The Servant's Quarters

Rita and I just got back from Mom's place. She's looking mighty good. She's still uncomfortable from the pain, but less so than yesterday. Looks like she's healing nicely and getting ready for Stage II of her ordeal - chemo-therapy! Aidan was with us, and he was his usually bright and cheerful self. He made us all laugh with his precocious comments and his antics.

Aunt Fran had mercy on me for my hospital waiting room ordeal and made good on her promise to bake me cookies. Tonight, she was baking some wonderful sugar and macadamia nut cookies. Aidan and I really enjoyed the former. Good stuff and very much worth the wait. Thanks, Fran!!!

Rita went downtown this morning for jury duty. She narrowly missed being seated for a drug trial. She said that she was really surprised at how merciless the judge was at not excusing people. (And I agree.) There was one lady there who was a nursing mother. Sorry, lady. Your kid can fend for himself. A woman who Rita got to know was a fellow homeschooling mother of three whose children were all sick with fever and who had to borrow a car just to get downtown. Tell it to someone who cares, citizen. Here's a crying towel and take a seat. The ONLY thing the judge was willing to do was to put these unfortunates at the end of the line so that they would have the least chance of being chosen to actually serve. But excuse them???? No way. So, Rita escaped doing her duty as a citizen. That was close, right? Not exactly. It's not over. She's still on call until a week from Friday. Which means she may have to go do it all over again.

Sigh.

Tomorrow night is the big commercial audition. I don't know about the kids, but I'm pretty excited. It'll probably be a big disappointment. (I don't think they call them "cattle calls" for nothing.) But it'll definitely be a learning experience for the kids. Just for grins, here are the pictures I sent to the talent agency with the e-mail expressing our interest: