just a couple of days after I added this to the 101 list i got a call from Theatre J in Washington DC asking me to spend a few days in december helping re-stage BETTY Rules, the rock musical featuring my favorite (and only) rock star friends, BETTY (most recently, of L-Word fame, for those of you lucky enough to have cable tv). my boss, seeing he probably had no choice, gave me 10 days off to go to new york and dc to rehearse and remount the production. (lucky for us, the new york portion of the rehearsal was over before the transit strike, and the transit strike was over before most of the design staff had to go back home to new york). an ulterior motive for going to the optional rehearsal in new york, of course, was getting to spend one night staying up late with lauren, paging through her collection of “wedding porn” (mainly glossy flower magazines) and gabbing about wedding plans, and a much-too-brief breakfast of new york-style bagels with mari (me: “will they toast bagels here?” mari (hushed whisper): “no, this is new york. don’t ask, they’ll laugh at you.”)

alyson and tony’s daughter, ruby, was kind enough to try out a pair of the alligator mittens i’ve been knitting for christmas gifts. when asked if they were alligators or crocodiles, she got very quiet for a moment, then responded “alligator!” with admirable conviction, and bit her father’s nose with a mitten-clad hand for emphasis. let’s hope that all the kids that are getting mittens this year like them that much – i’ve been knitting a pile of alligator mittens since July (and i still have two more pair to finish on the plane tomorrow).