Per my day off today, we left at 8 a.m. to go up to the Nevada City area to meet up with Mary and Paul from Sierra. We had Ron along in addition to Dawn, me and Loretta, I imagine he was pretty bored by all the knitting talk. He did make sound effects when planes went by, though.

We went to the train museum up there, which according to their website should have been open on a Tuesday at 10, except the door didn't open or anything. So we wandered around the side and then to the back, which is a totally open building, and then farther down the tracks there was another building and a guy over there...Mary went down to investigate and that turned out to be the guy that runs the place. They have not updated their website to say that they are only open Saturdays now, but he nicely gave us a tour of the museum building and then a tour of the other building, which was basically the workshed they used to restore train cars. A bunch of volunteers were in there, including one woman (Mary was all, "It's a girl!" I hear ya). Another group showed up after us, so they got a tour too. Very nice of them. I will note that they had one little engine there dubbed "Stinky." I asked why and he said it made a lot of smell and smoke when you rev it up, and someone painted the name on to see if he'd notice.

After a few hours of that, we drove through Rough and Ready, which is an actual town that likes to brag about their secession from the Union. Mary provided us with a piece of paper on the town history: (a) Founded in 1849, named after Zachary Taylor's nickname. (b) A year later they decided to be the only mining town to secede from the Union, over avoiding a tax on mines and prohibiting alcohol. (c) The post office wanted them to change the name of the town to either "Rough" or "Ready," but noooo. (d) Their secession only lasted three months, when they realized that they could no longer party for the 4th of July since they were no longer part of the United States. (e) There's a mention of a Lotta Crabtree entertaining the miners "with her dancing." Uh-huh. (f) They celebrate Secession Day on the last Sunday of June with a musical melodrama and arts and crafts.

They still have signs bragging about their secession and calling the town a "republic" everywhere. They don't mention how long it took for them to change their minds on that one!

Then we had lunch in a picnic area of Penn Valley, and I asked how their year had gone. Paul almost cut off a few fingers ("if I had been trying, I would have succeeded") and their dog Ma, the one I love, has gone blind and one night was out peeing when she found a bear--and attacked immediately. It took four months for her to heal up, but she's fine now. They also got a malamute named Star*, who sounds also large, furry, and adorable. Mary also retired from her library job recently, on her 75th birthday.

Scott loves malamutes, and guess what one of Mary's kids is named....sigh. I keep thinking of all the things I would have liked to have told him about.... blech.
The menfolk didn't have much to say and eventually went off to their cars, and afterwards Mary was all "Next time, just us girls." We left around 1:40ish because Paul's tractor was calling him, and I got home by 3:30. Sadly, I proceeded to waste the rest of the day where I could have gone out just by being tired and hungry and didn't do much with the four hours after that, sigh.

Shrek rehearsal: Judah managed to find a town in Costa Rica with power, and he said he had just gotten money out of the ATM when the power went out... Adam pointed out that he was trying to eat a bug out of his bucket in the show. Morgan was all, "At the end of Morning Person, I eat a butterfly. Foreshadowing." I said I don't get why anyone wants to eat cicadas because they don't look tasty, and Adam was all, "No bugs look tasty at any level." Hear, hear. "Dannette will only be on book if it becomes a train wreck." -Jan Adam, making a reference to "City of Angels:" "Except for one show, you can't say 'line' in the middle of opening night!" Dannette: "We had someone do that once." Yay, next week we only rehearse on Tuesday!!! Score, I made that official! Full time karaoke! (Then on the 5th, I can be there starting at 5, but have to leave by 6:30.) Jan said "page 76," and others started in with "trombones" and "led the big parade." Robert's name today: "this little piggy went to zoomland." "You are muted here today!" -Carter, who also suggested people tug on their ear if someone is muted. We saw Adam and Morgan rehearse the kissing scene by standing off to the side and puckering up offstage. "I can't see what I'm doing!" -Morgan. Robert: "Shrek becomes rated R." Arthur: "I just wanted to ask: as Farquaad's father, is it ok if I laugh when he's throwing up?" Jan: "Yes!" "I'm laughing at my son because he's an idiot. No offense, Andy." -Arthur

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