Friday, June 30, 2006

And so it begins...

This evening Paige and I will be going to Moreno Valley to spend the weekend at Yamato band camp. Paige will be working on music. I will be cleaning a trailer and preparing meals. Dang, it's still pretty hot.

After this weekend I should have a pretty good idea of how this will all work. Today I'm going to gather up a bunch of cleaning supplies and take them with me. I don't want to have to hunt down their cleaning supplies, if they even have any. All I saw in there the other day was a greasy rag and a ratty broom with a short handle.

I'm glad I can do this close to home and in plenty of time before the tour starts. I want to have everything in place before we hit the road.

Man, I hope they can park the trailer in the shade.

12 comments:

vivage said...

Man, I just posted about the kajillion degree heat outside. I hope you have lots of water, and a hose nearby if you need to cool down by getting wet in the hose.

I am feeling very sorry for you right now.

Jim said...

It was about 103 in the shade today, according to our thermometer.

I'm really hoping that somehow this weekend is not too hellish for Doni.

vivage said...

If there is no hose then get one of those air pumped pressure containers from Home Depot. You know the ones you use for liquid fertilizer? They make great misters.

Tomorrow might be a day for cool showers or the play day in the hose! Days like this I wish we had a pool.

Jim said...

Hi folks, Jim here.

Doni just called to let me know that they're having a pretty good time so far preparing meals, working under popups. It's around 100 today.

Jim said...

Duh, as if it didn't say "Jim said..."
Doh!

vivage said...

Hey Jim Jim. I just saw on an MSN page that it's 105 today. Hope Doni is keeping cool and still having fun.

Donita Curioso said...

Dammoramma. Blogger lost the comment I posted this morning. The long comment I wrote about the Yamato weekend. I hate when that happens. Usually it happens when I've just written a long letter to Dean. The second time around the letter will read something like, "The weekend was fun. We did stuff."

The weekend was hot. I worked hard. Ok, I'll try to do better than that.

Yeah, it was pretty hot but we managed to get a lot of work done without passing out. We set up our kitchen in the snack bar by the football field. Inside was a sink and a big fridge and lots of counter space. The grills and tables were set up outside under easy-ups. One one table there were 5 big containers of Kool-aid, pink lemonade, Tang, water and this horrid japanese drink called Pocari Sweat. It's their version of Gatorade. The kids really liked it, I thought it was vile. It tastes like salty grapefruit juice.

I didn't get to clean the trailer. It was way too hot and I didn't have enough spare time. When I wasn't working I was napping in the AIR CONDTIONED band room. One thing I learned this weekend is you gotta catch Zs whenever you can.

I spent most of my time preparing meals and cleaning up after. The food is pretty good. Eddie-san did the actual cooking this weekend. I cut up fruit and veggies and made sure the drink containers were kept full. For the tour we'll have 2 professional chefs.

Everyone is really nice. The kids are all great. Very polite and helpful. Once I asked for some help moving some trash bags into my truck. I had about 15 boys jump up to get 7 trash bags. When the kids come through the food line they say thank you. This weekend I said "you're welcome" more times than I can count.

Some of the japanese kids are already here. One of the girls isn't in the band. I guess she's here as support staff. She helped me in the kitchen. Her name is Yumiko and she doesn't speak much english. Still, we managed to work together and have a good time.

Saturday night after Eddie had gone home one of the boys came to me with an emergency. His grandmother was ill and his family was in Cape Cod. He needed a ride home so he could take care of her. So, at 11:30 I took him to SAN FERNANDO. I just had the truck (no AC, no power steering) so first we stopped in Riverside so I could get the van. Since it was late there wasn't much traffic but it's still a two hour drive. I really had trouble staying awake when I was coming home. I got back at 4:45. Jim was pretty surprised to see me come in the door. I slept until 8:30 and made it back to Mo Val at 10.

Ok, I'm going to post this and see if it makes it.

Donita Curioso said...

So, another thing that happened this weekend...

Drew and Stacey and all went to the river and they took Dad. While they were at the marina on friday Dad had a very bad fall. He stumbles a lot and this time he fell right on his face. He ended up going to the hospital in an ambulance. They kept him overnight at the hospital to keep an eye on him. He's ok but one side of his face is pretty swollen.

And the hits just keep on happenin'. This afternoon he called and asked me to come right over. He was reading the instructions on a bottle of rose fungicide when it burst in his hands. It spilled on his leg and burned his skin. Dad said he jumped in the shower right away. By the time I got over there Hector had mopped it up. The chemical smell was very strong. Dad showed me his leg and the skin looked pink. He said it had been quite red. Oh lordy.

I told Dad to open up the house and let it air out. Then I wrote down what it was and came home. Jim looked it up on the web. It just said to make sure to rinse off the skin really well. It said it causes moderate organ damage. So who really needs their liver anyway?

More later.

vivage said...

Jeez girl!

Anonymous said...

Yes, very busy. You probably won't be hearing from me much in the next few weeks.

Happy 4th, people! Last night I was sitting on the front porch playing my uke when I saw a dark shape go by. I thought it was Gracie. When I leaned down to pet her I was suddenly face to face with a strange dog. It startled me a bit but I could tell this poor guy was scared to death. He laid right down at my feet. It was like, "Oh thank god, I found a human to give me comfort and protection!" Great. Now I have a dog to deal with.

We hung out on the porch for a while, me petting him and speaking in soothing tones. He was a sweet dog, probably a lab/shepherd mix. Maybe 8 months to a year old. This morning Jim and I took him to the pound. There was l o n g line of people there waiting to turn in their 4th of July refugees. I sure hope they all get picked up.

Dave and Nancy and Amelia are coming this evening! Tomorrow we're hanging out and Friday we're going to Disneyland. Saturday they're dropping Amelia off at Cal-Arts for her summer program. We're all looking forward to their visit.

So, today we clean.

Donita Curioso said...

Now, why did that post show up as "Anonymous"?

Donita Curioso said...

Dang. It was a waste of a good anonymous.