Is it too early to decorate? NAAAH!

I know it's not even December yet but I watched Charlie Brown's Christmas the other day and I watched Home Alone tonight so I'm pretty much in the Christmas mood. So what did Susan and I do tonight? We decorated our house! We're probably 80% done. We'll do the rest tomorrow. Have a look!

We bought some Mickey shaped Christmas balls from Walt Disney World in August and we couldn't wait to break them out!
Susan made these angels 8 or 9 years ago. Aren't they cute?
These two hedgehogs live on our mantle piece in the living room. I have no idea when we got these.



As you know, we LOVE cruising so a good friend of mine bought me this great ornament!
I made this Ziggy-angel when I was 9 years old! Actually I still have 4 other ornaments from that year hanging on the tree!
Our dining room chandelier all decked out!

Here is a shot of our mantle piece. We made the wreath many years ago. We finished off the mantle with some ribbon draped down from the wreath. Oh, and you can see our SuperStore stockings with our initials!

We took some martini glasses, filled them with decorative sand and put some tea lights in them. We also put some more of those Christmas balls around them.

And finally...OUR CHRISTMAS TREE!!

10 Fiddler moments I'll always remember...

10. Reece falling down during L'Chaim, not once but twice!!
9. Mordcha telling me he's going to dance, but not with his wife and that I should "loosen up"
8. Scott hitting me in the head with the goose feather pillow
7. Inappropriate audience laughter during touching scenes
6. Motel not finding Fyedka's shirt and having to look for it in the "warehouse" off stage
5. Yente smashing Motel's door to pieces
4. Someone in the audience yelling "WHAT THE??" when we pop up from behind Tevye's bed
3. Trying to get the wedding canopy straight!
2. Jack picking his nose on stage
1. Ross and Chad showering me with spit during the wedding - Grrrosss!

The rash and the plane

So it's day four of the beard rash. It's driving me crazy! BAAAH. I think it's getting better but it's tough to tell. Still red and itchy as ever.

But on a much more exciting note, the A380 is coming to YVR tomorrow morning!! It's coming all the way from Sydney, Australia. This is the world's largest aircraft and marks the first visit to YVR!! It's supposed to arrive at 730 am and depart at 430pm. We probably won't see another one here at YVR for a couple of years. Anyway, look up in the sky tomorrow and see if you can spot this double-decker behemoth!!

Fiddler has left the building

It's all done! We had our last show yesterday and it went well. Actually the entire run was very consistent. We took down the set in about an hour and then went to Jim and Pam's (the producers) house for a wrap up party. We ate pizza, sang songs and shaved the guys' beards!! We auctioned off each beard shaving and raised over $200 for charity!

The snow was awful though!!!

Oh what's even more awful? I have a horrible rash on my face from the chemical used to remove my beard!!! We tried a new thing the last couple of nights and boy, my skin did NOT like it! I'm all blotchy, itchy and red!!!! BOOOOOOOOOO!

We have another wrap up party next week at Tevye's place.

We have the DVD so we can show you it one day if you like!

Sniff...only 4 more shows to go

We're down to our last week of shows. How very sad it is! The show has been quite fun although physically and emotionally draining. On one hand, it will be great to get back to a "normal" life but on the other hand, I will miss the laughs and the intense comraderie. The guys are always joking around and it's a lot of fun when we just hang out in the dressing room waiting for our scenes. Those guys crack me up!

I'm so glad to have met so many great and talented people. I'll actually miss them when it's all done with. Well it won't be long before I'm on stage again - there are already a few things I want to do this year so we'll see what happens!

On another note, the BIG Irish-USC game is on this Saturday. I'm pretty excited about it but I won't be able to watch the game till I get back home late Saturday night. I'm not sure how I'm going to resist the urge to check the score though. WORST TIMING EVER! First I miss the Grey Cup, now the Irish-USC game. BAH!!!!!!!!!

Are you getting into the Christmas mood yet?

I love Christmas time. I just love it. And I can't think of a better place to spend the holidays than Walt Disney World.

Every year, Disney-MGM Studios sets up The Osborne Family Spectacle of "Dancing" Lights. This display was begun in Little Rock, Arkansas by Jennings Osborne for the joy of his little daughter back in 1986. The light display grew in size and was ordered shut down in 1994. By then the 1,000 light display had grown to 3 million and could be seen by air for 80 miles. A year later in 1995 Walt Disney World invited the Osborne Family to bring their light display to Residential Street in the Disney-MGM Studios and a new tradition was started.

Click here to see more photos of this amazing display. It'll get you into the Christmas mood!!

We needed some WD-40

So we had performance number 4 last night and well, after our 2 nights off, the rust showed. There were some screwy lines and we didn't start singing at the right time on one song and props weren't where they were supposed to be. Having said that, I don't think the audience noticed. It was a fun night nevertheless. Our good friend Marilyn came with her friend last night. They really enjoyed it.

Susan is coughing up a lung and is getting sicker by the day. I feel the oncoming tide of sickness as well. We're eating mandarin oranges like we have scurvy and trying to drink lots of water. Hopefully we'll get better soon.

Enjoy your Thursday!

Pictures from the summer that was...

Walt Disney World, Orlando! My favourite place in the entire world! Here is a photo re-cap of our vacation in August. I know it's November, but at least I posted them!

On our first night there Susan and I decided to walk around a bit and visit some of the resorts. Here we are sitting outside of Disney's Grand Flordian Resort looking at the Magic Kingdom across the lake. Ahhhh...memories...



Here is Susan and our friend Frances in front of the Hotel du Canada at the Canada pavillion at Epcot. The hotel is styled after the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa and is a fine example of forced perspective (the lower floors are larger than the upper floors - so what looks like a 7 story builiding is actually only 4 and half stories). Cool eh?













Susan in front of the Japan pavillion at Epcot! You can go around the world in just one day!















The magnificent Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom!! There are over 300 animals carved on the trunk of this enormous tree! Inside the tree is the hilarious 4-D adventure It's Tough to be a Bug starring Flick!

Sneak a peek

If you want to get a sneak peek of the show, click HERE. Our cast member Adam put together this 3 minute video!

Come see the show!!

The day after opening...

Well, I must say that opening night went quite well. We had a very warm audience who laughed at our jokes and were moved by our sorrow.

There was only one hitch - the cart broke down during the last scene!! We had to run out and move it off the stage which sounds easy enough, except for the fact that the thing weighs 300 lbs! It's fixed though so it should be fine for tonight's performance.

We had a reception after the show and we met and mingled until about midnight. The reviews from the crowd were positive. My good friends Kristin and Elijah came to the show, as well as Susan's parents. I think they all enjoyed themselves.

I bumped into a couple director friends of mine after the show and they said that the Chinese Jew came off pretty well, despite the thick, black, obviously fake beard and moustache. So that was a relief.

I couldn't sleep at all last night though - I was so eager to get back to the theatre and do it all over again!!

The second show is always tough to get through as the first show is always so full of energy but hopefully tonight will be as good if not better than last night.

L'chaim.

The Home Stretch!

Our director extordinaire, Lalainia, says we are on the home stretch! 13 shows beginning tonight! I'm sleepy and tired but I think tonight will be great because it's going to be a FULL HOUSE!! SRO - err, standing room only (I just learned that term last night).

It's been a great learning experience for me. Lots of very experienced and talented people in the cast and crew. I have loved watching them throughout this process. Everyone has come so far.

As for the debut of my fake beard last night - well it wasn't as bad as I thought. Nobody broke down laughing at me or anything. Well, Susan sorta did. And Heather called me a leprechaun. That's okay - I'm a Fighting Irish fan anyway. When our make-up lady removed my beard after the show, the alcohol vapours almost knocked me out!

Susan and I have a lot of vegetables rotting in our fridge. We just haven't had a lot of time to eat a lot of fresh vegetables - we may get scurvy. But, we do binge on whatever we can find when we come home from the theatre. That's probably not good but we're sooo hungry.

Anyway, another day, another bloody windy storm. I suppose that's life on the west coast in November.

Have a great Friday everyone!

One day more!

That's right one more day until SHOWTIME! We have our second dress rehearsal tonight. I think there will be about 15 or so people in the audience! I believe Footlight has invited people with disabilities in the past to come and watch the dress rehearsal so I think the same will hold true tonight. It will be great to run the show with people in the audience!

I get my beard tonight too...a little nervous about that. What looks stranger? A Chinese Jew with a beard or without a beard?? The jury is still out on that one.

What else is going on? Oh yeah, the Notre Dame football game versus Air Force won't be shown on tv!! WHAT THE?!? I guess that will give me time to rake the lawn. There are leaves and branches EVERYWHERE! When exactly did the hurricane hit? I was hoping the debris would blow away but alas, there are so many leaves now, the pile doesn't move at all. Boo-urns.

Okay, that's all for now. Have a great day and thanks for reading!

It's only a few more days until opening night of Fiddler on the Roof at the James Cowan theatre in Burnaby! There's certainly a buzz in the air (but I think it could be the air conditioning or perhaps the stage lights).

Here's a picture of my Anatevkan family. Granted, it's not the conventional, dare I say traditional, Jewish family but it's still somewhat functional.

I must say that the cast and crew are great! It's really coming together and some of the scenes are real tear jerkers. I think people are really going to enjoy the show!

As of right now, Susan and I know of over 70 friends and family attending the show! What support! Who knew we knew so many people? According to Susan's calculations, we may have another 30 people coming! Woo hoo! Anyway, we have a few more run throughs and then it's showtime!

See you at the show!