Well, the last several days have been busy, but good. Very good, in fact.

Saw two plays: I Am My Own Wife at the Performance Network in Ann Arbor, and Honus and Me at The Purple Rose Theatre Company. Two very different productions. Both very theatrical in their own way, which was nice to see, and both good evenings of theatre.

Attended a going away dinner for my brother in law, Scott, who will be moving to Newberry Springs, CA. This dinner was thrown by my father-in-law, who picked up the tab for the whole clan at the fantastic Meriwether’s I had the Cedar Planked Salmon with a side of Shrimp Scampi, and it was excellent. I also had a taste of my sister-in-law Jackie’s filet mignon, which I will be having next time we go there…which will be a trip we make specifically so I can have the filet mignon, cuz Yum.

Also, on Friday night my beautiful wife and I took the kids and had a nice barbecue evening with our friends Chris and Tobin, and then wandered around the Dexter Daze street fair a few blocks from their house. Great fun.

Saturday we had a bunch of volunteers come help us, and the Williamston Theatre now has seats. Installed, looking fantastic. It was a great day, and the difference in the theatre is amazing.

I’m hoping to post good pictures soon! Until then…

Speaking of the theatre, in less than two weeks we start rehearsal for Rounding Third. Very excited about that. Producing it is going to be a bigger, different challenge than getting the first production going. I’ll probably be journaling about that in the next couple of weeks. Also at WT we got some very helpful donations and sponsorships this week! Yay us!

Let’s see…Monday we had Callbacks for our 4th show of the season, Music From A Sparkling Planet. The show is in the Spring of 2007. It’s a beautiful play by Douglas Carter Beane, from just a couple of years ago. I’m really excited that we’re able to do it. It’ll be a challenge – it’s our biggest cast, and will be a tough financial show for us to produce from that standpoint. I have faith that we’ll make it work, though. The story is beautiful, funny, and very much worth telling.

What else…oh, on the way home from callbacks my car died, so at 10:30 at night Christine altered HER drive home to pick me up from the side of the road and take me to my house! Yay. Turns out, the thermostat on my car went bad, and so it overheated very quickly. Thankfully, that’s all it was – the other possibilities were much more expensive!

So today I sort of had a day off of work and, after dealing with the car stuff, Max and I had some quality time while Jeanne and Maggie went out. Then later in the evening we played a game of baseball in the yard with the kids and their neighbor friends Zach and Mackenzie. So much fun. I love when young kids forget they have to run after they hit the ball! Or run the bases backwards. And Maggie, trying to stretch a double into a triple, ran into me at Third Base so hard she fell over and I almost did too!

And now, after a late night family trip to Twisters for some soft serve ice-cream, we got back just in time to watch the Tigers win their second game in a row against the Red Sox. I’m the only one not in bed, and I think that’s where I’m headed soon!

It’s funny..I didn’t think I had much to say when I sat down to type…and maybe I haven’t…but listing these things that stood out over the last few days, I’m able to put aside some of the hassles that the last few days included; little things like knowing that if the car had an expensive repair job we were in big trouble. Starting a theatre is not much of a paying job, especially for the first season or two, and budgets are, well, “tight” is an understatement. So, finances have been a concern the last few days. Also, several little annoyances: the garage door opener broke, a few other little things like that piled up. (Y’know…good ol’ fashioned “LIFE”!)

It’s funny how a backyard game of baseball with the family and some ice cream afterwards can brighten your outlook on even the dreariest of days!