…..Kasie playing air hockey 
(I had to fight to keep this picture from being deleted)
-NatetheGreat
Random……
November 30th, 2009Civil War Sewing!
November 28th, 2009
The Christmas ball is one week away, and we want to make sure everyone’s outfits get completely finished!
Hemming and sewing scallops on Ashlee’s over skirt.
Leah’s bodice is looking beautiful – and just a year ago she declared she couldn’t sew!
Putting finishing touches on Ashlee’s bodice.
We ended up staying at our friends’ and sewing for the whole day. I guess you could say we were on a roll! We just want to make sure that we won’t be doing any sewing the actual date of the ball. 
Hope to see you there!
-Kasie
P.S. I trust everyone had a pleasant Thanksgiving!
Life is Back to Normal…
November 25th, 2009…kinda. Although I’m beginning to believe that there’s no such thing as “normal” in our family, as you can see…
Although the busyness of Beauty and the Beast is behind us, we still have a lot going on, and another drama to look forward to in a couple of months! Did anyone know that Walter is in a ballet? He’s not an official dancer, but plays various “guy rolls” in Central Ballet Theatre’s Exodus: the Story of Moses. I don’t have any pictures of rehearsals yet, but I should soon since Angie, Nate and I will be working backstage. Show time is the weekend of January 21st, so mark your calendars and come stay with us!
With the holiday season coming up, also comes holiday festivities! I’m looking forward Thanksgiving and Game Day get-togethers, our Christmas Civil War ball, a tacky party (remember last year’s?), and New Year’s celebrations. I love this time of year, and I’m totally ready to “get in the spirit” of things! Now, if only it would snow at the appropriate time…
Have a blessed Thanksgiving week!
-Kasie
Cuties!
November 23rd, 2009
Now, didn’t that just make you smile?
-Kasie
Introducing – WilliTech
November 13th, 2009It’s called WilliTech – and it’s the un-interesting name for a really cool series of posts from me (Walter), the official geek of The Willi.
I’ll probably start off by highlighting some of my favorite (free) programs that make life easier on the computer, and then might even branch off into tech tips or tutorials. These posts might be long – or they might be really short. They might come quickly, or be separated by weeks or even months. I’ll be sure to keep you guessing.
So let’s get started!
WilliTech #1: View and edit images quickly with Irfanview
Irfanview is 2nd piece of software that I download on any new computer (right after getting a decent browser). It’s hard for me to imagine life on a Windows PC without it.
What is Irfanview? Here’s a quote from the program’s website:
“IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer.”
Why I like Irfanview:
- It’s fast. Lightning fast. Think, “faster than notepad” fast. When I want to view an image, I don’t want to have to wait for “Vista picture viewer”, or Photoshop to load
- Keyboard shortcuts. View other images in the folder using the arrow keys. Go fullscreen instantly with “enter”. Rotate right or left with “r” and “l”. Ctr+r to resize. I could go on and on….
- Once you install the plugin pack, Irfanview will open anything you throw at it. Png, jpegs, photoshop files, and dozens of obscure image formats that you’ve never heard of. And then if you get bored, you can also use Irfanview to open WAV and MP3 music files, videos, and even PDFs.
- Batch processing. If there’s one thing that computers should be good at, it’s repetitive tasks. And yet we sit there doing the same thing over and over again “saving time” on the computer. Batch processing let’s the computer do all the work for you.
Say you have a bunch of pictures from your 7 megapixel camera that you want to upload to your flickr – but you want to resize them first to something more web-friendly, say 800×600. With irfanview, this is no problem. Use the “Batch conversion/rename” function to resize as many images as you want, all at once. Job done.
So do yourself a favor – get Irfanview. It’s not glitzy or snazzy by any means, but you won’t find anything faster or more effective for Windows [7, Vista, XP, 98, 95].
More Beauty and the Beast Photos
November 12th, 2009Kasie here this time! I figured I’d eliminate any confusion as to who’s writing this post right off the bat. Can you believe it though? Angie posted twice in a row!
Anyway, I was so happy to see these pictures my friend took during the opening night performance – we’ve never been able to see ourselves, you know. So I sort of borrowed these to share with you. And do excuse any heads or blurriness in these photos. It is, after all, very hard to photograph a play when confined to your seat and can’t use a flash!
The curtains open, Belle begins to sing and villagers come out onto the stage.
“Be Our Guest!” Everyone worked so hard on this number, and did an awesome job! In the forefront are Babette, Cogsworth, Chip and Mrs. Pots (surrounded by plates, napkins, forks, knives, spoons, pillars and chairs).
Robbie obviously loved playing the role of “Lumiere”. He does so well!
Gaston, with the help of the creepy Misuer D’Arque and his sidekick Le Fou, rallies the villagers against the Beast in a rousing number we like to call The Mob Song. It’s my favorite scene!
“Praise the Lord and here we gooooooo!”
At stage left the ladies sing their “oohs” and “aahs”.
At the very, very end, we sing “Be Our Guest” as an encore. Can you spy Angie and I?
If it looks crowded, that’s because it was. We have 112 folk in the cast!
Happy girls! (I know – the makeup looks freaky)
What a wonderful whirlwind of a weekend that was! And tonight we’ll be doing it again for a four day weekend. Whew!
-Kasie
No one… knits like Gaston???
November 10th, 2009Do my eyes deceive me…
You know knitting is manly when Gaston does it!
In a white heat of inspiration last night, I wrote these wacky lyrics to go along with the pictures. And if you think they are lame, you should look up the real song and compare!
No one’s slick as Gaston, no one knits like Gaston
No one’s scarf is incredibly thick as Gaston’sFor there’s no man in town half as manly, why you should just see him cast-on
You can ask any Tom, Dick, or Stanely, and they’ll tell you whose team they prefer to be onNo one pokes like Gaston, no one ropes like Gaston
No one likes to peer down through his “scopes” like Gaston
When I’m knitting here, yes I’m intimidating, my what a guy that Gaston!Give five hurrahs, give twelve hip-hips
Gaston is the best, and his vests they all fit!No one could quite “cast-on”, quite as good as Gaston
No one makes scarves and mittens and hoods like Gaston
For there’s no one as nifty or crafty, “As you see I’ve got needles to spare”
Not a bit of him sissy or daffy (that’s right)
And I’ll even make something that’s dashing to wearNo one’s quick as Gaston, making mits like Gaston
In a knitting club nobody fits like Gaston
“I’m especially good at my blanket-making”
Oooh! Ten points for Gaston!When I was a lad I knit 4 times a day, every morn so I wouldn’t get bored
And now that I’m old I knit 5 times a day
And my fans keep on asking for more!Who has brains like Gaston? Has the skeins like Gaston?
Keeps on making up endless refrains like Gaston?
And his expertise we will be celebrating,
My what a guy, Gaston!
Beauty and the Beast
November 9th, 2009Whew! What a wonderful busy weekend this has been, as the first round of Beauty and the Beast flew by. Each performance has been brilliant, with only a few mishaps that just make good memories. Though the last two performances were wonderful and technically more perfect, nothing could compare to the excitement of opening night. Thanks to sweet family and friends, they made it a night to remember.
In other news, Kasie and I have been teaching knitting under the theatre in between our scenes. It’s amazing how quickly the trend grew. Our three students grew to about ten the next day, and we would have had more if we had not run out of needles! We certainly should form a club and name it “Cast – On” 
.
Here are the pictures from last weekend. I’ll try to get pictures of the other costumes next time.
Beauty and the Beast Sneak Peaks
November 2nd, 2009So, opening night for our Beauty and the Beast production is this Friday: a mere four days away! Yikes! A scary but exciting thought. Things are going very well, especially considering that we’ve only had eight weeks to put this whole thing together (and with a cast of 112, too!). Angie and I are having a blast!
I took pictures yesterday at our dress rehearsal, with our fellow villagers. We were ready to be onstage before many of the rest of the cast, so we hung out downstairs, warmed our voices and got a little silly.
Everyone look like you’re singing!
More silliness. (told ya!)
Angie and the wolves.
Sitting in the arena downstairs, waiting until it’s time for us to be onstage.
The folks on my right, waiting.
It wasn’t until I had changed out of my costume that I realized I hadn’t taken my usual self portrait for the day – oops! Oh well. Angie and I have rehearsals nearly everyday this week, and a group of our friends are coming to see the show opening night, so there will be more pictures I’m sure.
Ta, ta!
-Kasie
- Camille and Family
- Lady Abigail
- The Discher Family
- The Nisbett Family
- The Thomas Family
- Valiant For Truth