Fido...or Pascal to You!

Fido, the chameleon I am hosting at my place for Kris and family while they are away on the boat, made a trip to the Strand this past Friday.
Disney's "Tangled" came out this past Wednesday.
In the film, Rapunzel has a little chameleon side kick named Pascal (like the 19th century French painter...clever as chameleons are known to change color).


Fido got to pose as Pascal on Friday and showed off his color changing skills from the ticket booth. He was separated from the guests by the plastic walls of his little carrier tank, and could only but twist and turn his eyes at the children who stood on their tiptoes, fascinated with this odd little reptile.



Fido behaved herself very well at the Strand.
She didn't hiss or snap, and when I got her out to show to Cory (a theater coworker), she didn't make too much of a fuss. When we got home, I rewarded her with a dinner of calcium coated crickets. She just loves to stalk them and catch them with her tongue!

I highly recommend chameleons as a quiet, low maintenance pet.
Fido's tank needs sprayed each day with the water bottle (this is how she drinks and it keeps the humidity up in her tank).
A lamp is kept on 24/7 in order to keep the tank (and Fido) heated.
She gets fed crickets, 5-8, every 3 days or so.
Her tank needs cleaned every month or so.
She cannot really bite hard, as she has no teeth, and she is very quiet. She only makes a hissing sound if particularly irritates (usually when you take her out of the tank when she doesn't feel like it).
The only think I ever really forget to do is feed the dang crickets! I never think of them as pets, but they need fed and treated well as their only existence in the house is to be Fido's food! Healthy, alive crickets = a healthy, alive Fido. You are what you eat you know!

Putting Together Harry Potter

Here are some photos from when Kara and I put Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) together this past Thursday.

A reel and some trailers sit in the shipping case.

Kara splices the film together.

Kara's still splicing. At her feet are the reels waiting to be put together.

Putting the first set of spliced reels onto the platter.

The reels spin, rewinding from one large reel to the next.

Reels a spinnin'!

Four trailers and Kara's film glove through one of the reels.

More Grand Ol' Strand

I spent the day at the Strand today! Poor Lisa was not feeling well today, and so I took over her evening shift.

It was an exciting day. Not only did I get to spend it at the theater, but I got to learn how to thread the film through the projectors! Cory even let me thread one of the films myself (with her watching of course). I did pretty well for my first time. When I started the movie up, the picture was a little out of frame, but we fixed it easily with the turn of a knob.

It's really amazing how many pulleys and rolls the film threads through to go from one platter, to the projector, and back onto another platter. Up, down, up down, over, under, through, around, down, up, across....it's crazy! But when the movie begins and the film whirrs through all those pulleys, rolls and sprockets, it's amazing to see how that strip of picture imposed petroleum can produce such fluid movements and brilliant pictures played out on the big screen.

The Strand

I'm currently sitting at the Strand's ticket booth, listening to the Harry Potter midnight show in the theater behind me. I like to listen to the people laugh, scream, and grow intensely quiet as the film rolls on. There isn't much sound out here except for my fingers clicking at the keys and Kara crumpling up some plastic bags at the concession stand. Another successful midnight show...

Photos

So, I'm having slow computer problems! Hopefully all will be remedied soon...I may have to completely wipe the computer than re-load it.

Meanwhile, I've been getting onto Skype to talk to Kris on a nearly nightly basis. He's back out on the boat, and at Hilton Head Island, SC last we talked. Other than getting onto Skpye, issues with firefox has prevented me from more frequently using the internet. But, I'm letting you all know (anyone who really reads this irregular blog), that I am still alive, and still hoping to make these entrees more frequent.

For tonight, I have some photos that I played with from the boat trip. Feat your eyes upon my humble artwork. I don't have to fancy of a photo manipulation program, but it does the job.

The boat.

Lighthouse in the middle of the Hudson River.

Cormorants on post(morants).

The marina in Catskill, NY we stopped in at to step the masts up.

Kris and Spinny (the border collie) sleeping on the boat.
I don't know if Kris would appreciate this one, but I couldn't resist...I particularly liked it.

Spinny. She's wearing my scarf, which she had taken an odd liking to.

And that's all that I have for now. Hopefully I can keep you posted more often.

Back Home Again

So, I'm back home in Ohio now. Not too much to tell yet. Work is slow, but that's restaurant business for you I suppose. We're getting into the off season, but hopefully having a new soup of the day and a couple new beers and dishes will draw people in.

I do have some hours at the theater in town, the Strand, this Sunday. I'm so excited! I LOVE the Strand, and I'm excited to be officially working there for an evening.

[Old Strand photo from the Delaware Gazette. Forget the exact year.]

My mom came to visit me for Halloween! We explored the antique shops in town and bought a few little treasures that we found. I do love to walk around the antique stores, and having my mom there made it even better. She noticed some items I hadn't before, and I showed her a few things I thought she'd like.
There weren't many trick-or-treaters unfortunately. Either that, or we just weren't on the right block. Nevertheless, mom and I sat on my stoop with a bowl of colorful candy, a freshly carved pumpkin glowing at our feet, and steaming cups of hot cocoa in our hands. At 7:00, we decided to get ready to go to the Strand for the 7:30 showing of Secretariat. What a good movie! I think that Seabiscuit is still my favorite race horse movie, but Secretariat was a close second. Seabiscuit won by a nose.

Another update: I now have internet in the apartment! Perhaps I will finally be able to blog more often now....perhaps....