Stately English Manor

Hard Labor

No, no, we're not talking about Mrs. Stately--her labor is hopefully a month away still.

But we're still a long way from having Sophie's room ready for her.  She'll probably be sleeping with us for a few months anyway, but the room that will eventually be hers is, for now, still filled with a lot of non-baby stuff (and, after today's baby shower, a lot of baby stuff as well).

The plan is to build another shed in the back yard to hold all the non-baby stuff currently in the second bedroom.  We're planning to build this shed over what used to be the Jaccuzzi pit.  For that to happen, we need to fill that pit in.  There's also a lot of concrete (sidewalk and a concrete pad) in the back yard that we want to get rid of, so the plan is to break all that up and fill in the pit with it, then buy gravel and dirt to finish the fill job before we pour a new pad over the filled pit.

When our plumber was out a couple months ago to help me disect the Jaccuzzi, he also leant us a jackhammer (a small one).  It gets dark so early these days that this is pretty much a weekend only project, as it's already dusk by the time I get home.  And for the last couple of weekends we've had enough other things going on that I haven't even used the weekend time, so this project is going much slower than I initially thought.

I ran into my first problem right off the bat.  Before I did a lot of work on the concrete in the yard, I wanted to put a drain hole in the bottom of the pit.  After using the jack hammer in several areas of the bottom of the pit, I finally broke through in the center...and promptly sank the hammer bit so far into the concrete that I couldn't get it out again.  So for the rest of the first weekend, and most of the next two, I worked on hammering around the sunken bit until I had enough give to finally pry out the first bit.

From there, it's been tedious, but not too dificult.  It's pretty hard on my back, so I generally don't work on it for more than an hour or two at a time, but I seem to be making progress.  Slowly.

Around the Neighborhood

We are, as usual, dreadfully behind on updating this thing.

As it turns out, we actually do have some house-related things to catch up on blog-wise.  But rather than taking the time to do on-topic blogging right now, I want to catch up on a couple of neighborhood-related events.

The first was the annual North Park Lions Club Toyland Parade, which was two weekends ago.  This year also featured the third (I think) annual marching band competition where marching bands from a number of local junior high and high school bands compete before the parade proper begins.  The band competion takes place on the streets surrounding the local park, which we are across the park from so they all marched right past our house.  I'm afraid I forgot to take pictures till the very last minute, so the above is the best shot we wound up with.  Maybe next year I'll do better.

The same weekend we went out to Ft Rosecrans to pay our respects to my father.  It was a rather beautiful day.

This past weekend we went to see the opening movie in a new series of films being shown at the North Park Theatre.  The series is called The Fabulous Faces of the Fifties; Sunday's film was Imitation of Life with Lana Turner and Juanita Moore, directed by Douglas Sirk.

I have to say, this was a real treat; we really enjoyed ourselves.  Of the six movies that will make up this first film series, this is the only one I'd never seen.  It was a way over-the-top melodrama, which is not normally my cup of tea, although it was oddly effective, and I found myself drawn in in spite of myself.  It was especially delightful seeing it on a big screen in an old-fashioned, nicely restored movie house, rather than a mall multiplex.

But perhaps even more fun than the film itself was the context.  The North Park Theatre was originally a movie house; it fell into disrepair some time ago and was finally restored last year as the new home of the San Diego Lyric Opera.  They've already completed their first season of light operas and have begun the second, but the theatre is also being used for other types of events, and this film series marks the beginning of it's occaisional use as a movie house again.  The series has a host, and part of the appeal is that they're not just showing movies but trying to recreate an old-time movie experience. 

The film was opened with a Buster Keaton short, followed by a Bugs Bunny cartoon, and then the movie itself.  The host was delightful, talking to us briefly before each piece to provide a bit of background, then remaining after the movie for a good half hour of Q&A as he tried to engage us with a discussion of the film itself and of the proposed film series and future film series.  The current series runs through January; it will be followed in February by a series of musicals; then possibly a film noir series.  The movies are shown on Thursday nights with a repeat matinee on Sundays (next week the matinee will be on Saturday to accomodate Christmas Eve).

The next movie in the series will be White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Rosemary Clooney (George's aunt).  It will be a sing-along event.  We'll be attending the Thursday night showing, but there will also be a Saturday matinee.  I urge those of you in San Diego to check it out:  http://www.northparktheatre.com/Calendar.htm