Back to Baker. . .

The Baker Install has been held up by one big, unfinished project. When we bid on this job, Rob threw in a custom-built, maple hardwood front-of-house-rack with a locking mixer-top lid and an attached locking rack accessory cupboard all custom stained to match the seats in the auditorium. No small feat. And no way around it. In fact, it needed to double in size in order to accommodate the lighting board that would also be installed in front-of-house position. Since we have a looming deadline to meet, Rob had to bite the bullet and get this thing built. It took large portions of three days, but he and Kurt finished it up on Tuesday night. LATE Tuesday night.

After hours and hours of sanding, puttying, sanding, staining, sanding, and staining. . . . the finished product was beautiful!:

Rob and Kurt loaded the truck with everything they would need to wrap up this install and headed for Baker on Wednesday afternoon. By the time I joined them on Thursday evening, they had accomplished a great deal but still had a lot to do. The front-of-house booth looked lovely in the auditorium and matched the seats perfectly:
In addition to the sound system, we also agreed to re-do the lighting in the auditorium and add more fixtures to their existing lights. On Wednesday, the guys met with two local electricians and installed the truss that Kurt had painted, prepped and engineered last week. It turned out really nice:

Once again, they were up in the attic and on Genie lifts in order to attach the truss to the auditorium ceiling. Fortunately, they found a trap door just above the truss position which made the job a little easier. They used uni-strut and long bolts to attach the truss in place:

Even though Rob and Kurt are very capable of wiring everything, this had to be done according to code which is why they had to bring in the electricians. The truss was completely wired up with Edison plugs so the lights could be plugged in without a bunch of extension cords running up the walls:

This is the view from upstairs looking down at the auditorium through the trap door:

Gloria has had a lot of fun helping with this install. She thought the trap door was pretty cool:

In fact, even though this install has taken forever, we've had some fun exploring all the nooks and crannies. . .

Plus, to Gloria, "all the world's a stage" anyway. . .

She just happens to spend her life playing on one stage after another . . .

Kurt had his work all laid out for him. The school's existing lighting system was a mess and he had the fun job of cleaning it all up:

All of the wires he is sorting through are attached to these 4 bars of lights over the stage (they raise up into the ceiling above the stage) as well as the spotlights over the mixer and the new lights installed on the truss.

He had to check and test and re-run just about every line in the place. When he was finished, every light and every cable had a number that corresponded in a logical way to the lighting board and the dimmer (power) rack.

Rob had the fun job of using the Genie lift to hang the lights off of the truss:

A great deal was accomplished by the end of the day but there was still so much to do. . .

We checked out of the hotel early Friday morning and Gloria swam while we ate our continental breakfast.

The water was chilly. . .

. . . but that didn't stop this fish from swimming. . .

Back to work. . .

There were lots of details to finish up on Friday including covering up the trap door. . .

. . . installing recording microphones on the truss. . .

. . . and hooking up the snake to the mixer:

I won't go into all the details but, basically, in order to plug in vocal and instrument microphones on the stage so that they can be sent to the mixer at front-of-house and projected through the speakers above the stage, an audio "snake" has to get from the stage to the mixer. When we bring our equipment to a concert, the snake just runs along the floor (or the grass or the dirt or over the canal or whatever. . . ) but in the case of a permanent install, the snake has to get to the mixer without leaving a trail of cables. This can be tricky in a room this big but it's possible. This audio snake has one end installed in the wall at the stage and the other end is attached to the mixer. The rest of it runs up the wall at the stage, through the attic and down the conduit attached to the wall by the mixer.

The cables travel through the conduit we attached to the floor on our last trip. . .

. . . and under the booth. . .

. . . and then up through the top of the booth and into the mixer:

Although this snake was purchased with all of the necessary ends on it, they all had to be cut off so the cable would fit through the conduit. It was a big job putting them back on in order to plug them in to the back of the mixer:

It took a lot longer than I expected it would but it was finally done!!

I was really, really hoping for some closure on this project before I headed back to Boise, but the guys still had several hours worth of work to do and it was getting late. While these pictures give a pretty good idea of the finished project, it's not the "cleaned-up-and-finished" picture that I wanted.

I took a video that just doesn't do the project justice, but it kind of puts it in perspective:

Even though it was late when I got home, I still took Laura up on her invitation for dinner and games at her house.

It was FUN. . .

Oh, and by the way, Kurt's clogging practice is really paying off:

Sorry, Kurt. . . You knew I'd catch it on video sooner or later. . . :)

Whew!

I know I sound like a broken record, but as I write this, we are at the tail end of one of our busiest weeks EVER. I have no idea when I'll have time to post pictures of everything but, in order to make sense of it myself, here it is in a nutshell:

Thursday afternoon was our first horse lesson and then the kids and I joined Rob in Baker where he and Kurt were working hard on the sound system installation. We spent Thursday night in Baker, worked all day Friday, got home around 9:00 p.m. (Rob and Kurt didn't get home until closer to 2 a.m.!) and headed over to Laura's house to play games until midnight. (I have to make time for fun in the midst of the chaos!). Saturday morning we had two big shows to prep for so we spent the day at the shop trying to line everything out. We had the truck loaded by 7:00 p.m. and we headed out to Nampa to set up for our Sunday show at the Civic Center. It took roughly 6 hours to set it all up so we didn't get home until close to 3 a.m.! On Sunday morning I dropped the kids off at church and met Rob and Kurt at the shop so we could load for our Monday/Tuesday event. We had to be at the Qwest Arena by noon (on Sunday) to meet the client and find out exactly where to put everything (especially the stage). The arena wasn't ready when we got there and Rob had to be out in Nampa at 1:00 to do a sound check for our Civic Center event so the kids and I and Kurt stood around at Qwest and waited. . . and waited. . . and waited. We were finally able to start setting up around 2:00 and everything went in slow motion for the next 4 hours (I'll post about it eventually. . . ). We had to leave at 6:00 to get out to Nampa for the start of that event but we knew we'd have to come back to Boise to finish setting up that event for a 7:00 a.m. start time on Monday morning. . . The concert in Nampa was great and everything went really well. We were out of there and headed back to Qwest by 11:00. Whew. . . I have so much more to say about all of this, obviously, but we ended up working through the night to get everything ready. . . Monday was like a bad dream even though everything on our end went very smoothly. We were out of there by 9:00 p.m. and fast asleep by 10:30!! I'm writing this on Tuesday morning and Rob and Kurt have already been at the arena since 7:00 a.m. Today will be easier but we'll still have to take it all down when it's over. . .

A Horse Lesson. . .

Gloria has loved horses for as long as I can remember. She has ridden a few times over the years and often begs for a horse of her own. I, on the other hand, only like horses when they are on the other side of a fence. I'm scared of horses, I admit it. I had one very minor traumatic experience with a horse when I was in Junior High and I've let that one experience forever taint my interaction with these beautiful beasts. However, when I heard about a home school riding class last week, I jumped at the chance to enroll Gloria. I assumed it was a drop-off-your-kid-and-pick-them-up-in-two-hours kind of a thing so I wasn't sure what to do when the teacher told us mom's to go out in the field and bring in the horses!! Me? Bring in a horse?? Hello?? But, I faced my fear, took the rope in my hand and went out to bring in a horse.

It really wasn't too bad. These horses work with kids all the time so they are very patient. This one knew I was freaking out on the inside, though, and he kept his eye on me. . .

The mom's were also given saddles and bridles and a little bit of instruction. I did OK with lots of help from a more experienced mom but I just refuse to walk around the behind of a horse so I had to admit to my fear. . . Like they couldn't already tell. . .

And there was NO WAY I was going to do this:


I had a little bit of a quandary when everyone filed past these horses to go to the tack room. Again, I refuse to walk around the behind of a horse so I had to just stand there and wait for someone to rescue me. . . hello???? I'm such a wimp. . .

I guess this will be my opportunity to squash my fears and move forward . . .

As for Gloria, she was reveling in every moment. . . soaking up the sights and smells and practically pinching herself to make sure it was all real. . .

She has no fear. Of horses anyway. . .

Once again, the mom's were asked to help out by leading the horses and their young riders around the arena. Unfortunately, I had to help a little girl find her boots so I was unavailable. . .

The class will be every Thursday until March for 2 hours. Besides learning how to ride, the kids will learn how to care for a horse and will even have homework for further research. I don't think I'll have any problem getting Gloria to do her homework!

This will be Gloria's horse for the next 6 months. Her name is Buttons:

In spite of my fears and the chilly weather, I had fun at my first horse lesson. I mean, Gloria's first horse lesson . . .

We even made some new friends. . .

I could also be back in the running for that mother-of-the-year award. . .

Misc. . .

So, I keep telling myself (and my kids!) that if I can just get through the next week, things will settle down and we'll have a nice, lovely routine again. I've been saying this since the end of August. I don't really expect to have what "normal" people call a routine but it would be nice to have something that resembles a schedule. . .


Anyway. . . Last weekend was pretty busy. Besides all of the stuff going on with our 2-day event downtown, I also helped Kristin with her mom's estate sale. OK, I wasn't a huge help and I even left my kids there for a day selling their own stuff, but I helped a little bit on Saturday (and I even went to church on Sunday)!! Gloria, who can't save a dollar to save her life, spent her yard sale money on some face paints. This is just ONE of her many creations:
I had the girls Saturday afternoon and evening and they were VERY creative!!

We also had another event going on across town. This is our third year on this event and it was the easiest set up yet thanks to Rob and Kurt coming up with a new, easier set-up plan! All we do on this event is provide lights to light up a dance floor and a little bit of pipe and drape. Last year we ran all of the cables through the ceiling which took ALL DAY LONG and was exhausting. This year we used S-hooks on the outside of the ceiling tiles AND we had Kurt so it only took about 3 hours to set up everything!

It turned out really nice and the client was happy. . .

The last two years we stayed for the event to make sure everything worked, but this year we had other things going on so we told them we'd be back later to take it all down. This is what it looked like last year:

So, we set it up on Friday night (from 10:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.) and took it all down on Saturday night (from 11:00-midnight) and everyone was thrilled! We worked about 7 hours less than we did on the same event last year and were compensated the same amount. . . not a bad deal at all. . . And if I can just get through this week, things will settle down into a nice, lovely routine. . .

Cute. . .

It's A Dog Party!

During the sound check on Saturday, I heard a commotion outside the theater. . . Horns were honking, dogs were barking and people were yelling. When I walked out front, this is what I saw:

It was a dog parade!!

There were, literally, thousands of people and dogs of every shape, size and color. . .

It was pretty cool. . .

Not everyone thought it was cool, however. . .

There was a line of frustrated drivers who had somehow gotten trapped between blockades and could only wait for the dogs to go by. . . This man was not happy about it at all. I'm sure he had people to see, places to go and things to do and he wanted someone to pay. . .:

These men must have already seen all their people, went to their places, and done all their stuff because they just got out of their rig and watched the dogs go by. . .:

It didn't take long for the drivers to resign themselves to their fate and the honking and yelling stopped. . . I'm sure much to the relief of these people:

But the parade went on and on . . .

. . . . and on and on. . .

. . . and on and on and on. . .

. . . and on. . .

. . . and on and on. . .

It was pretty cool. . .

The View. . .

I always make the kid's beg me to drive all the way to the top of the parking garage next to The Egyptian, but I secretly love parking up there. . .

It's a beautiful view. . .



As long as they don't know it's a treat for me, too, they'll think they're getting away with something. . .


Like Gloria needs something else to get away with. . .

We ran sound for a 2-day event at The Egyptian this weekend. It was a benefit concert for a non-profit organization that raises money for Aids awareness. The main act was Grammy-award winning (local) musician, Randy Coryell. He introduced a 16 year-old piano prodigy that was just amazing. It was well organized and interesting. The sound check was Saturday morning and went very smoothly:

It's hard to tell but this is Rob and Kurt playing a piano duet. . . . . . :


These are pictures and videos from the two identical concerts (Saturday night and Sunday afternoon):

As far as events go, this one was a piece of cake. . . .

Legendary Rhythm and Blues

I looked at my calender today and estimated that I listened to (set up for. . . ) about 80 bands (well, musical groups) from January to September this year, give or take a few and with a few repeats. . . I've even enjoyed most of them. But Tuesday night, honestly, was probably my favorite concert of the year. I've probably said that before (and meant it) but our show at the Egyptian was really good. There were bits and pieces that were definitely NOT good but, for the most part, I really enjoyed myself. The group was Tommy Castro and the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Revue . This is a group of amazing musicians that travel together and put on a 4-plus hour show with a spontaneous jam session at the end. There were at least 10 musicians in the headlining band and we also had to set up for a 4 piece opening band! The stage was quite full:

Unfortunately, my camera does not focus well in The Egyptian so the pictures aren't so great. . .

This picture is of Tommy Castro out entertaining the crowd:

The crowd was litterally dancing in the aisles!!

Our friends at The Egyptian take good care of us and they let Gloria hang out in the closet!! (It reminded me of when I was little and my parent's owned a drive-in and I would sit in the back and eat frozen french fries!! But I guess that's a story for another day!!)


The best part of the whole evening was listening to (and then meeting) Deanna Bogart. She was amazingly talented and very nice. I could have listened to 4 hours of just her with her keyboard and saxophone. . . amazing!

This is a (long!) Youtube video of the group traveling together. It's kind of interesting. . .