March'n On

Happy March!

Life has been pretty uneventful for us recently. Chicago is in that in between place between wanting to be warm and wanting to be cold. The weather varies so much, you never can tell whats it's going to be day to day. However slow it may seem, spring is approaching, and that means spring cleaning! Toward the end of February, Ruben went to his hometown, Lawton Ok, to paint the interior of his moms' house. In two days he painted the 2 hallways and 3 rooms.

Here he is trying to show his mom how to use the camera. :)





Hallway in process




and complete.






While in Oklahoma he also had the chance to spend an evening with his sister and family. In the picture is Sis Wanda , Ruben, Mom Cathy, niece Lauryn, Bro in law John and nephew Joseph. They had a great night, and Ruben got the chance to show his family the pictures of Cathy, Lauryn and Rubens' trip to Peru. You can see them and other images of his photography at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boxingbass/




During the month, on sunny days, I've been working on cleaning up the backyard. The planter along the fence was completely full of tall weeds, and I wanted to pull them up before they had the chance to bloom. I also raked away the leaves and dead growth.

View of our yard from the back porch. I really love the brick path the connects the two properties.

I have little flowers growing! More have bloomed since this picture, and I have pretty purple and white flowers too!



Since it has been warmer, we have actually had the chance to have some friends over to bar-b-q. Here, Ruben is grilling some burgers, which were great!

These are our friends Aaron and Alice Zmelko. They actually live in Indiana, but drive into Chicago frequently, so they stopped by for the afternoon. We had a great time hanging out! Aaron has recently started to take lessons from Ruben on the bass, and it's nice to get to know him and his wife. :)

Of course, Canon and Nikon wait patiently for a morsel to drop. They don't make a sound, they just wait.

I think Canon got one! Ha!

More good news! Ruben has completed his masters degree and will graduate this spring! This is tremendous news and we are so thrilled that he passed all his comp exams with flying colors! Now that he has this degree, the plan is to put it to use! He has already started working on the repertoire necessary to play for auditions for both professional symphonies and opera houses. He will be auditioning for the Milwaukee Symphony later this year. He also has the opportunity to gig for some smaller professional symphonies in the surrounding areas of Chicago through out the month.

There's always work to be done!

I am VERY proud of him!

As for me, work is starting to slow down. We will be done with our performing season by the end of this week. All the seasonal people, such as the lighting staff as well as stage managers, will leave for the summer and the rest of us will stay behind and prep for the next season of shows. Already I'm ordering props and costume pieces. A big part of my job is to provide assistance to the whole department, and since 2/3rds of our department is leaving for the summer, I have been a bit nervous about what I'm going to do. So, I've been trying to see what needs to be done, and have found a few projects that I think I can make a big difference in. One big project, the wardrobe department needs to update their filling system, and I will be helping them put together information books on every show done at the Lyric in the past 20yrs. Going to be fun!



That's about it. We just keep on going, trying to be successful in what we pursue. We have really loved living in Chicago, and it continues to provide us with what we need.

It feels good to be happy!

(I also got a new haircut over the weekend! It's short, but I really love it!)