OSF Open House 09

This morning we woke up to the constant pounding rain on our window. We were so surprised. A rare occurrence for Ashland. Luckily it blew over about eleven, and just in time for our day to start. Today we went to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Open house.

We started with a tour of the costume department. To our surprise, it is a huge deal to get the initial design of the costumes until they hit the floor for rehearsal. Most plays have about 10 people per play working on up to 60 elaborate costumes. Every detail from the jewelery and shoes to the elaborate beaded work and accurate costume representation for the period is taken in to consideration. All of the costumes are available for other production houses and individuals to rent at the end of the season.

Next we went to the stage and prop design department a down the street from the theater. All of the stages and props are custom designed each season. All the stage sets are donated to local schools or throw away at the end of the season (since each play, even if it is done by OSF again, has a different director and designer with a different idea of how the play should look). Although the props are all put online at the end of the season to be rented by people all over the world.

We we able to chat with one of the prop designers for Don Quixote. He showed us some of the props for the play and explained that most of these particular props were all made from everyday items, including tires to make a vulture and garden gloves to create the owl.

We never did get anyone to tell us an est. cost for a play, but it would not be cheap. These plays are labors of love for one persons vision of the play. There was one backstage tour for the new theater, but we missed it. We decided we will take the full backstage tour another day.

FAMILY visit

This past weekend, the parents visited our humble abode. We met Uncle Georges' son, Rick and his wife Sue, who live in a beautiful new home in Eagle Point which is not far from Ashland. It was great to hear family stories from Rick and Darlene and see them happily reminisce on memories of George. I was amazed to see the clear resemblance of Rick and George from the photos Darlene brought down.

We did make it to a Shakespeare Festival play, Equivocation. It was an interesting and funny play about Mr. Shakespeare and his theater company struggling to write a play that pleases the King.
We had a great time walking the town, and getting some tasty treats at The Rocky Mounting Chocolate Co. I think that Louie's Burgers were the hit food for the trip.

We are excited for the family and the Bridges to visit next month. We still have more places to explore and then I will have a chance to take more photos; I need more "tall" photos for my new picture frame!

The Vortex!

A few weeks ago my BFF Lauren and Mr. Nate (her new Beau and our new friend) visited. We took a trip to a local attraction called The Vortex. The vortex, essentially a whirlpool of force, is what creates the mystical illusion. Nowhere in the circle do you normally stand erect. Inevitably the visitor assumes a posture that inclines toward magnetic north. As another person, on a level platform, recedes from you towards magnetic south, they appear taller. When they approach you, coming towards magnetic north, they become shorter.

Lauren was confused and is still pondering how it "really" works. We all had a lovely weekend.



The below images depict the phenomenon clearly.

Easter Sunday

We had a lovely Easter Sunday with the Fam. We went to R HAUS for Sunday Brunch. My Grandpa told us that he and my Grandma had gone to this restaurant since they were in high school. They used to spend their evenings there playing and dancing with local bands. So it was really nice to be there with them!After Brunch we had birthday cake at my Grandparents house for my sisters birthday. Then Anna insisted we play solar system Monopoly with her. About an hour in I decided I had won the game, since I had all of the 1$. SO I handed my properties over to Matt and left the game (taking all of the 1$ with me).

Now Matt and I are sick, sniff. Strep and a terrible ear infection. Not fun! Lets hope it improves soon.

AIFF

THis weekend we spent our time at the Ashland International Film Festival. Above you see Matt infront of a van of cameras. We had a great time. We saw three excellent screenings!One screening was full of 6 local short films.

Then we saw, Between the Folds, which is about artists, scientists and mathematicians from all over the world working in the very same medium of origami. It was so beautiful and amazing. This screening also featured a short film on david mccullough, an author, painter and PBS show host (he was a funny guy with a great life story).

Another film was Prom Night in Mississippi. Even though segregation became illegal in the US in the 70's, the town of Charelston still practices this by doing one senoir prom for whites and one for blacks. In 2008, Morgan Freeman offered to pay for a prom for the school, if it was intergrated, and hesitanly with confrontation, they agreed. The film documents this event. It was a great film, that HBO just picked up, and it is being submitted for an oscar.

All of the films we attended had a Q&A session with the Directors at the end. It really was neat to get more of an idea of how the films came about and how it all came together form the directors viewpoint. You could really tell that these films were labors of love for the film makers we met.

The lake

Recently we went to Emingrant Lake to fish. We did not catch any fish, yet, but we had a lovely day!

Jealous?!

This is what we are having for dinner!! Artichokes as big as JJ's head!!

Spring Break Adventure!!

Since I just started working on Monday, I haven't really had the opportunity to take some time off and get a break (per se), so JJ and I decided maybe a little road trip would be a nice change on my day off. We originally planned to head out to the Oregon Coast this morning and drive back tonight. After we found out its about 3 to 3 1/2 hours away, we nixed that idea and split the difference. We ended up in Cave Junction. Home to... um.... the Oregon caves. We drove into town, went to the information center, picked up some brochures and off we went. The caves were another 45 mins. away and then a 90 min guided tour. We actually decided not to do this today and to come back later in the summer, when it's warmer. We did have our adventures though. JJ pestered some poor swans. I kept telling her to be careful, they might attack!!

We stopped by this crazy place on the way out of Cave Junction. It is a "Gallery Woodyard Shop" Lots of crazy wood art, tree houses, furniture, etc. Go to itsaburl.com to find out more. Really, go......... Crazy.

This was a picture of me on my way up one of the tree houses. I think I just barely made the age limit.

Here is a very cute picture of JJ standing under a wooden mushroom. Everything was going fine until the mushroom ATTACKED HER!! IT WAS GRUESOME!! IT TRIED TO EAT HER!!

Needless to say, JJ made it out alive. Just barely. Here are her battle scars!!!!! A crazy day.

Pete Mondrain

I love De Stijl Art. I found this background and was so excited! De Stijl art is the most basic of crossing joint forms and primary colors of art, inspired in the early 1900's. Maybe I will create my own someday! As the rain pours I am scrapbooking and staying out of Matt's way so he can study. FINALS!

Snowboarding

It's one of the last days you can snowboard at Mt. Ashland, so we decided to make the trek up there at least once this year. It was a beautiful day!! Temp was in the mid 50's all day. I only wore my t-shirt, gloves, and snow pants. JJ originally had on a sweater and after the first run we had to go back to the car and drop it off because she was too hot.

Below is a picture of the mountain from the lodge. See the little white globe on the top? We will be seeing that again later in this post.

There are only 4 lifts at this mountain. I think we rode them all at least once. I am learning how to be a better boarder but had a few accidents along the way. This picture doesn't really do it justice but forearm has some road rash and is bruising up pretty well now. Actually, by the end of the day it was both arms, elbows, ankles, oh, and I have a sunburn!!!

These picture are from the very very top of the mountain. Amazing views!!!

All strapped in a ready to go. Oh, JJ had a little bit of an adventure but I am not going to tell you here. I will let her tell you!!!!!!! HAHA!!

Almost done with my post. This one turned out to be a long one!!

All in all, GOOD TIMES!! We are going to be sore in the morning!!

New Snow

Not that its really all that new anymore, but it snows quite a bit here. These are from the walk home from my music class JJ decided to attend. It snowed for about an hour big quarter sized flakes. Then about an hour later, it was all gone.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Co. in Ashland

JJ was feeling a little depressed and taking it out on me. So, i decided the only thing i could is give her some chocolate!! This is what she chose. They call it a Rock Road. Marshmallow, chocolate, caramel, and "crispy's" (says JJ. Think they are nuts.) There are about 12-15 different combinations of apples there. Perhaps, in time, we shall try them all.

PS... I had a Cookies and Cream milk shake that was, in one word, dissapointing... I miss Kimbles!!

The New Couch!!

After years of sitting on the floor, or on our LoveSac (which if you're reading this JP, we still love!!) we finally bought a couch. Here it is. It's a sleeper too, so when/if you come and visit you won't have to sleep on the floor (or the sac). Unless you want!

More Snow...

All the snow had melted from the other night but when we woke up this morning this is what we saw. Here is the picture from the back of our house.

This is the picture from the front. Very pretty today. It's melting fast though so it's good I took these picture when i did!!

Artic Blast 09

Alright, not exactly like '08 but what the heck. The Weather Channel says its going to snow for the next 10 days. I guess this is just the beginning!!

Old Town

Even though the town is only ten square feet there is an old part. Here is an old building with an original painting on the side from the early 1900's (Girl not included).

Beach 2009

We had a lovely weekend at the coast with a few friends. And of course we had oven baked pizza and black bottom creme bruile. It is a longer drive than going to Portland, but well worth the view. We are happy and thankful we get the chance to go out there a few times a year!!!!

More Exploration

This weekend we decided to drive around and explore. We ventured into the hills of Ashland and found some very unique homes. It was interesting to see some very expensive homes, next to small run down homes all over the hills. Then we scoped out the housing around Lithia Park. There are some nice homes, that seemed to cost way too much, just because they were next to the park. Crazyness.

Then we drove up to Mt. Ashland, where the slopes are short and steep (at least for us novice snowboarders). The views were beautiful from uptop the mountain, but there is only 4 feet of snow. It seemed very icy on that sunny day, which is not my ideal snowboarding conditions. If it ever get a fresh coat of snow, then one of these days we will drive up the mountain to test the slopes.