are headed to the Nest for the week, and my parents will be joining us on July 3.

July 4 will be their 50th wedding anniversary, and Bill and I will be celebrating one “official” year under our civil union on the same day. Sadly, Bill’s mom also passed away on July 4, 2004... so we have a plenty of reasons to lift a glass to commemorate and celebrate.

We’ve decided that we’re treating my parents to dinner at a place called Torte Knox in Hawley, PA. We were recommended to this place by the owners of the River Gallery in Narrowsburg, NY… apparently the owner, Sheilah, is this wildly talented, abundantly energetic and pretty much eccentric woman who sets out to create an experience, not just dinner. We have to pick our menu choices and pay in advance, and Sheilah doesn’t allow for any last minute changes. Sounds like she wants everything to be five-star perfect. I can’t wait.

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Tina and I will be doing a new podcast on Thursday. Thanks for the time extension, T. I wanna be 100% for when we record.


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STILL trying to get the bathroom addition off the ground. Last week, another contractor came in with another exorbitantly high quote, this one almost $60,000. That’s even higher than the previous ridiculously high quote. The crazy part about this guy is that he’s actually following up with me, as if the quote isn’t embarrassingly off-base. Makes me wonder if he confused our job with someone else’s.

To give you an idea of how bloated this quote is: he’s itemized and he’s broken-out the cost of purchasing and installing the windows and doors for the job. There are two, small Andersen windows, and two, inexpensive hollow-core interior doors on the plan. His price for this: $6000.

Yeh, right. I feel like calling him and saying, "dude, the birthday was last week, not yesterday."

Note that we had ALL the existing interior doors in the house replaced previously for about $1000. The guy must be stoned. Or worse, he thinks I’m a flippin’ moron. Still, he thinks we should have a sit-down to discuss the job. Yeh, I’ll sit down and discuss if he brings a scalpel and is prepared to use it on his quote… he’s about 140% over our budget.

We’ve got a new contractor stopping by tomorrow night to give us a quote. I also met two friends of the producer of Oz last Friday night… both are connected in the business and may be able to help. Again, fingers are crossed.