Sunday, January 4, 2009

People Can Be Aggravating

It's a good thing the Acme Theatre Company's production of Macbeth was a good one because it kind of softened what I intended to write for this entry. But the quality of the production doesn't alter the fact that people can be damn aggravating!

The show was scheduled to begin at 7:30 and we arrived at the theatre about the time we usually do for a 7:30 show--7:20. The line stretched from the box office out almost as far as the street. This is extremely unusual for an Acme show.

(Acme is the teen age theatre company.)

I knew that they had planned to seat the audience, not in the 380 seat house, but on the stage, in a U around the action, which would make it more intimate and also significantly reduce the number of available seats. But the line inside the theatre had disappeared and the line at the box office was just people waiting to get tickets.

Curtain was supposed to be 7:30 but by 7:40, there was still a long line for tickets.

Finally someone came out and announced that they were sold out and they would only be giving tickets to people who already had confirmed seats for this evening's performance, so he asked people who had confirmed tickets to come to the front of the line and said they would sell tickets for other performances to people who didn't have confirmed reservations yet.

A few people moved to the back of the line. Two groups stayed in front of us. The first group got their tickets and after the tickets were handed, the girl said "should I write you a check?" THEN she took her checkbook out of her purse and asked "Should I make it out to Acme?" and then started to ask how to spell Acme. Good grief! Did she not realize that she was going to have to pay for the tickets? Couldn't she have had her checkbook in her hand and looked at all the signs around which had the 4-letter word "acme" on them?

Sigh.

Then the people in front of us stepped up. They did not have confirmed reservations and seemed miffed that they couldn't buy tickets. Were they not listening to the announcement that had been made not 5 minutes before? Instead of moving out of the way so those of us who had confirmed reservations could get our tickets, they decided to argue about it.

I hate people who pull rank, but I finally got out of line and caught the guy who had made the announcement and asked if he wanted a review of this show or not. Turned out they had saved prime seats for us (in fact, some folks in front of us told us we couldn't sit there, but I told them they were our seats). I don't know what happened with all the other people waiting in line or whether the people in front of us ever got their tickets, but what is it with people?

Of course this could have been alleviated somewhat if Acme had a pick-up window and a pay-tonight window, but this is probably the first time they have ever sold out so I'm sure nobody even thought of that.


puphotel.jpg (59351 bytes)Our puppy hotel is doing very well. This is what the setup looks like. The bottom is our "guest suite," for whenever Nicki or some other dogs needs an overnight home. You can see Tater sleeping in the top. There is a heating pad that runs under that cage with a rug, a towel, and a sheet over it. It doesn't make is very hot, but keeps the puppies warm on these very cold nights.

The red blanket usually comes down over the front of the cage to keep the warmth in (and, now that they are more alert, to keep them from noticing if I'm walking around near the cage!)

The only problem with this set up is that the blanket traps in the urine scent so it generally smells pretty gross unless you change the bedding several times a day (which I don't). They will soon be OK to move to the playpen, where there will be no heating pad and the top will be open, so it will smell better.

TaterRight.jpg (44561 bytes)They are growing by leaps and bounds. Tater, who came here weighing 1 lb 6 oz is now nearly 2-1/2 lbs. She's going to be a huge dog, I suspect.

Her sister is literally half her size. She was 14 oz when she got here and is now about 1 lb 2 oz. But she's gaining weight, so I'm not worried about her.

I mix up 1/4 cup of formula with 1/2 cup of water for each feeding. It fills a 5 oz bottle. Tater drinks 2/3 of it and, at a good feeding, Tot finishes the rest. Or if it's not a good feeding. Tot will take half of the rest by bottle and I'll syringe feed her as much of the rest of it as I can.

It's really ironic that I'm making bottles for these puppies. My kids never had bottles and so when I had to go out looking for a smaller nipple for Tot, it was a whole new world for me!

bottles.jpg (57350 bytes)

They sure are cute, though. Nicki was here today for an hour or so while Ashley went off to breakfast and I noticed that at nearly 3 weeks of age, Tater makes better eye contact than 6 mo. old Nicki has ever done.

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