Thor's Day

Went about as planned. The only glitch was at the start, when I asked the GPS to find me a B of A ATM near the Ranch 99 market so I could deposit my unemployment check, it landed me at the only Lucky store in the area which had pulled its entire Bank of America installation. There had been several stores with mini-branches inside which closed, but they at least left behind the ATM, but not this one. The next nearest one was an ATM in front of a local grocery chain where the store had closed but the ATM was still built into the outside wall.

So, check deposited, Ranch 99 had just the kind of wok I was looking for - anodized aluminum flattened bottom, non-stick inside surface, standard full-sized wok. They also had the crab eating kit, a shell cracker and a set of long slender 2-tine forks. Also got some mango juice. And then I stopped by the deli and got some sesame balls and ha gow, which ended up being lunch.

Home, had lunch, got orange cat hair on my black pants, then took off for SJ. Parked at one of the less expensive city garages which took Tech museum validations, and went to the museum to see the Hubble IMAX movie. It was okay, but frankly way too much of it was standard def stock footage which looks like crap on that huge screen. They did not spend enough time showing the actual repairs, which I know were shot in HD if not IMAX.

There was a special event, and they were closing the place at 4, so I walked across to the Paseo and parked myself in the phenomenal Belgian bakery with an Italian soda and a piece of black forest cake while I played on the netbook. And read some of Zoe's Tale on the Kindle. It was such a nice day (high 70's, low 80's) that I went from there to one of the benches outdoors and read some more in the Kindle till 6, which is when the rates go down at the convention center parking lot. The Tech validation paid more than half the fee at the first garage, and I drove the few blocks closer to the theater to the convention center lot.

Still way early, so I sat outside the stage entrance reading, until one of the stage moms from the last show I was in came over and chatted. She had been fooled into volunteering to take tickets and other front-of-the-house stuff, even though her girl is not in the show.

Finally time to go backstage and do the stagehand bit, set down my backpack and realized my gloves and maglight were in the car. Plenty 'o' time, I walked back and got them.

Crew chief decided to be on my side of the stage to see what all was done by whom, something he did not need to be doing at this late stage in the game. He mostly got in the way**, and caused too many set pieces to block cast access to the stage because he did not know how how long the scenes are, or when the cues to change scenes are. The folks calling those things from the booth don't really know either, they give warnings a good 5-10 minutes early sometimes.  

**He tried very hard to find out from us where he would be out of the way, but the answer is there is just not room for one more body on stage left. Stage right, OTOH, could host another whole crew. In a professional production, all the movable sets would come from the big holding area on stage right, and stage left would mostly be where the cast enters and exits, and maybe where some props are set.

The show was good, the audience was appreciative, and now we're halfway done.

Plans for tomorrow:
Downtown SJ after lunch, maybe see the other two IMAX movies at The Tech (for only $10 for the first and $5 for the second, and half off on parking, why not?) and maybe go to one of the nice restaurants in the area for an early dinner. The bakery would not be a bad idea either.