Monday, April 30, 2012

Some Like It Hot!

(Friend Melissa breaking in the Bar!)
Well Readers, we've been having a mini heatwave, and all of us can tell Summer is just around the corner... so what do you do the first weekend you're not tied up in shows or sets? Party of course!

Saturday after a work call for the new showing coming up, all of us cleaned up and headed out to the Casablanca for dinner, a movie and lots of fun!
(Our "Mad Men" Libbey Glasses! Don't they look fun!?)
The adults had cocktails in the gold leaf glasses, and the minors drank lemonade out of the Carousel glasses. We all gathered in the kitchen to prepare the chicken dinner meal. Everyone brought something to share, there was a tasty grape salad, out of this world pasta, creamy mashed potatoes, with tasty rice crispy treats for dessert!
(Friend Evelyn cooking and singing!)
 we put as much as we could in Pyrex, but the flies were so darn bad we had to cover everything with towels.
 (Fried Chicken in Sandalwood Pyrex)
When all was prepared I set up the table out in the Drive-In and we moved the food and party there.
 (Friends- Russ, Chloe, Chris, & Melissa)
(Jordan, Chris J, Bryson, Cameron & Joe.)
 (Chris, Melissa, & Terrace)
(Chris and Joe)
Thanks to our unpredictable weather, clouds rolled in and cooled everything off and we enjoyed our meal.
I love it when the weather is like this, its the best time of day to enjoy the backyard. Just as we finished dinner the sun set and it was time for the feature presentation. We had planned to watch "Fried Green Tomatoes" to go with our chicken dinner. But I lost the DVD and friend Chloe brought a few along, so the guests voted and chose to watch "Singing In The Rain" 
As I popped the movie into the projector I jokingly said "If it rains on us its YOUR faults!  The Movie started and we were all having so much fun singing along and talking about tidbits and fun facts about the movie. Well true to the prophecy just as we get to Gene Kelly's  musical number "Singing In The Rain"  it started sprinkling. So we packed up the projector and moved into the den...
We finished watching the movie on the Television set and played a few rounds of the game "What if" (always fun) and just chatted the evening away. Soon after people started saying goodbyes and parting, All in all another wonderful weekend at the Casablanca.
-Mick-

Friday, April 27, 2012

The French Doors Saga- Part 1...

 (Friends Jenny, Patricia & Missouri Michael!)
Well Readers, we left Stillwater Oklahoma and drove like Hell made good time to Missouri, our destination Joplin!
(Down town Joplin)
We got to Joplin around 3:00P.M. to meet up with Michael and get a pair of antique french doors that he won for me at an estate auction. But first we did a little antiquing and thrifting!

We bought a few surprises here at Connie's and then headed to another EVEN BIGGER Antique store that had all kinds of neat stuff.
(A Pack of TV lamp Panthers.)
I didn't really buy much, but there was a lot of neat stuff! And who can resist a few funny pictures along the way!
I picked up a few pieces of Pyrex to give away as presents and also bought a typewriter for the Theatre's Production of "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and then we headed off to get dinner...
The Chicken fried steak was so good! Having eaten a full meal we headed off to the Cul-De-Sac Shack!!

After a quick stop at the house we were off to the Drive-In for a viewing of "The Hunger Games"
(Show Time!)
After the movie we headed back to the shack and talked the night away. The next morning we planned to get up and go on a "picking" adventure in Micheal's  storage unit, but when 10:00A.M. rolled around I had trouble getting some people up...
None the less everyone was eventually up, dressed and fed and with that we were off on an adventure!
("I just have a few things to go through...")
("Well maybe just a couple of things...")
Haha I pull Micheal's leg, but we are all pack rats to some extent! He was nice enough to let me Patricia & Jenny pick through his extras and we came away with quite a few treasures! I have ahd zero time this week to stop and take pictures of the things we picked, but I can show you what friend Jenny found!
Some 1950's/60's bronze rim glasses that were her exact prescription! After picking the Storage unit clean we headed off to Kansas for Lunch! That,s right, Four states in one weekend!
 We headed over to "Chicken Annie's" for the BEST fried chicken lunch in the Midwest, Michael and I have both raved about how good the food is. It's a MUST when we're up that way! Having gorged ourselves  on chicken we headed back to the Shack to pack up and start the long journey home.
This is where the French Doors come into play...  As you all know later this year we our adding on to the Casablanca and i've been collecting vintage bits and pieces to make the new addition match the rest of the 1943 part of the house. I knew I wanted double doors on the front of the room and I had whined, bitched, moaned, whined more to Michael about how new metal french doors look tacky and wouldn't match the rest of the house.  So WHAT LUCK when he happened across a pair of wooden french doors with all the glass in them and in near mint condition at an auction. He called me and sent me pictures via text, and I told him "OF COURSE I WANT THEM!!!" and he snagged both doors for...$10.00 for the PAIR!  Well all was going perfectly, until the doors wouldn't fit in Patricia's car... I had measured the length and height of the back but had not taken in account the fact the back seat didn't lay perfectly flat... We tried putting them on the roof, but the doors hung over the front of the cab like the bill of a baseball cap. (And we were sure to get a ticket for it) we tried putting them on top of the seats, but that was ruled to dangerous for a six hour drive... 
 Defeated, I was forced to leave the doors in Missouri in Micheal's garage and we are now planning a return trip in may with a minivan we are 100% sure will hold the doors! Aside from that one minor setback, it was an amazing trip. One we'll gladly take again... but this time come home with the doors! 

I'd like to thank both our hosts Savannah and Michael for rooming us and putting up with us. You guys are the best!

-Mick-

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

So We'll Travel Along...

Oh Readers, what an adventure we had!
Patricia, Jenny & I went on  our second annual "Oklahoma State University Theatre trip"!
 (Savannah, Jenny, & Patricia)
Casablanca member and friend Savannah attends school at the University for Theatre and she invited/ we planned to make the four hour drive from Wichita Falls to Stillwater to see the show like we did last year for "Hair" !
The Drowsy Chaperone is a musical with book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar and music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison. It is a parody of American musical comedy of the 1920s. The story concerns a middle-aged, antisocial musical theatre fan, as he plays the record of his favorite musical, the (fictional) 1928 hit The Drowsy Chaperone, the show comes to life in his apartment as he wryly comments on the music, story, and actors. This show was a spectacular RIOT and SO worth the drive to see. The Cast was incredible, the sets were amazing and the songs utterly infectious we loved every minuet of it!
After the show we went to one of Stillwater's favorite late night spots "Shortcakes diner" the food is good, greasy and was once one of our favorite stops. We ate our meal and sat around talking, I was however pretty upset with the fact that the waitress named "Joy" acted pissed off that we'd come in to eat at this 24 hour diner, followed by acting pissed about the fact she had to take our drink order. Then just before we ordered our food she walked off (mid-order) because her shift was over. Later after that a waiter rudely asked TOLD us to leave, as "It' had been an hour since we'd ordered and he wanted to clean and flip the table to get other customers in" (It only took about 35 minuets of that "hour" to bring the food out and there was all of five people in the restaurant us being four of them.) he was just flat out RUDE about it. (His tip suffered accordingly) It would have been one thing if he had asked if we were going to order more food, or politely asked us to clear the booth. Now I'm not so sure how I feel about your food and service "Shortcakes of Stillwater Oklahoma".
So now I've whined about it on my blog to the world. TAKE THAT!... Any-who...  We spent the night with Savannah who was gracious enough to let us "crash" in her dorm room  and we all laughed and talked into the wee hours of the night and as a thank you for letting us stay with her we gifted her with some Spring Blossom Pyrex!
 (Her very first piece, one I picked up on the Roswell Trip!)

*  *  *

Saturday morning we got up and Savannah showed us an antique store before heading off on the next leg of our "French Doors Saga"  This place as so neat, and PACKED!
Two stories of nothing bat goodies and everything in between!
 (Jenny-"I think it's stuck...")
(Savannah posing with a Box of Dixie Dogwood Dishes!)
There were so many deals that I had to pass on because we wouldn't of had room in the car!  One of the neatest things I found was this baby bath.
 (Look Closer...)
If only I had $140.00 laying around, and ya know- a baby... I've never seen one of these! Although I didn't get it I did walk away with an "I Love Lucy"-esk item...
(I picked these Chalkware Chinese figure up for $12)
 (The I Love Lucy Set- 1954)
If you are as avid a fan of "I Love Lucy" as I am, you will recall she had two chalkware figures on either side of the fireplace mantle in the apartment. although these are not the same, they are the same spirit and will provably end up on the piano at the Casablanca!
 (Myself and Savannah)
After our thrifting adventure we had to say our goodbyes and thank you's to Savannah, then it was on to our next leg of a whirlwind weekend trip!
 Tune in Friday to see where we ended up next!

-Mick-