Traci works for a newspaper. Her boss asked her to write an article about how pets cope with the hot summer. The task obviously demanded incredible journalistic skills, so I told her I’d ghost-write it for her. Here’s my article:

How Pets Cope With the Hot Summer
BY TRACI

They pant.

_

Pulitzer, here I come.

This Subway Quiz is fun if you live in New York (or at least if you think you’re familiar with the New York City subway). I scored 14 out of 15. I guarantee you won’t do that well.

Remember how I wanted to do a musical using the songs of The Cure? Well, they didn’t exactly steal my idea, but…

The Smiths–a band from Manchester, England, whose singer and lyricist, Morrissey, taught a generation-wide cult how to mope with melodramatic self-consciousness–are getting…Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others, a music-theater piece based on Smiths songs. [Read more.]

Dammit! It’s too similar! Now I have to choose another totally different band, like Daft Punk or Fine Young Cannibals.

When my hard drive mechanically failed last year, it was impossible to recover any of the data from it. Fortunately most of it was backed up on my laptop, on my iPod, or on CDs. The big casualty, however, was an album of photos taken at Sammi’s Halloween party (the night before I left for New York).

Last week when my new hard drive failed (non-mechanically), I purchased some file recovery software so that I could copy all of the data off the drive. Now, this software still wouldn’t be able to do anything for the mechanically failed drive, but it sparked an idea.

I decided to run the file recovery software on my digital camera’s memory card. Lo and behold, it was able to “un-delete” several of the photos from Sammi’s Halloween party, and I was a happy camper.

My mom wanted suggestions for social things to do. She already has a reading group, so I suggested that she should start a cookbook reading group. They’d select a different cookbook each month, cook a few dishes from the cookbook, and report back on their likes and dislikes. At the monthly meeting, the host would cook one final dish from that month’s cookbook.

I was so proud of my idea, I emailed it to Oprah.

Donna Murphy came and watched our rehearsal last night since she’ll be out of town during the actual performances this weekend. She’s a famous Broadway lady, so it made the cast all nervous. It was fun. We also had a very successful Equity/AGVA agent watching, but no one cared because he wasn’t in Center Stage.

I love sitting in the hall at 440 Studios, where I can hear the dissonant, ghostly cacophony of audition songs, staged arguments, choral works, and martial arts. Hearing it all at once produces an effect sort of like this:

Thud! “Go back to bed.” “Gloria in excelsis deo–“ Thud! “The sun’ll come out–” “Can I help?” Thud! “Tomorrow!” Thud! “Yes, by going back to bed.” “Admirabilis Deus, fortis Pater futuri saeculi–“ “Bet your bottom dollar–” Thud! “If you’ll just tell me what it is you’re–” Thud! “That tomorrow–” “Gloria!” “There’ll be–” Thud! “Sun!” “Spring cleaning you could call it.” “In excelsis deo–“ Thud! “At two in the morning?”

NB: The thuds come from the martial artists being thrown to the floor repeatedly, in case that wasn’t clear.

It’s been very warm and humid lately, and although it’s uncomfortable during the day, I love it at night. It makes the night seem welcoming. Come to think of it, it’s not so bad in the shade during the day either. And today is just slightly cooler, so it’s not so bad anywhere.

I think today was meant to be a lazy summer day–the kind spent sitting by the lake or on the beach. It would have been a good day to play hooky from work.

I’ve always enjoyed summer nights, as long as they’re not the kind you hear at a karaoke bar.

So… Ash and I moved to Hell’s Kitchen on Monday. We apparently make a pretty good team when it comes to moving. The movers didn’t come until 1:30pm, so they weren’t done moving our stuff until about 5:30pm. We invited a couple of friends over to help unpack the easy stuff while we unpacked the “Where does this go?” stuff. That night we went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to get additional things we needed, and then the next day we went to Target for more things. By 6pm on Tuesday, we were completely unpacked, and everything was set up and put away.

My parents and my cousin are coming to visit for a week, starting today. I’m taking a few days off work to spend with them, and I think we’ll have a good time. Our only set plan is seeing The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee on Saturday night. We’re looking for other family-friendly ideas. What is there to do in New York City?