Legacy and Munkustrap

Another busy week in the Dopp-Crane household, as we going flying into Fall which seems to have come in with a bang, as we woke up this morning to dark rain, and apparently the power went out last night, because I actually had to go look at the battery powered clock on the thermostat to see the time (we had already overslept by a half hour, it’s a good thing I got up, because I almost did the “it’s too dark to be time to get up” and rolled back to sleep.

The biggest developments last week were the opening of Legacy highway (yes, the opening of a highway is a “big development” in my life), and Jake’s first attendance to a “real” broadway (well “Broadway Across America” which I suppose once in Utah is “off off Broadway”) play, the fabulous “Cats”.

Legacy so far is in a word “awesome”, I get to work in the actual 20 minutes it should take me to get to work, and on the way home I’ve actually been a bit concerned I might get a ticket a couple night, I was literally going 75 MPH, on 1-15, on the way home from work, amazing!!! The entire summer I would have to leave at a little after 5:00 to get home by 6:30 (and some nights almost 7:00), and to arrange for “early Fridays” I was taking a half day PTO each week. Now I can still be home by 6:30, but I’m actually getting an extra hour of work in each day instead of spending that on commute time, so I can take early Fridays still and save my PTO. It’s really great, just waiting to see what happens in the winter when the weather gets nasty.

We had Ari, and Xanthe over this week for “early Friday” and we had a great time until Jake got REALLY tired at about 5:00. As I said earlier he needs to work on his hosting skillz, it’s really not good form to want to sit in the rocking chair with mom sucking your thumb the last half hour your friends are over. I think the school everyday thing is tiring him out, he’s in bed every night by 8:30, but the last 2 Fridays he’s been out earlier. Scott came to pick up Ari, and Xanthe, and I went in the kitchen to fix myself a drink (Diet A&W is my new addiction) and when I came back out Jake was asleep. I was a bit concerned at 5:45 is a pretty late nap, but he slept until 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning, so little guy was tired.

Saturday we got up early, cleaned up the house a bit (I generally like to clean before Saturday so we have the day for fun, but I needed to clean bathrooms), and then took our bi-monthly (2 times a month) trip to Sam’s club to stock up on stuff we don’t really need, but it’s a good deal so I buy it in bulk. Ryan, Collin, and Jackson came over around 11:00 after we got back so Ryan could mow the lawn. Big thanks to Ryan for helping out with my lawn this month, my yard is “hilly”, so mowing my lawn is no fun, and I really appreciate the help, and Jake enjoyed having the boys over to play, so he could show of his new “potty putty”, (don’t ask), which is this kind of play dough stuff that comes in a plastic potty, ideal to appeal to 5 year old boys. It costs $1.99 and um kept Jake busy most of Saturday, and a good share of Sunday, so if you can get past the repulsive concept, it’s actually the best deal I’ve found for entertainment in months. Saturday afternoon Jakey and I went and saw “Star Wars the Clone Wars” (the animation was a bit weird to get used to, but I actually liked the story line better than the last couple movies, I didn’t think in the movies you got to know Anakin enough to really feel how tragic it was when he became Darth Vader).

Sunday was the big “Cats” day that Jakey has been all excited about, although he apparently wasn’t excited enough to humor mom as I went around singing Jellicle Cats, Magical Mr. Mistopheles, McAvity, and Memory all day. Jake not so gently informed me that going to see “Cats” did NOT require an all day sing-along. Jakey went with Circe and the kids to see “Cats” while Scott, Xanthe and I went to Jeff & Richelle’s for Jeff and Tanner’s birthday. When we got there Chase asked me where Jake was, and I told him he went to see “Cats” from the look on his face which pretty much said “Jake is missing a birthday party to look at a bunch of Cats” I explained, “it’s a play where people dress up like Cats and sing and dance” to which he replied “that is weird”. Um yeah, Chase that seems to be a fairly common reaction to “Cats” so don’t feel bad. Jake on the other hand is more than excited about the entire production. Despite the fact that he had to FIRST show off his “back flip” multiple times instead of talking about the play, Jake got pretty warmed up to the subject fairly soon after coming home. Apparently a cat licked Ari’s foot and then got right up and did the “cat thing” in Ari’s face, Jake was mesmerized from that point forward. And yes "Munkustrap" (as opposed to one of the cates whose name I can consistently remember) is still Jake's favorite cat. He then spent the evening when he got home doing his cat moves until he dropped asleep in cat position laying on my lap, while I hummed Jellicle Cats in his ear. Live theater is just so magical, esp. as you first start to see the really good stuff as a kid, thank you Circe for letting Jake tag along for the “Cats” experience, he had a great time and told me when he got home he can’t wait to go to another play, and that he really wants to go to the one about the Witch. Um yeah, we will see, it’s all magical and everything, but “Wicked” tickets are running around $250, I’m thinking he’s just going to have to be “magically” happy with the plays that have been out for 30 years, and you can get good tickets for way less than $250. We will be seeing “Wicked” in 2020, and Jake will be happy that mom is willing to go to McDonald’s 12 times this month and get him the “Wizard of Oz” dolls.