Heaven Forbid.

Now our kids shouldn’t even play in their own yards, without some jerk complaining.

They’re little kids – they’re SUPPOSED to laugh and yell when they’re playing, you twit.

I’m having a great time visiting some of the wonderful places that New York City has to offer. Yesterday, on my off day, my friend Molly and I went to the Museum of Natural History, and it was wonderful!

What an amazing place. So much information, so many wonderful exhibits. The Aquatic exhibit was tremendous, and I was fascinated by the display and videos about Aquatic life under the ice shelf. First off, the photography and videography in that exhibit are beautiful. Secondly, it was amazing to see the amount and diversity of life living under the ice!

The whole place was wonderful, the variety of exhibits a little bit exhausting! After about 4 and 1/2 hours, we were both wiped out!

OH! It was also fun to see the different parts of the museum from the movie A Night At The Museum, one of my kid’s favorites! I sent them some cam phone pics of me with the famous Easter Island Head, and some other things! 🙂 (Plus I got to stand under the wonderful whale display that was so prominently featured in the movie The Squid And The Whale.)

So, a fun day off! Today, back to work!

So the Yankees won last night’s game, and I was glad I got to see that stadium!

Then, I had to go to downtown Manhattan for some costume fittings for the show, (the costumes are very fun!), and since I was right near the TKTS booth I wandered over to see what they had for sale. (We had no rehearsal yesterday, so it was sort of a “free day”, other than the costume fittings.)

TKTS is the “last minute” sale of tickets for a lot of the Broadway and Off-Broadway shows in NYC. If a theatre has seats open that they’ve not sold at full price, as they get close to show time they want to make money on them, so they put them up at the TKTS booth at a discount. Instead of $100, I saw Spamalot last night for $42.50. Very fun show, especially if you’re a Monty Python fan. I liked it, but also admit to not liking it as much as I’d hoped, only because a lot of it was basically the movie The Holy Grail which, although I liked, well…I’ve seen it. Seeing it again was pretty much what I expected it to be.

Still, with that being said, there was a bunch of new material, and some wonderful performances and choreography, and Mike Nichols is one of the directing greats, so seeing his work was wonderful.

Between the two shows that I’ve seen on Broadway in the last month or so, I really enjoyed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee more.

Nevertheless, a pretty wonderful Thursday.

So, now it’s Friday, I’ve got rehearsal in a few hours, I’m in a Starbucks in Astoria using the wi-fi, and getting some work done online.

Bottom of the Fifth Inning: Yanks up over Arizona 4-1.

Funniest thing just happened: a man and his son, who was 9 or 10 years old, just came walking down the steps right next to my seat carrying snacks from the concession stand.

The kid stops, looks around and says “Dad, where’s Ma?”

The Dad gets a look of “Oh God I’m in trouble” and blurts “Oh SHIT, I forgot about your mother! Come on, quick!” and they went sprinting back the way they’d come!
*Laughing*
I have a feeling that guy’s sleepin’ on the couch tonight! Too funny!

I love baseball! I’m at Yankee Stadium for the first time, and it’s wonderful. The sense of history, baseball legends, reminds me of Tiger Stadium. (I love the Tigers new Comerica Park, but it’s still got a ways to go to build a place in baseball history.)

So I got up this morning, took the N/W train from Astoria to Midtown Manhattan. Did a little errand running, got a coffee, then took the D Train right to Yankee Stadium. Getting off at 161st St, I got my first glimpse of the Stadium from the outside, and got that same goosebumpy surge of anticipation that I get whenever I visit a new stadium. Walking with the crowd, I was glad I’d gotten here early to wander around! I collected my previously reserved ticket at the Will Call window (Gate 4, Window 73 – kindly pointed out by stadium staff), and made my way inside. A beautiful ballpark. The “Monument Park” in Left Center Field is a nice tribute to Yankees History, and was great to wander through.

So now, here I sit, halfway between first base and right field, Section M19, Row 23, Seat 19. Batting practice is over, I’m posting from my Treo, and we’re about to start! All I need is a hot dog.

I love this game!

5 Things to be thankful for:

Having a show to direct, and getting my first NYC directing credit.

Cell phones, that let me chat every day with my wife and kids when I’m away. Not quite as good as a hug, but it sure is nice!

Good friends who can help you find some of life’s basic needs when you’re in a new city!

The yumminess that is grapes and yogurt for breakfast in the morning! (OR cottage cheese with pineapple. Yum!)

The chance to see a Yankees game later this week, at Yankee Stadium. My first time seeing a game there – one of baseball’s legendary parks – so I’m very excited!

My 7 year old lost his first tooth! Oh, what a big deal that is.

Remember when you lost your first tooth? Gosh, the whole magic of it. First it’s wiggly, and you spend a month poking it with your tongue. Then when it actually pops out, the shock! “There’s a big hole in my mouth!” He’s gotten past that stage, now it’s just SO FUN: he can use a straw while keeping his teeth clamped together – there’s a whole new level of cool to using a straw now!

Plus…The Tooth Fairy. In this instance, the Tooth Fairy left him $3! We’re pretty sure that it’s a little more than usual, because it’s his first one. AND the Tooth Fairy LEFT THE TOOTH so he could keep it, or give it to his mom for a keepsake! (This may have been the intent of the Fairy, but it’s also VERY possible that it was, as they say in the trade, an “in-the-field mis-step”.)

So, here we are…one tooth gone and a friendly divot serving as a placeholder until the big teeth come in.
And already a second, neighboring tooth has begun to wiggle.

Okay, if you’ve not yet seen this video of a minor league coach going INSANE and getting kicked out of a game, please check this out. It’s very funny!
This cost him a 3 game suspension!

Anyone who likes Star Wars…or Star Trek…will enjoy this short, silly clip of two worlds colliding at a recent Star Wars Convention in Los Angeles.
My ridiculous friend Mike…

Lastly, my friend Tim just forwarded this hilarious link, which combines a handful of my favorite things: Baseball, beer, laughing at men getting hurt!
Marvelously funny!

Happy Wednesday!

Funny, I just saw this quote on the doctor’s office wall on Friday and it’s stuck with me since then… (thank goodness for the internet and goodsearch.com, it was easy to find again!)

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.
-Charles Swindoll

And today this came up on my homepage as my horoscope:

You have much more power than you think you do — just with positive thinking, you can create a good day today, no matter how the morning starts. It’s important that you not let how you feel when you wake up dictate how you feel throughout your day. The day’s events are not set in stone. As each minute ticks by, you can take it and make it what you want it to be. Your brilliance is apparent when you turn a cloudy day into a sunshiny one.

So, although I’m not a big believer in horoscopes, I thought it was interesting that these two things popped into my line of vision very closely to each other.

Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something!

Well, I’m doing much better than I was on Friday when I last posted. My doctor prescribed cocktail of antibiotics, ibuprofen and cepacol plus water and rest is having a positive effect on my health. *whew* I’m not at 100% yet, but I’m probably at about 65 or 70. Still a bit achey, sore throat, and tired/woozy after a few minutes of being up and about.

Still, I’m off to work today – we’re having auditions and a production meeting! So, in honor of being back to work, I thought I’d see what my chances are of surviving a zombie apocalypse:

47%Mingle² – Free Online Dating

Not as good as I’d hoped, but…let’s just hope it never comes to that! Try it out, see what you get!

Thanks to everyone for all of your well wishes over the weekend, they were all much appreciated! Hope you’re all well and enjoying your Monday!