On CT News (including video)

Olivia's Buttercup has gotten out of control.

(By the way Buttercup is shedding the next few days)
Practice

Buttercup and ChiChi the production assistant at the tv studio.

Filiming the openning.

Nailed.

The local news guy.

Amelia reading their mind.

The drive back to Quassy...three sleepers in a row.

Jim is really tired.

The day started off busy. Early up and early to the park to meet Ron (our boss and all around nice guy...punny too). Then it was off to New Haven to Channel 8 newsroom where we were taken to the studio...a very big studio. We were given about 8 minutes overall to promote our show at Quassy park. It was a ton of fun and they gave us a lot of lee-way as to what we could do. The video here doesn't show our intro but I did do the human blockhead and introduce the whole family. Everyone was really nice. The kids told me that when I took the nail out it had a giant bugger on it that was visible on the TV so maybe it was cut from the final airing (it was taped).

i should mention that we drove past or through Yale. What a pretty old group of buildings. We plan on visiting the campus and the birthplace of the hamburger a block or so away "Louie's Lunch" once we are finished at Quassy.

On the way back we hit the Uhaul for boxes for our spearbox illusion then it was a quick flight back to the park with 40 minutes to get the show setup and going. It was decided the kids would do the show without me so that I could get other supplies (fuels and cinder blocks). Little did I know that James had only 3 hours sleep due to time he wasted on the computer the night before. As a result he did a poor job as show host and had a hard time holding the audience. I got back in time to save the last 5 minutes and recovered some of the audiences. He's been banned from the computer and ordered 10 hours sleep for at least a couple of nights until he is fully back to himself.

CT roads are narrow and the drivers are insane. I miss the openness of western roads. It's hard to adjust to.... There must be sign laws out here too because almost every sign for a business is very low key....almost invisible so it is so easy to miss a building or find a business. The people are generally very nice....I have not a word against the locals...in fact we have been treated very well by everyone. And the audiences have been very nice during and after the shows.

It is expensive out here. Take anything in Cali and multiply the price by 2 or 3 and you have the prices before taxes. Tax is only 6% (Cali is 8.25) so that isn't too bad. But our basic needs are so much more expensive than other venues. But that's show biz (at least for the traveling shows). Kentucky still wins for most livable (price, people, roads, etc).

Our hotel is a resort. It is very nice but we haven't a fridge or microwave so we have to buy ice for the cooler and bring in our microwave. I signed a "no smoking" contract with the front desk or suffer a fine of nearly $300 so we won't be using the Foreman grill here. There isn't a laundry so i spent a good two hours trying to figure out how we are going to work that out. The hotel has a laundry service that reflects the prices of the state. SOOOOOOOO.....we had to find another way. Fortunately my cousin, Patricia, lives about 20 miles away so tomorrow she and Cynthia will drive out by her house to a Laundromat and clean our delicates. That means she out of the show for the day.

I don't want you to leave the blog thinking negatively about CT. It is a beautiful state. The homes are unbelievable. Most buildings are awesome. And every one keeps their yards impeccable. The people are friendly and Quassy Park is wonderful.

Amelia and Victor made friends with the boat pilot (there is a boat that docks near our stage that gives tours of the lake.) He and his wife work at the park. The kids got to feed the fish that gather around the boat and had fun chit chatting with him.

We had Chinese food for dinner tonight. The restaruant was actually run by Chinese and the food wasn't that bad. I asked the waitress to not bring us "white-people" food but real Chinese food. It was alright. Lots of vegies.